scholarly journals Small mammals decline with increasing fire extent in northern Australia: evidence from long-term monitoring in Kakadu National Park

2015 ◽  
Vol 24 (5) ◽  
pp. 712 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. Lawes ◽  
Brett P. Murphy ◽  
Alaric Fisher ◽  
John C. Z. Woinarski ◽  
Andrew C. Edwards ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Small Mammals ◽  
National Park ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Fire Frequency ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Northern Australia ◽  
Fire Size ◽  
Burnt Area ◽  
Fire Extent

Small mammal (<2 kg) numbers have declined dramatically in northern Australia in recent decades. Fire regimes, characterised by frequent, extensive, late-season wildfires, are implicated in this decline. Here, we compare the effect of fire extent, in conjunction with fire frequency, season and spatial heterogeneity (patchiness) of the burnt area, on mammal declines in Kakadu National Park over a recent decadal period. Fire extent – an index incorporating fire size and fire frequency – was the best predictor of mammal declines, and was superior to the proportion of the surrounding area burnt and fire patchiness. Point-based fire frequency, a commonly used index for characterising fire effects, was a weak predictor of declines. Small-scale burns affected small mammals least of all. Crucially, the most important aspects of fire regimes that are associated with declines are spatial ones; extensive fires (at scales larger than the home ranges of small mammals) are the most detrimental, indicating that small mammals may not easily escape the effects of large and less patchy fires. Notwithstanding considerable management effort, the current fire regime in this large conservation reserve is detrimental to the native mammal fauna, and more targeted management is required to reduce fire size.

Fire regimes and interval-sensitive vegetation in semiarid Gregory National Park, northern Australia

2010 ◽  
Vol 58 (4) ◽  
pp. 300 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremy Russell-Smith ◽  
Cameron P. Yates ◽  
Chris Brock ◽  
Vanessa C. Westcott
Keyword(s):  
National Park ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Woody Species ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Stem Density ◽  
Northern Australia ◽  
Juvenile Period ◽  
Climate Conditions ◽  
Fine Fuels ◽  
Ecologically Sustainable

Few data are available concerning contemporary fire regimes and the responses of fire interval-sensitive vegetation types in semiarid woodland savanna landscapes of northern Australia. For a 10 300 km2 semiarid portion of Gregory National Park, in the present paper we describe (1) components of the contemporary fire regime for 1998–2008, on the basis of assessments derived from Landsat and MODIS imagery, (2) for the same period, the population dynamics, and characteristic fine-fuel loads associated with Acacia shirleyi Maiden (lancewood), an obligate seeder tree species occurring in dense monodominant stands, and (3) the fire responses of woody species, and fine-fuel dynamics, sampled in 41 plots comprising shrubby open-woodland over spinifex hummock grassland. While rain-year (July–June) rainfall was consistently reliable over the study period, annual fire extent fluctuated markedly, with an average of 29% being fire affected, mostly in the latter part of the year under relatively harsh fire-climate conditions. Collectively, such conditions facilitated short fire-return intervals, with 30% of the study area experiencing a repeat fire within 1 year, and 80% experiencing a repeat fire within 3 years. Fine fuels associated with the interior of lancewood thickets were characteristically small (<1 t ha–1). Fine fuels dominated by spinifex (Triodia spp.) were found to accumulate at rates equivalent to those observed under higher-rainfall conditions. Stand boundaries of A. shirleyi faired poorly under prevailing fire regimes over the study period; in 16 plots, juvenile density declined 62%, and adult stem density and basal area declined by 53% and 40%, respectively. Although the maturation (primary juvenile) period of A. shirleyi is incompletely known, assembled growth rate and phenology data indicated that it is typically >10 years. Of 133 woody species sampled, all trees (n = 26), with the exception of A. shirleyi, were resprouters, and 58% of all shrub species (n = 105) were obligate seeders, with observed primary juvenile periods <5 years. Assembled data generally supported observations made from other northern Australian studies concerning the responses of fire-sensitive woody taxa in rugged, sandstone-derived landscapes, and illustrated the enormous challenges facing ecologically sustainable fire management in such settings. Contemporary fire regimes of Gregory National Park are not ecologically sustainable.

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.

Monitoring the impacts of fire regimes on vegetation in northern Australia: an example from Kakadu National Park

2003 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 427 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Edwards ◽  
Rod Kennett ◽  
Owen Price ◽  
Jeremy Russell-Smith ◽  
Greg Spiers ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
National Park ◽  
Life Form ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Monitoring Program ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Ground Layer ◽  
Individual Species ◽  
Northern Australia ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Trees And Shrubs

We describe the rationale, methodology and preliminary results from a major monitoring program in Kakadu National Park, northern Australia. The program aims to assess fire regimes, their impacts upon biodiversity, and the consequences and efficacy of fire management. The program comprises two complementary elements—mapping of fire histories based upon interpretation of satellite imagery, and assessment of vegetation at a large series of permanent monitoring plots. The program commenced formally in 1995, at which time establishment and baseline sampling of vegetation in 134 plots was conducted, with re-sampling proposed at 5-year intervals up to 2010. The monitoring program has an estimated annual cost of about $A140�000 (around 1% of the total annual budget of the Park). Over the period 1995–2000, the mean annual extent of burning was 40.3%, a marginal reduction in extent from the previous 15 years, particularly for late dry season fires in lowland habitats. From the baseline (1995) and subsequent re-sampling (2000) of the vegetation plots, 963 plant taxa have been recorded. The power of the program to detect change in the frequency or abundance of individual species was poor, especially for ground-layer species, largely because of typically substantial variability in abundance across plots and sampling events, and because of the high proportion of species recorded from few samples. Notwithstanding this constraint, five tree species (of 47 recorded from sufficient samples to test), nine shrub species (from 121) and 27 ground-layer species (from 111) showed significant change in abundance between the baseline and subsequent sampling. However when species were grouped into strata and life-form categories, major changes were evident over this 5�year period, particularly with increases in cover of trees and shrubs. Such changes were related to a range of environmental and fire regime parameters of the plots, with increase in woody cover but reduction in cover and species richness of herbs in those plots experiencing lower frequency of fires.

scholarly journals A century of transformation: Fire regime transitions from 1919 to 2019 in southeastern British Columbia, Canada

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer N Baron ◽  
Sarah E. Gergel ◽  
Paul F. Hessburg ◽  
Lori D. Daniels
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Fire Suppression ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Fire Frequency ◽  
Burned Area ◽  
Annual Number ◽  
Fire Size ◽  
Climatic Period ◽  
Fire Exclusion

The past 100 years marks a transition between pre-colonial and modern era fire regimes, which provides crucial context for understanding future wildfire behavior. Using the greatest depth of digitized fire events in Canada, we identify distinct phases of wildfire regimes from 1919 to 2019 by evaluating changes in mapped fire perimeters (&gt;20-ha) across the East Kootenay forest region (including the southern Rocky Mountain Trench), British Columbia (BC). We detect transitions in annual number of fires, burned area, and fire size; explore the roles of lightning- and human-caused fires in driving these transitions; and quantify departures from historical fire frequency at the regional level. We found that, relative to historical fire frequency, fire exclusion created a significant fire deficit across 89% of the flammable landscape. Fire was active from 1919 to 1940 with frequent and large fire events, but the regime was already altered by a century of colonization. Fire activity decreased after 1940, coinciding with effective fire suppression influenced by a mild climatic period. After 2003, the combined effects of fire exclusion and accelerated climate change fueled a shift in fire regimes of various forest types, with increases in area burned and mean fire size driven by lightning.

Fire history in relation to site type and vegetation in Vienansalo wilderness in eastern Fennoscandia, Russia

2004 ◽  
Vol 34 (7) ◽  
pp. 1400-1409 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tuomo H Wallenius ◽  
Timo Kuuluvainen ◽  
Ilkka Vanha-Majamaa
Keyword(s):  
Fire History ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Forest Type ◽  
Fire Frequency ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Forest Patches ◽  
Burnt Area ◽  
Wilderness Area ◽  
In Fire ◽  
Scale Variation

A wildfire area in a boreal forest landscape dominated by Pinus sylvestris L., in the Vienansalo wilderness area in eastern Fennoscandia, was examined for its spatial characteristics and fire history. The boundaries of the 360-ha fire that occurred in 1969 were mapped, and the vegetation types of burnt and unburnt areas were inventoried. Fire history was investigated in 40 study plots, and fire scars, tree ages, and charcoal in peat or soil were used for evidence of past fires. The complex shape of the 1969 fire and the detected small-scale variation in past fire frequencies were concordant with the existing small-scale variation in site moisture and vegetation characteristics in the area. Moist depressions, swamps, and more fertile forest patches dominated by Picea abies (L.) Karst. often did not burn when the nearby dryish forest type did. There was also temporal variability in fire frequency. An abrupt increase in the number of fires occurred in the late 17th century. In the mid-19th century, both the number of fires and the annually burnt area in the region decreased. Our results show that in the examined wildfire area, there has been considerable and consistent small-scale spatial variation in fire frequency and that historical fire regime evidently has been strongly affected by human activity.

Fire regime shift linked to increased forest density in a piñon–juniper savanna landscape

2014 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellis Q. Margolis
Keyword(s):  
Regime Shift ◽  
Fire History ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Fire Frequency ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Tree Density ◽  
High Severity ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
In Fire

Piñon–juniper (PJ) fire regimes are generally characterised as infrequent high-severity. However, PJ ecosystems vary across a large geographic and bio-climatic range and little is known about one of the principal PJ functional types, PJ savannas. It is logical that (1) grass in PJ savannas could support frequent, low-severity fire and (2) exclusion of frequent fire could explain increased tree density in PJ savannas. To assess these hypotheses I used dendroecological methods to reconstruct fire history and forest structure in a PJ-dominated savanna. Evidence of high-severity fire was not observed. From 112 fire-scarred trees I reconstructed 87 fire years (1547–1899). Mean fire interval was 7.8 years for fires recorded at ≥2 sites. Tree establishment was negatively correlated with fire frequency (r=–0.74) and peak PJ establishment was synchronous with dry (unfavourable) conditions and a regime shift (decline) in fire frequency in the late 1800s. The collapse of the grass-fuelled, frequent, surface fire regime in this PJ savanna was likely the primary driver of current high tree density (mean=881treesha–1) that is >600% of the historical estimate. Variability in bio-climatic conditions likely drive variability in fire regimes across the wide range of PJ ecosystems.

scholarly journals A Comparison of Fire Regimes and Stand Dynamics in Whitebark Pine (Pinus albicaulis) Communities in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem

2003 ◽  
Vol 27 ◽  
pp. 123-128
Author(s):  
William Romme ◽  
James Walsh
Keyword(s):  
Yellowstone National Park ◽  
National Park ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem ◽  
Past Century ◽  
Grizzly Bear ◽  
Pinus Albicaulis ◽  
Whitebark Pine ◽  
Greater Yellowstone

Whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) is a keystone species of upper subalpine ecosystems (Tomback et al. 2001), and is especially important in the high-elevation ecosystems of the northern Rocky Mountains (Arno and Hoff 1989). Its seeds are an essential food source for the endangered grizzly bear (Ursus arctos horribilis), particularly in the autumn, prior to winter denning (Mattson and Jonkel 1990, Mattson and Reinhart 1990, Mattson et al. 1992). In the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE), biologists have concluded that the fate of grizzlies is intrinsically linked to the health of the whitebark pine communities found in and around Yellowstone National Park (YNP) (Mattson and Merrill 2002). Over the past century, however, whitebark pine has severely declined throughout much of its range as a result of an introduced fungus, white pine blister rust (Cronartium ribicola) (Hoff and Hagle 1990, Smith and Hoffman 2000, McDonald and Hoff 2001), native pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae) infestations (Bartos and Gibson 1990, Kendall and Keane 2001), and, perhaps in some locations, successional replacement related to fire exclusion and fire suppression (Amo 2001). The most common historical whitebark pine ftre regimes are "stand-replacement", and "mixed­ severity" regimes (Morgan et al. 1994, Arno 2000, Arno and Allison-Bunnell2002). In the GYE, mixed-severity ftre regimes have been documented in whitebark pine forests in the Shoshone National forest NW of Cody, WY (Morgan and Bunting 1990), and in NE Yellowstone National Park (Barrett 1994). In Western Montana and Idaho, mixed fire regimes have been documented in whitebark pine communities in the Bob Marshall Wilderness (Keane et al. 1994), Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness (Brown et al. 1994), and the West Bighole Range (Murray et al.1998). Mattson and Reinhart (1990) found a stand­replacing fire regime on the Mount Washburn Massif, within Yellowstone National Park.

scholarly journals Potentials and limitations for human control over historic fire regimes in the boreal forest

2007 ◽  
Vol 363 (1501) ◽  
pp. 2351-2356 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anders Granström ◽  
Mats Niklasson
Keyword(s):  
Fire Regime ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Fire Spread ◽  
Fire Frequency ◽  
Human Control ◽  
Regime Changes ◽  
Northern Fennoscandia ◽  
Potential Impact ◽  
Cattle Husbandry ◽  
Different Cultures

Fire, being both a natural and cultural phenomenon, presents problems in disentangling the historical effect of humans from that of climate change. Here, we investigate the potential impact of humans on boreal fire regimes from a perspective of fuels, ignitions and culture. Two ways for a low technology culture to impact the fire regime are as follows: (i) by altering the number of ignitions and their spatial distribution and timing and (ii) by hindering fire spread. Different cultures should be expected to have quite different impacts on the fire regimes. In northern Fennoscandia, there is evidence for fire regime changes associated with the following: a reindeer herding culture associated with few ignitions above the natural; an era of cattle husbandry with dramatically increased ignitions and somewhat higher fire frequency; and a timber exploitation era with decreasing fire sizes and diminishing fire frequency. In other regions of the boreal zone, such schemes can look quite different, but we suggest that a close look at the resource extraction and land use of different cultures should be part of any analysis of past fire regimes.

scholarly journals Visualizing When, Where, and How Fires Happen in U.S. Parks and Protected Areas

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 333
Author(s):  
Nicole C. Inglis ◽  
Jelena Vukomanovic
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Protected Areas ◽  
National Park ◽  
Fire History ◽  
National Park Service ◽  
Fire Management ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
The United States ◽  
Park Service

Fire management in protected areas faces mounting obstacles as climate change alters disturbance regimes, resources are diverted to fighting wildfires, and more people live along the boundaries of parks. Evidence-based prescribed fire management and improved communication with stakeholders is vital to reducing fire risk while maintaining public trust. Numerous national fire databases document when and where natural, prescribed, and human-caused fires have occurred on public lands in the United States. However, these databases are incongruous and non-standardized, making it difficult to visualize spatiotemporal patterns of fire and engage stakeholders in decision-making. We created interactive decision analytics (“VISTAFiRe”) that transform fire history data into clear visualizations of the spatial and temporal dimensions of fire and its management. We demonstrate the utility of our approach using Big Cypress National Preserve and Everglades National Park as examples of protected areas experiencing fire regime change between 1980 and 2017. Our open source visualizations may be applied to any data from the National Park Service Wildland Fire Events Geodatabase, with flexibility to communicate shifts in fire regimes over time, such as the type of ignition, duration and magnitude, and changes in seasonal occurrence. Application of the tool to Everglades and Big Cypress revealed that natural wildfires are occurring earlier in the wildfire season, while human-caused and prescribed wildfires are becoming less and more common, respectively. These new avenues of stakeholder communication are allowing the National Park Service to devise research plans to prepare for environmental change, guide resource allocation, and support decision-making in a clear and timely manner.

Using simulation to map fire regimes: an evaluation of approaches, strategies, and limitations

2003 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 309 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert E. Keane ◽  
Geoffrey J. Cary ◽  
Russell Parsons
Keyword(s):  
Geographical Information Systems ◽  
Fire History ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Wildland Fire ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Simulation Modelling ◽  
Fire Frequency ◽  
Geographical Information ◽  
Spatially Explicit ◽  
Eastern Australia

Spatial depictions of fire regimes are indispensable to fire management because they portray important characteristics of wildland fire, such as severity, intensity, and pattern, across a landscape that serves as important reference for future treatment activities. However, spatially explicit fire regime maps are difficult and costly to create requiring extensive expertise in fire history sampling, multivariate statistics, remotely sensed image classification, fire behaviour and effects, fuel dynamics, landscape ecology, simulation modelling, and geographical information systems (GIS). This paper first compares three common strategies for predicting fire regimes (classification, empirical, and simulation) using a 51�000�ha landscape in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness Area of Montana, USA. Simulation modelling is identified as the best overall strategy with respect to developing temporally deep spatial fire patterns, but it has limitations. To illustrate these problems, we performed three simulation experiments using the LANDSUM spatial model to determine the relative importance of (1) simulation time span; (2) fire frequency parameters; and (3) fire size parameters on the simulation of landscape fire return interval. The model used to simulate fire regimes is also very important, so we compared two spatially explicit landscape fire succession models (LANDSUM and FIRESCAPE) to demonstrate differences between model predictions and limitations of each on a neutral landscape. FIRESCAPE was developed for simulating fire regimes in eucalypt forests of south-eastern Australia. Finally, challenges for future simulation and fire regime research are presented including field data, scale, fire regime variability, map obsolescence, and classification resolution.

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