An experimental test of whether pyrodiversity promotes mammal diversity in a northern Australian savanna

1. The increasing awareness that a fire regime that promotes biodiversity in one system can threaten biodiversity in another has resulted in a shift away from fire management based on vague notions of maximising pyrodiversity, towards determining the optimal fire regime based on the demonstrated requirements of target species.
2. We utilised a long-running, replicated fire experiment on Melville Island, the largest island off the northern Australian coast, to test the importance of pyrodiversity for native mammals in a northern Australian savanna landscape. We first developed statistical models to determine how native mammal abundance has responded to nine years of experimentally-manipulated fire frequency. Next, given each species’ modelled response to fire frequency, we identified the level of pyrodiversity and optimal mix of fire frequencies that would be expected to maximise mammal diversity and abundance, and minimise extinction risk. This was done for both the entire mammal asse...

1. 人们日益认识到，在某一生态系统中有助于提升生物多样性的火制度（fire regime），可能会对另一生态系统的生物多样性构成威胁。这一认知推动火管理理念发生转变：不再以最大化火多样性（pyrodiversity）的模糊概念为依据，转而根据目标物种的明确需求来确定最优火制度。
2. 我们依托澳大利亚北部海岸最大岛屿梅尔维尔岛（Melville Island）上一项长期开展且设置重复的火控制实验，探究火多样性（pyrodiversity）对澳大利亚北部稀树草原景观（savanna landscape）本土哺乳动物的重要性。我们首先构建统计模型，以解析本土哺乳动物丰度对九年实验操控的火烧频率的响应规律。随后，基于各物种对火频率的模型响应结果，我们确定了可最大化哺乳动物多样性与丰度、最小化灭绝风险的火多样性水平与最优火频率组合方案。此项研究同时针对完整的哺乳动物类群（原文此处内容未完整）展开了上述分析。