Mature tall wet Eucalyptus forests resist the spread of severe regrowth forest fires under moderate fire weather conditions
http://rdp.utas.edu.au/metadata/7abbe963-b243-487f-be3f-6ae94fdd161e
- Creators:
- Grant Williamson (0000-0002-3469-7550)
- Co-Creators:
- David Bowman (0000-0001-8075-124X) , Lynda Prior (0000-0002-5511-2320) , Arko Lucieer (0000-0002-9468-4516) , James Furlaud (0000-0003-3925-0130) , Liu Zhao (0009-0006-8273-8042)
Biological Sciences
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution - NonCommercial (BY - NC) 4.0 International License.
Using pre- and post-wildfire data of forest structure, surface fuel loads and understory temperature we investigated fire severity patterns in areas of mature and logged tall wet Eucalyptus forests in southeastern Tasmania that burned under moderate fire weather conditions. We found all regrowth forest patches in the study area were burned, at significantly higher severely than mature forests that comprised 98% of the fire perimeter. Regrowth forests were more flammable that mature forests with high consumption of live fuels, especially in the lower half of the 30 m regrowth profile, compared to the more modest effects across the burned and unburned mature forest 40 to 60 m profiles. Two years after the fire, fine fuel loads of regrowth and mature forest had returned to pre-fire levels, and resprouting enabled rapid recovery of vegetation structure. This archive contains code and source data for the statistical models of structure, fuels and microclimate associated with this study.
Pre-fire LIDAR data collected as part of Warra Silvicultural Systems Trial. Post-fire LIDAR data collected in May 2021. Pre and post-fire fuel and microclimate data collected from previously established chronosequence plots. Associated past references: Furlaud, J., A. Lucieer, S. Foyster, A. Matala and D. Bowman (2021). "Using pre-and post-fire LiDAR to assess the severity of the 2019 Tasmanian bushfires." Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC, Melbourne. Furlaud, J. M., L. D. Prior, G. J. Williamson and D. M. Bowman (2021). "Fire risk and severity decline with stand development in Tasmanian giant Eucalyptus forest." Forest Ecology and Management 502: 119724.