Food acquisition is a fundamental process that drives animal distribution and abundance, influencing how species respond to changing environments. Disturbances such as fire create significant shifts in available dietary resources, yet, for many species, we lack basic information about what they eat, let alone how they respond to a changing resource base. In order to create effective management strategies, faunal conservation in flammable landscapes requires a greater understanding of what animals eat and how this change following a fire. What animals eat in postfire environments has received little attention due to the time-consuming methodologies and low-resolution identification of food taxa. Recently, molecular techniques have been developed to identify food DNA in scats, making it possible to identify animal diets with enhanced resolution. The primary aim of this study was to utilize eDNA metabarcoding to obtain an improved understanding of the diet of three native Australian small mammal species: yellow-footed antechinus ( Antechinus flavipes ), heath mouse ( Pseudomys shortridgei ), and bush rat ( Rattus fuscipes ). Specifically, we sought to understand the difference in the overall diet of the three species and how diet changed over time after fire. Yellow-footed antechinus diets mostly consisted of moths, and plants belonging to myrtles and legume families while bush rats consumed legumes, myrtles, rushes, and beetles. Heath mouse diet was dominated by rushes. All three species shifted their diets over time after fire, with most pronounced shifts in the bush rats and least for heath mice. Identifying critical food resources for native animals will allow conservation managers to consider the effect of fire management actions on these resources and help conserve the species that use them.

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The present study examined the water relations of wallum dry sclerophyll woodland on the lower north coast of New South Wales (NSW). Wallum is the regionally distinct vegetation of Quaternary dunefields and beach ridge plains along the eastern coast of Australia. Wallum sand masses contain large aquifers, and previous studies have suggested that many of the plant species may be groundwater dependent. However, the extent of this dependency is largely unknown, despite an increasing reliance on the aquifers for groundwater extraction. Fifteen species from five growth-form categories and seven plant families were investigated. The pre-dawn and midday xylem water potential (ψx) of all species was monitored over a 20-month period from December 2007 to July 2009. Pressure–volume curve traits were determined for each species in late autumn 2008, including the osmotic potential at full (π100) and zero (π0) turgor, and bulk modulus of elasticity (ε). Carbon isotope ratios (δ13C) were determined in mid-autumn 2008 to measure water use efficiency (WUE). Comparative differences in water relations could be loosely related to growth forms. A tree (Eucalyptus racemosa subsp. racemosa) and most large shrubs had low midday ψx, π100 and π0, and high ε and WUE; whereas the majority of small and medium shrubs had high midday ψx, π100 and π0, and low ε and WUE. However, some species of similar growth form displayed contrasting behaviour in their water relations (e.g. the herbs Caustis recurvata var. recurvata and Hypolaena fastigiata), and such differences require further investigation. The results suggest that E. racemosa subsp. racemosa is likely to be groundwater dependent, and large shrubs such as Banksia aemula may also utilise groundwater. Both species are widespread in wallum, and therefore have the potential to play a key role in monitoring ecosystem health where aquifers are subject to groundwater extraction.

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Background and aims Clayey (sodosolic) pavements were studied in lateral root catchments of eucalypts where mixed myrtaceous:proteaceous vegetation was colonizing a dune of quartzitic sand blown out from a playa lake during late Pleistocene times. The site at Chillinup in south-west Western Australia provided an opportunity to examine these signature pavements in an unequivocally recent setting, and to assess their effects on competing non-eucalypt vegetation. Methods Pavements were located, and their extents and depths assessed by probing with steel rods, followed by corings and pit excavations using an air spade. Listings of plant species, growth forms and root morphologies were assembled for different vegetation zones in a representative transect across the dune. A deep cutting through the dune provided details on pavement morphology and modifications to the sand deposit bioengineered by eucalypt and heath vegetation. Key results Clay pavements comprised closely spaced, round-topped columns whose mean diameters and depths varied between eucalypt species. Incipient pavement formation was characterized by clumps of clay deposited around fine root material. Pavements appeared to have been synthesized in situ from locally accessed and imported constituents. Understoreys on superficial pavements of a tree eucalypt were considerably less dense and biodiverse than on the deeper pavements of two mallee species, whilst most profuse vegetation cover was encountered in heath on unmodified (non-pavemented) sand. Certain species were restricted to superficially located pavements, whilst other 'generalist' species occurred widely across the dune. Relict pavements formed by earlier generations of eucalypts were present in certain areas of the transect and in soil profiles of the cutting. Some relict pavements colonized by proteaceous shrubs were overprinted with ferricrete. Conclusions Clay pavements formed by eucalypts have pronounced effects on understorey vegetation and may have been instrumental in establishment of the complex mosaics of mallee-woodland and proteaceous heathland observed across semi-arid landscapes of south-west Western Australia. Findings are related to earlier observations on the range of plant-mediated changes in soil profiles discussed in the recently advanced 'Phytotarium' concept.

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