Fire Ecology & Biodiversity Group

09/05/2024

20/02/2024

Australia is considered a global hotspot for reptiles, and the majority of our more than 1100 species are found nowhere else in the world! 🦎

Reptiles have evolved many unique traits that make them interesting subjects for understanding the effects of ecological processes – including fire. In a new study, Dr Sarah Mulhall from the Faculty of Science at Melbourne compared how reptiles responded to two potential threats – fire and landscape modification.

The study highlights that we may be able to support our unique reptiles by tailoring ecological fire management strategies according to the amounts of native vegetation, timber plantations or pasture in the surrounding landscape.

Tap through to read more → unimelb.me/3uOYU2t

17/10/2023

Some more awesome free events from Galngga Festival. Check out biodiversity day this Friday!

13/10/2023

Come and see Amy speak at the Galngga Festival this Sunday!

I’m just going to leave this one here, but move quickly because there are limited places left … 🥂 ✨Galngga Festival✨

20/09/2023

Great piece by our colleagues in the FLARE Wildfire Research Group

Extreme heat and fires in the Northern Hemisphere is a wakeup call for an Australia on the brink of a difficult fire season, say University of Melbourne experts

25/05/2023

Beautiful photo by our very own Lily!

“Otway green” by Lily Wheeler

“Diverse shades of green make up the Otways' temperate rainforests. Even the water appears green when surrounded by the lush vegetation.”

This image was shortlisted in the "Beneath Southern Skies" category in the 2022 ESA Photo Competition. ⁠

20/02/2023

Congratulations to Simeon Zylinski who delivered his PhD completion seminar last week!

Simeon gave a great presentation entitled ‘Fire and landscape: exploring their effects on animal communities, species and connectivity’, explaining the work he has done over the past five years in both the Mt Lofty Ranges in SA and the heathy woodland in south-west Vic.

Presentation abstract -

‘In fragmented landscapes, fire regimes add an additional, dynamic layer of heterogeneity to landscape structure, but the interactive effect of these on animal communities remains unknown. In this research, I investigated the effects of past fire in fragmented landscapes in three ways. First, I examined the relationship between landscape structure and mammal community composition, at multiple spatial scales. Second, I incorporated the site-scale effect of habitat structure to find indirect links between species presence and time since fire. Third, I modelled landscape connectivity over multiple years to investigate how fire mosaic composition affects movement patterns of a skink species. Direct links between animals and time since fire were not strong, but I found more complex relationships such as indirect influences through habitat structure, and interactive effects between fire mosaics and land cover composition. Using planned fire for conservation needs to consider the underlying landscape structure, the importance of fire-driven habitat structure, and possible implications for connectivity and gene flow.’

11/02/2023

Congratulations to Amy Smith who delivered her PhD completion seminar yesterday!

Amy gave a fantastic presentation titled ‘Linking fire, connectivity and animal conservation’, providing insights into her research on how mammals respond to habitat, fire and landscape structure in the heathy woodland in south-west Victoria.

Presentation abstract -
‘Australia’s forests and woodlands have been severely fragmented by agriculture, urbanisation and forestry, and in many fragmented systems, fire is used as a management tool to reduce wildfire risk and enhance biodiversity. Current approaches to ecological fire management do not consider the influence of the surrounding landscape or the effect of fire on animal movement (connectivity) within or among habitat patches. The implications of current fire regimes for long-term population persistence are also overlooked. Connectivity is linked to persistence because it maintains dispersal, gene flow and genetic diversity, helping species combat environment change and avoid extinction. Incorporating connectivity into fire management will help to conserve biodiversity in fragmented landscapes.
My research investigates how 1) the mammal community and 2) species respond to habitat, fire and landscape structure using camera data collected in south-west Victoria. Additionally, I combine fire simulation modelling and connectivity analyses using genetic data to 3) compare future connectivity for two small mammals, Antechinus flavipes and Pseudomys shortridgei, under alternative fire regimes and predicted climate. These findings will inform an understanding of how regimes may influence species connectivity and persistence in the long term.’



Image description – Photo of Amy standing at the front of a lecture theatre wearing a black top, long red skirt and sandals. On the screen behind Amy is powerpoint slide titled ‘Linking fire, connectivity and animal conservation’.

22/01/2023

It’s ! This week we are featuring Masters student Stephanie Stylli.

"I'm working on a project in conjunction with the Conservation Ecology Centre, exploring the impacts of prescribed fire on Long-nosed Potoroos in the Otway Ranges. Inappropriate fire regimes can put threatened species, such as this vulnerable Australian marsupial, at risk and lead to their decline. Understanding how species respond to fire is therefore important for tailoring fire management programs which protect biodiversity and support threatened species conservation. I'm looking at changes in potoroo population density and survival over time following a planned burn in the Carlisle Heath. We have completed one round of potoroo cage trapping in burnt and unburnt blocks in 2022, with more fieldwork planned for 2023."

Want to hear more about Steph’s fieldwork? Check out the talk she gave at the 2022 Otways Ecological Research Forum (https://tinyurl.com/4m9sppw3).

Image description: First photo: Steph on fieldwork in the Carlisle Heath. She is releasing a Long-nosed Potoroo that she caught as part of her research (pictured animals are caught and handled with permits). Second photo: View of a rainbow over the Carlisle Heath. Eucalyptus trees and grass-trees can be seen in the foreground, and the ocean can be seen in the background.

16/01/2023

Our staff and students wrapped up 2022 by attending the ESA-SCBO joint conference in Wollongong, NSW. The theme of the conference was ‘Reconnecting’.

Lily, Emma, Sandra and Ella were four of the many who presented their research. Emma completed their Masters in 2022, while Lily, Sandra and Ella are completing PhDs.

Emma presented a speed talk on “Flying insect response to fire in the foothills forest” where they investigated moth and beetle richness and abundance between sites of varying time since fire (growth stages) in the Otways National Park.

Lily presented a poster on “Inspecting the impacts of future fire on mammal responses” where she explains preliminary results of a systematic literature review targeting key knowledge gaps in current mammal literature.

Sandra spoke about how short-interval high severity fire affects microbats in a natural experiment in West Gippsland.

Ella is a final year PhD student. She presented work that investigates if the years since fire and the severity of that fire interact to drive the immaturity risk of plant species.

Our students enjoyed attending events such as the conference dinner and birdwatching at Puckley’s Estate Reserve. Ella and collaborator Dr Kate Senior participated in the inaugural Science Slam. Their song about serotiny, or the canopy storage of seeds, took out the first place. Our students also had a chance to explore Wollongong and visited local beaches, and the WBBL final.

Image descriptions: Lily and Emma wearing ecology themed outfits at the conference (photo provided by: ); Emma’s presentation; Lily standing by her poster; Sandra presenting (photo provided by: on Twitter); Ella and Kate in costume on stage, striking a pose as they sing about serotiny; a beach view of Wollongong lighthouse (photo provided by: .ly_w)

You can follow more of Emma’s research journey , Lily’s .ly_w, Sandra’s and Ella’s (Twitter).

25/11/2022

PhD student Sauyma has just published the first chapter of her thesis in Ecology and Evolution!

The paper, titled ‘Using eDNA metabarcoding to understand the effect of fire on the diet of small mammals in a woodland ecosystem’, was produced with Matt Swan, Paul Nevil and Alan York.

Information regarding diet changes over time after disturbance is lacking for many animals living in habitats prone to disturbances such as fires. DNA metabarcoding is a versatile molecular method that allows the simultaneous characterization of many biotas using taxonomically informative barcode regions.

In this paper, we utilized eDNA metabarcoding to obtain an improved understanding of the diets of three native Australian small mammal species by analysing small mammal s**t.
Our results suggest that all three species shifted their diets over time after the fire.

One of the most interesting findings of this study is the detection of plant matter in yellow-footed antechinus diets, which has not been reported earlier.

Find the paper at - DOI : https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.9457 (Open Access)

Follow more of Saumya's adventures on Twitter and Instagram @ wildgaltales

Small mammal photos: A - yellow-footed antechinus (credit Sachinthani Karunarathen) , B- Heath mouse , C- Bush rat (credit Rachel Nalliah)

Photo of Saumya in the field - Jack Dickson