Impacts of changed fire regimes on tropical riparian vegetation invaded by an exotic vine

Radford, Ian J.; Grice, A. C.; Abbott, Brett N.; Nicholas, David M.; Whiteman, L. V.

doi:10.1111/j.1442-9993.2007.01803.x

Cited by 26 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 65 publications

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“…The role of prescribed fire frequency and intensity in controlling woody invasives has rarely been tested (but see Radford et al 2008). Nevertheless, we identified 46 studies examining how fire regime may be used to hinder or control exotic woody plant invasions (Table 2).…”

Section: Fire and Management Of Woody Invasive Speciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Woody exotic plant invasions and fire: reciprocal impacts and consequences for native ecosystems

et al. 2011

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Fire regimes influence and are influenced by the structure and composition of plant communities. This complex reciprocal relationship has implications for the success of plant invasions and the subsequent impact of invasive species on native biota. Although much attention has been given to the role of invasive grasses in transforming fire regimes and native plant communities, little is known about the relationship between woody invasive species and fire regime. Despite this, prescribed burning is frequently used for managing invasive woody species. In this study we review relationships between woody exotic plant invasions and fire in invaded ecosystems worldwide. Woody invaders may increase or decrease aspects of the fire regime, including fire frequency, intensity and extent. This is in contrast to grass invaders which almost uniformly increase fire frequency. Woody plant invasion can lead to escape from a grass-fire cycle, but the resulting reduction in fire frequency can sometimes lead to a cycle of rare but more intense fires. Prescribed fires may be a useful management tool for controlling woody exotic invaders in some systems, but they are rarely sufficient to eliminate an invasive species, and a dearth of controlled experiments hampers evaluation of their benefits. Nevertheless, because some woody invaders have fuel properties that differ substantially from native species, understanding and managing the impacts of woody invaders on fire regimes and on prescribed burns should become an important component of resource and biodiversity management.

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Section: Fire and Management Of Woody Invasive Speciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Woody exotic plant invasions and fire: reciprocal impacts and consequences for native ecosystems

et al. 2011

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“…Greater richness and abundance of stems in the 0-1 m, 1-2 m and 2-6 m height classes characterised patches of less 48 frequent fires, burnt in the early dry season, and with a longer time since last fire. This is consistent with previous studies in which less-frequently burnt or long-unburnt sites had a more complex structure and composition than sites burnt more frequently (Hoffman 1999;Williams et al 1999;Woinarski et al 2004;Radford et al 2008;Lewis and Debuse 2012).…”

Section: Fire Regimes and Habitat Structuresupporting

confidence: 92%

“…A thickening of some Acacia species in the midstorey strata in sites burnt infrequently and with a longer time since last fire (> 4 years) was observed in the field. This supports the findings from an experimental fire study in savanna woodlands in north Queensland (see Radford et al 2008).…”

Section: Fire Regimes and Woody Plant Species Compositionsupporting

confidence: 90%

“…For example, a reduction in population growth of woody species was most strongly linked to the negative effect of frequent fires on individual plant size in the Brazilian Cerrado ecosystem (Hoffman 1999). Studies from the northern Australian savanna reported greater recruitment of stems into the mid-storey following periods of low fire frequency and/or intensity Russell-Smith et al 2003;Woinarski et al 2004;Radford et al 2008). Previous studies have demonstrated a positive relationship between a species' resilience to fire and plant height and age (Fensham and Fairfax 2006;Gignoux et al 2009;Lewis and Debuse 2012).…”

Section: Fire Regimes and Habitat Structurementioning

confidence: 98%

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Drivers of diversity at the local- and landscape-scale in a fire-prone landscape

Burgess¹

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Determining the factors that generate and maintain patterns of biodiversity is a challenge central to ecology. To effectively manage heterogeneous landscapes for biodiversity conservation there is a need to understand the mechanisms driving the relationship between spatial heterogeneity and species richness at multiple scales. Disturbances such as fire affect landscape heterogeneity and are important influences on the distribution and abundance of biota across a range of scales. A key challenge for biodiversity conservation in fire-prone ecosystems is thus to understand the influence of fire on biotic communities.Contemporary ecological fire management resounds with the term 'pyrodiversity'. Efforts to achieve pyrodiversity are usually motivated by the rationale that increasing gamma diversity relies upon maintaining a mosaic of patches of different fire histories. From a global review of literature, this thesis revealed that despite widespread acceptance of this paradigm, the evidence supporting it is extremely sparse. This dearth of knowledge of how heterogeneity affects biota limits effective application of the mosaic burning approach. Studies that consider the spatial and temporal attributes of the fire regime mosaic, and investigate the relationship between these and multiple taxa at different spatial scales, are urgently required.To respond to this knowledge gap, this thesis investigated the effects of fire history and habitat heterogeneity on structure and composition of floral and avifaunal communities. This thesis tests hypotheses about the importance of variable fire regimes, spatial heterogeneity, extent of habitat, and local-and landscape-responses on birds and their habitat in the fire-prone sub-tropical woodlands of central Queensland. Two methods were used to collect the data: i) digital mapping and characterisation of the fire regime mosaic; and ii) surveys of woody vegetation and avifaunal communities.The post-fire response of vegetation reflects not only a single fire event but is the result of cumulative effects of previous fires in the landscape. Fire history categories based on unique combinations of time since last burn, fire frequency and season of last burn were developed and used to map the fire regime mosaic of the study area. This thesis establishes that fire history category strongly influences richness and abundance of mid-storey trees and of individual plants currently comprising the mid-level strata. The particular elements of fire history, time since fire and fire frequency, had the strongest influence on vegetation structure. A longer time since fire (> 4 years since last burn) combined with infrequent fires (< 2 fires in 12 year period) appeared to iii promote a dense mid-storey with the opposite conditions promoting more-open woodlands. This is of particular relevance for conservation management of woodland birds that have been shown to respond strongly to habitat structural variables in the study area.Landscape heterogeneity and extent of habitat are each expected to c...

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“…Repeated episodes of such high-intensity fires result in depletion and eventual removal of tree cover and woody plants, transforming the savanna from open woodland to monospecific (or at least low diversity) non-native grasslands (Brooks et al 2010;Setterfield et al 2010). There are some contrasting cases: for some weed species, such as Rubber Vine (Cryptostegia grandiflora), fire (either single intense fires or a particular fire regime) may provide the most effective and economical mode of control (Radford et al 2008).…”

Section: Interactions Of Fire With Other Factorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The impacts of fire on birds in Australia's tropical savannas

Woinarski

Legge

2013

Emu - Austral Ornithology

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Abstract. The ecology of Australia's tropical savannas is shaped by the near-pervasive influence of fire. Constituting 20% of Australia's land area, tropical savannas contribute >75% of the area burnt in Australia each year. Across most of Australia's tropical savannas, components of biodiversity are declining, including many species of birds. This review seeks to assess whether that decline is linked to current fire regimes. However, relevant studies are few, short-term and opportunistic, and indicate rather than demonstrate the effects of fire. There is no set of agreed paradigms for contextualising the relationship between birds and fire regimes in this region or for any management consequences. We conclude that the current fire regime is suboptimal for many species of birds, particularly for granivores, frugivores, hollow-dependent species and those that nest on or near the ground. For conservation reserves, we recommend that fire management protocols include the explicit targets that: (1) at least 25% of the savanna landscape is at least 3 years unburnt; (2) at least 5% is at least 10 years unburnt; (3) fire-sensitive non-savanna vegetation types are increasing or stable and (4) populations of selected hollownesting, ground-nesting, frugivorous and granivorous birds are increasing or stable. We also identify key knowledge gaps that currently inhibit conservation management.

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Impacts of changed fire regimes on tropical riparian vegetation invaded by an exotic vine

Cited by 26 publications

References 65 publications

Woody exotic plant invasions and fire: reciprocal impacts and consequences for native ecosystems

Woody exotic plant invasions and fire: reciprocal impacts and consequences for native ecosystems

Drivers of diversity at the local- and landscape-scale in a fire-prone landscape

The impacts of fire on birds in Australia's tropical savannas

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