Historical survey of research related to fire management and fauna conservation in the world and in Brazil

Abstract: Fire is a key ecological factor affecting biodiversity structure and composition. Fires' effects on biodiversity can be beneficial or harmful depending on how, where, when, and why they occur. The impacts of fire on fauna vary according to species ecology and the fire regime. To understand the research effort relating fire, fauna, and mammals, we surveyed papers published in World and in Brazil. Only 5% of the publications between 1970 and 2019 with fire subject dealt with fauna and 0.5% with mammal. For Brazil, we obtained 7% of papers for fauna and 3% for mammal. The Brazilian Biome with more papers was Cerrado, followed by Atlantic Forest, Amazon, Pampas, Caatinga and Pantanal. The United States of America and Australia stand out as protagonists in their continents with the largest papers number. The volume of research is related to investment in Research and Development and to occurrence of fires. The slope of temporal trend shows the terms related to wildfire have more papers than prescribed burn and there is less interest in fauna and mammal research. It is necessary to form research groups with these themes as research lines and intensify research relating fire ecology and mammals. There is yet no unified understanding of how fire may influence animal diversity and how it influences the vegetative structure and subsequently the resources which wildlife rely on. We consider this information is essential to establish efficient conservation policies.

摘要：火是影响生物多样性结构与组成的关键生态因子。火对生物多样性的影响可因发生方式、发生地点、发生时间及触发动因的不同而兼具利弊。火对动物群（fauna）的影响则因物种生态特征与火制度（fire regime）的差异而有所不同。为厘清火、动物群与哺乳动物（mammal）相关的研究态势，我们对全球及巴西范围内发表的相关文献展开了调研。结果显示，1970年至2019年间，以火为主题的出版物中仅有5%涉及动物群，0.5%聚焦哺乳动物。针对巴西的调研数据则显示，相关文献中7%涉及动物群，3%聚焦哺乳动物。巴西的生物群系（Biome）中，相关文献产出最多的是塞拉多（Cerrado），其次依次为大西洋森林、亚马逊、潘帕斯、卡廷加与潘塔纳尔。美国与澳大利亚分别在各自大陆的相关文献产出量中位居首位。研究体量与研发投入及火事件的发生频次密切相关。时间趋势斜率数据表明，涉及野火（wildfire）的文献数量多于计划烧除（prescribed burn），而动物群与哺乳动物相关研究的关注度相对较低。有必要组建以该类主题为研究方向的科研团队，强化火生态学与哺乳动物相关的研究工作。目前学界尚未就火如何影响动物多样性，以及火如何通过影响植被结构进而改变野生动物赖以生存的资源这两个核心问题达成统一认知。我们认为，上述研究信息对于制定高效的生物多样性保护政策至关重要。