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Geodiversity elements contribute significantly to local and global hydrological, biogeochemical and ecosystem services and as such, fire is a potentially disruptive force with long-term implications. from limiting karstic speleothems formation, to compounding impacts of peat-fire-erosion cycles. Geodiversity elements additionally possess important cultural, aesthetic, and environmental values, including the support of ecosystem services. Hence, assessments of potential fire damage should consider implications for land users, society, and culture, alongside the geomorphic impacts on geodiversity elements. With a view to providing a concise set of descriptors of the response of geodiversity elements to fire, we qualify and in places, quantify, how fire may degrade geosystem function. Where possible, we highlight the influence of fire intensity and frequency gradients, and cumulative fire, in the deterioration of geodiversity values. Geoconservation is integral to protected areas with implications from fire effected geodiversity functions and values presenting issues for management, with potential consequences extending through to delisting, degazetting, and resizing of protected areas. Future research in reserve systems should concentrate on understanding the synergistic and compounding effects of fire on the geophysical landscape. Geodiversity provides valuable benefits through its existence and function. Fire can degrade geodiversity elements in several ways, on vast spatial and temporal scales, with implications for geoconservation and protected areas management. Understanding recovery rates of geodiversity elements, and the cumulative impact of fire on geodiversity, requires further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vegetation changes in saltmarsh habitat can influence fish assemblages and abundance. In Tasmania, Australia, mid‐latitude succulent saltmarsh communities have been invaded by the introduced tall grass, Spartina anglica. Eradication efforts have been ongoing since the 1990s with purported benefits for fish access to intertidal foraging grounds, but a lack of knowledge of the impact of S. anglica on fish limits understanding of the benefits and effectiveness of native habitat restoration. Here, we investigate whether fish assemblages in native saltmarshes and non‐native S. anglica grassland differ in species diversity, fish abundance, and size class distribution. We used buoyant pop nets to sample fishes in Sarcocornia quinqueflora herbland and S. anglica grassland swards at three sampling stations in northwest Tasmania. Very few individuals and low species diversity were recorded in both vegetation types at the sampling station with the most well‐established S. anglica infestation. Elsewhere, richness and diversity were higher in S. quinqueflora herbland. Overall fish abundance was higher in S. quinqueflora than in S. anglica, with a very strong effect at one sampling station. Fewer small individuals of the numerically dominant Atherinosoma microstoma were recorded in S. anglica, potentially indicating impaired nursery function. Our results provide important insights for S. anglica control, as we are the first to demonstrate a relationship between S. anglica presence and fish characteristics in southern Australian saltmarsh. These results indicate that S. anglica control is valuable for fish conservation. An extension of our research to document the effects of S. anglica removal on fishes is desirable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Very few multi-species or ecosystem comparisons of post-fire vertebrate herbivore activity and food preference exist to inform fire management and conservation strategies. We inferred post-fire (1–3 years) native and introduced vertebrate herbivore activity and attraction to six diverse temperate vegetation communities (grassland to rainforest) from scat counts. We hypothesised that where fire reduced herbaceous and grassy vegetation ('fodder'), vertebrate herbivores would decline, and that post-fire preferences of native versus exotic herbivores would differ significantly. Instead, we found evidence for a 'fire and fodder reversal phenomenon' whereby native macropod and exotic deer scats were more abundant after fire in consistently 'fodder-poor' vegetation types (e.g., heath) but less abundant after fire in previously fodder-rich vegetation communities (e.g., grassland). Fodder cover predicted native macropod, wombat, and introduced deer activity and bare ground cover was strongly associated with introduced herbivore activity only, with the latter indicating post-fire competition for food sources due to their abundance in high-altitude open ecosystems. We, therefore, found environmental and vegetation predictors for each individual species/group and suggest broadscale multi-environment, multispecies observations to be informative for conservation management in potentially overlapping post-fire niches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gorse (Ulex europeus L.) is a woody legume and invasive woody weed that has been introduced to temperate pastoral landscapes worldwide. Despite the apparent cosmopolitan distribution of gorse across much of the temperate agroecological landscapes of the world, research and practice pertaining to the management of gorse has been largely constrained to single-treatments, regions, or timeframes. Gorse eradication has been widely attempted, with limited success. Using the PRISMA (preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analysis) method and a quasi-metanalytical approach, we reviewed the seminal ~299 papers pertaining to gorse management. We identified (i) the ecological characteristics of the species that predispose gorse to behaving invasively, and (ii) the success of management actions (from a plant ecological life history perspective) in reducing weed vigour and impact. A broad ecological niche, high reproductive output, propagule persistence, and low vulnerability to pests allow for rapid landscape exploitation by gorse throughout much the world. Additionally, there are differences in flowering duration and season in the northern and southern hemisphere that make gorse particularly pernicious in the latter, as gorse flowers twice per year. The implications of these life history stages and resistance to environmental sieves after establishment are that activity and efficacy of control is more likely to be favourable in juvenile stages. Common approaches to gorse control, including herbicides, biological controls, and fire have not been ubiquitously successful, and may in fact target the very site resources—sward cover, soil stability, hydrological balance—that, when degraded, facilitate gorse invasion. Ongoing seedling regeneration presents difficulties if eradication is a goal, but facilitated competition may reduce costs via natural suppression. Mechanical methods of gorse removal, though highly successful, induce chronic soil erosion and land degradation and should hence be used sparingly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]