The damage caused by the catastrophic 2019-2020 Australian bushfires couldlead to a dramatic jump in the number of native species at risk, according toUniversity of Queensland-led research.
21 threatened species – including the Kangaroo island dunnart and Long-footedpotoroo – are among 70 animals which have had much of their habitat affectedby the blazes.
Salvage logging after the bushfires (Credit: David Lindenmayer)
UQ School of Earth and Environmental Sciences PhD candidate Michelle Ward saidabout 97,000 square kilometres of vegetation in southern and eastern Australiaburned, with that land considered habitat for at least 832 native animalspecies.
“Many of the species impacted by these fires were already declining in numbersbecause of drought, disease, habitat destruction and invasive species,” MsWard said.
“Our research shows these mega-fires may have made the situation much worse byreducing population sizes, reducing food sources and rendering habitatunsuitable for many years.”
The team found 49 species not currently listed as threatened, including Kate’sleaf-tailed gecko ( Saltuarius kateae ) and the short-eared possum, nowwarrant assessment for listing under the Environment Protection andBiodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act.
“If these EPBC assessments find that all 49 animals meet listing criteria, thenumber of threatened Australian terrestrial and freshwater animals wouldincrease by 14 per cent,” she said.
UQ’s Professor James Watson said anthropogenic climate change was exacerbatingfires in Australia.
“While fire is a crucial aspect of many ecosystems, we’re witnessing climatechange-induced drought combined with land use management practices that makeforests more fire prone,” Professor Watson said.
“We need to learn from these events as they are likely to happen again.”
Ms Ward said Australia needs to urgently re-assess the extinction risk offire-impacted species to better protect unburnt habitats.
“We must assist the recovery of populations in both burnt and unburnt areas,”she said.
“This means strictly protecting important habitats, like unburnt refuges.”
The Federal Government has launched a Royal Commission to find ways to improveAustralia’s preparedness, resilience and response to natural disasters.
The research team included 24 scientists from UQ, Wildlife ConservationSociety, University of Sydney, La Trobe University, James Cook University, TheNature Conservancy, BirdLife Australia, Charles Darwin University, AustralianNational University, CSIRO, Charles Sturt University and Macquarie University.
It has been published in Nature Ecology and Evolution (DOI:10.1038/s41559-020-1251-1).
Image above left: Vertebrate fauna habitat burned during 2019–2020 mega-fires. Burnt area is shown in red and the study region is shown in dark grey.Species impacted by the recent bushfires (clockwise from top left, withproportion of habitat burned): Kate’s leaf-tailed gecko, 100%; Long-footedpotoroo, 82%; Northern corroboree frog, 26%; Short-eared brushtail possum,64%; Littlejohn’s tree frog, 62%; and Brush-tailed rock-wallaby, 38%. Credit:Anders Zimny, George Bayliss, Ben Scheele, Mark Sanders, Mark Sanders, MarkSanders.
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