- Title:
-
Fire Frequency and Environmental Gradients
- Date:
- September 2008
- Organisations
- BCRC
- Authors:
-
C.I. Kuramotto De Bednarik, G.J. Cary, R.A. Bradstock, K.J. King, M. Gill, M. Austin
Presentation - Location:
- Australia, Australia
Overview
AFAC/BCRC Conference Paper - September 2008
In New South Wales, inappropriate fire regimes have been identified as a key threatening process, defined as one that negatively affects the survival, abundance or evolutionary ability of a species or ecological community. Rainforests are considered by some to be fire-intolerant communities, but fires do occur in these communities. Many rainforest species are known to recover following a fire. However, it appears that with relatively short fire intervals, rainforests can be eliminated from the landscape. Hence, land management agencies often exclude fires from rainforest communities in order to increase the fire interval and to ensure rainforest conservation.
The ability of rainforest species to recover after a fire is related to resource availability and fire regimes. Consequently, the distribution of rainforest in the landscape can be hypothesised to be the result of the interaction of different environmental and fire gradients. This study quantifies the relative importance of fire interval and other environmental gradients including thermal, moisture, solar radiation and nutrient regimes for the occurrence of rainforest communities in the Sydney region. Generalised Linear Models and Geographical Information System datasets of fire interval and numerous environmental gradients are used for this purpose. Such information can be used to identify which rainforest areas are more likely to be negatively affected by short fire intervals and may require management intervention.
