Biogeographical variation in the potential effectiveness of prescribed fire in south-eastern Australia

OF Price; TD Penman; RA Bradstock; MM Boer; H Clarke

Journal article

Biogeographical variation in the potential effectiveness of prescribed fire in south-eastern Australia

OF Price, TD Penman, RA Bradstock, MM Boer, H Clarke

Journal of Biogeography | WILEY | Published : 2015

DOI: 10.1111/jbi.12579

Abstract

Aim: Prescribed fire is a common land management for reducing risks from unplanned fires. However, the universality of such effectiveness remains uncertain due to biogeographical variation in fuel types, climatic influences and fire regimes. Here, we explore biogeographical patterns in the effectiveness of prescribed fire by calculating leverage (the reduction in unplanned area burnt resulting from recent previous area burnt) across south-eastern Australia over a 25 year period. Location: The 30 bioregions of south-eastern Australia. Methods: We quantified leverage in each bioregion from fire records from 1975-2009, controlling for variation in annual weather. We also identified potential dr..

View full abstract

University of Melbourne Researchers

Trent Penman Author

Hamish Clarke Author

Grants

Funding Acknowledgements

We thank the New South Wales Office of Environment and Heritage, Victorian Department of Environment and Primary Industry and South Australian Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources for fire history data. This work was funded by the Rural Fire Service of New South Wales.