Fire Ecology and Species Management in Terrestrial Habitats

In terrestrial ecosystems, fire has long been a fundamental ecological process shaping species composition, habitat structure and evolutionary trajectories. Variation in fire frequency, intensity and seasonality drives landscape heterogeneity and influences resource availability for flora and fauna. Many species exhibit adaptations that enable survival through behavioural, physiological or life-history strategies, such as resprouting plants, obligate seeders or mobile fauna seeking refuges. Fire regimes may, however, shift under climate change or land-use alteration, threatening populations of fire-sensitive taxa and altering predator–prey dynamics. Effective species management blends knowledge of fire ecology with targeted interventions, including prescribed burns to reduce fuel loads, creation or protection of refugia, adjustments to grazing regimes and control of invasive predators. Integrating long-term monitoring with predictive modelling allows managers to anticipate species responses to differing fire scenarios, adaptively manage populations and prioritise conservation actions globally.

Research from Nature Portfolio

Recent studies using motion-sensing cameras in fire-affected forests have demonstrated that small mammal species markedly reduce nocturnal activity when understorey cover is lost, particularly on moonlit nights when predation risk from introduced carnivores is heightened. This work highlights how fire-driven changes in vegetation structure can indirectly elevate predation pressure. In a separate line of enquiry, tracking of feral cats has revealed long-distance, directed movements towards intensely burnt patches up to 12 km from home ranges. These extraterritorial hunting excursions capitalise on prey vulnerability in freshly charred habitats and underscore the compounded impact of altered fire regimes and invasive predators on native wildlife.

Fire Ecology and Species Management in Terrestrial Habitats publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in fire ecology and species management in terrestrial habitats across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Fire regime: The pattern of fire occurrence, frequency, intensity and seasonality in a given ecosystem.

Prescribed fire: A deliberately applied fire under controlled conditions to achieve specific ecological or management objectives.

Fuel load: The quantity of flammable materials, such as leaf litter and woody debris, available to burn in a fire event.

Landscape heterogeneity: The spatial variability in habitat types and structures across a landscape.

Refugia: Unburnt or minimally burnt areas that serve as safe zones for wildlife to survive and recolonise post-fire.

References

1. Small mammals reduce activity during high moon illumination under risk of predation by introduced predators. Scientific Reports (2023).
2. Extraterritorial hunting expeditions to intense fire scars by feral cats. Scientific Reports (2016).
3. Modeling mammal response to fire based on species’ traits. Conservation Biology (2023).
4. Cats, foxes and fire: quantitative review reveals that invasive predator activity is most likely to increase shortly after fire. Fire Ecology (2023).
5. Fire as a driver and mediator of predator–prey interactions. Biological Reviews (2022).