Fire on the mountain: A multi-scale, multi-proxy assessment of the resilience of cool temperate rainforest to fire in Victoria’s Central Highlands

Baker, Patrick J.; Simkin, Rohan; Pappas, Nina; McLeod, Alex John; McKenzie, Merna

doi:10.22459/ta34.01.2012.18

Cited by 3 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…The results from our study demonstrate that the resprouting ability of the dominant canopy species of the cool temperate rainforest, N. cunninghamii and A. moschatum, is an important component of this resilience. Several previous studies have demonstrated the ability of Nothofagus cunninghamii to resprout after fires in Victoria and Tasmania (Baker et al 2012, Prior et al 2018. When basal resprouting is accounted for, full-kill rates in the highest intensity fire are <50%, even for relatively small individuals (Fig.…”

Section: Variation Among Species In Susceptibility To Firementioning

confidence: 87%

“…Several previous studies have demonstrated the ability of Nothofagus cunninghamii to resprout after fires in Victoria and Tasmania (Baker et al. 2012, Prior et al. 2018).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…However, a multi‐scale review of CTR dynamics based on evidence from fossil pollen, sub‐fossil charcoal, tree rings, and direct observations after the 2009 bushfires showed that cool temperate rainforest had persisted in Victoria's Central Highlands despite tens of thousands of years of fire activity (Baker et al. 2012). Similarly, Worth et al.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…CTR has long been considered highly sensitive to fire and there is concern that an increase in fire activity under future climatic conditions will lead to contraction and loss of these ecosystems. However, a multi-scale review of CTR dynamics based on evidence from fossil pollen, subfossil charcoal, tree rings, and direct observations after the 2009 bushfires showed that cool temperate rainforest had persisted in Victoria's Central Highlands despite tens of thousands of years of fire activity (Baker et al 2012). Similarly, Worth et al (2009) used chloroplast DNA to show that Nothofagus cunninghamii had persisted in situ in Tasmania through periods of global aridity during the Pleistocene.…”

Section: Variation Among Species In Susceptibility To Firementioning

confidence: 99%

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The effect of species, size, and fire intensity on tree mortality within a catastrophic bushfire complex

Trouvé

Oborne

Baker

2021

Ecological Applications

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Infrequent, high‐intensity disturbances can have profound impacts on forested landscapes, changing forest structure and altering relative species abundance. However, due to their rarity and the logistical challenges of directly observing such extreme events, both the spatial variability of disturbance intensity and the species‐specific responses to this variability are poorly understood. We used observed patterns of mortality across a fire severity gradient following the 2009 Black Saturday fires in southeastern Australia to simultaneously estimate (1) species‐ and size‐specific susceptibility to fire‐induced mortality and (2) fire intensity. We found broad variation in patterns of fire susceptibility among the 10 tree species (five eucalypts and five non‐eucalypts) sufficiently abundant for analysis. Among the eucalypts, Eucalyptus obliqua was the most resistant to fire‐induced mortality, with trees of ~25 cm DBH having a 50% probability of surviving even the most intense fires. In contrast, E. regnans had 100% mortality across all size classes when subjected to high‐intensity fire. Basal resprouting occurred in six of the study species and, when accounted for, fundamentally changed the mortality profile of these species, highlighting the importance of resprouting as an adaptation to fire in these landscapes. In particular, the two iconic cool temperate rainforest species (Nothofagus cunninghami and Atherosperma moschatum) were strong resprouters (~45% of individuals were able to resprout after being top‐killed by fire). We also found evidence for compositional shifts in regeneration above threshold values of fire intensity in cool temperate rainforest and mixed forest sites, both of which have important conservation values within these landscapes. The observed patterns of species‐ and size‐specific susceptibility to fire‐induced mortality may be used to anticipate changes in forest structure and composition in the future. In addition, they may also help guide forest management strategies that reduce the length of time individual trees are exposed to potentially lethal fires, thereby increasing the resilience of these forests to future fires.

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Section: Variation Among Species In Susceptibility To Firementioning

confidence: 87%

“…Several previous studies have demonstrated the ability of Nothofagus cunninghamii to resprout after fires in Victoria and Tasmania (Baker et al. 2012, Prior et al. 2018).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Variation Among Species In Susceptibility To Firementioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

The effect of species, size, and fire intensity on tree mortality within a catastrophic bushfire complex

Trouvé

Oborne

Baker

2021

Ecological Applications

Self Cite

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“…The influence of TFR over microclimate and fire spread is further enhanced by a negative feedback between fire, low rainforest fuel flammability and high subcanopy humidity within rainforest vegetation (Kirkpatrick and Dickinson, 1984;Wood and Bowman, 2012). This internal fire-retardant buffering against fire is scale-dependent, with small patches of vegetation and scattered individual rainforest trees suffering high fire-induced mortality irrespective of topographic setting (Pappas, 2010;Baker et al, 2012). Pappas (2010) identified a threshold of forest patch size for temperate rainforest above which the negative feedback between vegetation and fire is initiated, suggesting that large TFR could act to buffer against the effects of changes in macroclimate in the Tasmanian landscape.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The influence of fine‐scale topography on the impacts of Holocene fire in a Tasmanian montane landscape

Cadd

Fletcher

Mariani

et al. 2019

J Quaternary Science

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Tasmania's montane temperate rainforests contain some of Australia's most ancient and endemic flora. Recent landscape‐scale fires have impacted a significant portion of these rainforest ecosystems. The complex and rugged topography of Tasmania results in a highly variable influence of fire across the landscape, rendering predictions of ecosystem response to fire difficult. We assess the role of topographic variation in buffering the influence of fire in these endemic rainforest communities. We developed a new 14 000‐year (14‐ka) palaeoecological dataset from Lake Perry, southern Tasmania, and compared it to neighbouring Lake Osborne (<250 m distant) to examine how topographic variations influence fire and vegetation dynamics through time. Repeated fire events during the Holocene cause a decline in montane rainforest taxa at both sites; however, in the absence of fire, rainforest taxa are able to recover. Montane temperate rainforest taxa persisted at Lake Perry until European settlement, whilst these taxa were driven locally extinct and replaced by Eucalyptus species at Lake Osborne after 2.5 ka. Contiguous topographic fire refugia within the Lake Perry catchment probably provided areas of favourable microclimates that discouraged fire spread and supported the recovery of these montane temperate rainforests. Copyright © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Wildland Fire

Filkov

Cawson²,

Swan³

et al. 2022

Handbook of Fire and the Environment

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Fire on the mountain: A multi-scale, multi-proxy assessment of the resilience of cool temperate rainforest to fire in Victoria’s Central Highlands

Cited by 3 publications

References 10 publications

The effect of species, size, and fire intensity on tree mortality within a catastrophic bushfire complex

The effect of species, size, and fire intensity on tree mortality within a catastrophic bushfire complex

The influence of fine‐scale topography on the impacts of Holocene fire in a Tasmanian montane landscape

Wildland Fire

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