Journal article
Soil temperatures during autumn prescribed burning: Implications for the germination of fire responsive species?
TD Penman, AL Towerton
International Journal of Wildland Fire | Published : 2008
DOI: 10.1071/WF07092
Abstract
Prescribed fire is a widely applied management tool in native forests. There have been concerns raised about the ecological impacts of prescribed fire on native flora. One aspect of the debate is the extent to which prescribed fire heats the soil to levels reported to trigger germination in the soil seed banks. We used Thermochrons to test soil temperatures at 2 and 5 cm in prescribed burns in dry sclerophyll forests. Soil temperatures during the burns were generally low (<40°C) with less than 5% of sites being exposed to temperatures necessary for the germination of fire-dependent shrub species. High temperatures were associated with high fuel consumption and large woody debris. This inform..
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Funding Acknowledgements
The present work was funded by the Bushfire Co-operative Research Centre and Forests NSW. We wish to thank Russell Clark who organised the prescribed burns reported. We also wish to acknowledge the field staff who implemented the burns. Ruth Allen and Roy Shiels assisted with the data collection. Discussions with Russell Clark, Ruth Allen and Roy Shiels provided insight into prescribed burning practices and aided the development of the paper. We also wish to thank Doug Binns, Frank Lemckert, Andy Stirling and two anonymous referees for providing comments on an earlier draft of the manuscript.