Guidelines for ecological burning regimes in Mediterranean ecosystems: a case study in Banksia woodlands in Western Australia.

2014 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara A Wilson ◽  
Janine Kuehs ◽  
Leonie E Valentine ◽  
Tracy Sonneman ◽  
Kristen M Wolfe
Keyword(s):  
Western Australia ◽  
Fire History ◽  
Prescribed Burning ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Mediterranean Ecosystems ◽  
Skewed Distribution ◽  
Complex Solutions ◽  
Fire Intervals ◽  
Associated Species

In Mediterranean ecosystems prescribed burning is commonly employed to reduce the risk or intensity of wildfires. As a consequence, a major challenge for conservation land managers is the development of fire regimes that reduce damaging wildfires and are optimal for biodiversity. The aim of this paper was to develop guidelines for ecological fire regimes using the Banksia woodland on the Gnangara Groundwater System in Western Australia as a case study. Development of the guidelines involved the determination of maximum and minimum fire intervals of key fire response species, analyses of fire history records and estimation of ideal age class distributions at the landscape level. Recommendations included a) adoption of a minimum fire interval of 8–16 years, b) implementation of a burning regime to redress the current skewed distribution (60%: 1–7 years since last fire), c) retention of long-unburnt habitats that are significant for species such as the critically endangered Calyptorhynchus latirostris (Carnaby’s black-cockatoo), and Tarsipes rostratus (honey possum), and d) protection for wetlands that can serve as fire ‘refugia’ for associated species, such as Isoodon obesulus fusciventer (southern brown bandicoot or quenda). The guidelines developed provide a model for the development of ecological burning regimes in other similar ecosystems. The implementation of ecological guidelines normally involves incorporation into fire management planning by fire agencies and often entails complex solutions to conflicting aims. The guidelines are thus valuable for ecologists and land managers, especially in light of an expected significant increase in global fire activity as a consequence of predicted climate change.

scholarly journals The influence of prescribed fire on the extent of wildfire in savanna landscapes of western Arnhem Land, Australia

2012 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 297 ◽  
Author(s):  
Owen F. Price ◽  
Jeremy Russell-Smith ◽  
Felicity Watt
Keyword(s):  
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ◽  
Greenhouse Gas ◽  
Prescribed Fire ◽  
Fire History ◽  
Prescribed Burning ◽  
Landsat Imagery ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Dry Season ◽  
Gas Emissions ◽  
Arnhem Land

Fire regimes in many north Australian savanna regions are today characterised by frequent wildfires occurring in the latter part of the 7-month dry season. A fire management program instigated from 2005 over 24 000 km2 of biodiversity-rich Western Arnhem Land aims to reduce the area and severity of late dry-season fires, and associated greenhouse gas emissions, through targeted early dry-season prescribed burning. This study used fire history mapping derived mostly from Landsat imagery over the period 1990–2009 and statistical modelling to quantify the mitigation of late dry-season wildfire through prescribed burning. From 2005, there has been a reduction in mean annual total proportion burnt (from 38 to 30%), and particularly of late dry-season fires (from 29 to 12.5%). The slope of the relationship between the proportion of early-season prescribed fire and subsequent late dry-season wildfire was ~–1. This means that imposing prescribed early dry-season burning can substantially reduce late dry-season fire area, by direct one-to-one replacement. There is some evidence that the spatially strategic program has achieved even better mitigation than this. The observed reduction in late dry-season fire without concomitant increase in overall area burnt has important ecological and greenhouse gas emissions implications. This efficient mitigation of wildfire contrasts markedly with observations reported from temperate fire-prone forested systems.

The contradictory role of fire from the nature conservation perspective

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Orsolya Valkó
Keyword(s):  
Nature Conservation ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Fire History ◽  
Prescribed Burning ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Fire Effects ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Fire Policy

<p>Fire is a globally relevant natural or anthropogenic phenomenon with a rapidly increasing importance in the era of the climate change. In each year, approximately 4% of the global land surface burns. For effective ecosystem conservation, we need to understand fire regimes, identify potential threats, and also the possibilities in the application of prescribed burning for maintaining ecosystems.</p><p>Here I provide an overview on the contradictory role of fire in nature conservation from two continents with contrasting fire histories, focusing on European and North-American grasslands. I show that the ecological effects of fire depend on the fire regime, fire history, ecosystem properties and the socio-economic environment. Catastrophic wildfires, arson, too frequent or improperly planned human-induced fire often lead to the degradation of the ecosystems, the disappearance of rare plant and animal species, and to the encroachment of weed and invasive species. I illustrate with examples that these negative fire effects act synergistically with the human-induced changes in land use systems.</p><p>I also underline with case studies that in both regions, properly designed and controlled prescribed burning regimes can aid the understanding and managing disturbance-dependent ecosystems. Conservation in these dynamic and complex ecosystems is far more than fencing and hoping to exclude disturbance; but the contrary: disturbance is needed for ecosystem functioning. Therefore, the conservation of dynamic, diverse and functioning ecosystems often require drastic interventions and an unconventional conservation attitude. However, the expanding urban-wildlife interface makes the application of prescribed burning challenging worldwide. A major message for the future is about fire policy: it is crucial to moderate the negative effects of fire, however, properly designed prescribed burning should be used as a tool for managing and conserving disturbance-dependent ecosystems.</p>

Anthropogenic impact on past and present fire regimes in a boreal forest landscape of southeastern Norway

2005 ◽  
Vol 35 (11) ◽  
pp. 2719-2726 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rune Groven ◽  
Mats Niklasson
Keyword(s):  
Fire History ◽  
Nature Reserve ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Mining Activity ◽  
Forest Landscape ◽  
Sample Mean ◽  
History Of ◽  
Mean Fire Interval ◽  
Fire Intervals ◽  
Historical Accounts

Fire-scarred wood samples from 50 stumps, snags, and living trees of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) were dendrochronologically cross-dated to describe an 800 year long fire history of Eldferdalen Nature Reserve (~6 ha) and its surroundings (~4000 ha) in southeastern Norway. In the western part of the study area, we recorded 55 different fires within a 200 ha area around the reserve between 1511 and 1759 and a mean fire interval in single samples of 24.6 years. The composite mean fire interval for the nature reserve was 10.5 years. Fire intervals were longer in the eastern part of the study area, with a single sample mean fire interval of 49.1 years. Only three fires were detected after 1759, the last one in 1822. Based on historical accounts, we assume that the high number of fires and short fire intervals were influenced by deliberate ignition for agricultural purposes, most likely burning to improve the conditions for cattle grazing and slash-and-burn cultivation. We suggest that the cessation of fires was influenced by the increased value of timber and mining activity, thereby leading to increased interest in conservation of the timber resources.

Fire Management in Coastal Sage-scrub, Southern California, USA

1985 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 141-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
George P. Malanson
Keyword(s):  
Computer Simulation ◽  
Southern California ◽  
Prescribed Burning ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Wildland Fire ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Coastal Sage Scrub ◽  
Fire Intensity ◽  
Sage Scrub ◽  
Fire Intervals

Wildland fire management directly affects the forces of natural selection to which plant taxa become adapted. Changes in a fire regime will often result in changes in the relative abundance of particular species, and may cause the extinction of some of them. Life-history characteristics are important indicators of adaptation to recurrent disturbance, such as may be produced by fire. The incorporation of these characteristics in a computer simulation allows of the projection of species abundance under different fire regimes.Through prescribed burning and fire suppression, fire interval and fire intensity can be controlled to some extent. The fire intensity for given sets of fuel, site, and meteoro-logical conditions, representing given fire-intervals, is calculated with the use of a fire behaviour computer simulation. These results are incorporated in computer simulation of the demographic competition of the five dominant shrub species of coastal sage-scrub in the Santa Monica Mountains of southern California: Artemisia californica, Encelia californica, Eriogonum cinereum, Salvia leucophylla, and S. mellifera. The model incorporates resprouting proportions, seedling establishment, and growth, and assumes survivorship rates in simulating scramble competition for space. Foliar cover-values of the five species are projected for nine different fire regimes. Short fire-intervals of the order of 10–20 years, such as might occur under a regime of prescribed burning, may eliminate or greatly reduce some species, whereas longer intervals allow the maintenance of a more diverse community especially of shrubs. Fixed and variable interval-lengths do not produce appreciably different results.This study suggests that prescribed burning at 10–20 years' intervals should not be used indiscriminately to reduce wildland fire hazard in southern California. The fire intervals that will reduce the hazard, may eliminate some dominant native shrub species. A ‘natural’ fire regime which would maintain the natural vegetation while constituting only a minimum hazard to homesites may, unfortunately, be mutually exclusive goals in the coastal sage-scrub of southern California.

Prescribed burning as a conservation tool for management of habitat for threatened species: the quokka, Setonix brachyurus, in the southern forests of Western Australia

2016 ◽  
Vol 25 (5) ◽  
pp. 608 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karlene Bain ◽  
Adrian Wayne ◽  
Roberta Bencini
Keyword(s):  
Western Australia ◽  
Threatened Species ◽  
Vegetation Structure ◽  
Habitat Management ◽  
Prescribed Burning ◽  
High Surface ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Occupancy Modelling ◽  
Vertical Vegetation Structure ◽  
Burnt Areas

Prescribed burning is frequently advocated as a means of managing habitat for threatened species. We studied effects of fire on the quokka (Setonix brachyurus), a species currently used as a focal species for planning prescribed burns in the southern forests of Western Australia. We examined (i) the recolonisation of burnt areas; (ii) the refuge value of unburnt vegetation; and (iii) fire prediction variables that may help to guide fire planning to achieve desired habitat management outcomes. We hypothesised that fire regimes promoting vegetation structure and patchiness of burnt and unburnt vegetation would result in more rapid recolonisation of burnt areas by quokkas. Occupancy modelling identified the most important variables for recolonisation as retention of vertical vegetation structure and multiple unburnt patches across >20% of the total area. These outcomes were associated with high surface moisture, low soil dryness and slow fire rates of spread. Intense wildfire resulted in complete loss of vegetation structure and a lack of unburnt patches, which contributed to these areas remaining uncolonised. Burning with high moisture differentials, maximising the effectiveness of edaphic barriers to fire, retaining unburnt vegetation and maintaining vegetation structure were found to be important elements of fire regimes in this region.

Understanding the long-term impact of prescribed burning in mediterranean-climate biodiversity hotspots, with a focus on south-western Australia

2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (10) ◽  
pp. 643 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. D. Bradshaw ◽  
K. W. Dixon ◽  
H. Lambers ◽  
A. T. Cross ◽  
J. Bailey ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Western Australia ◽  
Prescribed Burning ◽  
Ecological Impact ◽  
Mediterranean Ecosystems ◽  
Biodiversity Hotspots ◽  
Protective Capacity ◽  
Animal Diversity ◽  
Long Term Impact ◽  
The Impact

Wildfires are expected to increase worldwide both in frequency and intensity owing to global warming, but are likely to vary geographically. This is of particular concern in the five mediterranean regions of the world that are all biodiversity hotspots with extraordinary plant and animal diversity that may be impacted by deliberately imposed fire. Wildland managers attempt to reduce the impact and mitigate the outcomes of wildfires on human assets and biodiversity by the use of prescribed burning. The response that we must ‘fight fire with fire’ is understandable, perceived as reducing the flammability of wildlands in fire-prone regions and lessening the impact of wildfires. The long-term impact on biodiversity is, however, less clear. The practice of prescribed burning has been in place and monitored in south-western Australia for 50 years, longer and more intensively than in most other mediterranean ecosystems. The present target is for 200 000 ha burned each year in this biodiversity hotspot. Published studies on the impact of this burning on infrastructure protection and on biodiversity are here used to understand the protective capacity of the practice and to foreshadow its possible long-term ecological impact across all mediterranean ecosystems.

Patterns of landscape fire and predicted vegetation response in the North Kimberley region of Western Australia

2003 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 369 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rohan Fisher ◽  
Tom Vigilante ◽  
Cameron Yates ◽  
Jeremy Russell-Smith
Keyword(s):  
Western Australia ◽  
Fire History ◽  
Landsat Imagery ◽  
Weather Conditions ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Interval Data ◽  
Obligate Seeder ◽  
The North ◽  
The Status ◽  
Modelling Studies

The paper reports on the development of a decadal fire history, 1990–1999, derived from Landsat imagery, and associated assessment of landscape-scale patterns, in a remote, sparsely human-populated region of the high rainfall zone of monsoonal north-western Australia. The assembled fire history confirms observations, derived from coarser-scale imagery, that substantial areas of the North Kimberley are burnt each year. The annual mean extent of burning was 31% (albeit involving marked inter-annual variability), with most burning occurring in the latter part of the dry season under relatively severe fire weather conditions. Extent of burning was found to be associated with intensity of landuse; most burning occurred on pastoral lands, particularly in association with more fertile basalt soils. Based on previous modelling studies, predicted effects of contemporary fire regimes include increased development of woody regeneration size-classes, especially on non-basalt substrates. In contrast, on sandstone-derived substrata, fire interval data indicate that longer-lived obligate-seeder shrub species are likely to be suppressed and ultimately displaced by contemporary fire regimes. Such observations are supported by recent evidence of regional collapse of the long-lived obligate seeder tree species, Callitris intratropica. Collectively, assembled data point to the need to undertake a thorough appraisal of the status of regional biota in this remote, ostensibly ecologically intact region.

scholarly journals Contemporary Fire Regimes of the Arid Carnarvon Basin Region of Western Australia

Fire ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 51
Author(s):  
Megan Ladbrook ◽  
Eddie J. B. van Etten ◽  
William D. Stock
Keyword(s):  
Western Australia ◽  
Fire History ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Fire Weather ◽  
Fire Size ◽  
Burnt Area ◽  
Heathland Vegetation ◽  
Basin Region ◽  
Carnarvon Basin

This study investigates the fire regime for the arid Carnarvon Basin region of Western Australia using remotely sensed imagery. A fire history database was constructed from satellite images to characterise the general fire regime and determine any effect of vegetation types and pre-fire weather and climate. The study area was divided into two sections (northern and southern) due to their inherently different vegetation and climate. A total of 23.8% (15,646 km2) of the study area was burnt during the 39-year study period. Heathland vegetation (54%) burnt the most extensively in the southern study area, and hummock grasslands (68%) in the northern. A single, unusually large fire in 2012 followed exceptional rains in the previous 12 months and accounted for 55% of the total burnt area. This fire burnt mainly through Acacia shrublands and woodlands rather than hummock grasslands, as normally experienced in the northern study area. Antecedent rainfall and fire weather were found to be the main meteorological factors driving fire size. Both study areas showed a moderate to strong correlation between fire size and increased pre-fire rainfall in the year preceding the fire. Predicted future changes in climate may lead to more frequent and higher intensity fires.

scholarly journals The recent fire history of the Table Mountain National Park and implications for fire management

Koedoe ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Greg G. Forsyth ◽  
Brian W. Van Wilgen
Keyword(s):  
National Park ◽  
Fire History ◽  
Prescribed Burning ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Weather Conditions ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Management Interventions ◽  
Table Mountain ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Large Fires

This paper provides an assessment of fire regimes in the Table Mountain National Park over the past four decades. We compiled a GIS database of all fires between 1970 and 2007 and analysed the fire regime in terms of the frequency, season and size of fires and the relationship between fire occurrence and fire weather. Most fires (90.5% of area burnt) occurred in summer and autumn, the ecologically acceptable season for fires. However, mean fire return intervals declined by 18.1 years, from 31.6 to 13.5 years, between the first and last decades of the record respectively. The area subjected to short (≤ six years) intervals between fires covered > 16% of the park in the last two decades of the record, compared to ~ 4% in the first two decades. A relatively small number of large fires dominated in terms of area burnt. Of the 373 fires recorded, 40 fires > 300 ha burnt 75% of the area, while 216 fires < 25 ha burnt 3.4% of the area. Fires occurred under a wide range of weather conditions, but large fires were restricted to periods of high fire danger. Prescribed burning was a relatively unimportant cause of fires, and most (> 85%) of the area burnt in wildfires. Areas subjected to short fire return intervals should be considered for management interventions. These could include the re-establishment of extirpated fire-sensitive species, the clearing of invasive alien plants and increased precautions for the prevention or rapid suppression of future accidental fires.

Confronting complexity: fire policy choices in South African savanna parks

2003 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 381 ◽  
Author(s):  
William J. Bond ◽  
Sally Archibald
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Prescribed Burning ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Conservation Areas ◽  
Fire Policy ◽  
African Savanna ◽  
Policy Alternatives ◽  
Ecological Criteria ◽  
Fire Intervals

Changes in ecological concepts and a new focus on biodiversity as a central objective have led to changes in fire policies in South African savanna parks. Prescribed burning using fixed fire intervals is being replaced by systems that promote more variable fire regimes and greater management flexibility. Three policy alternatives have been proposed for Kruger National Park: a lightning fire policy, patch mosaic burning, and burning based on ecological criteria. There is no agreement as yet on which policy to adopt. However there is growing consensus on the use of a management system using 'thresholds of potential concern' to evaluate the outcome of different policies. These thresholds have been established for numerous indicators, help focus monitoring activities, and guide managers on the need for active intervention. We discuss the applicability of the policy alternatives for preventing successional change from savanna to forest and promoting grazing lawns and their associated grazers. We conclude that none of the current policies is universally applicable. A prescriptive program of frequent, high intensity burns will be required in mesic savannas to prevent succession to forests. In arid savannas, fire regimes designed to promote variable fire frequencies and fire sizes would be preferred to maintain greater diversity of grassland swards and grazer communities. The lessons learned from fire policy debates in South African savannas are of wider relevance for managing conservation areas elsewhere.

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