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Abrupt fire regime change may cause landscape-wide loss of mature obligate seeder forests
Citation
Bowman, DMJS and Murphy, BP and Neyland, DLJ and Williamson, GJ and Prior, LD, Abrupt fire regime change may cause landscape-wide loss of mature obligate seeder forests, Global Change Biology, 20, (3) pp. 1008-1015. ISSN 1354-1013 (2014) [Refereed Article]
Copyright Statement
Copyright 2013 Wiley
Abstract
Obligate seeder trees requiring high-severity fires to regenerate may be vulnerable to
population collapse if fire frequency increases abruptly. We tested this proposition using a
long-lived obligate seeding forest tree, alpine ash (Eucalyptus delegatensis), in the Australian
Alps. Since 2002, 85% of the Alps bioregion has been burnt by several very large fires,
tracking the regional trend of more frequent extreme fire weather. High-severity fires
removed 25% of above ground tree biomass, and switched fuel arrays from low loads of
herbaceous and litter fuels to high loads of flammable shrubs and juvenile trees, priming
regenerating stands for subsequent fires. Single high-severity fires caused adult mortality and
triggered mass regeneration, but a second fire in quick succession killed 97% of the
regenerating alpine ash. Our results indicate that without interventions to reduce fire severity,
interactions between flammability of regenerating stands and increased extreme fire weather
will eliminate much of the remaining mature alpine ash forest.
Item Details
Item Type: | Refereed Article |
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Keywords: | climate change, deforestation, Eucalyptus, fire management, forest, wildfire |
Research Division: | Environmental Sciences |
Research Group: | Ecological applications |
Research Field: | Landscape ecology |
Objective Division: | Environmental Policy, Climate Change and Natural Hazards |
Objective Group: | Adaptation to climate change |
Objective Field: | Ecosystem adaptation to climate change |
UTAS Author: | Bowman, DMJS (Professor David Bowman) |
UTAS Author: | Neyland, DLJ (Mr Dominic Neyland) |
UTAS Author: | Williamson, GJ (Dr Grant Williamson) |
UTAS Author: | Prior, LD (Dr Lynda Prior) |
ID Code: | 86860 |
Year Published: | 2014 |
Web of Science® Times Cited: | 83 |
Deposited By: | Plant Science |
Deposited On: | 2013-10-29 |
Last Modified: | 2017-10-31 |
Downloads: | 293 View Download Statistics |
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