Managing wildfires in a way that prevents the loss of human life and property, while maintaining and promoting ecological values (e.g. biodiversity), is a challenge for land managers around the world. In Australia, fire has been a prevalent force affecting ecosystems for millennia, and organisms have traits that allow them to thrive in these fire-prone ecosystems (e.g. the ability to resprout after fire from underground lignotubers; Gill, 1981). However, fire regimes (the frequency, interval, intensity, severity and size of fires; Gill & Allan, 2008) have changed in many parts of Australia resulting in fire being a threatening process for a diversity of fauna (Woinarski, 1999). To create management actions that will result in fire regimes that promote biodiversity, conservation managers need to understand how and why fire regimes have changed, and the effect that these changes have had/will have on biodiversity.
Hayward et al. (2016) show that the loss of small- to medium-sized digging mammals (fossorial ecosystem engineers) may have significantly affected fire regimes in Australia. These animals dig over soil and leaf litter – an important fire fuel component – altering the rate of litter accumulation and breakdown (James & Eldridge, 2007). Hayward et al. (2016) demonstrate that areas where fossorial mammal populations have been re-established (in fenced predator-proof areas) have a lower mass and cover of leaf litter. McArthur fire behaviour models (Noble, Gill & Bary, 1980) indicate that this reduction in litter will result in reduced fire ignition potential, greatly reduce the flame height and slow the rate of spread of wildfire. Thus, Hayward et al. (2016) suggest that re-establishing faunal ecosystem engineers should be considered as part of fire management strategies.
