Journal article
Repeated fuel reduction burns have little long-term impact on soil greenhouse gas exchange in a dry sclerophyll eucalypt forest
BJ Fest, SJ Livesley, JC von Fischer, SK Arndt
Agricultural and Forest Meteorology | Published : 2015
Abstract
Fuel reduction burning is a widespread management tool in fire-tolerant forest systems to mitigate wildfire risk, but has the potential to impact soil greenhouse gas exchange processes. Soil disturbance often alters soil carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) flux; however, the influence of repeated fuel reduction burning upon these flux processes long-term is still not well understood. In this study we measure soil CH4 flux, soil methanotrophic activity and soil CO2 flux in all seasons from March 2009 to February 2011 in three different fire frequency treatments applied to a dry sclerophyll eucalypt forest (Victoria, Australia) for the last 27 years. The low-intensity fire treatments are fo..
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Grants
Awarded by Department of Environment and Primary Industries
Funding Acknowledgements
The study was supported by funding from the Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN) Australian Supersite Network, the TERN OzFlux Network, the Australian Research Council (ARC) grants LE0882936 and DP120101735 and the Integrated Forest Ecosystem Research (iFER) program, funded by the Victorian Department of Environment and Primary Industries (DEPI). We would like to thank Dr. Kevin Tolhurst for his support in allowing us access to the FESA sites and background information. We also would like to thank the many internship students, especially from the Institut Polytechnique LaSalle Beauvais, Nina Hinko-Najera and Catherine Nield-Fest who helped us with field data collection and in the laboratory. A special thanks also to Dr. Ian Gordon and Rachel Sore for their advice in statistical analyses.