I am interested in understanding the influences of fire in fragmented landscapes on small animals. My post-graduate research focus was on reptiles and small mammals persisting in small and isolated habitat patches in semi-arid, mallee landscapes.
Isolated habitat patches in cropping landscapes are affected by disturbances including fire suppression. Some reptile species have habitat adaptations with preferences for successional fire stages e.g. early, mid and late. Because many of these habitat patches are long unburnt (fire suppressed), if a wildfire modifies the entire habitat, this could lead to species extinctions. Where wildfire has occurred across an entire habitat patch, I investigated if nearby large reserves containing a range of successional fire stages could provide source populations to wildfire affected patches.
