Changing Fire Management in the Pastoral Lands of Cape York Peninsula of northeast Australia, 1623 to 1996

Crowley, Gabriel; Garnett, Stephen T.

doi:10.1111/1467-8470.00097

Cited by 55 publications

(61 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Yet, increased particle concentrations were always detectable on the ground approximately 15 to 20 km downwind. Forest fires, common in Australia for centuries (Crowley and Garnett, 2012), can occasionally be a locally dominating source of particulate matter. Measurements of particle emission factors (Janha¨ll et al, 2010) …”

Section: Emissions From Other Sourcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ultrafine particles over Eastern Australia: an airborne survey

Junkermann

Hacker

2015

Tellus B: Chemical and Physical Meteorology

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A B S T R A C T Ultrafine particles (UFP) in the atmosphere may have significant impacts on the regional water and radiation budgets through secondary effects on cloud microphysics. Yet, as these particles are invisible for current remote sensing techniques, knowledge about their three-dimensional distribution, source strengths and budgets is limited. Building on a 40-yr-old Australia-wide airborne survey which provides a reference case study of aerosol sources and budgets, this study presents results from a new airborne survey over Eastern Australia, northern New South Wales and Queensland. Observations identified apparent changes in the number and distribution of major anthropogenic aerosol sources since the early 1970s, which might relate to the simultaneously observed changes in rainfall patterns over eastern Queensland. Coal-fired power stations in the inland areas between Brisbane and Rockhampton were clearly identified as the major sources for ultrafine particulate matter. Sugar mills, smelters and shipping along the coast close to the Ports of Townsville and Rockhampton were comparable minor sources. Airborne Lagrangian plume studies were applied to investigate source strength and ageing properties within power station plumes. Significant changes observed, compared to the measurements in the 1970s, included a significant increase in the number concentration of UFP related to coal-fired power station emissions in the sparsely populated Queensland hinterland coincident with the area with the most pronounced reduction in rainfall.

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Section: Emissions From Other Sourcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ultrafine particles over Eastern Australia: an airborne survey

Junkermann

Hacker

2015

Tellus B: Chemical and Physical Meteorology

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show abstract

“…Bowman and Panton (1993) similarly suggested that a shift from low intensity to high intensity fire is associated with cessation of Aboriginal fire management in coastal regions of the Northern Territory. Crowley and Garnett (2000) argued that on Cape York Peninsula the opposite has occurred, with pastoralists concentrating their burning earlier in the year than Aboriginal people.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cattle, mining or fire? The historical causes of recent contractions of open forest in the wet tropics of Queensland through invasion by rainforest

Hill¹,

Smyth²,

Shipton³

et al. 2001

Pac. Conserv. Biol.

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Changes to Aboriginal fire regimes since European occupation are thought to have affected the range and demographic structure of many vegetation communities. This study shows a contraction by 49% of the area of fireprone open forest through rainforest invasion between 1945 and 1991-94 in the northern wet tropics of Queensland, Australia. Relative Growth Rates (RGR) for open forest areas varied from -0.112 to -0.005. Collaborative historical research with the Aboriginal traditional owners, the Kuku-Yalanji people, investigated possible linkages with alterations to their fire practices. A multiplicity of human impacts is associated with the measured vegetation change, including clearing for agriculture and mining, logging for timber and firewood, and the introduction of cattle and horses. Some rainforest expansion since 1945 represents a recovery following clearing from earlier mining operations. Contraction of open forest through rainforest invasion was most rapid (RGR = -0.124) where there was a continuation of Aboriginal fire management with cattle grazing. The contraction of open forest was nine times slower in an ungrazed area (RGR = -0.005) than in a nearby area grazed by horses (RGR = -0.045). Aboriginal fire regimes may act synergistically with cattle or horse grazing to accelerate the invasion of rainforest into open forest. Management prescriptions currently focus on active fire management to prevent further open forest contraction. However, fire management may have unexpected outcomes when rainforest-open forest dynamics are complicated by recent historical factors such as cattle grazing, logging, and tin mining, and possible synergies between these factors and fire regimes.Managers need to understand the histories of particular sites when formulating plans, and monitor the consequences of their actions to enable an adaptive approach.

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“…(2) Declines are expected to be related to fire regimes, as these vary markedly across the northern Australian landscape and have changed considerably in both frequency and timing since European settlement (Braithwaite 1991;Crowley and Garnett 2000;Russell-Smith et al 2003a). The general trend has been for decreased frequency in pastoral areas and increased frequency in the higher-rainfall nonpastoral areas of the far north.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Geographic patterns and correlates of the decline of granivorous birds in northern Australia

et al. 2005

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A geographic index of the decline in the distribution and abundance of granivorous birds in tropical northern Australia shows that declines are greatest in Queensland and especially in the south-eastern tropics and in inland areas, and lowest in the north Kimberley and east Arnhem districts. In this paper, we use generalised linear models to investigate interrelationships among an index of decline in 1° by 1° cells and measures of grazing intensity and contemporary patterns of burning, together with the environmental variables of rainfall, vegetation and topographic patterning in the landscape. Grazing intensity was the single strongest human effect but strong correlations between grazing intensity and other human influences suggest that these may have been subsumed within the grazing intensity measure. Impacts of grazing may be worse where pastoral settlement occurred earlier. Topographic variation appeared to be a mitigating effect, suggesting a role for ‘topographic refuges’ from human activities. Relationships among granivore declines, grazing and rainfall are difficult to disentangle using inferential statistics, but a consistent effect is that declines are more severe in areas with greater year-to-year variation in rainfall. We do not suggest that our analyses are conclusive. However, they do support the proposition that better understanding of the causes of decline at finer spatial scales will emerge most strongly in studies that link habitat quality with granivore demography at inland sites of highly variable year-to-year rainfall and with strongly contrasting grazing histories.

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Changing Fire Management in the Pastoral Lands of Cape York Peninsula of northeast Australia, 1623 to 1996

Cited by 55 publications

References 18 publications

Ultrafine particles over Eastern Australia: an airborne survey

Ultrafine particles over Eastern Australia: an airborne survey

Cattle, mining or fire? The historical causes of recent contractions of open forest in the wet tropics of Queensland through invasion by rainforest

Geographic patterns and correlates of the decline of granivorous birds in northern Australia

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