Fire-climate interactions and their biodiversity implications for SW Australian shrublands

Global importance of fire: Disturbance regime is a fundamental driver of plant community composition and structure, and of species coexistence. Fire is one of the most common causes of recurrent landscape scale disturbance, and has shaped evolution and adaptation in many taxa globally (Bond & Keeley 2005). Altered fire regimes are a significant component of global environmental change and have been implicated in species losses and invasions. Climate change is predicted to result in decreased precipitation and increased temperature across many fire-prone regions, resulting in longer fire seasons and increased fire likelihood, while reduced productivity may lead to increased fuel limitation and less fire in other situations (Moritz et al. 2012).