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Ecosystem engineers directly or indirectly affect the availability of resources through changing the physical state of biotic and/or abiotic materials. Fossorial ecosystem engineers have been hypothesized as affecting fire behaviour through altering litter accumulation and breakdown, however, little evidence of this has been shown to date. Fire is one of the major ecological processes affecting biodiversity globally. Australia has seen the extinction of 29 of 315 terrestrial mammal species in the last 200 years and several of these species were ecosystem engineers whose fossorial actions may increase the rate of leaf litter breakdown. Thus, their extinction may have altered the rate of litter accumulation and therefore fire ignition potential and rate of spread. We tested whether a reduction in leaf litter was associated with sites where mammalian ecosystem engineers had been reintroduced using a pair-wise, cross-fence comparison at sites spanning the Australian continent. At Scotia (New South Wales), Karakamia (Western Australia) and Yookamurra (South Australia) sanctuaries, leaf litter mass (−24%) and percentage cover of leaf litter (−3%) were significantly lower where reintroduced ecosystem engineers occurred compared to where they were absent, and fire behaviour modelling illustrated this has substantial impacts on flame height and rate of spread. This result has major implications for fire behaviour and management globally wherever ecosystem engineers are now absent as the reduced leaf litter volumes where they occur will lead to decreased flame height and rate of fire spread. This illustrates the need to restore the full suite of biodiversity globally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND Currently in Australia there are no standardised recommendations regarding the age at which dogs and cats should be desexed and there is a lack of clear evidence to support desexing at any particular age. The purpose of this study was to determine Australian veterinarians’ opinions and practices in relation to dog and cat desexing. METHODS A cross-sectional survey was emailed to all members of the Australian Veterinary Association in March 2013. Chi-squared test analysis was used to examine the association between demographic variables of respondents and the recommended (≤ 16 weeks, 20 weeks or ≥ 6 months) and minimum desexing age (≤10 weeks, 12−16 weeks or ≥ 20 weeks). RESULTS Respondents most commonly recommended desexing dogs and cats at the age of 6 months (24 weeks) before they have a season or a litter. The mean recommended age for desexing dogs was 21.9 weeks and for cats it was 20.8 weeks. The most common minimum age that veterinarians would desex dogs and cats if requested was 12 weeks. The mean minimum age for desexing dogs was 14.2 weeks and for cats was 13.5 weeks. A large proportion of respondents reported that they would perform early age (< 16 weeks) desexing if requested. A smaller proportion reported that they would perform very early age (< 10 weeks) desexing if requested. Anaesthetic risk was a major concern that inhibited respondents from desexing earlier. Respondents reported they would be more inclined to recommend earlier desexing with greater support from the scientific literature. CONCLUSION Respondent age, university of graduation, year of graduation, sex and current employment played significant roles in veterinarians’ recommended and minimum ages for desexing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is corrected by: Errata: Erratum for ‘Could biodiversity loss have increased Australia's bushfire threat?’ and ‘The implications of biodiversity loss for the dynamics of wildlife in Australia’ | Volume 20, Issue 2, 213, Article first published online: 3 April 2017 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]