Impacts of the 2019–2020 bushfires on New South Wales biodiversity: a rapid assessment of distribution data for selected invertebrate taxa

Abstract

We analyse expert-confirmed occurrence records from the collection of the Australian Museum of altogether 733 species of invertebrates that exhibit a wide range of life history strategies, dispersal abilities and ecological adaptations (dung beetles, spiny freshwater crayfishes, drosophilid flies, land snails, mygalomorph and archaeid spiders). For 29 species (two dung beetles, four species of spiny freshwater crayfishes, four drosophilid flies, 11 land snails, five mygalomorph and three archaeid spiders), all known occurrences are within the extent of the 2019-2020 bushfires. In addition, the ranges of another 46 species had at least half of their known occurrences completely contained within the fire zone. Given these figures, the conservation status of many NSW species may require revision to recognize the higher level of threat, and active conservation actions will need to be taken to ensure the survival of these and other species.