Animal movements in fire‐prone landscapes

• Published in: Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society Vol. 94; no. 3; pp. 981 - 998
• Main Authors: Nimmo, Dale G., Avitabile, Sarah, Banks, Sam C., Bliege Bird, Rebecca, Callister, Kate, Clarke, Michael F., Dickman, Chris R., Doherty, Tim S., Driscoll, Don A., Greenville, Aaron C., Haslem, Angie, Kelly, Luke T., Kenny, Sally A., Lahoz‐Monfort, José J., Lee, Connie, Leonard, Steven, Moore, Harry, Newsome, Thomas M., Parr, Catherine L., Ritchie, Euan G., Schneider, Kathryn, Turner, James M., Watson, Simon, Westbrooke, Martin, Wouters, Mike, White, Matthew, Bennett, Andrew F.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.06.2019
• Subjects: Animals; Conservation of Natural Resources; Dispersal; Ecology; Ecosystem; Ecosystems; fire regime; Fires; foraging; Foraging habitats; Integration; Introduced species; Invasive species; Landscape; migration; Motor Activity; Movement ecology; Population Dynamics; prescribed fire; species distributions; wildfire; species distributions; movement ecology; wildfire; prescribed fire; foraging; migration; dispersal; fire regime
• ISSN: 1464-7931; 1469-185X; 1469-185X
• DOI: 10.1111/brv.12486

ABSTRACT Movement is a trait of fundamental importance in ecosystems subject to frequent disturbances, such as fire‐prone ecosystems. Despite this, the role of movement in facilitating responses to fire has received little attention. Herein, we consider how animal movement interacts with fire history to shape species distributions. We consider how fire affects movement between habitat patches of differing fire histories that occur across a range of spatial and temporal scales, from daily foraging bouts to infrequent dispersal events, and annual migrations. We review animal movements in response to the immediate and abrupt impacts of fire, and the longer‐term successional changes that fires set in train. We discuss how the novel threats of altered fire regimes, landscape fragmentation, and invasive species result in suboptimal movements that drive populations downwards. We then outline the types of data needed to study animal movements in relation to fire and novel threats, to hasten the integration of movement ecology and fire ecology. We conclude by outlining a research agenda for the integration of movement ecology and fire ecology by identifying key research questions that emerge from our synthesis of animal movements in fire‐prone ecosystems.