Fire and Fauna

Understanding the link between environmental factors such as disturbance events, land cover, and soil productivity to spatial variation in animal distributions and vital rates is fundamental to population ecology and wildlife management. The Longleaf pine ecosystem is an archetypal fire-mediated ecosystem, which has seen drastic reductions in land area due to fire suppression. Current restoration utilizes prescribed fire and hardwood removal, but more research is needed to understand the influence of these restoration efforts on the wildlife that exist in that ecosystem. Thus, we conducted field surveys on Camp Blanding Joint Training Center and Wildlife Management Area to understand how fire influences relative abundances of mammalian predators, occupancy and species richness of avian species, guilds and communities, and vital rates of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus viginianus) fawns.