Journal article
Decreases in standing tree-based carbon stocks associated with repeated prescribed fires in a temperate mixed-species eucalypt forest
LT Bennett, C Aponte, KG Tolhurst, M Löw, TG Baker
Forest Ecology and Management | Published : 2013
Abstract
Prescribed fire is a common management practice in fire-tolerant forests, and one that has potential carbon costs. Previous assessments of the carbon costs of prescribed fire regimes in temperate Australia have been based on little empirical data, and have focused on direct fire effects (area burnt, fuel consumed) but have largely ignored potentially substantive indirect effects on tree mortality and growth. This study measures effects of four prescribed fire treatments on standing tree-based carbon stocks, and on individual tree growth and mortality, in a fire-tolerant eucalypt forest of south-eastern Australia. Prescribed fire treatments were as a factorial combination of two seasons (autu..
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Funding Acknowledgements
This work was funded by the Victorian Department of Environment and Primary Industries (DEPI). We thank many personnel from DEPI's (then) Environmental Policy and Climate Change, Land and Fire, and Forests and Parks Divisions for supporting this FESA measurement. We also thank many current and past staff from the regional DEPI and from the University of Melbourne for maintaining, measuring, and documenting the prescribed fire treatments for over two decades, including J. Kellas, D. Oswin, A. Ashton, J. Najera, and N. Klaus. Two anonymous reviewers are also thanked for providing constructive comments that improved the paper.