Ecological thresholds and the status of fire-sensitive vegetation in western Arnhem Land, northern Australia: implications for management

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BushfireTopic: 
Fire Management
ResearchAdoption: 
Prescribed burning
Project Reference: 
Burning for biodiversity in tropical ecosystems
TitleEcological thresholds and the status of fire-sensitive vegetation in western Arnhem Land, northern Australia: implications for management
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2009
AuthorsEdwards, AC, Russell-Smith, J
JournalInternational Journal of Wildland Fire
Volume18
Issue2
Pagination127
Date Published2009
AbstractThe paper examines the application of the ecological thresholds concept to fire management issues concerning fire-sensitive vegetation types associated with the remote, biodiversity-rich, sandstone Arnhem Plateau, in western Arnhem Land, monsoonal northern Australia. In the absence of detailed assessments of fire regime impacts on component biota such as exist for adjoining Nitmiluk and World Heritage Kakadu National Parks, the paper builds on validated 16-year fire history and vegetation structural mapping products derived principally from Landsat-scale imagery, to apply critical ecological thresholds criteria as defined by fire regime parameters for assessing the status of fire-sensitive habitat and species elements. Assembled data indicate that the 24 000 km2 study region today experiences fire regimes characterised generally by high annual frequencies (mean = 36.6%) of large (>10 km2) fires that occur mostly in the late dry season under severe fire-weather conditions. Collectively, such conditions substantially exceed defined ecological thresholds for significant proportions of fire-sensitive indicator rain forest and heath vegetation types, and the long-lived obligate seeder conifer tree species, Callitris intratropica. Thresholds criteria are recognised as an effective tool for informing ecological fire management in a variety of geographic settings.
DOI10.1071/WF08008
Short TitleInt. J. Wildland Fire
Refereed DesignationRefereed