Project Leader Lachlan McCaw, Department of Environment and Conservation WA

This project seeks to improve understanding of the ecological effects of fire on a landscape scale by comparing the flora and fauna in forest areas subjected to different fire regimes over the past five decades. 

Using 50 years of mapped fire history that includes details of the extent and season of prescribed burning and wildfires, the project identifies patterns of change in the abundance and richness of biota as a result of different fire regimes in forested landscapes in southern Western Australia. Satellite imagery will be used to examine spatial patterns of fire intensity, and patchiness within management blocks.

The study will improve current understanding of ecological effects of fire on a landscape scale and improve capacity for modelling and predicting the sensitivity of bushfire risk to management and climate change. Findings will inform fire managers providing them with scientifically–based guidelines for the optimum frequency, season, intensity and extent of burning to achieve a range of land management objectives.