Fire can promote biodiversity, but changing patterns of fire threaten species worldwide. While scientific literature often describes ‘‘inappropriate fire regimes’’ as a significant threat to biodiversity, less attention has been paid to the characteristics that make a fire regime inappropriate. We go beyond this generic description and synthesize how inappropriate fire regimes contribute to declines of animal populations using threatened mammals as a case study. We developed a demographic framework for classifying mechanisms by which fire regimes cause population decline and applied the framework in a systematic review to identify fire characteristics and interacting threats associated with population declines in Australian threatened land mammals (n = 99). Inappropriate fire regimes threaten 88% of Australian threatened land mammals. Our review indicates that intense, large, and frequent fires are the primary cause of fire-related population declines, particularly through their influence on survival rates. However, several species are threatened by a lack of fire, and there is considerable uncertainty in the evidence base for fire-related declines. Climate change and predation are documented or predicted to interact with fire to exacerbate mammalian declines. This demographic framework will help target conservation actions globally and will be enhanced by empirical studies of animal survival, movement, and reproduction.

中文翻译：

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超越不适当的火灾制度：澳大利亚受威胁哺乳动物因火灾而减少的综合报告

火灾可以促进生物多样性，但不断变化的火灾模式威胁着全世界的物种。虽然科学文献经常将“不适当的火灾制度”描述为对生物多样性的重大威胁，但对导致火灾制度不适当的特征的关注较少。我们超越了这种一般性描述，并以受威胁的哺乳动物作为案例研究，综合了不适当的火灾制度如何导致动物种群减少。我们开发了一个人口统计框架，用于对火灾状况导致种群下降的机制进行分类，并将该框架应用于系统评价中，以确定与澳大利亚受威胁陆地哺乳动物种群下降相关的火灾特征和相互作用的威胁（n = 99)。不适当的火灾制度威胁着澳大利亚 88% 的受威胁陆地哺乳动物。我们的审查表明，强烈、大规模和频繁的火灾是与火灾相关的人口下降的主要原因，特别是通过它们对生存率的影响。然而，一些物种因缺乏火灾而受到威胁，并且与火灾相关的下降的证据基础存在相当大的不确定性。记录或预测气候变化和捕食会与火相互作用，从而加剧哺乳动物的衰退。这一人口统计框架将有助于在全球范围内开展保护行动，并将通过对动物生存、运动和繁殖的实证研究得到加强。