TY - JOUR
T1 - Ecological thresholds and the status of fire-sensitive Vegetation in western Arnhem Land, northern Australia
T2 - Implications for management
AU - Edwards, Andrew C.
AU - Russell-Smith, Jeremy
PY - 2009
Y1 - 2009
N2 - The 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 24000 km 2 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.
AB - The 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 24000 km 2 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.
KW - Fire regimes
KW - Fire-sensitive species
KW - Heath
KW - Rain forest
KW - Satellite imagery
KW - Savanna
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=60849093409&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1071/WF08008
DO - 10.1071/WF08008
M3 - Article
SN - 1049-8001
VL - 18
SP - 127
EP - 146
JO - International Journal of Wildland Fire
JF - International Journal of Wildland Fire
IS - 2
ER -