Wildfire severity is assumed to be an important driver of habitat availability and species' distributions in forest ecosystems. Many studies have focused on the immediate or short-term effects of fire severity in fire-prone ecosystems, with much less focus on how long the effect of fire severity may persist. We examined the effect of fire severity on the distribution of arboreal mammals at 3 and 10 years post-fire, in a temperate forest ecosystem dominated by eucalypts that have strong resistance and resilience to low and high severity fire, respectively. The study took place within areas affected by the 2009 Kilmore East-Murrindindi wildfires in south-eastern Australia. Sites were established across a gradient of fire severity (unburnt through to canopy consumption) and surveyed at 3 and 10 years following fire. Owing to low detection rates for many species, analyses were limited to greater glider (Petauroides volans) occurrence and arboreal species richness. At both 3 and 10 years post-fire, the greater glider was restricted to unburnt forest or sites affected only by understorey fire, which acted as fire refugia. Greater gliders were absent from sites affected by high severity, canopy-consuming fires at both points in time. Greater glider occurrence was associated with high levels of canopy cover (>50%), which were typically those areas that were unburnt or burnt at low severity. The richness of arboreal mammals increased over time and was greater in unburnt or minimally affected forest. Our findings emphasize: (i) that fire severity is an important driver of the distribution of arboreal mammals; and (ii) the importance of recognizing longer-term effects of fire severity in assessing species distributions, even in highly resilient forest communities. Recent advances in mapping fire severity provide new opportunities to assess the effects of fire severity on the distributional patterns of fauna in eucalypt forests.

中文翻译：

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火灾严重程度对重新发芽的森林中树栖哺乳动物的分布具有持久影响

野火严重程度被认为是森林生态系统中栖息地可用性和物种分布的重要驱动因素。许多研究都集中在火灾严重性对火灾易发生态系统的直接或短期影响，而较少关注火灾严重性的影响可能持续多长时间。我们研究了火灾严重程度对火灾后 3 年和 10 年树栖哺乳动物分布的影响，在以桉树为主的温带森林生态系统中，桉树分别对低强度和高强度火灾具有很强的抵抗力和恢复力。该研究在澳大利亚东南部受 2009 年 Kilmore East-Murrindindi 野火影响的地区进行。在火灾严重程度梯度（未燃烧到树冠消耗）上建立了站点，并在火灾后 3 年和 10 年进行了调查。飞蛾) 发生和树栖物种丰富度。在火灾后 3 年和 10 年，大滑翔机仅限于未烧毁的森林或仅受林下火灾影响的地点，这些火灾充当了避火所。在这两个时间点，受高度严重、消耗冠层的火灾影响的地点都没有更大的滑翔机。更大的滑翔机发生与高水平的树冠覆盖（> 50％）相关，这通常是那些未燃烧或严重程度较低的区域。树栖哺乳动物的丰富度随着时间的推移而增加，并且在未烧毁或受影响最小的森林中更大。我们的研究结果强调：（i）火灾严重程度是树栖哺乳动物分布的重要驱动因素；(ii) 在评估物种分布时认识到火灾严重程度的长期影响的重要性，即使是在高度复原的森林群落中也是如此。