R code, spatial and tabular data to fully reproduce STEPS simulations of population change for common brushtail possum, grassland melomys and northern brown bandicoot in northern Australia

The development of effective fire management for biodiversity conservation is a global challenge. The highly dynamic nature of fire, the difficulty in replicating ‘real-world’ fire experiments, and the need to understand population changes at large spatiotemporal scales make computer simulations particularly useful for identifying optimal fire management regimes for biodiversity conservation.

We aimed to develop a flexible modelling approach with which to investigate how the spatiotemporal application of fire (i.e. management scenarios) influences savanna biodiversity. We used existing data from a landscape-scale fire experiment to develop population simulations for the common brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula), grassland melomys (Melomys burtoni) and northern brown bandicoot (Isoodon macrourus) across the Kapalga area of Kakadu National Park in northern Australia. We simulated how populations were expected to change between 1995 and 2015 in response to the fire pat...