Spatio-temporal of wildfire in semi-arid southern Western Australia

This project is investigating the spatial and temporal dynamics of wildfire in the shrublands and woodlands of the Lake Johnston region in southern Western Australia. This region has been subject to only minimal intervention for fire management; hence, the fire history of the region remains relatively unaltered (at least since the 1940s) and provides us with a unique opportunity to observe ‘natural’ fire patterns, which have been readily altered elsewhere.

We have developed a fire history database for the Lake Johnston region by digitising visible fire scars from remotely sensed imagery.  This database includes information on the location, spatial extent, and date of all fires that have occurred in the region since 1940. We have validated this database and confirmed the date of historical fires by assessing the age-class structure and distribution of ‘fire-sensitive’ native conifers (Callitris spp.) using dendrochronological techniques.

The fire history database is now being used to investigate:

1.      Drivers and constraints of fire regimes (e.g. landscape features, vegetation types, previous fire scars and weather patterns), and

2.      The role of fire in shaping the distribution of vegetation types and structure of eucalypt woodlands in the Lake Johnston region.

This research is providing critical data and information for the appropriate management of fire in semi-arid landscapes in Australia.

Alison recently presented a talk on her findings to date titled “Reconstructing the fire history of an unmanaged semi-arid landscape using remote sensing and dendrochronological techniques” at the Ecological Society of Australia Annual Conference held in Perth in November 2007 and was awarded the “Australian Flora Foundation award for best oral paper presentation by a student”.

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