Floyd from ECU presenting at the 2014 Charles Darwin Reserve Open Day in the Gunduwa Tent
Project Description
Aim:
The study seeks to understand the role of fire on bird communities and how fire should be managed across the landscape. Specifically:
- Do shrublands of different fire ages support different bird communities?
- Does bird species richness increase with time since fire?
- Do longer unburnt habitats contain more bird species that nest in and/or inhabit the ground or understorey vegetation, than more recently burnt habitats?
- How can fire be managed across the landscape to conserve and promote biodiversity within the region?
Activity:
A combination of bird surveys with vegetation assessments will be conducted to answer the objectives of this project.
Outcomes:
Comprehensive bird surveys conducted at Charles Darwin Reserve, recording 845 birds from 40 species. It was found that bird communities differed as a result of fire ages with long unburnt sites being the only major habitat for species like the Golden Whistler, Grey Shrike-thrush, Rufous Whistler and Southern Scrub-robin. These sites also had more species than the recently burnt areas. In conclusion landscape-scale fires may have negative effects by removing the vegetation which may take over 40 years to recover the desired characteristics.
Project Details
- OrganisationEdith Cowan University (ECU)
- Year2014
- Funding$20,000
