Responding to the biodiversity impacts of a megafire: a case study from south-eastern Australia’s Black Summer

Aim: Megafires are increasing in intensity and frequency globally. The impacts of megafires on biodiversity can be severe, so conservation managers must be able to respond rapidly to quantify their impacts, initiate recovery efforts and consider conservation options within and beyond the burned extent. We outline a framework that can be used to guide conservation responses to megafires, using the 1.5 million hectare 2019/2020 megafires in Victoria, Australia, as a case study.

Location: Victoria, Australia.

Methods: Our framework uses a suite of decision-support tools, including species attribute databases, ~4,200 species distribution models and a spatially-explicit conservation action planning tool to quantify the potential effects of megafires on biodiversity, and identify species-specific and landscape-scale conservation actions that can assist recovery.

Results: Our approach identified 346 species in Victoria that had >40% of their modelled habitat affected, including 45 threatened species, and 102 species with >40% of their modelled habitat affected by high severity fire. We then identified 21 candidate recovery actions that are expected to assist the recovery of biodiversity. For relevant landscape-scale actions, we identified locations within and adjacent to the megafire extent that are expected to deliver cost-effective conservation gains.

Main conclusion: The 2019/2020 megafires in south-eastern Australia affected the habitat of many species and plant communities. Our framework identified a range of single-species (e.g. supplementary feeding, translocation) and landscape-scale actions (e.g. protection of refuges, invasive species management) that can help biodiversity recover from megafires. Conservation managers will be increasingly required to rapidly identify conservation actions that can help species recovery from megafires, especially under a changing climate. Our approach brings together commonly used datasets (e.g. species distribution maps, trait databases, fire severity mapping) to help guide conservation responses and can therefore be used to help biodiversity recover from future megafires across the world.

研究目标：全球范围内，大型野火（megafires）的强度与发生频率均呈上升趋势。大型野火对生物多样性的影响往往极为严重，因此保护管理者亟需快速响应，量化野火影响、启动恢复工作，并在过火范围内外考量保护方案。本研究以澳大利亚维多利亚州2019/2020年的150万公顷大型野火为案例，提出一套可用于指导大型野火应对保护工作的框架。
研究区域：澳大利亚维多利亚州。
研究方法：本框架采用一系列决策支持工具，涵盖物种属性数据库、约4200个物种分布模型以及空间显性保护行动规划工具，以量化大型野火对生物多样性的潜在影响，并识别可助力恢复的物种特异性与景观尺度保护行动。
研究结果：本研究方法识别出维多利亚州内346个物种的模拟栖息地有超过40%受到野火影响，其中包含45个受威胁物种，另有102个物种的模拟栖息地有超过40%遭受高烈度野火影响。随后，本研究确定了21项有望助力生物多样性恢复的候选恢复行动。针对相关景观尺度行动，本研究还明确了在野火过火范围及邻近区域内可实现具有成本效益的保护收益的具体点位。
主要结论：澳大利亚东南部2019/2020年的大型野火影响了众多物种与植物群落的栖息地。本框架确定了一系列可助力生物多样性从大型野火中恢复的单物种保护行动（如补充饲喂、物种迁地移殖）与景观尺度保护行动（如庇护所保护、入侵物种治理）。在气候变化背景下，保护管理者愈发需要快速识别可助力物种从野火影响中恢复的保护行动。本研究方法整合了常用数据集（如物种分布地图、功能性状数据库、野火烈度制图）以指导野火应对保护工作，因此可用于助力全球范围内未来大型野火后的生物多样性恢复。