Risk and resilience: a review of functional traits influencing fire vulnerability in Pantanal mammals
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.37002/biodiversidadebrasileira.v14i4.2565Palavras-chave:
Brazilian Pantanal , fauna, fire-vulnerability, functional traits, wildfireResumo
In 2020, the Brazilian Pantanal experienced unprecedented wildfires that burned approximately 40,000 km² and resulted in the death of an estimated 17 million vertebrates. This catastrophic event, characterized by an extreme fire behavior and large extension facilitated by a combination of accumulated organic matter and a prolonged drought, has highlighted both the acute vulnerability of the Pantanal's ecosystem to seasonal wildfires and the need for a comprehensive understanding of their potential effects on species and ecosystem dynamics. This study explores the vulnerability of mammals to wildfires in the Pantanal, focusing on the analysis of fire vulnerability traits and the spatial distribution of species. We reviewed a total of 2,868 studies published since 1938, focused on the physical attributes, behavioral patterns, and ecological dynamics of five mammalian orders: Artiodactyla, Carnivora, Didelphimorphia, Rodentia, and Perissodactyla. The analysis revealed a significant increase in research on fire vulnerability traits, particularly in carnivores, since the year 2000. The most studied traits include habitat preference, body size, and diet, while other critical traits for understanding fire sensitivity received less attention, such as reproductive season, mobility, social behavior and body size. Our findings highlight a marked seasonality in fire regimes and habitat specialization among the Pantanal's mammal species, with a concerning overlap between the 2019-2020 wildfires and the distribution of several species, suggesting potential severe declines in the abundance and distribution. These findings advocate for immediate conservation efforts targeting key habitats and refined wildfire management approaches to mitigate impacts, particularly on geographically restricted species. It also calls for a more balanced research focus across different taxa and traits to fully understand the ecological roles and vulnerabilities of less-studied species in the face of increasing fire frequencies and intensities in the Pantanal biome.
Referências
Libonati R, DaCamara Carlos C, Peres Leonardo F, de Carvalho Lino A Sander, Garcia Leticia C. Rescue Brazil's burning Pantanal wetlands. Nature. 2020;588(7837):217-9.
Tomas WM, Berlinck CN, Chiaravalloti RM, Faggioni GP, Strüssmann C, Libonati R, et al. Distance sampling surveys reveal 17 million vertebrates directly killed by the 2020's wildfires in the Pantanal, Brazil. Sci Rep. 2021 Dec 1;11(1).
Garcia LC, Szabo JK, de Oliveira Roque F, de Matos Martins Pereira A, Nunes da Cunha C, Damasceno-Júnior GA, et al. Record-breaking wildfires in the world's largest continuous tropical wetland: Integrative fire management is urgently needed for both biodiversity and humans. Vol. 293, Journal of Environmental Management. Academic Press; 2021.
Kotze DC. The effects of fire on wetland structure and functioning. Afr J Aquat Sci. 2013;38(3):237-47.
Marengo JA, Alves LM, Torres RR. Regional climate change scenarios in the Brazilian Pantanal watershed. Vol. 68, Climate Research. Inter-Research; 2016. p. 201-13.
Nimmo DG, Carthey AJR, Jolly CJ, Blumstein DT. Welcome to the Pyrocene: Animal survival in the age of megafire. Glob Chang Biol. 2021 Nov 1;27(22):5684-93.
Pausas JG, Parr CL. Towards an understanding of the evolutionary role of fire in animals. Evol Ecol [Internet]. 2018;32(2-3):113-25. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10682-018-9927-6
Jones GM, Goldberg JF, Wilcox TM, Buckley LB, Parr CL, Linck EB, et al. Fire-driven animal evolution in the Pyrocene. Vol. 38, Trends in Ecology and Evolution. Elsevier Ltd; 2023. p. 1072-84.
González TM, González-Trujillo JD, Muñoz A, Armenteras D. Effects of fire history on animal communities: a systematic review. Vol. 11, Ecological Processes. Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH; 2022.
Santos JL, Hradsky BA, Keith DA, Rowe KC, Senior KL, Sitters H, et al. Beyond inappropriate fire regimes: A synthesis of fire-driven declines of threatened mammals in Australia. Vol. 15, Conservation Letters. John Wiley and Sons Inc; 2022.
Engstrom RT. First-order fire effects on animals: review and recommendations. Fire Ecology. 2010;6(1):115-30.
Santos F, Bailey JK, Schweitzer JA. The eco-evolutionary role of fire in shaping terrestrial ecosystems. Vol. 37, Functional Ecology. British Ecological Society; 2023. p. 2090-5.
Leahy L, Legge SM, Tuft K, Mcgregor HW, Barmuta LA, Jones ME, et al. Amplified predation after fire suppresses rodent populations in Australia's tropical savannas. Wildlife Research. 2015;42(8):705-16.
Pausas JG. Generalized fire response strategies in plants and animals. Oikos. 2019;128(2):147-53.
Sheets AD, Chavez AS. Evolution of pelage luminance in squirrels (Sciuridae). Front Ecol Evol. 2020;8:249.
Bowman DMJS, Kolden CA, Abatzoglou JT, Johnston FH, van der Werf GR, Flannigan M. Vegetation fires in the Anthropocene. Vol. 1, Nature Reviews Earth and Environment. Springer Nature; 2020. p. 500-15.
Jolly CJ, Dickman CR, Doherty TS, Eeden LM Van, Geary WL, Legge SM, et al. Animal mortality during fire. Glob Chang Biol. 2022;28(6):2053-65.
Calhoun KL, Goldstein BR, Gaynor KM, McInturff A, Solorio L, Brashares JS. Mammalian resistance to megafire in western U.S. woodland savannas. Ecosphere. 2023 Jul 1;14(7).
Santos FLM, Nogueira J, Souza RAF De, Falleiro RM, Schmidt IB, Libonati R. Prescribed burning reduces large, high-intensity wildfires and emissions in the Brazilian savanna. Fire. 2021;4(3):56.
Batista EKL, Figueira JEC, Solar RRC, de Azevedo CS, Beirão M V., Berlinck CN, et al. In Case of Fire, Escape or Die: A Trait-Based Approach for Identifying Animal Species Threatened by Fire. Vol. 6, Fire. MDPI; 2023.
Mahony M, Gould J, Beranek CT, Callen A, Clulow J, Clulow S, et al. A trait-based analysis for predicting impact of wildfires on frogs. Australian Zoologist. 2022;42(2):326-51.
Griffiths AD, Brook BW. Effect of fire on small mammals: a systematic review. Int J Wildland Fire. 2014;23(7):1034-43.
Chia EK, Bassett M, Leonard SWJ, Holland GJ, Ritchie EG, Clarke MF, et al. Effects of the fire regime on mammal occurrence after wildfire: Site effects vs landscape context in fire-prone forests. For Ecol Manage [Internet]. 2016;363:130-9. Available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2015.12.008
Garcês A, Pires I. The hell of wildfires: the impact on wildlife and its conservation and the role of the veterinarian. Conservation. 2023;3(1):96-108.
Massman WJ, Frank JM, Mooney SJ. Advancing investigation and physical modeling of first-order fire effects on soils. Fire Ecology. 2010;6(1):36-54.
Naves-Alegre L, Morales-Reyes Z, Sánchez-Zapata JA, Sebastián-González E. Scavenger assemblages are structured by complex competition and facilitation processes among vultures. J Zool. 2022 Dec 1;318(4):260-71.
Lira LA, Aguiar LMS, Silveira M, Frizzas MR. Vertebrate scavengers alter the chronology of carcass decay. Austral Ecol. 2020 Dec 1;45(8):1103-9.
Demo C, Cansi ER, Kosmann C, Pujol-Luz JR. Vultures and others scavenger vertebrates associated with man-sized pig carcasses: A perspective in Forensic Taphonomy. Zoologia. 2013 Oct;30(5):574-6.
Culhane K, Sollmann R, White AM, Tarbill GL, Cooper SD, Young HS. Small mammal responses to fire severity mediated by vegetation characteristics and species traits. Ecol Evol. 2022 May 1;12(5).
Briani DC, Palma ART, Vieira EM, Henriques RPB. Post-ï¬re succession of small mammals in the Cerrado of Brasil. Biodiversity and Conservation2. 2004;13(5):1023-37.
Henriques RPB, Briani DC, Palma ART, Vieira EM. A simple graphical model of small mammal succession after fire in the Brazilian cerrado. Mammalia. 2006;70(3-4):226-30.
McGee JM. Small mammal populations in an unburned and early fire successional Sagebrush community. Journal of Range Management. 1982;35(2):177-80.
Gosper CR, Prober SM, Yates CJ. Estimating fire interval bounds using vital attributes: Implications of uncertainty and among-population variability. Ecological Applications. 2013;23(4):924-35.
Smith SK, Young VKH. Balancing on a limb: effects of gravidity on locomotion in arboreal, limbed vertebrates. Integr Comp Biol. 2021;61(2):573-8.
Fagan WF, Lewis MA, Auger-Méthé M, Avgar T, Benhamou S, Breed G, et al. Spatial memory and animal movement. Ecol Lett. 2013;16(10):1316-29.
Kreling SES, Gaynor KM, Mcinturff A, Calhoun KL, Brashares JS. Site fidelity and behavioral plasticity regulate an ungulate's response to extreme disturbance. Ecol Evol. 2021;11(22):15445-6364.
Switzer P V. Site fidelity in predictable and unpredictable habitats. Evol Ecol. 1993;7:533-55.
Pocknee CA, Legge SM, McDonald J, Fisher DO. Modeling mammal response to fire based on species' traits. Conservation Biology. 2023;e14062.
Legge S, Murphy S, Heathcote J, Flaxman E, Augusteyn J, Crossman M. The short-term effects of an extensive and high-intensity fire on vertebrates in the tropical savannas of the central Kimberley, Northern Australia. Wildlife Research. 2008;35(1):33-43.
Marel A van der, López-Darias M, Waterman JM. Group-enhanced predator detection and quality of vigilance in a social ground squirrel. Anim Behav. 2019;151:43-52.
Decety J, Norman GJ, Berntson GG, Cacioppo JT. A neurobehavioral evolutionary perspective on the mechanisms underlying empathy. Prog Neurobiol [Internet]. 2012;98(1):38-48. Available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pneurobio.2012.05.001
Morelli F, Benedetti Y, Díaz M, Grim T, Ibáñez-Álamo JD, Jokimäki J, et al. Contagious fear: escape behavior increases with flock size in European gregarious birds. Ecol Evol. 2019;9(10):6096-104.
Socias-martínez L, Kappeler PM. Catalyzing transitions to sociality: ecology builds on parental care. Front Ecol Evol. 2019;7:160.
Publicado
Edição
Seção
Licença
Copyright (c) 2024 Os autores mantêm os direitos autorais de seus artigos sem restrições, concedendo ao editor direitos de publicação não exclusivos.
Este trabalho está licenciado sob uma licença Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Os artigos estão licenciados sob uma licença Creative Commons Atribuição-NãoComercial-SemDerivações 4.0 Internacional (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). O acesso é livre e gratuito para download e leitura, ou seja, é permitido copiar e redistribuir o material em qualquer mídia ou formato.
