First-Order Fire Effects on Animals: Review and Recommendations

Abstract

Models of first-order fire effects are designed to predict tree mortality, soil heating, fuel consumption, and smoke production. Some of these models can be used to predict first-order fire effects on animals (e.g., soil-dwelling organisms as a result of soil heating), but they are also relevant to second-order fire effects on animals, such as habitat change. In this paper, I review a sample of studies of first-order fire effects on animals that use aquatic, subterranean, and terrestrial habitats; use an envirogram as a graphical approach to organize first- and second-order fire effects for a single animal species; recommend how one could obtain better data using Species-Centered Environmental Analysis; and begin to model these effects.