The effect of burning, soil scarification and seeding on the understorey composition of 12 year-old rehabilitated bauxite mines in Western Australia

Grant, C. D.; Loneragan, William A.; Koch, John M.; Bell, David T.

doi:10.1080/00049158.1997.10674694

Cited by 15 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…The large proportion of annual weeds in the soil seed banks of the rehabilitation sites needs to be considered when planning prescribed burns as it could influence succession and post‐fire recovery of these areas. Grant et al (1997) , studying 11–13‐year‐old burnt rehabilitation, found that fire led to a flush of annual weed species but the densities were not as large as would have been predicted from their domination of the soil seed reserve. Research is continuing on the young rehabilitated sites to assess the impact of weeds on post‐fire recovery, to determine if weeds are a temporary phase or if they represent a persistent problem.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 77%

“…This species is an exotic from eastern Australia and, unlike the native species, can maintain a relatively large soil seed reserve. This store of introduced seed represents a problem for the management of older rehabilitation areas with establishment of these eucalypts at rates of up to 20 per m 2 after fire ( Grant et al 1997 ). In the forest sites the trees were mature; however the dominant species, Jarrah, Marri, banksias and She Oaks are bradysporous and tend to retain seed in capsules on the trees and resprout.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effect of fire on the topsoil seed banks of rehabilitated bauxite mine sites in the jarrah forest of Western Australia

Smith

Loneragan²,

Grant³

et al. 2000

Eco Management Restoration

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Summary Germinable seed stores of 5‐ and 8‐year‐old rehabilitated bauxite mine pits in south‐west Western Australia were assessed before and after burning. These seed stores were compared to those of adjacent unmined Jarrah (Eucalyptus marginata) forest, to identify at what age fire can be reintroduced, in order to measure restoration success and reduce fire hazard. Soils were sampled in early summer (before fire) and late autumn (after fire). Before fire, the mean topsoil seed bank of 5‐year‐old sites was 2121 seeds per m2 while 8‐year‐old sites had a mean of 1520 seeds per m2. Only the 5‐year‐old sites were significantly different from the forest mean of 1478 seeds per m2 for the same season. After summer burns (and possibly due to seasonal effects) topsoil seed banks of rehabilitated areas (sampled in autumn) decreased by an average of 53 per cent. Topsoil seed banks of 5–8‐year‐old sites were resistant to lower intensity burns, with 362 seeds per m2 of native species surviving mild burns and 108 seeds per m2 of native species surviving after an intense summer fire. The topsoil seed reserve of 5–8‐year‐old rehabilitated areas had a high proportion of annual weed species while the forest sites had high levels of subshrubs and native annuals. Low‐intensity burns did not alter the composition of life‐forms in the soil seed bank, while intense burns favoured annual weed and shrub species. The results indicate that it is not appropriate to introduce fire to rehabilitated areas before 8 years, due to limited fuel reduction benefits and possible adverse effects on obligate seeding species. The large proportion of weed species in the soil seed bank of young rehabilitated areas is a concern, and remains a major consideration for future disturbance of these areas.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 77%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of fire on the topsoil seed banks of rehabilitated bauxite mine sites in the jarrah forest of Western Australia

Smith

Loneragan²,

Grant³

et al. 2000

Eco Management Restoration

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“…In southern Australia, several studies have shown that prescribed burning of 8‐year or more than 8‐year‐old rehabilitation areas increases the similarity of vegetation to that found in unmined native forest (Grant & Loneragan 1999; Grant 2003; Ross et al 2004; Smith et al 2004). Nevertheless, these studies recommended that fire should be excluded from any areas less than 8–10 years old to ensure sufficient development of the dominant canopy species to withstand fire, and establishment of the topsoil seed bank to allow regeneration of fire‐sensitive species.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Succession in Bird and Plant Communities over a 24-Year Chronosequence of Mine Rehabilitation in the Australian Monsoon Tropics

Brady

Noske

2009

Restoration Ecology

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We compared the bird and woody plant communities of 2 to 24-year-old rehabilitation areas at Gove bauxite mine (20 km 2 ) in the seasonal tropics of northern Australia, where Alcan has maintained a consistent rehabilitation program since it began operation in 1974. Birds were censused every second month over 2 years in 30 widely separated 0.25-ha plots, representing five chronosequence stages. These were also compared with six (''off-mine'') plots adjacent to the mine, which represented the annually burnt open forest typical of the region. Short-lived Acacias dominated the early chronosequence stages, whereas eucalypts dominated in later stages. Mean avian species richness and abundance increased significantly along the chronosequence, with values for the oldest rehabilitation plots being very similar to those for the off-mine plots. However, analyses of similarity revealed that the bird communities of the oldest rehabilitation plots were distinct from those of the off-mine plots, indicating that succession in rehabilitation areas is not following a direct trajectory toward the native open forest surrounding the mine. Several hollownesting bird species were scarce or absent in the rehabilitation areas, probably reflecting the absence of older hollow-bearing trees. Many differences between the rehabilitation and the off-mine areas in vegetation structure, woody flora, and avifauna appear to be related to the exclusion of fire from the minesite. We recommend the initiation of experiments designed to assess the effects of fire on the biota but caution against the use of fires for the majority of rehabilitation areas.

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“…The aim of this study was to investigate if dominancediversity curves might be a useful tool to describe vegetation development on rehabilitated bauxite mines in Western Australia after prescribed burning in different seasons (Grant et al 1997a(Grant et al , 1997b(Grant et al , 1997cGrant & Loneragan 1999, 2001. The study has two specific objectives: to compare the shapes of the dominance-diversity curves over time and to assess how the proportions of the major plant functional characteristics segregate along the curves over the post-fire succession.…”

Section: Restoration Ecology March 2003mentioning

confidence: 99%

Using Dominance‐Diversity Curves to Assess Completion Criteria After Bauxite Mining Rehabilitation in Western Australia

Grant

Loneragan

2003

Restoration Ecology

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Dominance‐diversity curves have been previously constructed for a range of ecosystems around the world to illustrate the dominance of particular species and show how their relative abundances compare between communities separated in time or space. We investigate the usefulness of dominance‐diversity curves in rehabilitated areas to compare the floristic composition and abundance of “undisturbed” areas with disturbed areas, using bauxite mining rehabilitation in Western Australia as an example. Rehabilitated pits (11–13 years old) subjected to prescribed fire in autumn and spring were compared with unburned rehabilitated areas and the native jarrah (Eucalyptus marginata) forest. Dominance diversity curves were constructed by ranking the log of the species density values from highest to lowest. Species were categorized according to a variety of functional responses: life form (trees, shrubs, subshrubs, and annuals), fire response syndrome (seeder or resprouter), nitrogen fixing capability, and origin (native or adventive). Exponential functions showed extremely good fits for all sites (r2 = 0.939–0.995). Dominance diversity graphs showed that after burning of rehabilitated areas, sites exhibited a more similar dominance‐diversity curve than before burning. This was emphasized in a classification (UPGMA) of the regression equations from the dominance‐diversity curves that showed that sites burned in spring were more similar to the native forest than sites burned in autumn. There was no significant segregation of the nitrogen‐fixing and species origin categories, although the life form and fire response groupings showed significant segregation along the dominance‐diversity curve. Resprouters tended to be over‐represented in the lower quartiles and under‐represented in the upper quartiles of post‐burn sites. It is suggested that using dominance‐diversity curves in the monitoring of rehabilitated areas may be a useful approach because it provides an easily interpretable visual representation of both species richness and abundance relationships and may be further utilized to emphasize categories of plants that are over‐ or under‐represented in rehabilitated areas. This will assist in the post‐rehabilitation management of these sites.

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The effect of burning, soil scarification and seeding on the understorey composition of 12 year-old rehabilitated bauxite mines in Western Australia

Cited by 15 publications

References 21 publications

Effect of fire on the topsoil seed banks of rehabilitated bauxite mine sites in the jarrah forest of Western Australia

Effect of fire on the topsoil seed banks of rehabilitated bauxite mine sites in the jarrah forest of Western Australia

Succession in Bird and Plant Communities over a 24-Year Chronosequence of Mine Rehabilitation in the Australian Monsoon Tropics

Using Dominance‐Diversity Curves to Assess Completion Criteria After Bauxite Mining Rehabilitation in Western Australia

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