biostudies-literatureSteel ZLCalifornia Department of Forestry and Fire Protectione70079https://www.ebi.ac.uk/biostudies/studies/S-EPMC12658942biostudies-literatureUnknown39(6)Changing fire regimes have important implications for biodiversity and challenge traditional conservation approaches that rely on historical conditions as proxies for ecological integrity. This historical-centric approach becomes increasingly tenuous under climate change, necessitating direct tests of environmental impacts on biodiversity. At the same time, widespread departures from historical fire regimes have limited the ability to sample diverse fire histories. We examined 2 areas in California's Sierra Nevada (USA) with active fire regimes to study the responses of bird, plant, and bat communities to a broad spectrum of temporal, spatial, and severity patterns of fire. Bird and plant species richness peaked in the first decade following fire. Species richness was highest with moderateConservation biology : the journal of the Society for Conservation BiologyFinding floral and faunal species richness optima among active fire regimes.PMC126589428GG21823Wilkin KMeyer MDWuenschel ABuzbee RFBurnett RSteel ZLFogg AMCollins BMStephens SLfalseFinding floral and faunal species richness optima among active fire regimes.Changing fire regimes have important implications for biodiversity and challenge traditional conservation approaches that rely on historical conditions as proxies for ecological integrity. This historical-centric approach becomes increasingly tenuous under climate change, necessitating direct tests of environmental impacts on biodiversity. At the same time, widespread departures from historical fire regimes have limited the ability to sample diverse fire histories. We examined 2 areas in California's Sierra Nevada (USA) with active fire regimes to study the responses of bird, plant, and bat communities to a broad spectrum of temporal, spatial, and severity patterns of fire. Bird and plant species richness peaked in the first decade following fire. Species richness was highest with moderate2025-01-01T00:00:00Z2025 Dec2026-06-07T04:34:04.688Z2026-06-07T03:07:02.193ZS-EPMC126589424045054210.1111/cobi.70079