Variation in Eucalyptus delegatensis post-fire recovery strategies: The Tasmanian subspecies is a resprouter whereas the mainland Australian subspecies is an obligate seeder

Rodriguez-Cubillo, Dario; Prior, Lynda D.; Bowman, David M. J. S.

doi:10.1016/j.foreco.2020.118292

Cited by 10 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 84 publications

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“…For example, Eucalyptus obliqua is a resprouting species, except for in wetter sites where it behaves as a fire‐intolerant species, possibly due to hybridization with the thinner barked Eucalyptus regnans (Ashton & Chappill, 1989; Moore, 2015). Conversely, Eucalyptus delegatensis is predominately an obligate seeding species, but a resprouting sub‐species is found in drier areas (Rodriguez‐Cubillo, Prior, & Bowman, 2020). Other types of stress may also influence resprouting capacity.…”

Section: Conclusion – Where To From Here?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Limits to post‐fire vegetation recovery under climate change

Nolan

Collins

Leigh

et al. 2021

Plant Cell & Environment

147

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Record-breaking fire seasons in many regions across the globe raise important questions about plant community responses to shifting fire regimes (i.e., changing fire frequency, severity and seasonality). Here, we examine the impacts of climate-driven shifts in fire regimes on vegetation communities, and likely responses to fire coinciding with severe drought, heatwaves and/or insect outbreaks. We present scenariobased conceptual models on how overlapping disturbance events and shifting fire regimes interact differently to limit post-fire resprouting and recruitment capacity.We demonstrate that, although many communities will remain resilient to changing fire regimes in the short-term, longer-term changes to vegetation structure, demography and species composition are likely, with a range of subsequent effects on ecosystem function. Resprouting species are likely to be most resilient to changing fire regimes. However, even these species are susceptible if exposed to repeated shortinterval fire in combination with other stressors. Post-fire recruitment is highly vulnerable to increased fire frequency, particularly as climatic limitations on propagule availability intensify. Prediction of community responses to fire under climate change will be greatly improved by addressing knowledge gaps on how overlapping disturbances and climate change-induced shifts in fire regime affect post-fire resprouting, recruitment, growth rates, and species-level adaptation capacity.

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Section: Conclusion – Where To From Here?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Limits to post‐fire vegetation recovery under climate change

Nolan

Collins

Leigh

et al. 2021

Plant Cell & Environment

147

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“…Individual fires in TWEF contain a patchy mosaic of low-and highseverity fire activity, even after extreme events (Cruz et al, 2012;Ndalila et al, 2018;Rodriguez-Cubillo et al, 2020), which matches fire mosaic patterns in mixed conifer forests of the northwest USA (Perry et al, 2011). Furthermore, TWEF are characterised by multiaged forest structures across their range (Ashton, 2000;Bowman & Kirkpatrick, 1986;Bradshaw & Rayner, 1997;Lindenmayer et al, 2000;, as dominant Eucalyptus species can survive high-intensity fire (Collins, 2020) or regenerate after high-or low-severity fire (Ashton, 1976;Wardell-Johnson, 2000).…”

Section: Mixed-severity Fire Regimesmentioning

confidence: 75%

“…TWEF contain a mix of Eucalyptus overstorey species with traits likely to be selected for by both low‐severity fire (thick bark; Lawes et al., 2013; Ondei et al., 2016; Waters et al., 2010), and high‐severity fire (epicormic resprouting and obligate seeding; Burrows, 2013; Crisp et al., 2011; Nicolle, 2006; Waters et al., 2010), which are characteristics shared by a number of North American conifer species that experience mixed‐severity fire regimes (Poulos et al., 2018; Roy, 1966; Stuart & Scott, 2006). Individual fires in TWEF contain a patchy mosaic of low‐ and high‐severity fire activity, even after extreme events (Cruz et al., 2012; Ndalila et al., 2018; Rodriguez‐Cubillo et al., 2020), which matches fire mosaic patterns in mixed conifer forests of the northwest USA (Perry et al., 2011). Furthermore, TWEF are characterised by multi‐aged forest structures across their range (Ashton, 2000; Bowman & Kirkpatrick, 1986; Bradshaw & Rayner, 1997; Lindenmayer et al., 2000; Turner et al., 2009), as dominant Eucalyptus species can survive high‐intensity fire (Collins, 2020) or regenerate after high‐ or low‐severity fire (Ashton, 1976; Wardell‐Johnson, 2000).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 85%

“…Our empirical measurements also indicate that these forests were dry enough to burn much more between 2014 and 2016 than between 1960 and 2011 (Figure 3h). We are confident this difference is not an artefact of the different sources of climate data, as evidenced by our supplementary analysis and bias correction (see Figure S1), rather it most likely reflects a prolonged, severe drought across Australia, which preceded extensive fires in Tasmania and Victoria in 2016 (Bowman et al, 2019;Inspector-General for Emergency Management, 2016;Rodriguez-Cubillo et al, 2020), and possibly a changing climate (Nolan et al, 2016). We acknowledge that FMI calculations based on temperature and humidity measured in the understorey microclimate are less precise than measurements in the litter pack (Nyman et al, 2015), but we offset the loss of precision by taking a greater number of within and between site measurements than other fuel moisture studies in TWEF (Figure 3; Burton et al, 2019;Cawson et al, 2017;Nyman et al, 2015).…”

Section: Fuel Availabilitymentioning

confidence: 84%

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Bioclimatic drivers of fire severity across the Australian geographical range of giantEucalyptusforests

et al. 2021

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1. The relationships between productivity, fire frequency and fire severity shape the distribution of plant communities globally. Dry forests are expected to burn frequently and wet forests to burn infrequently. However, the effect of productivity on intensity and severity of wildfire is less consistent and poorly understood.One productive ecosystem where this is especially true is the Australian tall wet Eucalyptus-dominated forest (TWEF), which spans wet areas across the continent.This study aims to characterise how climate shapes the likelihood of low-and high-severity wildfire across Australian TWEF.2. We performed a continental-scale analysis of fuels in 48 permanent plots in earlymature stage TWEF across four climate regions in Australia. We estimated fuel loads and measured understorey microclimate. We then obtained historical fireweather observations from nearby meteorological stations and used fuel moisture and fire behaviour equations to predict the historical frequency with which TWEF could burn and what fire severities were expected. We investigated how this varies across the different TWEF climate regions. Lastly, we validated our approach by remeasuring eight plots that burned unexpectedly post-measurement.3. We found that surface fuels in cooler, moister regions were available to burn 1-16 days per year historically, with only low-severity, surface fire possible most of these days: high-severity fire was only possible under rare, extreme fire-weather conditions. However, in warmer, drier regions, fuels were available to burn 23-35 days annually, and high-severity fire was more likely than low-severity fire.Validation showed that we slightly overestimated flame heights, inflating highseverity risk estimates. If we used elevated fuel loads to predict flame heights, however, high-severity fire was more likely than low-severity fire everywhere.Lastly, the likelihood of high-severity fire increased with increasing temperature and worsening fire weather. Synthesis.Fire activity in early-mature TWEF is limited by climatic constraints on fire weather and availability to burn, with high-severity fire more likely in warmer, drier regions than in cooler, wetter ones. This indicates a particularly worrisome vulnerability to climate change, given TWEF's diminished ability to recover from disturbance in a warmer world. The occurrence of both low-and high-severity fire means the fire regimes of TWEF are best described as mixed severity.

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“…Previous fire research in alpine ash forests has focussed on empirical investigations of seed dispersal after fire (Morgan et al., 2017), effects of fire severity and wildfire interval on regeneration and fuel characteristics (Bowman et al, 2014; Rodriguez‐Cubillo et al., 2020; Gale & Cary, 2021), vegetation structure and fauna (O'Loughlin et al., 2020) and post‐fire management (Bassett et al., 2015; Bowman & Kirkpatrick, 1986; Fagg et al., 2013; Grose, 1960). Although some work has considered the direct effects of climate change on the survival of alpine ash (Morgan et al., 2017), no studies have used a multidecadal landscape fire simulation framework to examine effects of changing fire regimes with changing climates on the persistence of alpine ash, despite the acknowledged threat posed by more frequent and severe wildfires (Morgan et al., 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Future fire regimes increase risks to obligate‐seeder forests

McColl‐Gausden

Bennett

Ababei

et al. 2021

Diversity and Distributions

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Aim Many species are adapted to a particular fire regime and major deviations from that regime may lead to localized extinction. Here, we quantify immaturity risks to an obligate‐seeder forest tree using an objectively designed climate model ensemble and a probabilistic fire regime simulator to predict future fire regimes. Location Alpine ash (Eucalyptus delegatensis) distribution, Victoria, south‐eastern Australia. Methods We used a fire regime model (FROST) with six climate projections from a climate model ensemble across 3.7 million hectares of native forest and non‐native vegetation to examine immaturity risks to obligate‐seeder forests dominated by alpine ash (Eucalyptus delegatensis), which has a primary juvenile period of approximately 20 years. Our models incorporated current and future projected climate including fuel feedbacks to simulate fire regimes over 100 years. We then used Random Forest modelling to evaluate which spatial characteristics of the landscape were associated with high immaturity risks to alpine ash forest patches. Results Significant shifts to the fire regime were predicted under all six future climate projections. Increases in both wildfire extent (total area burnt, area burnt at high intensity) and frequency were predicted with an average increase of up to 110 hectares burnt annually by short‐interval fires (i.e., within the expected minimum time to reproductive maturity). The immaturity risk posed by short‐interval fires to alpine ash forest patches was well explained by Random Forest models and varied with both location and environmental variables. Main conclusions Alpine ash forests are predicted to be burned at greater intensities and shorter intervals under future fire regimes. About 67% of the current alpine ash distribution was predicted to be at some level of immaturity risk over the 100‐year modelling period, with the greatest risks to those patches located on the periphery of the current distribution, closer to roads or surrounded by a drier landscape at lower elevations.

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Variation in Eucalyptus delegatensis post-fire recovery strategies: The Tasmanian subspecies is a resprouter whereas the mainland Australian subspecies is an obligate seeder

Cited by 10 publications

References 84 publications

Limits to post‐fire vegetation recovery under climate change

Limits to post‐fire vegetation recovery under climate change

Bioclimatic drivers of fire severity across the Australian geographical range of giantEucalyptusforests

Future fire regimes increase risks to obligate‐seeder forests

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