Wildland fire in ecosystems : effects of fire on fauna

Fires affect animals mainly through effects on their habitat. Fires often cause short-term increases in\ud wildlife foods that contribute to increases in populations of some animals. These increases are\ud moderated by the animals’ ability to thrive in the altered, often simplified, structure of the postfire\ud environment. The extent of fire effects on animal communities generally depends on the extent of change\ud in habitat structure and species composition caused by fire. Stand-replacement fires usually cause\ud greater changes in the faunal communities of forests than in those of grasslands. Within forests, standreplacement\ud fires usually alter the animal community more dramatically than understory fires. Animal\ud species are adapted to survive the pattern of fire frequency, season, size, severity, and uniformity that\ud characterized their habitat in presettlement times. When fire frequency increases or decreases\ud substantially or fire severity changes from presettlement patterns, habitat for many animal species\ud declines