Control of the Understorey in Wet Eucalypt Forests

The effects of mechanical disturbance and burn intensity on the floristic composition of two-year old aggregated retention coupes in Tasmanian wet eucalypt forests

“…Haeussler et al (2002) stated that as fire intensity increases during logging operations, it will begin to favour species regenerating from exogenous seed rather than vegetatively or from the seedbank. Since most understorey species in wet eucalypt forests regenerate from soil-stored seed (Cunningham and Cremer, 1965;Ashton and Martin, 1996b;Murphy and Ough, 1997;Wang, 1997;Harris, 2004), high soil temperatures might kill seed and therefore reduce regeneration following disturbance (Williams et al, 1994). This is also consistent with Burrows et al (2002) who found that the abundance of woody shrubs was substantially lower on ashbed compared to areas of lower fire intensity following logging in Western Australia.…”

“…Unburnt/disturbed seedbed showed a similar pattern in floristic composition to the other disturbed seedbeds, but in contrast had relatively high species richness. Cunningham and Cremer (1965) found that while soil disturbance during logging operations usually allowed typical wet sclerophyll species to germinate in sufficient numbers to form a dense understorey, it was usually less dense than after wildfire and often with a different species composition. The greater abundance of ferns on this seedbed is likely to have contributed to the relatively high species richness, which may have been due to the survival and recovery of some after the regeneration burn.…”

Fire and The Australian Flora: A Review

“…Understory communities are usually tall. and dense (Galbraith 1937, Gilbert 1959, Cunningham and Cremer 1965.…”

Browsing of Mountain Ash Regeneration by Wallabies and Possums in Tasmania

“…Some of the author's data on effects of browsing in the study area have already been published in relation to other studies: Cunningham and Cremer ( 1965), Cremer and Mount ( 1965). Both publications pointed out that Manuscript browsing may greatly reduce survival of woody plants and alter the composition of the vegetation.…”