Congruence between natural and human forest disturbance: A case study from Australian montane ash forests

Abstract

We examined the hypothesis that the impacts of human disturbances like logging on forest biodiversity will be minimised if there is close congruence with the effects of natural disturbances (e.g. wildfire). The montane ash forests of the Central Highlands of Victoria (south-eastern Australia) are used as a case study to examine several themes associated with congruence between natural (wildfire) and human disturbance (clearfell logging) regimes. These themes include: (1) the types of biological legacies left or created following wildfires and their use as habitat components by vertebrates, (2) the use of biological legacies to reconstruct pre-European stand structural conditions, (3) contras..