@article {BF-3096,
	title = {Fungi and fire in Australian ecosystems: a review of current knowledge, management implications and future directions},
	journal = {Australian Journal of Botany},
	volume = {59},
	year = {2011},
	month = {2011},
	pages = {70},
	abstract = {Fungi are essential components of all ecosystems in roles including symbiotic partners, decomposers and
nutrient cyclers and as a source of food for vertebrates and invertebrates. Fire changes the environment in which fungi live by
affecting soil structure, nutrient availability, organic and inorganic substrates and other biotic components with which fungi
interact, particularly mycophagous animals. We review the literature on fire and fungi in Australia, collating studies that
include sites with different time since fire or different fire regimes. The studies used a variety of methods for survey and
identification of fungi and focussed on different groups of fungi, with an emphasis on fruit-bodies of epigeal macrofungi and a
lack of studies on microfungi in soil or plant tissues. There was a lack of replication of fire treatment effects in some studies.
Nevertheless, most studies reported some consequence of fire on the fungal community. Studies on fire and fungi were
concentrated in eucalypt forest in south-west and south-eastern Australia, and were lacking for ecosystems such as grasslands
and tropical savannahs. The effects of fire on fungi are highly variable and depend on factors such as soil and vegetation type
and variation in fire intensity and history, including the length of time between fires. There is a post-fire flush of fruit-bodies of
pyrophilous macrofungi, but there are also fungi that prefer long unburnt vegetation. The few studies that tested the effect of
fire regimes in relation to the intervals between burns did not yield consistent results. The functional roles of fungi in
ecosystems and the interactions of fire with these functions are explained and discussed. Responses of fungi to fire are
reviewed for each fungal trophic group, and also in relation to interactions between fungi and vertebrates and invertebrates.
Recommendations are made to include monitoring of fungi in large-scale fire management research programs and to integrate
the use of morphological and molecular methods of identification. Preliminary results suggest that fire mosaics promote
heterogeneity in the fungal community. Management of substrates could assist in preserving fungal diversity in the absence of
specific information on fungi.},
	doi = {10.1071/BT10059},
	url = {http://www.publish.csiro.au/?act=view_file\&file_id=BT10059.pdf},
	author = {McMullan-Fisher, Sapphire J. M. and May, Tom W. and Robinson, Richard and Bell, Tina and Lebel, Teresa and Catcheside, Pam and York, Alan}
}
@article {BF-2495,
	title = {Variation in fire interval sequences has minimal effects on species richness and composition in fire-prone landscapes of south-west Western Australia},
	journal = {Forest Ecology and Management},
	volume = {261},
	year = {2011},
	month = {01/2011},
	pages = {965-978},
	abstract = {Prescribed burning is used in many fire-prone ecosystems for wildfire mitigation and conservation of biodiversity. However, there is limited information about how biota responds to long-term fire management, especially at a whole-of-community level. We studied community responses to different fire interval sequences resulting from planned and unplanned fires in Mediterranean-climate ecosystems in the Warren bioregion of south-west Western Australia (SWA) to determine the resilience of the biota to contrasting fire regimes. Fire history data were used to identify contrasting fire interval sequences in forest and shrubland communities for the period 1972{\textendash}2004. We surveyed vascular plants, ants, beetles, vertebrates and macrofungi at 30 sites to investigate community-level responses to consecutive short (SS: <=5 years), consecutive long (LL: >=10 years), one very long (VL: 30 years), or mixed/moderate (M: 6{\textendash}9 years) fire interval(s). All sites had a common time-since-fire of not, vert, similar4 years at the commencement of sampling which was conducted over two years. Species richness and composition differed between forest and shrubland communities, but the influence of fire interval sequences on taxonomic groups was minimal and difficult to detect. There was weak evidence of compositional differences between SS and LL/VL regimes for plants, ants, beetles and macrofungi but no difference between these regimes and the intermediate disturbance M-regime. These results demonstrate the resilience of the biota in open forests and shrublands of SWA to contrasting fire interval sequences over the past 30 years. We conclude that occasional short (3{\textendash}5 years) intervals between fires are unlikely to have a persistent effect on community composition, though maintaining a regime of short or long intervals may alter species composition and/or abundance. We suggest that variability in fire intervals is important for long-term conservation of the biota. For the Warren Region, prescribed burning at an intermediate level of disturbance and incorporating variability in interval length is recommended to achieve the dual objectives of wildfire mitigation and biodiversity conservation.},
	doi = {10.1016/j.foreco.2010.10.037},
	author = {Wittkuhn, Roy and Lachlan W. McCaw and Wills, Allan J. and Robinson, Richard and Andersen, A. N. and Van Heurck, Paul and Farr, Janet and Liddelow, Graeme and Cranfield, Ray}
}
