High-severity wildfires in temperate Australian forests have increased in extent and aggregation in recent decades.

Autor: Tran BN; School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, University of Melbourne, Richmond, Victoria, Australia.; Faculty of Environment, Vietnam National University of Agriculture, Trauquy, Gialam, Hanoi, Vietnam., Tanase MA; School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, University of Melbourne, Richmond, Victoria, Australia.; Department of Geology, Geography and Environment, University of Alcala, Alcala de Henares, Spain., Bennett LT; School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Creswick, Victoria, Australia., Aponte C; School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, University of Melbourne, Richmond, Victoria, Australia.; National Institute for Research and Development in Forestry 'Marin Dracea', Voluntari, Ilfov, Romania.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: PloS one [PLoS One] 2020 Nov 18; Vol. 15 (11), pp. e0242484. Date of Electronic Publication: 2020 Nov 18 (Print Publication: 2020).
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0242484
Abstrakt: Wildfires have increased in size and frequency in recent decades in many biomes, but have they also become more severe? This question remains under-examined despite fire severity being a critical aspect of fire regimes that indicates fire impacts on ecosystem attributes and associated post-fire recovery. We conducted a retrospective analysis of wildfires larger than 1000 ha in south-eastern Australia to examine the extent and spatial pattern of high-severity burned areas between 1987 and 2017. High-severity maps were generated from Landsat remote sensing imagery. Total and proportional high-severity burned area increased through time. The number of high-severity patches per year remained unchanged but variability in patch size increased, and patches became more aggregated and more irregular in shape. Our results confirm that wildfires in southern Australia have become more severe. This shift in fire regime may have critical consequences for ecosystem dynamics, as fire-adapted temperate forests are more likely to be burned at high severities relative to historical ranges, a trend that seems set to continue under projections of a hotter, drier climate in south-eastern Australia.
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist
Databáze: MEDLINE
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