Complex biodiversity outcomes after megafires

Abstract

For a few years, it seemed as if everything was burning down. In 2020 and 2021, in California, Oregon and Washington, US fire records were shattered, with devastating effects for wildlife habitat. In 2020, 4 million hectares of drought-stricken wetland and savannah burnt in the Brazilian Pantanal region, killing 17 million animals. In late 2019 and early 2020, bushfires raged during the height of summer in Australia, burning an astonishing 10.3 million hectares of shrubland and forest, corresponding to just under half the area of the United Kingdom. Writing in Nature, Driscoll et al. present a detailed look at the consequences of the Australian megafires for biodiversity.

Citation

Jones, Gavin M. 2024. Complex biodiversity outcomes after megafires. Nature. 635: 817-818.