Using a unique method of monitoring “environmental DNA,” researchers have been able to identify the effect of bushfires not only on land and air quality, but on waterways and the animals that inhabit them. 

Evidence of this surprisingly broader outcome of bushfires can be found in a study of the elusive platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) in bushfire-affected areas by McColl-Gausden et. al. Following the devastating Black Summer bushfires in 2019 and 2020 in eastern Australia, McColl and researchers at the University of Melbourne found that platypuses were less likely to be found in catchment areas six months after a fire. Encouragingly, the study also showed these unique monotremes seem to return to fire-affected areas eighteen months post-fire. 

How do bushfires affect platypus?

So how does a bushfire affect water habitats to the extent that it drives away creatures like the platypus? Fires can kill vegetation in a burnt area, often destabilizing the soil and enabling that soil and other debris to fall into a waterway, particularly after a large rainfall event, altering its chemistry. This in turn can make the water inhospitable to the aquatic invertebrates like yabbies that the platypus eat.  

Given this, researchers found that the disappearance of platypus was more pronounced in watersheds – areas where rainwater drains into local streams and rivers – that were burned at higher severity (25% or more of the watershed). 

Tracking platypus’ environmental DNA

Understanding the broader effects of bushfires on platypus was not an easy discovery, as platypus are notoriously challenging to observe in their habitat. McColl Gausden and the team’s innovative technique included surveying 118 waterways across New South Wales, Victoria and the Australia Capital Territory to measure the presence post-fire of platypus’ genetic material as part of a separate, earlier study on platypus distribution.  This created the baseline of platypus DNA marker levels in both unaffected and future-burn areas, to which they then compared new samples after the fires as a control. 

Proving this wider effect of bushfires underscores essential work to protect as well as resource emergency response for all land areas – including waterways – that will be affected by future fires.

Read more here: https://theconversation.com/even-platypuses-arent-safe-from-bushfires-a-new-dna-study-tracks-their-disappearance-212651  

References: McColl-Gausden, E.F., Griffiths, J., Collins, L., Weeks. A and Tingley, R. (2023). ‘The power of eDNA sampling to investigate the impact of Australian mega-fires on platypus occupancy’, Biological Conservationhttps://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320723003208 

Top Image: Trevor McKinnon on Unsplash

Read our article on how other animals and their habitats are affected by and adapt to fire here https://fireandrestoration.org.au/wombat-burrows-a-haven-for-small-animals/ 

This article was written by Julia Edgar, a volunteer supporting the Nature Conservation Council of NSW’s Bushfire Program. 

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