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Fire frequency has a contrasting effect on vegetation and topsoil in subcoastal heathland, woodland and forest ecosystems, south-east Queensland, Australia4.43 MB
Published VersionCC BY V4.0, Open Access
Journal article
Fire frequency has a contrasting effect on vegetation and topsoil in subcoastal heathland, woodland and forest ecosystems, south-east Queensland, Australia
Austral Ecology , Vol.48(8), pp.1865-1887
2023
Abstract
Ecosystems managed with contrasting fire regimes provide insight into the responses of vegetation and soil. Heathland, woodland and forest ecosystems along a gradient of resource availability were burnt over four decades in approximately 3- or 5-year intervals or were unburnt for 45–47 years (heathland, woodland), or experienced infrequent wildfires (forest: 14 years since the last fire). We hypothesized that, relative to unburnt or infrequent fires, frequent burning would favour herbaceous species over woody species and resprouting over obligate seeder species, and reduce understorey vegetation height, and topsoil carbon and nitrogen content. Our hypothesis was partially supported in that herbaceous plant density was higher in frequently burnt vegetation; however, woody plant density was also higher in frequently burnt areas relative to unburnt/infrequently burnt areas, across all ecosystems. In heathland, omission of frequent fire resulted in the dominance of fern Gleichenia dicarpa and subsequent competitive exclusion of understorey species and lower species diversity. As hypothesized, frequent burning in woodland and forest increased the density of facultative resprouters and significantly reduced soil organic carbon levels relative to unburnt sites. Our findings confirm that regular burning conserves understorey diversity and maintains an understorey of lower statured herbaceous plants, although demonstrates the potential trade-off of frequent burning with lower topsoil carbon levels in the woodland and forest. Some ecosystem specific responses to varied fire frequencies were observed, reflecting differences in species composition and fire response traits between ecosystems. Overall, unburnt vegetation resulted in the dominance of some species over others and the different vegetation types were able to withstand relatively high-frequency fire without the loss of biodiversity, mainly due to high environmental productivity and short juvenile periods.
Details
- Title
- Fire frequency has a contrasting effect on vegetation and topsoil in subcoastal heathland, woodland and forest ecosystems, south-east Queensland, Australia
- Authors
- Madeline Dooley (Corresponding Author) - The University of QueenslandTom Lewis (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Forest Research InstituteSusanne Schmidt (Author) - The University of Queensland
- Publication details
- Austral Ecology , Vol.48(8), pp.1865-1887
- Publisher
- John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
- Date published
- 2023
- DOI
- 10.1111/aec.13427
- ISSN
- 1442-9993; 1442-9985
- Copyright note
- This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2023 The Authors. Austral Ecology published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of Ecological Society of Australia.
- Organisation Unit
- Forest Research Institute
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 99966897002621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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