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Development of a Traits Database and Vulnerability Framework to Assess Fire Susceptibility of Australian Invertebrate Species
Building AusInverTraits, a database of invertebrate traits for conservation and ecological management
Who will benefit
Researchers and government agencies that conduct conservation assessments and develop management strategies for recovery from natural disasters
Program
The Challenge
Individual plant and animal species vary markedly in their population level responses to fire. Some species have characteristics that render them especially susceptible to mortality in fires or to a slow and challenging recovery. The persistence of such species in fire-prone environments is likely to need targeted – sometimes urgent – management.
However, such information has not been readily collated, available or accessible, particularly for Australia’s ca. 320,000 invertebrate species. This lack of preparedness compromised action for at least 14,000 of the invertebrate species affected by the 2019–20 bushfires. The magnitude of invertebrate species affected by these fires far exceeded that of plant or vertebrate species, yet due to deficiencies in knowledge the response was inevitably skewed to those groups. It is critical we learn from the experience of the 2019–20 wildfires and address this shortcoming.
The Approach
The project developed a live dataset of invertebrate traits that relate to fire susceptibility along with a process for community approval. The dataset has been populated for a significant 10% of Australia’s 110,000 described invertebrate species. The project collaborated with the Atlas of Living Australia to arrange access to distributional data, linking fire overlap mapping to traits database to assess susceptibility.
The AusTraits plant traits database is being used as a model for the invertebrate traits database. The project worked closely with the AusTraits team, enabling linkages to be made between interacting species and allowing fire susceptibility of those species to be included in vulnerability assessments.
The Outcomes
This project has built AusInverTraits, an enduring living database of fire-relevant ecological and life history traits for Australian invertebrate species. Such information is crucial to rapidly identifying the species likely to be most imperilled by future bushfires, and guides targeted management where it is needed.
The project aligned the invertebrate database with existing model databases for Australian plants and vertebrates, notably AusTraits. The project has expanded the existing database from 1200 species or 1% of Australia’s described invertebrates to at least 10% of that biota. It has also developed or adopted protocols to allow ongoing inputs by experts or supervised volunteers to the database.
Access the AusInverTraits dataset. A Github repository for R scripts used for analysis is also available.
Also read associated journal articles and book chapters:
- Marsh, J. R., Bal, P., Fraser, H., Umbers, K., Latty, T., Greenville, A., Rumpff, L., & Woinarski, J. C. Z. (2022). Accounting for the neglected: Invertebrate species and the 2019–2020 Australian megafires. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 31, 2120–2130. https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.13550
- May, T. W., Bal, P., Hao, T., Muscatello, A., Bowd, E., Catcheside, D. E., … & Truong, C. (2023). The impacts of the 2019–20 wildfires on Australian fungi. Australia’s Megafires: Biodiversity Impacts and Lessons from 2019-2020, 127. Available online
- Marsh, J. R., Bal, P., Fraser, H., Greenville, A., Latty, T., Moir, M. L., … & Woinarski, J. C. (2023). Impacts of the 2019–20 wildfires on Australian invertebrates. Australia’s Megafires: Biodiversity Impacts and Lessons from 2019-2020, 141. Available online
Who Will Benefit
The Partners
- Invertebrates Australia
- University of Melbourne
- Australian Museum
- University of NSW
- University of Sydney
- Atlas of Living Australia
- EcoCommons Australia
- Australian Entomology Society
- Australian National Insect Collection
- Charles Darwin University
Further Resources
- Learn more about the project from a presentation by Payal Bal, Invertebrates Australia (DC012) at the November 2023 Bushfire Data Challenges Forum.
- Read about quantifying species range and overlap with fire-burned areas using concave hulls on ALA Labs.
Contact the ARDC
Timeframe
February 2022 to June 2023
Current Phase
Complete
ARDC Co-investment
$450,000
Project lead
Invertebrates Australia
Categories
Research Topic
Related Resources
Related Projects
- Bushfire Research Data Management Plans
- Assessing the Impact of Bushfire Smoke on Health
- Aggregating and Integrating Data on Health Outcomes Associated with Bushfires at a National Scale
- Curated Biodiversity Data for Rapid Assessment of Bushfire Impacts
- Bushfire Data Access and Impact Modelling Platform
