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Fire, people and ecosystem change in Pleistocene Australia
Citation
Johnson, CN, Fire, people and ecosystem change in Pleistocene Australia, Australian Journal of Botany, 64, (7-8) pp. 643-651. ISSN 0067-1924 (2016) [Refereed Article]
Copyright Statement
Journal compilation Copyright CSIRO 2016
DOI: doi:10.1071/BT16138
Abstract
Since the 1960s, Australian scientists have speculated on the impact of human arrival on fire regimes in Australia, and on the relationship of landscape fire to extinction of the Pleistocene megafauna of Australia. These speculations have produced a series of contrasting hypotheses that can now be tested using evidence collected over the past two decades. In the present paper, I summarise those hypotheses and review that evidence. The main conclusions of this are that (1) the effects of people on fire regimes in the Pleistocene were modest at the continental scale, and difficult to distinguish from climatic controls on fire, (2) the arrival of people triggered extinction of Australia’s megafauna, but fire had little or no role in the extinction of those animals, which was probably due primarily to hunting and (3) megafaunal extinction is likely to have caused a cascade of changes that included increased fire, but only in some environments. We do not yet understand what environmental factors controlled the strength and nature of cascading effects of megafaunal extinction. This is an important topic for future research.
Item Details
Item Type: | Refereed Article |
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Keywords: | Holocene, intensification, megafaunal extinction, prehistory |
Research Division: | Biological Sciences |
Research Group: | Ecology |
Research Field: | Terrestrial ecology |
Objective Division: | Environmental Management |
Objective Group: | Terrestrial systems and management |
Objective Field: | Terrestrial biodiversity |
UTAS Author: | Johnson, CN (Professor Christopher Johnson) |
ID Code: | 114786 |
Year Published: | 2016 |
Web of Science® Times Cited: | 12 |
Deposited By: | Zoology |
Deposited On: | 2017-02-27 |
Last Modified: | 2017-11-01 |
Downloads: | 0 |
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