Collation of summary of 2019–20 bushfire impacts and emergency responses on freshwater fish - Final Report

Date: 01, Sep, 2021
Author(s): James Shelley   Tarmo A. Raadik   Mark Lintermans  
Publisher: TSR Hub

In aquatic ecosystems, bushfires lead to drastic declines in habitat quality that can cause sudden mass mortality events across a range of resident fauna, and consequently influence the extinction risk of species. Between mid-2019 and mid-2020, Australia experienced an unprecedented fire season. In this report we collated available information on
(1) the impacts of the bushfires in south-eastern Australia on aquatic fauna, evidenced through mass mortality events and water quality data, and
(2) the conservation response to such impacts.