Juvenile survival of a burned forest specialist in response to variation in fire characteristics

1. Pyrodiversity, defined as variation in fire history and characteristics, has been shown to catalyze post-fire biodiversity in a variety of systems. However, the demographic and behavioral mechanisms driving the responses of individual species to pyrodiversity remain largely unexplored.

2. We used a model post-fire specialist, the black-backed woodpecker (Picoides arcticus), to examine the relationship between fire characteristics and juvenile survival while controlling for confounding factors.

3. We radio-tracked fledgling black-backed woodpeckers in burned forests of California and Washington, USA, and derived information on habitat characteristics using ground surveys and satellite data. We used hierarchical Bayesian mixed-effects models to determine the factors that influence both fledgling and annual juvenile survival, and we tested for effects of fledgling age on movement rates.

4. Burn severity strongly affected fledgling survival, with lower survival in patches create...