To mitigate the impact of severe wildfire on human society and the environment, prescribed fire is widely used in forest ecosystems to reduce fuel loads and limit fire spread. To avoid detrimental effects on conservation values, it is imperative to understand how prescribed fire affects taxa having a range of different adaptations to disturbance. Such studies will have greatest benefit if they extend beyond short-term impacts of burning. We used a field study to examine the effects of prescribed fire on birds and plants across a 36-yr post-fire chronosequence in a temperate dry forest ecosystem in southeastern Australia, and by making comparison with long-unburned reference sites (79 yr since wildfire). We modeled changes in the relative abundance of 22 bird species and the cover of 39 plant species, and examined how individual species, functional groups, species richness and community composition differed between sites with different fire history. For most individual bird and plant species modeled, relative abundance or cover at sites subject to prescribed fire did not change significantly with time since fire or differ from that of long-unburned vegetation. When bird species were pooled into functional groups, time since prescribed fire had strong effects on birds that forage in the lower-midstorey, facultative-resprouting shrubs and obligate-seeding shrubs. Species richness for both taxa did not differ between sites subject to prescribed fire and those in long-unburned vegetation. Bird communities varied significantly between the youngest (0–3 yr) and oldest (79 yr) post-fire age classes, driven by species associated with understorey vegetation. Plant community composition showed little evidence of a post-fire successional trajectory. The prevalence of bird species with broad habitat and dietary niches and plant regeneration through resprouting, make bird and plant communities in these forests relatively resilient to small and patchy prescribed fires they have experienced to date. Application of prescribed fire will be most compatible with maintaining biodiversity by taking a landscape approach that (1) plans for a geographic spread of stands with a range of between-prescribed-fire intervals to ensure provision of suitable habitat for all taxa, and (2) avoids burning in moist gullies to maintain their value as fire refuges.

中文翻译：

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规定的火如何塑造温带干旱森林生态系统中的鸟类和植物群落？

为减轻严重野火对人类社会和环境的影响，森林生态系统中广泛使用规定的火来减少燃料负荷并限制火势蔓延。为了避免对保护价值产生不利影响，必须了解规定的火灾如何影响具有一系列不同干扰适应能力的分类群。如果此类研究超出燃烧的短期影响，则将带来最大的好处。我们通过实地研究，在澳大利亚东南部温带干旱森林生态系统中，在火灾后 36 年的时间序列中，通过与长期未燃烧的参考地点（自野火发生 79 年）进行比较，来检查规定的火灾对鸟类和植物的影响。 ）。我们模拟了 22 种鸟类的相对丰度和 39 种植物的覆盖范围的变化，并研究了单个物种如何，不同火灾历史的地点之间的功能群、物种丰富度和群落组成不同。对于大多数模拟的鸟类和植物物种，受规定火灾影响的地点的相对丰度或覆盖率自火灾以来没有显着变化，也与长期未燃烧的植被不同。当鸟类被归入功能组时，自规定火灾以来的时间对在中层下层、兼性发芽灌木和专性播种灌木中觅食的鸟类有很强的影响。两种分类群的物种丰富度在受规定火灾影响的地点和长期未燃烧植被的地点之间没有差异。受与下层植被相关的物种的驱动，火灾后最年轻（0-3 岁）和最老（79 岁）的鸟类群落差异很大。植物群落组成几乎没有显示出火灾后演替轨迹的证据。具有广泛栖息地和饮食生态位的鸟类的流行以及通过重新发芽的植物再生，使这些森林中的鸟类和植物群落对他们迄今为止经历的小而零星的规定火灾具有相对弹性。通过采用以下景观方法，规定的火的应用将最适合维护生物多样性：(1) 规划林分的地理分布，并具有一系列规定的火间隔，以确保为所有类群提供合适的栖息地，以及 (2) ) 避免在潮湿的沟壑中燃烧，以保持其作为防火避难所的价值。具有广泛栖息地和饮食生态位的鸟类的流行以及通过重新发芽的植物再生，使这些森林中的鸟类和植物群落对他们迄今为止经历的小而零星的规定火灾具有相对弹性。通过采取以下景观方法，规定的火的应用将最适合维护生物多样性：(1) 规划林分的地理分布，并在规定的火间隔范围内确保为所有类群提供合适的栖息地，以及 (2) ) 避免在潮湿的沟壑中燃烧，以保持其作为防火避难所的价值。具有广泛栖息地和饮食生态位的鸟类的流行以及通过重新发芽的植物再生，使这些森林中的鸟类和植物群落对他们迄今为止经历的小而零星的规定火灾具有相对弹性。通过采取以下景观方法，规定的火的应用将最适合维护生物多样性：(1) 规划林分的地理分布，并具有一系列规定的火间隔，以确保为所有类群提供合适的栖息地，以及 (2) ) 避免在潮湿的沟壑中燃烧，以保持其作为防火避难所的价值。