Journal article
Disruption of cultural burning promotes shrub encroachment and unprecedented wildfires
M Mariani, SE Connor, M Theuerkauf, A Herbert, P Kuneš, D Bowman, MS Fletcher, L Head, AP Kershaw, SG Haberle, J Stevenson, M Adeleye, H Cadd, F Hopf, C Briles
Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment | WILEY | Published : 2022
DOI: 10.1002/fee.2395
Abstract
Recent catastrophic fires in Australia and North America have raised broad-scale questions about how the cessation of Indigenous burning practices has impacted fuel accumulation and structure. For sustainable coexistence with fire, a better understanding of the ancient nexus between humans and flammable landscapes is needed. We used novel palaeoecological modeling and charcoal compilations to reassess evidence for changes in land cover and fire activity, focusing on southeast Australia before and after British colonization. Here, we provide what we believe is the first quantitative evidence that the region’s forests and woodlands contained fewer shrubs and more grass before colonization. Cha..
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Funding Acknowledgements
This is a contribution of the PAGES LandCover6k working group. We thank Parks Victoria for granting the permit to conduct vegetation surveys and moss collection. We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land on which this research was carried out. Fieldwork was funded by the Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage (CABAH). AH was funded by DSI-NRF Centre of Excellence for Palaeosciences, South Africa. Author contributions: conceptualization (MM, SEC, CB), methodology (MM, SEC, PK, MT), validation (MM), formal analysis (MM, SEC, MT), investigation (MM, SEC), resources (MM, AH, APK, SGH, MA, FH), data curation (MM, SEC, AH), writing-original draft preparation (MM, SEC), writing-review and editing (MM, SEC, AH, MT, LH, APK, PK, M--SF, DB, FH, MA, SGH, JS, HC, CB), visualization (MM, SEC), supervision (SGH), project administration (MM, SEC), and funding acquisition (SGH). Authors declare no competing interests.