Abstract

There is a great deal of uncertainty regarding how animal taxa respond to fire regimes. In this talk, I will discuss the latest results from the Jervis Bay fire study, focussing particularly on frogs. Being semi-aquatic, frogs respond to ecological gradients – such as water availability, vegetation structure, and fire – in different ways throughout their life cycle. In particular, fire can kill adult frogs, but may also influence habitat quality and landscape permeability. However, quantifying the relative importance of these processes is difficult, because frogs are rarely detected in terrestrial locations. I will present results that quantify frog distributions using a range of field and statistical methods, showing that fire has significant impacts on a number of frog species over time scales of up to 40 years. I will conclude by discussing future research directions in the Jervis Bay fire study, and their importance for informing decision-making in the context of fire management for biodiversity conservation.