Regional Case Studies: Southeast Australia, Sub-Saharan Africa, Central Europe, and Boreal Canada: Case Study: The Ecology of Mixed-Severity Fire in Mountain Ash Forests

Mixed- and high-severity fires generate landscape heterogeneity associated with high levels of biological diversity in southeast Australia, sub-Saharan Africa, central Europe, and boreal forests of Canada. In southeast Australia, faunal diversity in mountain ash forests is associated with mixed severity that also includes fire refuges (unburned patches). In South Africa patch-mosaic burning is used to maintain habitat diversity in the low veld of the northeast and in the Western Cape, where people have largely coexisted with fire. Forest fires in central Europe serve as key, although uncommon, natural disturbances that create habitat mosaics for many rare invertebrates and vertebrates. Pulses of biological activity triggered by large, intense fires have long characterized Canada's boreal forests. In all four case studies, postfire logging of dead wood is associated with loss of cavity-specializing species, including red-listed (threatened) species and others that depend on the productive postfire habitat.