Fire regimes and biodiversity in Victoria’s alpine ecosystems

Abstract

Landscape-scale fires occur in Australian alpine ecosystems once or twice per century, primarily when ignition, regional drought and severe fire weather coincide. When alpine vegetation does burn, there is considerable variation in landscape flammability and fire severity. Regeneration following extensive fires of 2003 and 2006-07 across the Bogong High Plains is occurring in all plant communities (heathlands, grasslands, herbfields and wetlands). In heathland and grassland, vegetation composition has converged towards the long-unburnt state (> 50 years) eight years post fire. There was little effect of variation in fire severity on patterns of regeneration in heathland. In burnt wetlands..