
%0 Journal Article
%A Catling, P. C. 
%A Coops, N. 
%A Burt, R. J. 
%T The distribution and abundance of ground-dwelling mammals in relation to time since wildfire and vegetation structure in south-eastern Australia
%J Wildlife Research
%D 2001/12/20
%V 28
%N 6
%P 555-565
%K 
%R https://doi.org/10.1071/WR00041
%U https://www.publish.csiro.au/paper/WR00041 
%X Vegetation undergoes a natural succession after wildfire. Following an initial flush of vegetation, when light and other resources become limiting, the stand structure rapidly reaches a maximum. As a result, vegetation structure does not form an even distribution over the landscape, but rather a patchwork pattern. The position and characteristics of a patch of habitat in the landscape may be critical in determining the faunal composition. In this paper a sequence of &#8216;habitat complexity scores&#8217; (which describe vegetation structure independently of plant species) collected over 20 years following a wildfire was utilised to estimate vegetation structure in relation to time since fire. This information was compared with data collected over the same period on medium-sized and large grounddwelling mammals to examine the response of mammals to changes in vegetation structure. Models are presented of the response of ground-dwelling mammals to time since wildfire and to changes in habitat complexity scores, with predictions up to 25 years after wildfire. 
