There are more than 30 postgraduate students working
on fire-related research projects all around Australia. This is the
second article (to see the first article, click here)
on how the Bushfire CRC is developing an ongoing resource for the
future.
All Bushfire CRC
students were asked to step in front of a video camera and
succinctly and briefly describe their research and say what it
meant for the fire industry. They were also asked where they saw
themselves in five years time.
While their PhD titles are often long and obscure, this
exercise provided the opportunity for them to talk about their work
in plain language.
These videos are now on the Bushfire CRC You Tube
Channel or you can simply click on an individual
student's name or photograph below to visit that student’s
individual Bushfire CRC
web page.
Here are some edited extracts of what some of the students
said ...
Erosion after fire
Rowena
Morris - University of Adelaide
Bushfires can be a threat to the quality of our drinking
water, especially if excessive erosion occurs after rain. My
research is looking at soil erosion after bushfires.
I am researching both planned burning and wildfires to
argue that well planned burning can potentially reduce erosion from
wildfires.
I am interested in applying new
techniques for measuring and assessing erosion in water
catchments and the processes that cause erosion
post-fire.
These new techniques include laser scanning and close
range photogrammetry. Both techniques require field
data collection followed by computer modelling with fancy 3D
capabilities.
Both new techniques cover different scales as I am
especially interested in the influence of slope, vegetation
regrowth and animal activity (biotransfer) on sediment movement
after fire. All of this will help me better understand sediment
movement after wildfires.
Improving our knowledge about the processes, monitoring
and remediation of erosion post-fire will help us decide if
remediation measures are needed and where mitigation
strategies should be placed to manage erosion.
This will assist land managers to justify that a well
designed planned fire has the potential to reduce erosion from
severe wildfires.
In five years time I’d really like to be working in
community education in relation to bushfires. I love teaching the
community about safety and seeing what additional information we
can give them to help them with safety in bushfires.
I’ve now been involved in managing fire with New
South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service as a fire technical
officer, educating with the South Australian Country Fire Service,
lecturing at the University of South Australia, and researching
with the Bushfire CRC.
I am also interested in policy development and applying
the results of research. I really do love working with the issues
around bushfires and water quality and would love to continue down
that direction.
The importance of logs
Anne
Miehs - University of Melbourne
My research looks at the impact of fire on animals that
use logs as habitat.
Fallen logs (also known as coarse woody debris or heavy
fuel) play an important role in biodiversity conservation. They add
to the structural complexity of the forest floor, increasing the
range of habitats and micro-climates available for animals to use.
They provide sites for breeding, hibernation, feeding and basking
for a wide range of fauna including small mammals, reptiles, frogs
and invertebrates.
This is achieved through the different characteristics
observed in wood. Cracks and fissures for example provide areas in
which skinks can crawl into and lie dormant through winter. These
upright branches are ideal areas for wrens and other bird species
to conduct courtship displays, hollows are used by small native
mammals such as the antechinus as places to safely leave their
young when they feed at night and the leaf litter surrounding the
logs are full of invertebrates and therefore important feeding
sites for a range of species.
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On top of this logs also
function as critical refuges during forest fires and provide
remnant islands from which fauna and flora can recolonise
areas post-fire.
Course woody debris is also of interest to fire managers
because it plays a major role in the “mop
up” stage of fire management and can smoulder for days if not
extinguished properly. It can also make it more difficult for
vehicles to access sites.
We currently have very little knowledge about the impacts
of prescribed burning on logs and their associated biodiversity.
This project assessed the conservation value of logs in the stringy
bark woodlands of south-west Victoria and determines how logs are
impacted by different burning regimes including
wildfire.
At the regional level, my research findings will be
incorporated into a scientifically-defensible Burning Strategy for
the Stringybark woodlands of south west Victoria. These woodlands
are currently largely being managed for the conservation of the
threatened subspecies of the red-tailed black cockatoo. My
research, in conjunction with other researchers from the University
of Melbourne Forest and Fire Ecology Group and Latrobe University
will examine how the fire management practices that have been
adopted for the conservation of the red-tailed black cockatoo
impact on the other species inhabiting the forest.
At the State level, my research will
considerably improve our understanding of habitat requirements of
small vertebrate fauna and the potential impacts of fire on these
habitat components.
At the national level we know very little about the
impacts of repeated fires on small vertebrates and reptiles in
particular. This research will contribute to our knowledge of fire
ecology in Australia.
In five years time I would like to work in the area of
fire in Australia in a position that allows me to combine my
passion for science and biodiversity conservation, conducting field
research, and working with a range of stakeholders including the
local community, fire fighters, policy makers and
scientists.
Methane uptake in high plains
soils
Kerryn McTaggart -
University of Melbourne
Fire drastically changes our ecosystems. While the effects
on vegetation can be obvious little is understood
about the effects on atmospheric greenhouse gases, in particular
those controlled by soil microbial populations. My
project focuses on the effects of fire and climate change on the
consumption of methane from soil in the Bogong High Plains, in
north-east Victoria. In 2003 and 2006 these forests were burnt,
changing the soil properties.
This research is important as methane
(CH4) is an important greenhouse gas,
trapping more heat in the atmosphere than CO2 on a
unit mass basis. Aerobic soils, such as those
found in forests are important sinks of CH4 and
have been estimated to oxidize 3-10 percent of
emissions. The bacteria responsible for this
oxidation, methanotrophs, are affected by soil
disturbances such as fire, however the extent of this effect
and the relationships between soil properties and
CH4 oxidation are not well known, especially in
Australia. This project investigates the effects of a range of
soil properties with the aim of determining the magnitude of
its effect on methane oxidation so its importance can be
determined in relation to how this soil property is altered by
fire and climate change. Soil properties
investigated include temperature, pH, inorganic nitrogen and
soil moisture.
This research will provide a better understanding and
allow the prediction of the effect that altered soil properties due
to fire and climate change will have on the uptake of methane by
soil microbial populations. This research also aims to
provide information to be able to better quantify the methane
consumption of Australian alpine soils and to understand its
importance and sensitivity to disturbance.
In five years time I would like to be working in a
forestry or environmentally based field either in scientific
research or management. In particular I would like a
job that is related to the effects of fire and/or climate change on
our environment as knowledge in this area is critical for our
understanding to be able to make the best management decisions.
Finding hidden clues in the soil
Jaymie
Norris - University of Western Australia
My research concentrates on determining if there are
microbial clues to help us manage our forests. In our forests,
microbes play an integral role in cycling nutrients and maintaining
productivity. Whilst we can’t see them, without microbes, our
forests may not even exist.
Microbes also react to a fire event quickly
and generally show signs of recovery far quicker than trees or
animals and therefore may be able to tell us how a system is
affected by fire and more importantly, how it recovers. It is
these ‘clues’ about managing fire-prone landscapes
that microbes provide and any change in ‘what they
do’ can impact plants and animals down the
track.
A major element of fire known to play a role in
determining how a system is affected is intensity. A hotter fire
burns more fuel and heats up the soil and these factors impact upon
the microbes and the nutrients they feed on. I looked at how fire
intensity changed the spatial pattern of microbes and key nutrients
in the Jarrah forest in Western Australia. I also modelled the
nitrogen cycle, or function of the microbes in the soil as well as
the broad composition of the soil microbial community, 6 and 18
months post-fire to see if ‘what is there’ and
‘what it does’ is indeed effected by fire intensity,
and if it is, how quickly it recovers.
I also looked at the effect of fire intensity on soil
carbon pools, particularly charcoal, which has important
ramifications in carbon cycling and climate change.
My research will allow land managers to further take into
consideration how fire affects fundamental processes in an
ecosystem, how intensity plays an important role, and what this
means for prescribed burning regimes and wildfire management. As
carbon is becoming a more important managed asset, it is also
possible that the maximisation of carbon sequestration will become
a management goal into the future and my research provides
fundamental knowledge on carbon cycling in soil.
In five years I would like to be building on my work in
the area of fire’s effect on carbon. I currently
work in the field of carbon assessment at the state level.
And with the introduction of the carbon pollution
reduction scheme the opportunities in this field are quite
significant. An important note here is that with carbon cycling in
Australian forests the major impact is bushfires. So, bushfire
research and carbon research combine very well.
Information flow
Greg
Hickey - University of Tasmania
My research is in to the way organisations come together
in order to respond to a bushfire threat. Inquiries held after
other emergency events such as the 9-11 terrorist attack have found
that the way that organisations can interact and collaborate with
each other is a critical factor in determining the efficacy of the
outcome of the response.
It was found that in the 9-11terrorist
response that as many as 150 agencies were involved. In the
Victorian fires of 2003, 45 different agencies were
involved.
The key finding on this is that the issues that constrain
and enable organisations to work together are both technical and
organisational in character.
The focus of my research is the organisational and human
factors.
During my research, as part of the Bushfire CRC D5
research team I have participated in many observations of Incident
Management Teams during both training exercises and during
responses to real bushfires. In addition, we have also conducted a
number (85) of interviews with personnel from Tasmania, Victoria,
New South Wales and Queensland.
My hope is that my research will result in some very
beneficial and practical outcomes. The aim of my research is to
design a survey tool in the form of a checklist that can be used by
agencies as a way of discovering where the problems are occurring.
At a later point this same information would be given back to these
agencies as a way of resolving the problems that have been
identified.
Professionally in the next five years I would like to play
some part in the implementation of the findings of my
PhD.
My academic background, prior to my involvement with the
Bushfire CRC was in the area of sociology; specifically Society and
the Natural Environment. I believe that there are opportunities, if
not a need, for many of the issues related to bushfire management
and mitigation in Australia to be incorporated in to the study of
society and nature more generally; such as population, planning,
geo-politics, social movements, crime (arson), ecological
sustainability and cultural identity.
If the ecological and climatic changes predicted
eventuate, as a consequence of carbon pollution, there will be a
corresponding level of need for Australians to have a better
understanding of bushfire within Australia’s social and
ecological contexts. I hope to play a part, albeit a small one, in
facilitating in that outcome.
Fungi and a healthy forest
Bryony
Horton - University of Tasmania
My research is trying to find out what makes a eucalypt
forest healthy. All around Australia lots of different eucalypts
appear unhealthy because they suffer from a condition known as
dieback. Dieback is when a tree looses many of its leaves and
branches, which causes the tree to die young. In many cases we
don’t really know why dieback happens but one explanation is
that the frequency and intensity of fire in the landscape has
changed and this has altered the entire forest system, including
the vegetation, nutrients and fungi. To be able to improve the
health of our forests we need to understand exactly what had
changed and then how to manage it. One way of doing this is to look
at the fungi that help plants take up nutrients and see how these
differ in dying forest and healthy forest and how they relate to
fire history.
My research will add to the limited knowledge
we have on fungi in Australian forests by recording fungal
biodiversity. The outcomes of my research will also be useful
for directing and informing forest management, both for
industry and conservation. By examining the relationships
between fungi, fire history and eucalypt health I aim to get a
better understanding of why dieback occurs. This information
can then be used for forest management.
For example if we find that healthy forest and dying
forests have different fire histories then we may be able to use
this knowledge to manipulate fire treatments to make the forest
healthy again. And if healthy and dying forests have different
fungi, then we can use these fungi as indicators of the health of
the forest, which can help us make decisions about when to apply
management practices.
I would like to be working as a professional
ecologist with a group of research scientists who are passionate
about finding solutions to our current environmental problems. I
would like to be contributing to our understanding of how our
forests work and how to sustainably manage these forests, which are
essential for our everyday living. This will be a challenge with
the trends in climate change and with the often competing demands
on our forests. But it is a challenge that I look forward
to.
(This article first appeared in the Spring 2009 issue
of Fire Australia magazine.)
