Small mammal succession following low severity planned burns with different fire intervals

Abstract

Understanding how mammal species respond to planned burns can assist managers of protected areas to better implement fire regimes for mammal conservation. I investigated the response of three small mammal species (Rattus lutreola, Mastcomys fuscus and Antechinus minimus) to low severity, consecutive planned burns with different fire intervals (6–9 and 22 years) over 17 years, using live-trapping in montane moorland. Following the burns, vegetation density decreased by 71–83% and the small mammal species were largely absent for at least 2 years. Vegetation recovery to pre-burn levels was slower (7–10+ years versus 4–5 years) following burns with short fire intervals (6–9 years) than long fire intervals (22 years), and this was associated with a slower and reduced recovery for A. minimus but not for R. lutreola and M. fuscus. This study suggests that these species are resilient to small scale, low severity planned burns in montane moorlands on moderate productivity soils provided fire intervals are not too short (<10 years). Further studies are required to augment these findings and to investigate small mammal responses in moorlands on less productive soils than those studied here, where recovery times are expected to occur over longer timeframes.