Biodiversity protection: Effects of fire regime on vegetation in Australia

Abstract

Fire is a widely used vegetation management tool, particularly in Australia, where research has generated a large amount of information but the patterns and principles apply extensively also to many other parts of the world. This paper is for worldwide readers, as well as for local fire ecologists. At present, much of the burning seems to be done mainly to satisfy public expectation concerning protection of life and property. Burning for environmental conservation may sometimes be implied but is still rarely mentioned by fire managers

Australia's vegetation has evolved with fire, and now variously copes with, and even depends on, a range of fire regimes. Strategies for coping with fire vary with species and vegetation. In tall, moist forests fires tend to be rare but kill nearly all plants and induce regeneration from seeds that are either stored on the crown or in the soil, depending on the species. In dry forests, fires tend to be frequent but they rarely kill the trees or the undergrowth. The undergrowth and the smaller trees tend to be killed back to the ground but recover from subsoil buds. Although there is much tolerance to fire, excessive frequency and severity of burning are likely to change the vegetation to more resistant species (e.g. from woody plants to ferns or grasses) and to degrade soil fertility

Since bush fires also threaten people and their properties, prescribed burning is used to reduce fuels to safer levels. Unfortunately, such fuel reductions have little success in mitigating severe fires, and the rates of fuel accumulation are mostly so fast that such burning needs to be so frequent (mostly every 3-5 years) that serious concerns arise about the conservation of vegetation and fertility. There is ongoing research and debate about this to clarify aims and resolve conflicts. Fire plays a major role in biodiversity protection all over the world