Transforming fire management in northern Australia through successful implementation of savanna burning emissions reductions projects

Edwards, Andrew C.; Archer, Ricky; Bruyn, Phillip Conrad De; Evans, Jay; Lewis, Ben; Vigilante, Tom; Whyte, Sandy; Russell‐Smith, Jeremy

doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.112568

Cited by 40 publications

(50 citation statements)

References 88 publications

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“…We realize that such an approach across northern Australia's vast and remote landscapes is both a formidable and expensive challenge. We note that significant fire regime benefits have been realized across some areas in the last ten years (e.g., Radford et al, 2020a;Edwards et al, 2021), but that further improvements are also required (e.g., Russell-Smith et al, 2017;Evans and Russell-Smith, 2019;Edwards et al, 2021).…”

Section: Management Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 85%

“…Many of these improvements are being driven by emissions reductions schemes ('savanna burning') that incentivize the reduction of wildfires, and can provide the quantum of money needed to resource fire management for biodiversity conservation (Edwards et al, 2021). However, it is imperative that adequate and targeted monitoring, evaluation-and reporting are embedded within fire programs in an adaptive management context (see Corey et al, 2020) to better understand the biodiversity implications of fire management.…”

Section: Management Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Landscape-Scale Effects of Fire, Cats, and Feral Livestock on Threatened Savanna Mammals: Unburnt Habitat Matters More Than Pyrodiversity

Radford

Corey

Carnes³

et al. 2021

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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Northern Australia has undergone significant declines among threatened small and medium-sized mammals in recent decades. Conceptual models postulate that predation by feral cats is the primary driver, with changed disturbance regimes from fire and feral livestock in recent decades reducing habitat cover and exacerbating declines. However, there is little guidance on what scale habitat and disturbance attributes are most important for threatened mammals, and what elements and scale of fire mosaics actually support mammals. In this study, we test a series of hypotheses regarding the influence of site-scale (50 × 50 m) habitat and disturbance attributes, as well as local-scale (1 km radius), meta-local scale (3 km), landscape-scale (5 km) and meta-landscape scale (10 km) fire mosaic attributes on mammal abundance and richness. We found that habitat cover (rock, perennial grass, and shrub cover) at the site-scale had a positive effect, and disturbance factors (feral cats, fire, feral livestock) had a negative influence on mammal abundance and richness. Models supported site-scale habitat and disturbance factors as more important for mammals than broader-scale (local up to meta-landscape scale) fire mosaic attributes. Finally, we found that increasing the extent of ≥ 4 year unburnt habitat, and having an intermediate percentage (ca. 25%) of recently burnt (1-year burnt) habitat within the mosaic, were the most important functional elements of the fire mosaic at broad scales for mammals. Contrary to expectations, diversity of post-fire ages (‘pyrodiversity’) was negatively associated with mammal abundance and richness. These results highlight the need for management to promote retention of longer unburnt vegetation in sufficient patches across savanna landscapes (particularly of shrub and fruiting trees), maintain low-intensity patchy fire regimes, reduce the extent of intense late dry season wildfires, and to reduce the impact of feral livestock. This study provides further evidence for the role of feral cats in northern Australian mammal declines, and highlights the need for increased research into the efficacy of cat control methodologies in reducing biodiversity impacts in these extensive landscapes.

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Section: Management Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 85%

Section: Management Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Landscape-Scale Effects of Fire, Cats, and Feral Livestock on Threatened Savanna Mammals: Unburnt Habitat Matters More Than Pyrodiversity

Radford

Corey

Carnes³

et al. 2021

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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“…Fire is one of the main drivers of vegetation structure and composition in the tropical savanna region and many studies have demonstrated a negative relationship between high fire frequency, extent and intensity, and the richness and abundance of terrestrial fauna in north Australian savanna landscapes [14,23,29,[103][104][105][106], but the absence of fire can also be a driver of declines through lack of rejuvenation of plant species [107]. The season, patchiness, and size of the burnt areas are also factors in the heterogeneity of the post-fire recovery landscape [108].…”

Section: Resurgence Of Fire Applicationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This push has found support in the Emissions Reduction Fund (ERF) Savanna Fire Management Determination, which was established in 2012 [115]. Overall, the program has been a success on pastoral, conservation, and Indigenous lands, with 25% of the higher-rainfall (>600 mm/a) savanna region (1.2 M km 2 ) now under this program and showing substantial improvements in fire regimes, including a reduction in wildfires [14].…”

Section: Resurgence Of Fire Applicationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Most of the 1.9 million square kilometers (26% of the Australian landmass) [14] of the northern Australian savanna region lacks any monitoring of species or ecosystems. This is in part due to a reduction in research and monitoring capacity through the demise of institutions, such as Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) centers, that are devoted to ecosystem and species research, the limited capacity of research institutions (only two universities with an ecological research focus exist in northern Australia), the reliance on remote sensing and vegetation condition monitoring [15], which do not detect faunal trends, and the dilution of focused research by state environment departments coinciding with dispersed research efforts from Natural Resource Management (NRM) groups and private conservation organizations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Gaps in Monitoring Leave Northern Australian Mammal Fauna with Uncertain Futures

Preece

Fitzsimons

2022

Diversity

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Northern Australian biomes hold high biodiversity values within largely intact vegetation complexes, yet many species of mammals, and some other taxa, are endangered. Recently, six mammal species were added to the 20 or so already listed in the Australian endangered category. Current predictions suggest that nine species of mammal in northern Australia are in imminent danger of extinction within 20 years. We examine the robustness of the assumptions of status and trends in light of the low levels of monitoring of species and ecosystems across northern Australia, including monitoring the effects of management actions. The causes of the declines include a warming climate, pest species, changed fire regimes, grazing by introduced herbivores, and diseases, and work to help species and ecosystems recover is being conducted across the region. Indigenous custodians who work on the land have the potential and capacity to provide a significant human resource to tackle the challenge of species recovery. By working with non-Indigenous researchers and conservation managers, and with adequate support and incentives, many improvements in species’ downward trajectories could be made. We propose a strategy to establish a network of monitoring sites based on a pragmatic approach by prioritizing particular bioregions. The policies that determine research and monitoring investment need to be re-set and new and modified approaches need to be implemented urgently. The funding needs to be returned to levels that are adequate for the task. At present resourcing levels, species are likely to become extinct through an avoidable attrition process.

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Using a demographic model to project the long‐term effects of fire management on tree biomass in Australian savannas

Murphy

Whitehead

Evans

et al. 2023

Ecological Monographs

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Tropical savannas are characterized by high primary productivity and high fire frequency, such that much of the carbon captured by vegetation is rapidly returned to the atmosphere. Hence, there have been suggestions that management‐driven reductions in savanna fire frequency and/or severity could significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and sequester carbon in tree biomass. However, a key knowledge gap is the extent to which savanna tree biomass will respond to modest shifts in fire regimes due to plausible, large‐scale management interventions. Here, we: (1) characterize relationships between the frequency and severity of fires and key demographic rates of savanna trees, based on long‐term observations in vegetation monitoring plots across northern Australia; (2) use these relationships to develop a process‐explicit demographic model describing the effects of fire on savanna tree populations; and (3) use the demographic model to address the question: to what extent is it feasible, through the strategic application of prescribed burning, to increase tree biomass in Australian tropical savannas? Our long‐term tree monitoring dataset included observations of 12,344 tagged trees in 236 plots, monitored for between 3 and 24 years. Analysis of this dataset showed that frequent high‐severity fires significantly reduced savanna tree recruitment, survival, and growth. Our demographic model suggested that: (1) despite the negative effects of frequent high‐severity fires on demographic rates, savanna tree biomass appears to be suppressed by only a relatively small amount by contemporary fire regimes, characterized by a mix of low‐ to high‐severity fires; and (2) plausible, management‐driven reductions in the frequency of high‐severity fires are likely to lead to increases in tree biomass of about 11.0 t DM ha−1 (95% CI: −1.2–20.8) over a century. Accounting for this increase in carbon storage could generate significant carbon credits, worth, on average, three times those generated annually by current greenhouse gas (methane and nitrous oxide) abatement projects, and has the potential to significantly increase the economic viability of fire/carbon projects, thereby promoting ecologically sustainable management of tropical savannas in Australia and elsewhere. This growing industry has the potential to bring much‐needed economic activity to savanna landscapes, without compromising important natural and cultural values.

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Transforming fire management in northern Australia through successful implementation of savanna burning emissions reductions projects

Cited by 40 publications

References 88 publications

Landscape-Scale Effects of Fire, Cats, and Feral Livestock on Threatened Savanna Mammals: Unburnt Habitat Matters More Than Pyrodiversity

Landscape-Scale Effects of Fire, Cats, and Feral Livestock on Threatened Savanna Mammals: Unburnt Habitat Matters More Than Pyrodiversity

Gaps in Monitoring Leave Northern Australian Mammal Fauna with Uncertain Futures

Using a demographic model to project the long‐term effects of fire management on tree biomass in Australian savannas

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