How to prioritize species recovery after a megafire.

Most species were affected by all three categories of fire intensity; 268 threatened species were affected by very-high-intensity fires, 273 were affected by high-intensity fires, and 273 were affected by moderate- and low-intensity fires. The top three actions required by most species were habitat protection (100% of all species; I n i = 290), fire suppression (57% of all species, I n i = 166), and invasive plant management (36% of all species, I n i = 103). To identify threatened species highly affected by the megafire, we used two decision rules for all EPBC Act listed species: >10% of habitat affected by fire + <2000 km SP 2 sp area of occupancy remaining or >10% of habitat affected by fire + <20,000 km SP 2 sp extent of occurrence remaining. The benefit of acting in a location accounts for the number of species being managed there, proportion of fire-affected habitat for each species, and risk of species extinction. [Extracted from the article]