ABSTRACT Population connectivity maintains genetic diversity and underpins adaptive capacity and long‐term persistence. When assessing connectivity, landscape genetic analyses have largely focused on static features such as topography and have rarely incorporated disturbance regimes like fire, which may also shape genetic connectivity. We assessed genetic diversity and structure for three declining mammal species in northern Australian savannas: the northern brown bandicoot (Isoodon macrourus), northern brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula arnhemensis) and black‐footed tree‐rat (Mesembriomys gouldii melvillensis). Using genetic distance data, we optimised resistance surfaces to evaluate how landscape variables, including fire history, rainfall, vegetation, topography, watercourses, and feral species, influence gene flow. Analyses were conducted at fine (< 20 km between individuals) and broad (whole‐island) scales across Bathurst (up to 60 km) and Melville (up to 120 km) Islands, which differ markedly in disturbance regimes. Genetic patterns and their drivers varied by species, island and scale. The influence of fire was most apparent on Bathurst Island, where feral predators and herbivores are less abundant and rainfall is high. Northern brown bandicoots showed weak broad‐scale genetic structure on Bathurst Island, while high fire frequency reduced connectivity at fine scales. For northern brushtail possums, high rainfall reduced genetic connectivity at both broad and fine scales. On Melville Island, where multiple interacting threats of fire, feral predators and herbivores are more prevalent, topographic ruggedness promoted connectivity for northern brown bandicoots and northern brushtail possums at broad scales. At fine scales, geographic distance best explained the genetic patterns for these species. For black‐footed tree‐rats, which occur only on Melville Island, broad‐scale connectivity was reduced in low fire frequency areas (e.g., plantation and mangrove), while at fine scales low rainfall and high ruggedness were associated with reduced gene flow. Our results show that fire can influence resistance to gene flow, but effects are species‐ and context‐dependent. Effective conservation requires accounting for species‐specific ecology and local disturbance regimes when evaluating connectivity. Fire management should be a priority where fire strongly structures gene flow, while landscapes with multiple interacting threats require broader strategies including feral species control and habitat protection. Our study underscores the value of incorporating disturbance regimes into landscape genetics to guide context‐specific conservation.

At least 40 Australian mammal spcies have been driven to extinction since European colonization in 1788. For conservation management to be effective, it is vital that the reasons for historical extinctions and ongoing declines are understood and remedied. A recent article (Wallach and Lundgren 2025) concluded that there was no compelling evidence that two introduced predators (domestic cats and red foxes) were primary causes of these mammal losses. We refute that article, finding substantial flaws in its premises, analyses, data, interpretations, and conclusions. Using multiple lines of evidence, we show that these two predators are strongly implicated in most Australian mammal extinctions and in the ongoing imperilment of numerous extant species. The devastating impact of cats and foxes on Australia's mammals has been widely recognized by conservation managers who have, in response, implemented national programs to control these predators, producing widely recognized benefits for one of the world's most remarkable native mammal faunas.

Extensive research has explored whether the removal of apex predators leads to a ‘release’ of smaller, mid-level predators, with subsequent effects to prey species, formalised as the ‘mesopredator release’ (MPR) theory. The MPR theory has been widely applied as both: (1) a theoretical framework to explain the cascading ecological impacts caused by the loss of apex predators; and (2) a practical foundation for management that leverages the ecological role of apex predators for conservation and economic outcomes. Two introduced mesopredators – the cat (Felis catus) and red fox (Vulpes vulpes) – have had catastrophic impacts across Australia, causing widespread decline and extinction of native fauna. There has been much attention on harnessing the potential suppressive role of Australia’s apex predator, the dingo (Canis familiaris), on invasive mesopredators, to benefit native fauna. However, there is ongoing debate surrounding the potential conservation benefits of dingoes. Here, we reiterate the complexities of understanding the ecological role of apex predators, and how such complexity has often been compounded by study design limitations. Consequently, the equivocal evidence base regarding the suppressive role of dingoes is not necessarily surprising. While inferentially robust studies have demonstrated evidence against the suppressive role of dingoes on mesopredators, such studies remain rare and representative of a select few habitat types. Hence, expanding the breadth of ecological settings in which robust MPR research is conducted would significantly progress our understanding of how predators function in Australian ecosystems. Given (1) their reasonably intact state, (2) the ongoing impact of cats on native species, and (3) the absence of the red fox, we propose that the tropical savannas of northern Australia represent a useful opportunity to progress our understanding of the ecological role of dingoes. We advocate for experimentally manipulative research where possible and appropriate, supported by a broader correlative research program that capitalises on large-scale variation in cat density and habitat degradation. Such research would not only address key knowledge gaps currently hindering management efforts to conserve native species across northern Australia but progress our understanding of the generality of the MPR theory, and its applicability for conservation.

Models of vegetation and fuel accumulation following fire are important for carbon accounting, species conservation and fire prediction. In terms of fire behaviour, models of fuel accumulation are used to predict in situ fuel loads, which are required to predict fire spread and fire-line intensity. However, attributes of the historical fire regime, such as severity, are rarely considered in these models. In Australian forests, a negative exponential model of fuel accumulation (i.e. the Olson model) is used in fire management operations to predict fuel loads through time as a function of time-since-fire. The Olson model takes as inputs postfire fuel load ('Initial'), fuel decay rate ('k') and steady-state fuel load ('Limit'). Here, we use empirical data from 150 sites across forests of south-east Australia to understand how fire severity - low representing cooler understory fire, high representing hotter tree canopy fire - impacts the Initial parameter for ground-lying fine fuels, which are a key driver of fire behaviour. We then compare different Olson model fuel load predictions accounting for fire severity effects. Postfire fine fuel load was lower at sites previously burned by high rather than low severity fire across three of the four eucalypt dominated forest types assessed, with mean predicted differences of between 1.0 and 2.3 t ha-1. These differences translated to higher Olson model fuel load predictions for 12-20 years at sites burned by low rather than high severity fire, with the magnitude of these differences diminishing through time. Collectively, our results suggest that operational fuel prediction models may underestimate fuel loads in areas burnt at low severity. Accounting for such effects will increase the accuracy of fuel load and fire hazard prediction.

Cotton is the world’s most widely cultivated fibre crop, supporting the livelihoods of over 100 million households. Yet its environmental impacts have become a major global concern. In northern Australia, interest in cotton expansion has increased in recent years; however, production faces significant challenges, including poor soils, a harsh climate, and substantial ecological trade-offs. This study systematically reviewed published research from six tropical cotton-producing countries to provide insights into the socioecological risks, challenges, and prospects of cotton production, informing growers and policymakers in the Northern Territory. We analyzed 55 peer-reviewed articles published between 2006 and 2025 using both qualitative and quantitative approaches, including gross margin and break-even analysis. Our findings suggest that cotton production in tropical regions is constrained by extreme and unpredictable climate conditions, biodiversity risks, high carbon and water footprints, significant production costs, and pesticide-related health hazards for growers and farm workers. While organic and rainfed cotton have been proposed as eco-friendly alternatives to conventional irrigated systems, their substantially lower yields raise concerns about long-term economic viability. For example, rainfed cotton would require yields of 2 000 – 2 800 kg (9–12 bales) per hectare to offset the environmental opportunity costs of land clearing, yet current yields in the Northern Territory average only 900 kg (4 bales) per hectare. However, when cotton development is restricted to already cleared land, the environmental opportunity cost is significantly reduced, lowering the break-even requirement to approximately 825 kg·ha⁻1 (approximately four bales per hectare). Our findings underscore the need for sustainable pathways, including improved management practices (such as cover cropping, crop rotation, integrated pest management, and supplementary irrigation) and policy incentives, such as Australia’s Nature Repair Market, that can improve both environmental and financial performance.

Widespread climate-driven increases in background tree mortality rates have the potential to reduce the carbon storage of terrestrial ecosystems, challenging their effectiveness as natural buffers against atmospheric CO2 enrichment with major consequences for the global carbon budget. However, the global extent of trends in tree mortality and their drivers remains poorly quantified. The Australian continent experiences one of the most variable climates on Earth and is host to a diverse range of forest biomes that have evolved high resistance to disturbance, providing a valuable test case for the pervasiveness of tree mortality trends. Here we compile an 83-year tree dynamics database (1941-2023) from >2,700 forest plots across Australia covering tropical savanna and rainforest and warm and cool temperate forests, to explore spatiotemporal patterns of tree mortality and the associated drivers. Over the past eight decades, we found a consistent trend of increasing tree mortality across the four forest biomes. This temporal trend persisted after accounting for stand structure and was exacerbated in forests with low moisture index or a high competition index. Species with traits associated with high growth rate-low wood density, high specific leaf area and short maximum height-exhibited higher average mortality, but the rate of mortality increase was comparable across different functional groups. Increasing mortality was not associated with increasing growth, given that stand basal area increments either declined or remained unchanged over time, but it was associated with increasing temperature over time. Our findings suggest that ongoing climate change has driven pervasive shifts in forest dynamics beyond natural recovery in a range of forest biomes with high resilience to disturbance, threatening the enduring capacity of forests to sequester carbon under current and future climate scenarios.

Technological advances, including remote sensing, have led to a proliferation of metrics used in ecological studies to examine spatial patterns of fire regimes and their ecological effects. Researchers can use many different metrics to analyse spatial variation in both fire events and resulting fire regimes, including fire size, shape, intensity, frequency and seasonality. However, variation in metric selection, definition, and application can yield inconsistent findings and/or difficulty in the synthesis of findings from different studies. This review aims to (i) visualise trends in spatial terminology within the broader fire ecology literature, (ii) characterise the variability among metrics for describing spatial fire patterns, and (iii) evaluate the ecological relevance of metrics, identifying opportunities to enhance consistency.This review comprises three sections. First, we used topic modelling to determine topic trends in fire ecology over the last three decades (1991-2025). We found a shift from studies primarily focused on individual fire regime aspects to a more holistic approach incorporating multiple fire regime aspects, including spatial patterns. Second, we present findings from a qualitative review, revealing marked variation in metric selection within and among taxa, biomes, and the technique used to measure spatial metrics. We also identified ecological processes, such as dispersal capacity, that prompt researchers to use more specific metrics to analyse their study system more precisely, leading to less consistency among studies. Finally, we offer recommendations for enhancing metric consistency whilst maintaining the flexibility to adapt and develop those metrics most relevant and informative for a given objective.As technological advances allow for a more complete description of the spatial attributes of a fire regime, there is a potential trade-off between generality and precision, reducing comparability among studies. To ensure ecological relevance, it is crucial to consider the characteristics of data, landscape, and ecological contexts when selecting and applying metrics. Recent advances in landscape analysis techniques, such as through applying information theory, are leading to metrics that can be broadly applicable across study systems. Using the most generalised metrics possible, reporting standardised metrics of all fire regime components, aligning with landscape ecology where appropriate, and staying updated on emerging techniques will ensure the fire ecology field can move forward with a more coordinated approach.

Camera traps are widely used in wildlife research and monitoring, so it is imperative to understand their strengths, limitations, and potential for increasing impact. We investigated a decade of use of wildlife cameras (2012-2022) with a case study on Australian terrestrial vertebrates using a multifaceted approach. We (i) synthesised information from a literature review; (ii) conducted an online questionnaire of 132 professionals; (iii) hosted an in-person workshop of 28 leading experts representing academia, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and government; and (iv) mapped camera trap usage based on all sources. We predicted that the last decade would have shown: (i) exponentially increasing sampling effort, a continuation of camera usage trends up to 2012; (ii) analytics to have shifted from naive presence/absence and capture rates towards hierarchical modelling that accounts for imperfect detection, thereby improving the quality of outputs and inferences on occupancy, abundance, and density; and (iii) broader research scales in terms of multi-species, multi-site and multi-year studies. However, the results showed that the sampling effort has reached a plateau, with publication rates increasing only modestly. Users reported reaching a saturation point in terms of images that could be processed by humans and time for complex analyses and academic writing. There were strong taxonomic and geographic biases towards medium-large mammals (>500g) in forests along Australia's southeastern coastlines, reflecting proximity to major cities. Regarding analytical choices, bias-prone indices still accounted for similar to 50% of outputs and this was consistent across user groups. Multi-species, multi-site and multiple-year studies were rare, largely driven by hesitancy around collaboration and data sharing. There is no widely used repository for wildlife camera images and the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA) is the dominant repository for sharing tabular occurrence records. However, the ALA is presence-only and thus is unsuitable for creating detection histories with absences, inhibiting hierarchical modelling. Workshop discussions identified a pressing need for collaboration to enhance the efficiency, quality and scale of research and management outcomes, leading to the proposal of a Wildlife Observatory of Australia (WildObs). To encourage data standards and sharing, WildObs should (i) promote a metadata collection app; (ii) create a tagged image repository to facilitate artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) computer vision research in this space; (iii) address the image identification bottleneck via the use of AI/ML-powered image-processing platforms; (iv) create data commons for detection histories that are suitable for hierarchical modelling; and (v) provide capacity building and tools for hierarchical modelling. Our review highlights that while Australia's investments in monitoring biodiversity with cameras position it to be a global leader in this context, realising that potential requires a paradigm shift towards best practices for collecting, curating, sharing and analysing 'Big Data'. Our findings and framework have broad applicability outside Australia to enhance camera usage to meet conservation and management objectives ranging from local to global scales. This review articulates a country/continental observatory approach that is also suitable for international collaborative wildlife research networks.

Understanding the factors driving species' range and niche contractions can help us identify how and where threats to those species are being mediated or tolerated. Here, we used the 'niche reduction hypothesis' to investigate changes in the geographic range and realised niche of the greater bilby ( Macrotis lagotis). We compiled bilby occurrence records to estimate changes in the geographic range (extent of occurrence, EOO) and realised niche for two time periods: historical (1900-2022) and contemporary (2000-2022). We used one-class support vector machine models to measure realised niche size, comparing decline in realised niche to decline in EOO through time. Ecological niche models (ENM) were then used to quantify environmental factors influencing the historical and contemporary realised niche, and to determine the extent to which environmental conditions may mediate threats (particularly introduced predators). Bilby EOO declined by 70% through time, while realised niche size declined by 46%. Fire frequency was an important predictor in both the historical and contemporary ENMs, while red fox ( Vulpes vulpes) density became important only in the contemporary ENM, suggesting that foxes are contributing to contemporary bilby declines. Bilbies contracted to areas with lower fox densities, lower average normalised difference vegetation index values, higher fire frequency, and higher average temperatures. Environmental conditions likely limit fox distribution (leading to contraction of bilbies to fox-free areas) and/or mediate fox impacts (leading to greater population resilience to fox predation). Future research should enhance understanding of how environmental factors facilitate predator impacts and how these vary across environmental space. Such knowledge will likely improve understanding of how to manage threats facing bilbies across their distribution.

It can be challenging to reliably detect rare or cryptic species. Environmental DNA (eDNA) is an emerging tool for detecting species and is increasingly being used to detect reptiles in terrestrial environments that are costly or difficult to survey or monitor using traditional methods. Here, we trialled eDNA metabarcoding to detect one of Australia’s most threatened and least known reptile species, the Arnhem rock skink (Bellatorias obiri). At the only site where they were known to persist, we sampled soil from 12 rock crevices, including four with high levels of activity of the target species, as well as water from three adjacent pools. We were unable to identify DNA of B. obiri in any of the soil or water samples, suggesting multiple false-negative errors, despite our successful amplification of B. obiri DNA from an incidental scat sample. We were able to identify 15 non-target vertebrate taxa from our samples. Given that samples were taken from a site where B. obiri was known to be present, the eDNA metabarcoding technique trialled here does not appear to be an effective method for detecting this species. Whilst eDNA metabarcoding is an emerging and powerful tool in ecology and conservation, our pilot study highlights that challenges remain in its application for detecting rare or cryptic terrestrial reptiles.

Tree hollows are important habitat resources for wildlife globally. In the tropical savannas of northern Australia, the abundance of tree hollows is influenced by both fire and termites. With the regular application of prescribed fire in these ecosystems, it is important to understand the implications of fire management on important habitat resources - especially when applied over the long-term. This study uses a long-term fire experiment (18 years of applied fire treatments) with targeted termite and tree hollow surveys to investigate how the proportion of stem hollowing and abundance of hollow entrances are affected by termites and different long-term fire regimes. We used sonic tomography in a novel application to non-destructively estimate tree stem hollowing. Trunk diameter was identified as the strongest predictor of both stem hollowing and hollow entrance abundance, with larger trees having a greater proportion of the stem hollowing and greater number of hollow entrances. The proportion of stem hollowing tended to be greater closer to the base of the tree, and the number of hollow entrances was greater in Eucalyptus miniata than E. tetrodonta. While the proportion of stem that was hollowed did not influence the number of hollow entrances, the presence of any hollowing at 1.3 m was associated with more hollow entrances. We did not detect an effect of fire activity on stem hollowing or the abundance of hollow entrances at the individual tree level, and it may be that these effects are only detectable at the stand level due to changes in tree demographics with varying fire regimes. As large trees tend to have more hollow entrances, management to promote habitat for wildlife should focus on fire regimes that avoid the loss of large trees in the landscape.

Abstract Tree hollows are critical habitat for many species globally, and fauna studies often include assessments of hollow abundance. However, traditional ground‐based surveys for hollows can be inaccurate, either over‐ or under‐estimating hollow abundance and/or accessibility. In order to address this inaccuracy, ground‐based hollow counts have previously been calibrated using a ‘double‐sampling’ method such as felling or climbing trees. Here we test whether drone‐based surveys can be used to count and assess tree hollow accessibility and discuss the considerations and limitations of using drones for hollow surveys. In this study, we describe a survey of tree hollows in 134 Eucalyptus and Corymbia trees in a tropical savanna south of Darwin, Australia. Tree hollows were first counted from the ground using binoculars, then double‐sampled using drone‐based surveys. Drone‐based surveys detected more hollows than ground‐based surveys, with the latter underestimating potential habitat hollows by at least 15%. Hollows with estimated entrance diameters of 5–10 cm and 10–20 cm were most likely to be missed by ground‐based surveys. Drone‐based surveys also provided more information on hollow accessibility, identifying that 38% of hollows were inaccessible to fauna due to being ‘blind’ or blocked by termite material. Practical implication. Drone‐based surveys potentially offer a more accurate method by which to count and assess tree hollow accessibility for fauna, as well as a less biased means of calibrating ground‐based hollow counts. Important considerations for drone‐based hollow surveys include weather restrictions (e.g. wind and rain), time available, vegetation density and potential impacts on wildlife. Where complete hollow surveys by drone are not possible or there is insufficient time available, we recommend that a subset of ground‐surveyed trees are double‐sampled using drone‐based hollow surveys—particularly for studies where small‐ to medium‐sized hollows are important. Ground‐based hollow surveys alone risk underestimating the abundance of an important habitat resource and overestimating the number of currently accessible hollows. Thus, using a more accurate method such as drone‐based surveys to count or calibrate hollow numbers will likely provide improved estimates of landscape‐scale hollow abundance and accessibility.

As small (<5.5 kg) native mammals continue to decline throughout northern Australia, there is a critical need to identify the most significant threatening processes and those management actions with the greatest likelihood of alleviating them. Using a structured elicitation process, we sought to identify such management priorities by: (1) reviewing the literature since 2010 to identify a suite of potential drivers of small mammal decline; and (2) estimating the relative impacts of the putative threats and the ability to manage such threats. We reviewed 106 publications, from which we identified 11 threats and 14 threat attributes possibly contributing to the decline of small mammals in the region. From the expert elicitation, we scored and ranked each threat and threat attribute for its severity, geographic scope, potential for mitigation, and uniformity of impact across species. The elicitation suggested that the contemporary threats with the greatest relative impact on native mammals in northwestern Australia are: (1) predation by feral cats; and (2) habitat degradation by feral livestock and by inappropriate fire regimes. Tractable management actions aimed at reducing the density of feral livestock and improving fire regimes are likely to simultaneously reduce predation pressure from feral cats on small mammals and improve the availability of critical resources.

Disturbance is fundamental to the state and dynamics of biological communities, and understanding biotic responses to disturbance is critical to effective biodiversity conservation. However, a predictive understanding of how faunal communities respond to habitat disturbance remains elusive. Recently, a conceptual framework centred on habitat openness was developed for understanding ant responses to disturbance. It proposes that habitat openness is a fundamental driver of variation among ant communities, and that the primary impacts of disturbance are mediated through ant functional responses to changes in openness. Like ants, terrestrial reptiles are ectotherms and are therefore especially sensitive to disturbance-induced increases in habitat openness because of changes in the thermal environment. Therefore, reptiles might also be expected to conform to a disturbance framework based on habitat openness. Here we assess the extent to which this occurs by combining a quantitative analysis of recent publications with a broader synthesis of the literature. We found strong support for the framework applying to terrestrial reptiles. We suggest that the framework can be strengthened by a mechanistic understanding of functional traits in relation to habitat openness. For ectotherms, ecophysiological traits could be particularly important for responding to disturbance-mediated changes in microclimate, but habitat openness also influences other important factors such as food availability and predation. Finally, the framework appears to be highly applicable to a wider range of faunal groups beyond ants and reptiles.

Prescribed fire is widely used for habitat management in savannas, with biodiversity conservation as a specific objective. However, it is rarely underpinned by an understanding of the mechanisms determining species' responses to fire and persistence in fire-prone environments. We conducted a fire experiment in a mesic northern Australian savanna to investigate the demographic and genetic responses of three small mammal species to fire in areas with different fire frequencies. Live-trapping surveys were conducted before the experimental burns (pre-fire), six-weeks post-fire, and one-year post-fire. For each species, we tested for changes in the number of individuals, capture rates, apparent survival and temporary emigration, genetic diversity, genetic structure, and spatial patterns of relatedness.More northern brown bandicoots (Isoodon macrourus) and northern brushtail possums (Trichosurus vulpecula arnhemensis) were captured in high fire frequency plots, whereas more black-footed tree-rats (Mesembriomys gouldii melvillensis) were captured in low fire frequency plots. There was no direct effect of the low-intensity fire event on any demographic or genetic metric for any species. However, there was evidence of species-specific dispersal dynamics, with genetically related northern brown bandicoots more dispersed than the other species, especially six-weeks post-fire. Genetically related northern brushtail possums and black-footed tree-rats mostly occupied the same plots with no effect of fire.This research shows that low intensity fire events within early dry season fire management programs in northern Australia have minimal direct impact on populations of these small mammal species but heterogeneity in long-term fire frequency is important for providing habitat for diverse species. However, infrequently burnt habitat is increasingly rare but important for some declining species like the black-footed tree-rat. We therefore recommend strategic long-term fire management that considers the habitat characteristics required for co-occurring species with distinct habitat requirements and life-histories.

The hypothesis that pyrodiversity begets biodiversity is foundational to conservation management in fire-prone ecosystems and has received extensive research attention. However, empirical evidence for the hypothesis remains ambivalent. Moreover, few studies directly assess the key question of how much pyrodiversity is needed to conserve all species within a community. A novel way of addressing this is to use the biodiversity–maximisation approach developed for reserve selection as part of strategic conservation planning. We apply this approach to an ant dataset from a long-term fire experiment in northern Australia to establish how many of the six experimental fire treatments are required to represent all local ant diversity. We identified the treatment combinations required to maximise species richness and geometric mean abundance. We repeated this for six fire-activity classes based on cumulative fire intensity experienced by plots over the course of the experiment. We found that a very limited number of fire treatments or fire activity classes were needed to represent all of the highly diverse ant species and to maximise the geometric mean abundance of ants. We attribute this to the substantial small-scale heterogeneity of fire behaviour and vegetation structure within individual fire treatments. We conclude that high pyrodiversity at larger spatial scales is not required for sustaining ant biodiversity in our study system. We believe that a reserve selection approach is a powerful method for assessing how much pyrodiversity is needed to conserve biodiversity and recommend that it be applied to other taxa and other ecosystems.

Tropical savannas typically experience high fire frequencies, with prescribed fire commonly used as a management tool. Termites play an important role in the ecological functioning of tropical savannas, yet we have a limited understanding of how fire affects these important ecosystem engineers. To account for the effects of fire management on ecosystem structure and function, we need to understand the links between fire management and termite communities. This study used a long-term (18-year) fire experiment in a tropical savanna near Darwin, northern Australia, to investigate the effects of different fire regimes on termite species composition, abundance and activity. We measured termite abundance and activity using a combination of baiting and reduced transect survey methods and compared these with fire activity (summarised fire frequency and intensity) and woody cover. Termite species richness was similar across all fire treatments, and the level of fire activity had a minimal effect on species composition, which was more strongly influenced by woody cover. Wood-feeding termite abundance and the consumption of wood baits were negatively correlated with fire activity and positively correlated with woody cover. Soil/wood interface-feeding termites showed no correlation with fire activity but a positive correlation with woody cover. Significant negative mediation effects of fire activity through woody cover were detected on the abundance of wood- and soil/wood interface feeders and wood and straw bait consumption. Grass-feeding termites were encountered too infrequently to draw conclusions about their correlation with fire activity and woody cover; however, straw bait consumption was positively correlated with fire activity. Synthesis and applications. The effects of fire on termite abundance and activity are primarily indirect, mediated through changes in vegetation structure. As high fire activity is associated with reduced woody cover, maintaining regimes of frequent, high-intensity fires over the long term has the potential to affect ecosystem function. While minimising the occurrence of high-intensity, late dry season fires is consistent with fire management goals in these savannas, care is still required to avoid the negative consequences of high fire frequencies.

An understanding of how terrestrial mammalian predators use their environment is critical for the development of effective management and monitoring. Mammalian predators often use anthropogenic linear features-such as roads, fencelines, and infrastructure corridors-to increase movement efficiency and prey encounter rates. However, there has been little investigation into how predators use more subtle linear features such as game trails (i.e., well-trodden paths created by megaherbivores). This is despite native and exotic megaherbivores being abundant across many of Earth's most intact landscapes and conservation areas. We investigated how the two largest terrestrial mammalian predators in northern Australian savannas-the dingo (Canis familiaris, introduced ca. 4000 years ago) and cat (Felis catus, introduced ca. 200 years ago)-use game trails created by exotic megaherbivores (Asian water buffalo Bubalus bubalis and horse Equus caballus). We deployed two camera traps at 52 sites, with one camera positioned on a game trail and another in undisturbed vegetation < 60 m away. We compared the activity of predators on game trails to adjacent undisturbed vegetation and explored how trail use varied with vegetation structure and prey activity. Dingoes and cats were 34 times and 6 times more likely to be detected on game trails than in adjacent vegetation, respectively, suggesting these predators preferentially use game trails. We speculate that the extensive network of game trails created by exotic megaherbivores across northern Australia's vast savannas has potentially facilitated terrestrial mammalian predator movement at very large scales. Controlling exotic megaherbivores may, therefore, provide a means of disrupting the activity of dingoes and cats, thereby benefiting predation-susceptible native species. However, further research is needed to understand the ecological implications of game trails in Australian savannas and other habitat types.

Disturbance is fundamental to ecosystem dynamics, and its management is foundational to effective ecosystem management for the conservation of biodiversity. Fire is a key agent of disturbance influencing faunal communities in many terrestrial ecosystems, and it underpins the conservation management of fire-prone ecosystems. However, we have a limited understanding of how faunal communities in fire-prone ecosystems respond to variation in fire frequency. Here, we use a long-term fire experiment to investigate the effect of fire frequency on lizard assemblages in an Australian tropical savanna. We sampled lizards using pitfall traps, funnel traps, and direct searches in replicate (n = 3) 1-ha plots that had been burnt every 1, 3, or 5 years or left unburnt for 18 years. We found no significant variation in total lizard abundance or the collective abundances of mesic, semiarid, or widespread biogeographic groups. The abundance of only one of the five most common species was significantly related to fire frequency. Species richness decreased with increased fire frequency and showed a humped relationship with woody cover. Species composition was slightly better explained by variation in woody cover than by fire frequency, with both effects relatively weak. Although woody cover declined with increasing fire frequency, it varied markedly both within and among plots experiencing the same fire treatment, which explains why fire frequency was not as strong a predictor of variation in lizard assemblages as woody cover. Our findings show that the diverse lizard assemblage in our tropical savanna system exhibits a very limited response to variation in long-term fire frequency and attribute this to the marked small-scale variation in woody cover that was inherent under any fire treatment. We conclude that small-scale patchiness in vegetation cover plays a critical role in the responses to fire of faunal species with relatively small foraging territories, reducing a need for larger scale fire mosaics under a "pyrodiversity begets biodiversity" paradigm.