ORCID Profile
0000-0001-6362-4572
Current Organisation
Western Sydney University
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Research Topics
In Research Link Australia (RLA), "Research Topics" refer to ANZSRC FOR and SEO codes. These topics are either sourced from ANZSRC FOR and SEO codes listed in researchers' related grants or generated by a large language model (LLM) based on their publications.
Top 5 Research Topics
ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)
Ecological Applications | Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing | Terrestrial Ecology | Simulation and Modelling | Ecological Impacts of Climate Change | Ecosystem Function | Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience | Natural Resource Management | Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience not elsewhere classified | Pattern Recognition and Data Mining | Ecological Physiology
ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)
Effects of Climate Change and Variability on Australia (excl. Social Impacts) | Natural Hazards in Forest and Woodlands Environments | Ecosystem Adaptation to Climate Change | Ecosystem Assessment and Management of Forest and Woodlands Environments | Environmentally Sustainable Plant Production not elsewhere classified | Expanding Knowledge in the Environmental Sciences | Expanding Knowledge in the Information and Computing Sciences |
Related Links
Publications
Remarkable Resilience of Forest Structure and Biodiversity Following Fire in the Peri-Urban Bushland of Sydney, Australia
Publisher: MDPI AG
Date: 16-06-2022
DOI: 10.3390/CLI10060086
Abstract: In rapidly urbanizing areas, natural vegetation becomes fragmented, making conservation planning challenging, particularly as climate change accelerates fire risk. We studied urban forest fragments in two threatened eucalypt-dominated (scribbly gum woodland, SGW, and ironbark forest, IF) communities across ~2000 ha near Sydney, Australia, to evaluate effects of fire frequency (0–4 in last 25 years) and time since fire (0.5 to years) on canopy structure, habitat quality and bio ersity (e.g., species richness). Airborne lidar was used to assess canopy height and density, and ground-based surveys of 148 (400 m2) plots measured leaf area index (LAI), plant species composition and habitat metrics such as litter cover and hollow-bearing trees. LAI, canopy density, litter, and microbiotic soil crust increased with time since fire in both communities, while tree and mistletoe cover increased in IF. Unexpectedly, plant species richness increased with fire frequency, owing to increased shrub richness which offset decreased tree richness in both communities. These findings indicate bio ersity and canopy structure are generally resilient to a range of times since fire and fire frequencies across this study area. Nevertheless, reduced arboreal habitat quality and subtle shifts in community composition of resprouters and obligate seeders signal early concern for a scenario of increasing fire frequency under climate change. Ongoing assessment of fire responses is needed to ensure that bio ersity, canopy structure and ecosystem function are maintained in the remaining fragments of urban forests under future climate change which will likely drive hotter and more frequent fires.
Global application of an unoccupied aerial vehicle photogrammetry protocol for predicting aboveground biomass in non‐forest ecosystems
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 07-07-2021
DOI: 10.1002/RSE2.228
Abstract: Non‐forest ecosystems, dominated by shrubs, grasses and herbaceous plants, provide ecosystem services including carbon sequestration and forage for grazing, and are highly sensitive to climatic changes. Yet these ecosystems are poorly represented in remotely sensed biomass products and are unders led by in situ monitoring. Current global change threats emphasize the need for new tools to capture biomass change in non‐forest ecosystems at appropriate scales. Here we developed and deployed a new protocol for photogrammetric height using unoccupied aerial vehicle (UAV) images to test its capability for delivering standardized measurements of biomass across a globally distributed field experiment. We assessed whether canopy height inferred from UAV photogrammetry allows the prediction of aboveground biomass (AGB) across low‐stature plant species by conducting 38 photogrammetric surveys over 741 harvested plots to s le 50 species. We found mean canopy height was strongly predictive of AGB across species, with a median adjusted R 2 of 0.87 (ranging from 0.46 to 0.99) and median prediction error from leave‐one‐out cross‐validation of 3.9%. Biomass per‐unit‐of‐height was similar within but different among, plant functional types. We found that photogrammetric reconstructions of canopy height were sensitive to wind speed but not sun elevation during surveys. We demonstrated that our photogrammetric approach produced generalizable measurements across growth forms and environmental settings and yielded accuracies as good as those obtained from in situ approaches. We demonstrate that using a standardized approach for UAV photogrammetry can deliver accurate AGB estimates across a wide range of dynamic and heterogeneous ecosystems. Many academic and land management institutions have the technical capacity to deploy these approaches over extents of 1–10 ha −1 . Photogrammetric approaches could provide much‐needed information required to calibrate and validate the vegetation models and satellite‐derived biomass products that are essential to understand vulnerable and understudied non‐forested ecosystems around the globe.
The carbon cost of the 2019–20 Australian fires varies with fire severity and forest type
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 28-05-2022
DOI: 10.1111/GEB.13548
Abstract: To estimate loss of above‐ground carbon (AGC) and conversion of live carbon to dead carbon following understorey and canopy fire. South‐eastern Australia. 2019–2020. Four widespread resprouting eucalypt forests. Above‐ground carbon was measured in 15 plots in each of four forest types one‐year post‐fire. We also assessed topkill, that is, trees subject to canopy loss that failed to resprout epicormically. While canopy fire was associated with greater declines in AGC than understorey fire, this was only statistically significant for only one forest type, where AGC declined from 154 to 85 Mg C ha −1 following canopy fire. Significant post‐fire increases in dead AGC were observed in one forest type, where dead carbon increased from 22 to 60% after canopy fire. Topkill of trees following canopy fire (48–78% of stems) was higher than topkill after understorey fire (36–53% of stems) and in unburnt forest (12–55%). Topkill occurred primarily in small‐diameter stems. Consequently, there was no effect of fire on the proportion of dead AGC in trees, with the exception of the forest with lowest productivity (i.e., lowest biomass) and lowest annual rainfall, where dead tree carbon increased from 8% in unburnt forest to 13 and 53% after understorey and canopy fire, respectively. AGC in understorey vegetation and coarse woody debris was similar or lower in burnt compared with unburnt forest. Litter carbon was significantly lower and pyrogenic carbon significantly higher in burnt forest, with no difference between understorey and canopy fire. While increased fire severity was associated with increased changes to carbon stocks, there were differences among forest types. Specifically, the driest forest type had the highest rates of topkill following canopy fire. These results highlight the importance of spatial variability in fire severity and forest type in determining the effects of fire on carbon stocks.
Understorey productivity in temperate grassy woodland responds to soil water availability but not to elevated [CO2 ]
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 14-02-2018
DOI: 10.1111/GCB.14038
Abstract: Rising atmospheric [CO
Predicting potential vegetation index values as a reference for the assessment and monitoring of dryland condition
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 2003
Dendroecological potential of Callitris preissii for dating historical fires in semi-arid shrublands of southern Western Australia
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2010
Spatial scale invariance of southern Australian forest fires mirrors the scaling behaviour of fire-driving weather events
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 03-09-2008
Effects of spatially structured vegetation patterns on hillslope erosion in a semiarid Mediterranean environment: A simulation study
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 02-2005
DOI: 10.1002/ESP.1180
The PESERA coarse scale erosion model for Europe. I. - Model rationale and implementation
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 19-11-2008
Climate succession: a framework for predicting vegetation dynamics driven by climate change
Publisher: Copernicus GmbH
Date: 15-05-2023
DOI: 10.5194/EGUSPHERE-EGU23-11134
Abstract: Climate change, driven by rising atmospheric CO2 concentrations, is well under way, and we are already starting to see significant shifts in the function and distribution of vegetation as a result. Dynamic vegetation models, the main platform used to predict the likely magnitude, rate and nature of these shifts, were originally rooted in theories of successional dynamics following disturbance. A key question for these models is how well they can capture vegetation responses to climatic change, which includes both press and pulse disturbances. Here we develop a general framework for representing climate-driven successional dynamics in vegetation models. The framework is illustrated with a series of case studies from Australia of vegetation responses to the major global change drivers of rising CO2, warming, drought and fire. The Australian environment, intrinsically characterized by high climate variability, has experienced increasingly challenging climate extremes in recent years and thus provides an excellent testbed for predictive models.
A continental-scale assessment of variability in leaf traits: Within species, across sites and between seasons
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 06-04-2018
Supplementary material to "A hydroclimatic model for the distribution of fire on Earth"
Publisher: Copernicus GmbH
Date: 25-11-2019
Assessment of dryland condition using spatial anomalies of vegetation index values
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 20-09-2005
A hydroclimatic model for the distribution of fire on Earth
Publisher: IOP Publishing
Date: 03-2021
Abstract: The distribution of fire on Earth has been monitored from space for several decades, yet the geography of global fire regimes has proven difficult to reproduce from interactions of climate, vegetation, terrain, land use and other human activities by empirical and process-based fire models. Here, we propose a simple, yet robust, model for the global distribution of fire potential based on fundamental biophysical constraints controlling fire activity in all biomes. In our ‘top-down’ approach we ignored the dynamics of in idual fires and focus on capturing hydroclimatic constraints on the production and (seasonal) desiccation of fuels to predict the potential mean annual fractional burned area at 0.25° spatial resolution, here estimated by the 0.99 quantile of the observed mean annual fractional burned area ( F 0.99 ) over the 1995-2016 period of the Global Fire Emissions Database (GFED4). We show that 80% of the global variation in F 0.99 can be explained from a combination of mean annual precipitation and potential evapotranspiration. The proposed hydroclimatic model reproduced observed 0.99 quantile fire activity levels equally well across all biomes and provided the first objective underpinning for the dichotomy of global fire regimes in two domains characterised by either fuel production limitations on fire or fuel dryness limitations on fire. A sharp transition between the two climate-fire domains was found to occur at a mean annual aridity index of 1.9 (1.94 ± 0.02). Our model provides a simple but comprehensive basis for predicting fire potential under current and future climates, as well as an overarching framework for estimating effects of human activity via ignition regimes and manipulation of vegetation.
Changes in the resilience of resprouting juvenile tree populations in temperate forests due to coupled severe drought and fire
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 25-06-2022
DOI: 10.1007/S11258-022-01249-2
Abstract: Elevated tree mortality and reduced recruitment of new trees linked to drought and fires has been reported across a range of forests over the last few decades. Forests that resprout new foliage epicormically from buds beneath the bark are considered highly resilient to disturbance, but are potentially at risk of elevated mortality, demographic shifts and changes to species composition due to synergistic effects of drought and fire. Despite this, the effects of drought-fire interactions on such forests remain largely unknown. We assessed the effects of drought severity and fire frequency on juvenile mortality, post-fire seedling recruitment and replacement of juvenile trees (balance of recruitment minus mortality) following fire. We compared dry ridgetops and wet gullies (i.e. two forest types that inhabit different topographic positions in the landscape) across a temperate forest in southern Australia. Both forest types experienced higher rates of fire-induced juvenile mortality in areas that had experienced severe drought compared to moderate drought, though mortality rates were generally low across all drought and fire combinations (e.g. 15%). This result indicated that topographic position did little to reduce juvenile mortality when exposed to severe drought plus fire. In wet forest, severe drought also reduced recruitment and replacement of dead juveniles by post-fire seedlings compared to moderate drought. In dry forest net-negative replacement increased with the severity of drought. Across both forest types, the total pool of juveniles was reduced under severe drought (by 16–79 in DSF 5–11 in WSF). Future increases in the frequency of coupled severe drought and fire could potentially increase the susceptibility of resilient temperate forests to major changes in structure and function.
A semi-mechanistic model for predicting daily variations in species-level live fuel moisture content
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-2022
Challenges, solutions and research priorities for sustainable rangelands
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 2020
DOI: 10.1071/RJ20059
Abstract: Australia’s rangeland communities, industries, and environment are under increasing pressures from anthropogenic activities and global changes more broadly. We conducted a horizon scan to identify and prioritise key challenges facing Australian rangelands and their communities, and outline possible avenues to address these challenges, with a particular focus on research priorities. We surveyed participants of the Australian Rangeland Society 20th Biennial Conference, held in Canberra in September 2019, before the conference and in interactive workshops during the conference, in order to identify key challenges, potential solutions, and research priorities. The feedback was broadly grouped into six themes associated with supporting local communities, managing natural capital, climate variability and change, traditional knowledge, governance, and research and development. Each theme had several sub-themes and potential solutions to ensure positive, long-term outcomes for the rangelands. The survey responses made it clear that supporting ‘resilient and sustainable rangelands that provide cultural, societal, environmental and economic outcomes simultaneously’ is of great value to stakeholders. The synthesis of survey responses combined with expert knowledge highlighted that sustaining local communities in the long term will require that the inherent social, cultural and natural capital of rangelands are managed sustainably, particularly in light of current and projected variability in climate. Establishment of guidelines and approaches to address these challenges will benefit from: (i) an increased recognition of the value and contributions of traditional knowledge and practices (ii) development of better governance that is guided by and benefits local stakeholders and (iii) more funding to conduct and implement strong research and development activities, with research focused on addressing critical knowledge gaps as identified by the local stakeholders. This requires strong governance with legislation and policies that work for the rangelands. We provide a framework that indicates the key knowledge gaps and how innovations may be implemented and scaled out, up and deep to achieve the resilience of Australia’s rangelands. The same principles could be adapted to address challenges in rangelands on other continents, with similar beneficial outcomes.
Differential responses of hillslope and channel elements to rainfall events in a semi-arid area
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 06-1998
AC1_Response_to_RC1
Publisher: Copernicus GmbH
Date: 16-04-2020
AC2_Response_to_RC2
Publisher: Copernicus GmbH
Date: 16-04-2020
Fire activity as measured by burned area reveals weak effects of ENSO in China
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 28-07-2022
A broader perspective on the causes and consequences of eastern Australia's 2019–20 season of mega-fires: A response to Adams et al
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 28-05-2020
DOI: 10.1111/GCB.15111
Predicting dead fine fuel moisture at regional scales using vapour pressure deficit from MODIS and gridded weather data
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 03-2016
A semi-mechanistic model for predicting the moisture content of fine litter
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2015
Climatic anomalies drive wildfire occurrence and extent in semi-arid shrublands and woodlands of southwest Australia
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 11-2011
DOI: 10.1890/ES11-00189.1
Connections of climate change and variability to large and extreme forest fires in southeast Australia
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 07-01-2021
DOI: 10.1038/S43247-020-00065-8
Abstract: The 2019/20 Black Summer bushfire disaster in southeast Australia was unprecedented: the extensive area of forest burnt, the radiative power of the fires, and the extraordinary number of fires that developed into extreme pyroconvective events were all unmatched in the historical record. Australia’s hottest and driest year on record, 2019, was characterised by exceptionally dry fuel loads that primed the landscape to burn when exposed to dangerous fire weather and ignition. The combination of climate variability and long-term climate trends generated the climate extremes experienced in 2019, and the compounding effects of two or more modes of climate variability in their fire-promoting phases (as occurred in 2019) has historically increased the chances of large forest fires occurring in southeast Australia. Palaeoclimate evidence also demonstrates that fire-promoting phases of tropical Pacific and Indian ocean variability are now unusually frequent compared with natural variability in pre-industrial times. Indicators of forest fire danger in southeast Australia have already emerged outside of the range of historical experience, suggesting that projections made more than a decade ago that increases in climate-driven fire risk would be detectable by 2020, have indeed eventuated. The multiple climate change contributors to fire risk in southeast Australia, as well as the observed non-linear escalation of fire extent and intensity, raise the likelihood that fire events may continue to rapidly intensify in the future. Improving local and national adaptation measures while also pursuing ambitious global climate change mitigation efforts would provide the best strategy for limiting further increases in fire risk in southeast Australia.
Cost-Effective Prescribed Burning Solutions Vary Between Landscapes in Eastern Australia
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 10-07-2020
Causes and consequences of eastern Australia's 2019–20 season of mega‐fires
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 22-01-2020
DOI: 10.1111/GCB.14987
Abstract: See Letter to the Editor on this article by Adam et al ., 26, 3756–3758 . See also Response to the Letter by Bradstock et al ., 26, e8–e9 .
Termite sensitivity to temperature affects global wood decay rates
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Date: 28-09-2022
Abstract: Deadwood is a large global carbon store with its store size partially determined by biotic decay. Microbial wood decay rates are known to respond to changing temperature and precipitation. Termites are also important decomposers in the tropics but are less well studied. An understanding of their climate sensitivities is needed to estimate climate change effects on wood carbon pools. Using data from 133 sites spanning six continents, we found that termite wood discovery and consumption were highly sensitive to temperature (with decay increasing .8 times per 10°C increase in temperature)—even more so than microbes. Termite decay effects were greatest in tropical seasonal forests, tropical savannas, and subtropical deserts. With tropicalization (i.e., warming shifts to tropical climates), termite wood decay will likely increase as termites access more of Earth’s surface.
Divergent responses of fire to recent warming and drying across south-eastern Australia
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 28-03-2014
DOI: 10.1111/GCB.12449
Abstract: The response of fire to climate change may vary across fuel types characteristic of differing vegetation types (i.e. litter vs. grass). Models of fire under climatic change capture these differing potential responses to varying degrees. Across south-eastern Australia, an elevation in the severity of weather conditions conducive to fire has been measured in recent decades. We examined trends in area burned (1975-2009) to determine if a corresponding increase in fire had occurred across the erse range of ecosystems found in this part of the continent. We predicted that an increase in fire, due to climatic warming and drying, was more likely to have occurred in moist, temperate forests near the coast than in arid and semiarid woodlands of the interior, due to inherent contrasts in the respective dominant fuel types (woody litter vs. herbaceous fuels). Significant warming (i.e. increased temperature and number of hot days) and drying (i.e. negative precipitation anomaly, number of days with low humidity) occurred across most of the 32 Bioregions examined. The results were mostly consistent with predictions, with an increase in area burned in seven of eight forest Bioregions, whereas area burned either declined (two) or did not change significantly (nine) in drier woodland Bioregions. In 12 woodland Bioregions, data were insufficient for analysis of temporal trends in fire. Increases in fire attributable mostly to warming or drying were confined to three Bioregions. In the remainder, such increases were mostly unrelated to warming or drying trends and therefore may be due to other climate effects not explored (e.g. lightning ignitions) or possible anthropogenic influences. Projections of future fire must therefore not only account for responses of different fuel systems to climatic change but also the wider range of ecological and human effects on interactions between fire and vegetation.
Future changes in climatic water balance determine potential for transformational shifts in Australian fire regimes
Publisher: IOP Publishing
Date: 06-2016
The Proximal Drivers of Large Fires: A Pyrogeographic Study
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 03-04-2020
Hydraulic failure and tree size linked with canopy die‐back in eucalypt forest during extreme drought
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 03-04-2021
DOI: 10.1111/NPH.17298
Abstract: Eastern Australia was subject to its hottest and driest year on record in 2019. This extreme drought resulted in massive canopy die‐back in eucalypt forests. The role of hydraulic failure and tree size on canopy die‐back in three eucalypt tree species during this drought was examined. We measured pre‐dawn and midday leaf water potential (Ψ leaf ), per cent loss of stem hydraulic conductivity and quantified hydraulic vulnerability to drought‐induced xylem embolism. Tree size and tree health was also surveyed. Trees with most, or all, of their foliage dead exhibited high rates of native embolism (78–100%). This is in contrast to trees with partial canopy die‐back (30–70% canopy die‐back: 72–78% native embolism), or relatively healthy trees (little evidence of canopy die‐back: 25–31% native embolism). Midday Ψ leaf was significantly more negative in trees exhibiting partial canopy die‐back (−2.7 to −6.3 MPa), compared with relatively healthy trees (−2.1 to −4.5 MPa). In two of the species the majority of in iduals showing complete canopy die‐back were in the small size classes. Our results indicate that hydraulic failure is strongly associated with canopy die‐back during drought in eucalypt forests. Our study provides valuable field data to help constrain models predicting mortality risk.
Brave new green world - Consequences of a carbon economy for the conservation of Australian biodiversity
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 05-2013
Mapping soil depth classes in dry Mediterranean areas using terrain attributes derived from a digital elevation model
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 07-1996
Author Correction: Globe-LFMC, a global plant water status database for vegetation ecophysiology and wildfire applications
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 29-11-2019
DOI: 10.1038/S41597-019-0315-Z
Abstract: An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.
Drone‐based thermal remote sensing provides an effective new tool for monitoring the abundance of roosting fruit bats
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 09-04-2021
DOI: 10.1002/RSE2.202
Abstract: Accurate and precise monitoring of species abundance is essential for determining population trends and responses to environmental change. However, traditional population survey methods can be unreliable and labour‐intensive, which complicates the effective conservation and management of many threatened species. We developed a method of using drone‐acquired thermal orthomosaics to monitor the abundance of grey‐headed flying‐foxes ( Pteropus poliocephalus ) within tree roosts, an IUCN Red Listed species of bat. We assessed the accuracy and precision of this new method and evaluated the performance of four semi‐automated methods for counting flying‐foxes in thermal orthomosaics, including machine learning and Computer Vision (CV) methods. We found a high concordance between the number of flying‐foxes manually counted in drone‐acquired thermal imagery and the true abundance of flying‐foxes in single roost trees, as obtained from direct on‐ground observation. This indicated that the number of flying‐foxes observed in thermal imagery accurately reflected the true abundance of flying‐foxes. In addition, for thermal orthomosaics of whole roost sites, the number of flying‐foxes manually counted was highly repeatable between the same‐day drone surveys and human counters, indicating that this method produced highly precise abundance estimates independent of the identity/experience of human counters. Finally, the number of flying‐foxes manually counted in drone‐acquired thermal orthomosaics was highly concordant with the counts derived from CV and machine learning‐enabled classification techniques. This indicated that accurate and precise measures of colony abundance can be obtained semi‐automatically, thus greatly reducing the amount of human effort involved for obtaining abundance estimates. Our method is thus valuable for reliably monitoring the abundance of in iduals in flying‐fox roosts and will aid in the conservation and management of this globally threatened group of flying‐mammals, as well as other homeothermic arboreal‐roosting species.
Biogeographical variation in the potential effectiveness of prescribed fire in south-eastern Australia
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 02-09-2015
DOI: 10.1111/JBI.12579
The 2019/20 eastern Australian mega forest fires - a global forest perspective
Publisher: Copernicus GmbH
Date: 23-03-2020
DOI: 10.5194/EGUSPHERE-EGU2020-15693
Abstract: & & The 2019/20 forest fires in eastern Australia burned over 5.8 million hectares of mainly temperate broadleaf forest between September 2019 and January 2020. This burned area figure is expected to rise over the remainder of the austral summer, but is already an order of magnitude larger than the mean annual burned area for Australian forest fires over the last 20 years, which is ~0.59 Mha per year. Here we show that this forest fire event is of a record-breaking scale, both nationally and globally, and was pre-conditioned by wide-spread prolonged drought and extreme heat.& & & & We analysed global remotely sensed burned area data for 2000-2019 to estimate annual burned area fractions of all continental forest biomes. The annual burned area fraction, which is related to the length of fire intervals and other aspects of fire regimes, allows us to compare levels of fire activity across different forest biomes and continents.& & & & Though very large fires occur in some forest biomes, such as the boreal forests of North-America and Asia, over the 20 years covered by our data set, annual burned area fractions have been very small (& .03) for nearly all continental forest biomes including Australia& #8217 s temperate broadleaf forest biome. These findings provide a global historical reference for the interpretation of the scale of the 2019/20 eastern Australian mega forest fires.& & & & With fire activity in all forest biomes strongly constrained by the moisture content of the fuels, explanations for the unconstrained burning of millions of hectares of temperate broadleaf forest in a single season must be sought in the extreme drought that has affected eastern Australia for the last two years. We use gridded daily soil moisture predictions for the continent to show how widespread and prolonged dryness set the stage for the unprecedented forest fire event of 2019/20.& &
Growth enhancements of elevated atmospheric [CO2] are reduced under drought‐like conditions in temperate eucalypts
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 21-04-2022
Abstract: Elevated atmospheric [CO 2 ] (‘eCO 2 ’) may alter species composition within vegetation types by favouring the growth of some species over others. However, other related changes in climate conditions, such as increased frequency and severity of drought, may reduce eCO 2 fertilisation effects on plant growth. For many species, it is not known if responses will reflect variability in trait adaptations due to environment. We grew seedlings of nine species of eucalypts indicative of three regional vegetation types (representing a mesic–xeric ecosystem gradient) under two CO 2 concentrations (400 parts per million 640 ppm, i.e. eCO 2 ) and two watering regimes (well‐watered drought‐like conditions). Elevated CO 2 increased biomass accumulation but drought reduced this effect, with mesic species experiencing larger relative reductions. Elevated CO 2 increased the size of storage organs used during resprouting, in the absence of drought. Typical drought responses, such as increased leaf mass per unit area and root mass ratio, were more pronounced in xeric species and were reduced under eCO 2 . Seedling growth and resprouting may be enhanced by eCO 2 , suggesting continued dominance of resprouting species in disturbance‐prone ecosystems, although severe drought is likely to offset eCO 2 fertilisation. Xeric species may cope with drought more effectively under eCO 2 than mesic species due to resource acquisition and storage traits that are more responsive. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.
Temperature sensitivity of termites determines global wood decay rates
Publisher: Research Square Platform LLC
Date: 11-01-2022
DOI: 10.21203/RS.3.RS-1242094/V1
Abstract: Animals, such as termites, have largely been overlooked as global-scale drivers of biogeochemical cycles 1,2 , despite site-specific findings 3,4 . Deadwood turnover, an important component of the carbon cycle, is driven by multiple decay agents. Studies have focused on temperate systems 5,6 , where microbes dominate decay 7 . Microbial decay is sensitive to temperature, typically doubling per 10°C increase (decay effective Q 10 = ~2) 8–10 . Termites are important decayers in tropical systems 3,11–13 and differ from microbes in their population dynamics, dispersal, and substrate discovery 14–16 , meaning their climate sensitivities also differ. Using a network of 133 sites spanning 6 continents, we report the first global field-based quantification of temperature and precipitation sensitivities for termites and microbes, providing novel understandings of their response to changing climates. Temperature sensitivity of microbial decay was within previous estimates. Termite discovery and consumption were both much more sensitive to temperature (decay effective Q 10 = 6.53), leading to striking differences in deadwood turnover in areas with and without termites. Termite impacts were greatest in tropical seasonal forests and savannas and subtropical deserts. With tropicalization 17 (i.e., warming shifts to a tropical climate), the termite contribution to global wood decay will increase as more of the earth’s surface becomes accessible to termites.
Climate change effects on the frequency, seasonality and interannual variability of suitable prescribed burning weather conditions in south-eastern Australia
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 06-2019
A hydroclimatic model for the distribution of fire on Earth
Publisher: Copernicus GmbH
Date: 25-11-2019
DOI: 10.5194/BG-2019-441
Abstract: Abstract. The distribution of fire on Earth has been monitored from space for several decades, yet the geography of global fire regimes has proven difficult to reproduce from interactions of climate, vegetation, terrain and land use by empirical and process-based fire models. Here, we propose a simple, yet robust, model for global fire potential based on fundamental biophysical constraints controlling fire activity in all biomes. In our top-down approach we ignored the dynamics of in idual fires and focus on capturing hydroclimatic constraints on the production and (seasonal) desiccation of fuels to predict the potential mean annual fractional burned area, here estimated by the 0.99 percentile of the observed mean annual fractional burned area (F0.99). We show that 80 % of the global variation in F0.99 can be explained from a combination of mean annual precipitation and potential evapotranspiration. The proposed hydroclimatic model reproduced observed fire activity levels equally well across all biomes and provided the first objective underpinning for the dichotomy of global fire regimes in two domains characterised by either fuel production limitations on fire or fuel dryness limitations on fire. A sharp transition between the two climate-fire domains was found to occur at a mean annual aridity index of 1.9 (1.94 ± 0.02). Our model provides a simple but comprehensive basis for predicting fire potential under current and future climates, as well as an overarching framework for estimating effects of human activity via ignition regimes and manipulation of vegetation.
Can UAV-Based Infrared Thermography Be Used to Study Plant-Parasite Interactions between Mistletoe and Eucalypt Trees?
Publisher: MDPI AG
Date: 19-12-2018
DOI: 10.3390/RS10122062
Abstract: Some of the remnants of the Cumberland Plain woodland, an endangered dry sclerophyllous forest type of New South Wales, Australia, host large populations of mistletoe. In this study, the extent of mistletoe infection was investigated based on a forest inventory. We found that the mistletoe infection rate was relatively high, with 69% of the Eucalyptus fibrosa and 75% of the E. moluccana trees being infected. Next, to study the potential consequences of the infection for the trees, canopy temperatures of mistletoe plants and of infected and uninfected trees were analyzed using thermal imagery acquired during 10 flights with an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in two consecutive summer seasons. Throughout all flight c aigns, mistletoe canopy temperature was 0.3–2 K lower than the temperature of the eucalypt canopy it was growing in, suggesting higher transpiration rates. Differences in canopy temperature between infected eucalypt foliage and mistletoe were particularly large when incoming radiation peaked. In these conditions, eucalypt foliage from infected trees also had significantly higher canopy temperatures (and likely lower transpiration rates) compared to that of uninfected trees of the same species. The study demonstrates the potential of using UAV-based infrared thermography for studying plant-water relations of mistletoe and its hosts.
Long-term impacts of prescribed burning on regional extent and incidence of wildfires-Evidence from 50 years of active fire management in SW Australian forests
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2009
Quantification of inter-regional differences in risk mitigation from prescribed burning across multiple management values
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 2019
DOI: 10.1071/WF18135
Abstract: Fire agencies are moving towards planning systems based on risk assessment however, knowledge of the most effective way to quantify changes in risk to key values by application of prescribed fire is generally lacking. We present a quantification and inter-regional comparison of how risk to management values responds to variations in prescribed burning treatment rate. Fire simulations were run using the PHOENIX RapidFire fire behaviour simulator for two case study landscapes in interface zones in Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), Australia. A Bayesian network approach used these data to explore the influence of treatment and weather on risk from wildfire. Area burnt, length of powerline damaged and length of road damaged responded more strongly to treatment in the ACT than in Tasmania, whereas treatment mitigated house loss and life loss more strongly in Tasmania than the ACT. The effect of prescribed burning treatment rate on area burnt below minimum tolerable fire interval was similar in each case study landscape. Our study shows that the effectiveness of prescribed burning at mitigating area burnt by wildfire and other key values varies considerably across landscapes and values.
Modelling the potential for prescribed burning to mitigate carbon emissions from wildfires in fire-prone forests of Australia
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 2012
DOI: 10.1071/WF11023
Abstract: Prescribed fire can potentially reduce carbon emissions from unplanned fires. This potential will differ among ecosystems owing to inherent differences in the efficacy of prescribed burning in reducing unplanned fire activity (or ‘leverage’, i.e. the reduction in area of unplanned fire per unit area of prescribed fire). In temperate eucalypt forests, prescribed burning leverage is relatively low and potential for mitigation of carbon emissions from unplanned fires via prescribed fire is potentially limited. Simulations of fire regimes accounting for non-linear patterns of fuel dynamics for three fuel types characteristic of eucalypt forests in south-eastern Australia supported this prediction. Estimated mean annual fuel consumption increased with diminishing leverage and increasing rate of prescribed burning, even though average fire intensity (prescribed and unplanned fires combined) decreased. The results indicated that use of prescribed burning in these temperate forests is unlikely to yield a net reduction in carbon emissions. Future increases in burning rates under climate change may increase emissions and reduce carbon sequestration. A more detailed understanding of the efficacy of prescribed burning and dynamics of combustible biomass pools is required to clarify the potential for mitigation of carbon emissions in temperate eucalypt forests and other ecosystems.
Hydraulic and photosynthetic limitations prevail over root non‐structural carbohydrate reserves as drivers of resprouting in two Mediterranean oaks
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 16-06-2020
DOI: 10.1111/PCE.13781
Mapping burned areas and burn severity patterns in SW Australian eucalypt forest using remotely-sensed changes in leaf area index
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 15-12-2008
Large-scale, dynamic transformations in fuel moisture drive wildfire activity across southeastern Australia
Publisher: American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Date: 06-05-2016
DOI: 10.1002/2016GL068614
Fire-induced deforestation in drought-prone Mediterranean forests: Drivers and unknowns from leaves to communities
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 22-01-2018
DOI: 10.1002/ECM.1285
Plot-level estimates of aboveground biomass and soil organic carbon stocks from Nepal’s forest inventory
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 24-06-2023
DOI: 10.1038/S41597-023-02314-9
Abstract: Given the contribution of deforestation and forest degradation to the global carbon cycle, forest resources are critical to mitigating the global climate change effects. Improved forest monitoring across different biomes is important to understand forest dynamics better and improve global projections of future atmospheric CO 2 concentration. Better quantification of the forest carbon cycle advances scientific understanding and informs global negotiations about carbon emissions reduction. High-quality estimates of forest carbon stocks are currently scarce in many developing countries. Here, we present the most comprehensive georeferenced data set to date of plot-level forest carbon estimates for Nepal. Based on field observations from Nepal’s national forest inventory of 2010–2014 the data set includes estimates for two major forest carbon pools, aboveground biomass (AGB) and soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks from 2,009 and 1,156 inventory plots, respectively. The dataset fills an important knowledge gap about forest carbon stocks in the Central Himalayas, a region with highly heterogeneous environmental conditions and rich bio ersity that is poorly represented in existing global estimates of forest carbon.
Upside-down fluxes Down Under: CO 2 net sink in winter and net source in summer in a temperate evergreen broadleaf forest
Publisher: Copernicus GmbH
Date: 19-06-2018
Abstract: Abstract. Predicting the seasonal dynamics of ecosystem carbon fluxes is challenging in broadleaved evergreen forests because of their moderate climates and subtle changes in canopy phenology. We assessed the climatic and biotic drivers of the seasonality of net ecosystem–atmosphere CO2 exchange (NEE) of a eucalyptus-dominated forest near Sydney, Australia, using the eddy covariance method. The climate is characterised by a mean annual precipitation of 800 mm and a mean annual temperature of 18 ∘C, hot summers and mild winters, with highly variable precipitation. In the 4-year study, the ecosystem was a sink each year (−225 g C m−2 yr−1 on average, with a standard deviation of 108 g C m−2 yr−1) inter-annual variations were not related to meteorological conditions. Daily net C uptake was always detected during the cooler, drier winter months (June through August), while net C loss occurred during the warmer, wetter summer months (December through February). Gross primary productivity (GPP) seasonality was low, despite longer days with higher light intensity in summer, because vapour pressure deficit (D) and air temperature (Ta) restricted surface conductance during summer while winter temperatures were still high enough to support photosynthesis. Maximum GPP during ideal environmental conditions was significantly correlated with remotely sensed enhanced vegetation index (EVI r2 = 0.46) and with canopy leaf area index (LAI r2 = 0.29), which increased rapidly after mid-summer rainfall events. Ecosystem respiration (ER) was highest during summer in wet soils and lowest during winter months. ER had larger seasonal litude compared to GPP, and therefore drove the seasonal variation of NEE. Because summer carbon uptake may become increasingly limited by atmospheric demand and high temperature, and because ecosystem respiration could be enhanced by rising temperatures, our results suggest the potential for large-scale seasonal shifts in NEE in sclerophyll vegetation under climate change.
The fate of carbon in a mature forest under carbon dioxide enrichment
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 08-04-2020
A plant functional approach to the prediction of changes in Australian rangeland vegetation under grazing and fire
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 24-02-2003
The Australian SuperSite Network
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 10-2016
DOI: 10.1016/J.SCITOTENV.2016.05.170
Abstract: Ecosystem monitoring networks aim to collect data on physical, chemical and biological systems and their interactions that shape the biosphere. Here we introduce the Australian SuperSite Network that, along with complementary facilities of Australia's Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN), delivers field infrastructure and erse, ecosystem-related datasets for use by researchers, educators and policy makers. The SuperSite Network uses infrastructure replicated across research sites in different biomes, to allow comparisons across ecosystems and improve scalability of findings to regional, continental and global scales. This conforms with the approaches of other ecosystem monitoring networks such as Critical Zone Observatories, the U.S. National Ecological Observatory Network Analysis and Experimentation on Ecosystems, Europe Chinese Ecosystem Research Network International Long Term Ecological Research network and the United States Long Term Ecological Research Network. The Australian SuperSite Network currently involves 10 SuperSites across a erse range of biomes, including tropical rainforest, grassland and savanna wet and dry sclerophyll forest and woodland and semi-arid grassland, woodland and savanna. The focus of the SuperSite Network is on using vegetation, faunal and biophysical monitoring to develop a process-based understanding of ecosystem function and change in Australian biomes and to link this with data streams provided by the series of flux towers across the network. The Australian SuperSite Network is also intended to support a range of auxiliary researchers who contribute to the growing body of knowledge within and across the SuperSite Network, public outreach and education to promote environmental awareness and the role of ecosystem monitoring in the management of Australian environments.
Vegetation and landscape connectivity control wildfire intervals in unmanaged semi-arid shrublands and woodlands in Australia
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 16-08-2011
Bark attributes determine variation in fire resistance in resprouting tree species
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 10-2020
Canopy leaf area of a mature evergreen Eucalyptus woodland does not respond to elevated atmospheric [CO2 ] but tracks water availability
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 09-02-2016
DOI: 10.1111/GCB.13151
Abstract: Canopy leaf area, quantified by the leaf area index (L), is a crucial driver of forest productivity, water use and energy balance. Because L responds to environmental drivers, it can represent an important feedback to climate change, but its responses to rising atmospheric [CO2] and water availability of forests have been poorly quantified. We studied canopy leaf area dynamics for 28 months in a native evergreen Eucalyptus woodland exposed to free-air CO2 enrichment (the EucFACE experiment), in a subtropical climate where water limitation is common. We hypothesized that, because of expected stimulation of productivity and water-use efficiency, L should increase with elevated [CO2]. We estimated L from diffuse canopy transmittance, and measured monthly leaf litter production. Contrary to expectation, L did not respond to elevated [CO2]. We found that L varied between 1.10 and 2.20 across the study period. The dynamics of L showed a quick increase after heavy rainfall and a steady decrease during periods of low rainfall. Leaf litter production was correlated to changes in L, both during periods of decreasing L (when no leaf growth occurred) and during periods of increasing L (active shedding of old foliage when new leaf growth occurred). Leaf lifespan, estimated from mean L and total annual litter production, was up to 2 months longer under elevated [CO2] (1.18 vs. 1.01 years P = 0.05). Our main finding that L was not responsive to elevated CO2 is consistent with other forest FACE studies, but contrasts with the positive response of L commonly predicted by many ecosystem models.
Using a paired tower approach and remote sensing to assess carbon sequestration and energy distribution in a heterogeneous sclerophyll forest
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2020
DOI: 10.1016/J.SCITOTENV.2019.133918
Abstract: The critically endangered Cumberland Plain woodland within the greater Sydney metropolitan area hosts a dwindling refuge for melaleuca trees, an integral part of Australia's native vegetation. Despite their high carbon stocks, melaleucas have not explicitly been targeted for studies assessing their carbon sequestration potential, and especially little is known about their energy cycling or their response to increasing climate stress, precluding a holistic assessment of the resilience of Australia's forests to climate change. To improve our understanding of the role of melaleuca forest responses to climate stress, we combined forest inventory and airborne LiDAR data to identify species distribution and associated variations in forest structure, and deployed flux towers in a melaleuca-dominated (AU-Mel) and in a eucalypt-dominated (AU-Cum) stand to simultaneously monitor carbon and energy fluxes under typical growing conditions, as well as during periods with high atmospheric demand and low soil water content. We discovered that the species distribution at our study site affected the vertical vegetation structure, leading to differences in canopy coverage (75% at AU-Cum vs. 84% at AU-Mel) and plant area index (2.1 m
Supplementary material to "Upside-down fluxes Down Under: CO<sub>2</sub> net sink in winter and net source in summer in a temperate evergreen broadleaf forest"
Publisher: Copernicus GmbH
Date: 02-01-2018
Scale-dependent thresholds in the dominant controls of wildfire size in semi-arid southwest Australia
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 07-2014
DOI: 10.1890/ES14-00145.1
Upside-down fluxes Down Under: CO<sub>2</sub> net sink in winter and net source in summer in a temperate evergreen broadleaf forest
Publisher: Copernicus GmbH
Date: 02-01-2018
DOI: 10.5194/BG-2017-526
Abstract: Abstract. Predicting the seasonal dynamics of ecosystem carbon fluxes is challenging in broadleaved evergreen forests because of their moderate climates and subtle changes in canopy phenology. We assessed the climatic and biotic drivers of the seasonality of net ecosystem-atmosphere CO2 exchange (NEE) of a eucalyptus-dominated forest near Sydney, Australia, using the eddy covariance method. The climate is characterized by a mean annual precipitation of 800 mm and a mean annual temperature of 18 °C, hot summers and mild winters, with highly variable precipitation. In the three-year study, the ecosystem was a small sink in 2014 (54 g C m−2 y−1), a stronger sink in 2015 (183 g C m−2 y−1) and even stronger sink in 2016 (337 g C m−2 y−1), but these variations were not related to precipitation. Daily net C uptake was always detected during the cooler, drier winter months (June through August), while net C loss occurred during the warmer, wetter summer months (December through February). Gross primary productivity (GPP) seasonality was low, despite longer days with higher light intensity in summer, because vapour pressure deficit (D) and air temperature (Ta) restricted surface conductance during summer while winter temperatures were still high enough to support photosynthesis. Maximum GPP during ideal environmental conditions was correlated with canopy leaf area index (LAI) (r2 = 0.24), which increased rapidly after mid-summer rainfall events. Ecosystem respiration (ER) was highest during summer in wet soils and lowest during winter months. ER had larger seasonal litude compared to GPP, and therefore drove the seasonal variation of NEE. Because summer carbon uptake may become increasingly limited by atmospheric drought and high temperature, and ecosystem respiration could be enhanced by rising temperature, our results suggest the potential for large-scale seasonal shifts in NEE in sclerophyll vegetation under climate change.
Forest fire threatens global carbon sinks and population centres under rising atmospheric water demand
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 22-11-2022
DOI: 10.1038/S41467-022-34966-3
Abstract: Levels of fire activity and severity that are unprecedented in the instrumental record have recently been observed in forested regions around the world. Using a large s le of daily fire events and hourly climate data, here we show that fire activity in all global forest biomes responds strongly and predictably to exceedance of thresholds in atmospheric water demand, as measured by maximum daily vapour pressure deficit. The climatology of vapour pressure deficit can therefore be reliably used to predict forest fire risk under projected future climates. We find that climate change is projected to lead to widespread increases in risk, with at least 30 additional days above critical thresholds for fire activity in forest biomes on every continent by 2100 under rising emissions scenarios. Escalating forest fire risk threatens catastrophic carbon losses in the Amazon and major population health impacts from wildfire smoke in south Asia and east Africa.
Fire regimes of Australia: A pyrogeographic model system
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 25-01-2013
DOI: 10.1111/JBI.12065
Scales and processes of water and sediment redistribution in drylands: Results from the Rambla Honda field site in Southeast Spain
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 10-1999
Changing Weather Extremes Call for Early Warning of Potential for Catastrophic Fire
Publisher: American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Date: 12-2017
DOI: 10.1002/2017EF000657
Forest fire management, climate change, and the risk of catastrophic carbon losses
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 03-2013
DOI: 10.1890/13.WB.005
Characterization of landscape pyrodiversity in Mediterranean environments: Contrasts and similarities between south-western Australia and south-eastern France
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 20-02-2011
Deriving state-and-transition models from an image series of grassland pattern dynamics
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 02-2010
Drone-derived canopy height predicts biomass across non-forest ecosystems globally
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 17-07-2020
DOI: 10.1101/2020.07.16.206011
Abstract: Non-forest ecosystems, dominated by shrubs, grasses and herbaceous plants, provide ecosystem services including carbon sequestration and forage for grazing, yet are highly sensitive to climatic changes. Yet these ecosystems are poorly represented in remotely-sensed biomass products and are unders led by in-situ monitoring. Current global change threats emphasise the need for new tools to capture biomass change in non-forest ecosystems at appropriate scales. Here we assess whether canopy height inferred from drone photogrammetry allows the estimation of aboveground biomass (AGB) across low-stature plant species s led through a global site network. We found mean canopy height is strongly predictive of AGB across species, demonstrating standardised photogrammetric approaches are generalisable across growth forms and environmental settings. Biomass per-unit-of-height was similar within , but different among , plant functional types. We find drone-based photogrammetry allows for monitoring of AGB across large spatial extents and can advance understanding of understudied and vulnerable non-forested ecosystems across the globe.
An ecohydrological modelling approach for assessing long-term recharge rates in semiarid karstic landscapes
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 03-2008
Globe-LFMC, a global plant water status database for vegetation ecophysiology and wildfire applications
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 21-08-2019
DOI: 10.1038/S41597-019-0164-9
Abstract: Globe-LFMC is an extensive global database of live fuel moisture content (LFMC) measured from 1,383 s ling sites in 11 countries: Argentina, Australia, China, France, Italy, Senegal, Spain, South Africa, Tunisia, United Kingdom and the United States of America. The database contains 161,717 in idual records based on in situ destructive s les used to measure LFMC, representing the amount of water in plant leaves per unit of dry matter. The primary goal of the database is to calibrate and validate remote sensing algorithms used to predict LFMC. However, this database is also relevant for the calibration and validation of dynamic global vegetation models, eco-physiological models of plant water stress as well as understanding the physiological drivers of spatiotemporal variation in LFMC at local, regional and global scales. Globe-LFMC should be useful for studying LFMC trends in response to environmental change and LFMC influence on wildfire occurrence, wildfire behavior, and overall vegetation health.
Woody clockworks: circadian regulation of night‐time water use in E ucalyptus globulus
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 25-06-2013
DOI: 10.1111/NPH.12382
Abstract: The role of the circadian clock in controlling the metabolism of entire trees has seldom been considered. We tested whether the clock influences nocturnal whole‐tree water use. Whole‐tree chambers allowed the control of environmental variables (temperature, relative humidity). Night‐time stomatal conductance ( g s ) and sap flow ( Q ) were monitored in 6‐ to 8‐m‐tall E ucalyptus globulus trees during nights when environmental variables were kept constant, and also when conditions varied with time. Artificial neural networks were used to quantify the relative importance of circadian regulation of g s and Q . Under a constant environment, g s and Q declined from 0 to 6 h after dusk, but increased from 6 to 12 h after dusk. While the initial decline could be attributed to multiple processes, the subsequent increase is most consistent with circadian regulation of g s and Q . We conclude that endogenous regulation of g s is an important driver of night‐time Q under natural environmental variability. The proportion of nocturnal Q variation associated with circadian regulation (23–56%) was comparable to that attributed to vapor pressure deficit variation (25–58%). This study contributes to our understanding of the linkages between molecular and cellular processes related to circadian regulation, and whole‐tree processes related to ecosystem gas exchange in the field.
Unprecedented burn area of Australian mega forest fires
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 24-02-2020
Biogeography of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal spore traits along an aridity gradient, and responses to experimental rainfall manipulation
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-2020
The Role of Habitus in the Maintenance of Traditional Noongar Plant Knowledge in Southwest Western Australia
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 06-08-2011
Specific leaf area and vapour pressure deficit control live fuel moisture content
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 06-02-2023
Abstract: The live fuel moisture content (LFMC) is an important precondition for wildfire activity, yet it remains challenging to predict LFMC due to the dynamic interplay between atmospheric and hydrological conditions that determine the plant's access to, and loss of water. We monitored LFMC and a range of plant water‐use traits (predawn and midday leaf water potentials [Ψ leaf ]), leaf traits (specific leaf area [SLA]), hydrological status (soil water content [SWC] in the shallow layer and full profile) and atmospheric variables (air temperature, vapour pressure deficit [VPD], CO 2 concentrations) in a mature eucalypt woodland at the Eucalyptus Free‐Air CO 2 Enrichment (EucFACE) facility during a drought. We combined plant traits, hydrological status and atmospheric variables into a biophysical model to predict LFMC dynamics, and compared these with predictions of LFMC based on a satellite model and established relationships between Ψ leaf and LFMC from pressure–volume curves. Predawn Ψ leaf could be well predicted from changes in SWC, but variation in midday Ψ leaf and LFMC were more responsive to atmospheric than hydrological variables. The biophysical model explained up to 89% of variability in LFMC and outperformed established approaches to predict LFMC. SLA was the single most important variable to predict LFMC, followed by VPD, which explained 33% of the remaining variability in LFMC. Our study demonstrates that the co‐variation of plant traits and atmospheric and hydrological conditions affect LFMC during drought, suggesting a new way forward for predicting LFMC by combining biophysical and satellite‐based models of LFMC with seasonal forecasts of meteorological and hydrological variables. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.
Neighbourhood rules make or break spatial scale invariance in a classic model of contagious disturbance
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2011
Related Organisations
Commonwealth Scientific And Industrial Research Organisation
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Commonwealth Scientific And Industrial Research Organisation
Location: Australia
Related Funding Activities
Discovery Projects - Grant ID: DP220100795
Start Date: 2022
End Date: 10-2025
Amount: $485,000.00
Funder: Australian Research Council
View Funded ActivityDiscovery Projects - Grant ID: DP130102576
Start Date: 04-2013
End Date: 03-2017
Amount: $405,000.00
Funder: Australian Research Council
View Funded ActivityLinkage Projects - Grant ID: LP190100436
Start Date: 10-2020
End Date: 10-2024
Amount: $524,027.00
Funder: Australian Research Council
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