Bushfire Country Fuel Fuel Vegetation

Fire ecology of tropical, subtropical and temperate-boreal forest ecosystems
Global Fire Monitoring Center (GFMC) / Fire Ecology Research Group
BSc Course „Ökologie der Wälder der Erde II“
29-30 November 2012
Ökologie der Wälder der Erde –II
Bushfire Country
The plant,
Feuerökologie in Ökosystemen Australiens
climate
and human
Pete Sheldon
ecology of fire in Australia
Arbeitsgruppe Feuerökologie, Max-Planck-Institut für Chemie
Global Fire Monitoring Center (GFMC), United Nations University (UNU)
c/o Universität Freiburg
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Fuel
Mallee/Savannah
●Frequent large, cool fires
●Very sparsely populated
●
Darwin
●
●
●
Mallee/Spinifex/Savannah
Highly variable
Almost deserted
Tropic of Capricorn
●
Fine
●
Dry
●
Connected
●
Plentiful
Brisbane
Perth
Sydney
Melbourne
Marysville
●
Hobart
●
●
Tall forests
Intense, rare fires
Lots of people
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Fuel
4
Vegetation
Fire Season
●
Fine
Wi = Winter
Sp = Spring
Su = Summer
●Au = Autumn
●
●
Vegetation
●
●
Dry
Weather
●
Connected
Management
●
Plentiful
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Fire ecology of tropical, subtropical and temperate-boreal forest ecosystems
Global Fire Monitoring Center (GFMC) / Fire Ecology Research Group
BSc Course „Ökologie der Wälder der Erde II“
29-30 November 2012
Vegetation
Vegetation
Fire Season
●
●
●
●
Fire-philic
Wi = Winter
Sp = Spring
Su = Summer
Au = Autumn
●
Eucalyptus
●
Savannah
●
Fire-phobic
●
Rainforest
●
Bi l
Brigalow
Mallee
FIRE
7
Vegetation
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Vegetation
Fire-philic
●
Tropical North
Eucalyptus
Fire-phobic
Savannah
Reproduction MaturityRainforest
Competition
IFI
●
●
●
Mallee
Typical
InterInter
Fire-Interval
(years)
Method of
Post-Fire
Reproduction
●
The likely successor in
Time after
●
B i case
l of too frequent or
fire at which
itBrigalow
infrequent fire
can reproduce*
Savannah
●
Spinifex
●
Mallee
FIRE
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Vegetation
10
Vegetation
Tropical North
●
Savannah
●
Reproduction
Roots
Maturity
Annual
Competition
Spinifex
●
Spinifex
●
IFI
1-5
Tropical North
●
Mallee
11
Savannah
Spinifex
●
IFI
5-20+
Reproduction
Seed
Maturity
Competition
10-20 Savannah/Mallee/Desert
Mallee
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Fire ecology of tropical, subtropical and temperate-boreal forest ecosystems
Global Fire Monitoring Center (GFMC) / Fire Ecology Research Group
BSc Course „Ökologie der Wälder der Erde II“
29-30 November 2012
Vegetation
Vegetation
Tropical North
●
Savannah
●
Maturity
10+
●
Mallee
Competition
Spinifex/Brigalow
●
Eucalyptus Forests
13
Vegetation
14
Vegetation
Temperate South-east
●
●
IFI
Reproduction
Lignotuber
20-100
Mallee
Spinifex
●
IFI
Reproduction
Lignotuber
20-100
Temperate South-east
Maturity
10+
Temperate South-east
Mallee
●
Eucalyptus Forests
Competition
Grassland/Forest
15
Vegetation
●
IFI
Reproduction
Seed
20-300
Maturity
10
Mallee
Eucalyptus Forests
Competition
Mallee/Rainforest
16
Vegetation
Physiological
Adaptations to Fire
●
●
●
Spinifex - 5+ years
●
Epicormic Growth
●
●
Fuel
Regeneration from roots
●
Physiological
Adaptations to Fire
Savannah - 1 year
Regeneration from roots
●
Seed Dispersal
Changed soil conditions17
Epicormic Growth
●
Forest - 10+ years
●
Fuel
Seed Dispersal
Changed soil conditions18
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Fire ecology of tropical, subtropical and temperate-boreal forest ecosystems
Global Fire Monitoring Center (GFMC) / Fire Ecology Research Group
BSc Course „Ökologie der Wälder der Erde II“
29-30 November 2012
Vegetation
Vegetation
Physiological
Adaptations to Fire
Mallee Coppice
●
●
●
●
Epicormic Growth
●
Resprouting Grass
Fuel
Regeneration from roots
●
●
Physiological
Adaptations to Fire
Epicormic Growth
●
Seed Dispersal
●
Changed soil conditions19
Vegetation
●
Fuel
Regeneration from roots
Seed Dispersal
Changed soil conditions20
Vegetation
Eucalyptus
Physiological
Adaptations to Fire
Banksia
●
●
●
●
Epicormic Growth
●
●
Fuel
Regeneration from roots
●
Xanthorrea
Physiological
Adaptations to Fire
Seed Dispersal
Changed soil conditions21
Climate
Regeneration from roots
Epicormic Growth
●
0
Time since fire
Available N*
Available P*
pH
Soil Biota
●
●
Fuel
Seed Dispersal
Changed soil conditions22
Climate
I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
Dorothea Mackella (1904)
Variability
●
●
Seasonal
Tropics
Strongly seasonal
variation
●
Extra-seasonal
●
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Very high growth
rates
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Fire ecology of tropical, subtropical and temperate-boreal forest ecosystems
Global Fire Monitoring Center (GFMC) / Fire Ecology Research Group
BSc Course „Ökologie der Wälder der Erde II“
29-30 November 2012
Climate
Climate
Tropics
The South
Strongly seasonal
variation
●
●
Very high growth
rates
●
Seasonal variation
not so strong
●
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Climate
Higher potential
for droughts
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Climate
The South
●
The South
Seasonal variation
not so strong
●
●
Higher potential
for droughts
●
27
Climate
Seasonal variation
not so strong
Higher potential
for droughts
28
Weather
●
The South
The North
Seasonal variation
not so strong
Thunderstorms
during the
'build-up' to the
monsoon season
spark large grass
fires
●
Higher potential
for droughts
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Fire ecology of tropical, subtropical and temperate-boreal forest ecosystems
Global Fire Monitoring Center (GFMC) / Fire Ecology Research Group
BSc Course „Ökologie der Wälder der Erde II“
29-30 November 2012
Weather
Weather
The South
●
The South
Common late summer
weather pattern
●
●
Common late summer
weather pattern
Notable in historic
fires
●
●
1939, 1983, 2009
Notable in historic
fires
●
1939, 1983, 2009
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Weather
32
Weather
The South
Strong afternoon wind change
The South
3pm
Midday
Midday
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Weather
Strong afternoon wind change
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Weather
The South
3pm
Midday
Strong afternoon wind change
The South
3pm
Midday
6pm
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6pm
9pm
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Fire ecology of tropical, subtropical and temperate-boreal forest ecosystems
Global Fire Monitoring Center (GFMC) / Fire Ecology Research Group
BSc Course „Ökologie der Wälder der Erde II“
29-30 November 2012
Weather
Weather
The South
The South
3pm
Midday
3pm
Midday
Victoria, NASA image January 30 2009
6pm
9pm
6pm
9pm
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Weather
Human Intervention
The South
The Aborigine
40 000+ years in Australia
●
●
3pm
Midday
6pm
9pm
Many uses and values of fire
●
Victoria, NASA image January 30 2009
Victoria, NASA image February 10, 2009
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(Un)Intended Landscape
change
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Wildu the Eagle
In the Dreamtime there lived an eagle named
Wildu who had two crow nephews both called Wakarla. As a
type of All-Father, he was always telling them what to do.
He told them what food they could eat and what food the
elders could eat. Worse, according to tribal law, Wildu's two
wives should be married to the Wakarla instead of Wildu,
but they were still novices and could do little as he was
their uncle.
They decided on a plan to get rid of him. They
constructed a fake rat's nest set up with sharpened
kangaroo bones as a trap and ran to tell their uncle Wildu
about it. Wildu's nephews persuaded him to jump on the
nest to destroy it. He did so and the sharp bones went right
through his feet, splitting them as they are today. There
was a big ceremony to celebrate the death of the tyrannous
Wildu and the Wakarla nephews took Wildu's wives.
Wildu's wives were curious and searched for
Wildu's body. When they found him they brought him
back to life. Because they felt guilty for celebrating his
death, they helped Wildu construct a trap in a cave.
Wildu raised a great storm to chase all the birds
and animals into the cave, then set a fire near the entrance
to kill them all. Fortunately everyone escaped, but the
magpies and crows only just got out – leaving them with
the black marks that they carry to this day.
Human Intervention
The White Man
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Fire Suppression → Bushfire Disaster
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Fire ecology of tropical, subtropical and temperate-boreal forest ecosystems
Global Fire Monitoring Center (GFMC) / Fire Ecology Research Group
BSc Course „Ökologie der Wälder der Erde II“
29-30 November 2012
Black Saturday
Temperature 45°C+
●Humidity 10%
●Wind 110km/h+
●
Reference Material
February 7, 2009
●
Certini G (2005) Effects of fire on properties of forest soils: a review Oecologia 143: 1-10
●
Australian Bureau of Meteorology www.bom.gov.au
●
●
●
450 000ha
2000 homes
●
173 lives
Bushfire CRC (2010) Fire Note Bushfire CRC Ltd
●
Bushfire CRC website www.bushfirecrc.com
www bushfirecrc com
●
●
●
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Penman et al (2011) Prescribed burning: how can it work to conserve the things we value?
International Journal of Wildland Fire 20: 721-733
●
Bannister (2009) Modeling challenges from the Black Saturday 2009 event Australian Bureau of
Meteorology
Parkyn et al (2009) Meteorological lessons learned from 'Black Saturday', the 7 February 2009
Victorian fires Australian Bureau of Meteorology
Many, many google and wikipedia seaches and images
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