GC031-02
Assessing recovery of the Australian mountain systems following the 2019-2020 wildfires using a network of monitoring and experimental manipulation infrastructure

Tuesday, 8 December 2020: 16:04
Virtual
Zachary Alexander Brown1, Adrienne Nicotra2, Susanna Venn3, Mark Joseph Hovenden4, Ben Kefford5, Angela Moles6, Geoff Cary2, Marta Yebra7, Justin Borevitz2, Elcho Rohling2, Don Driscoll3, Will Cornwell6, David Keith6, Greg Summerell8, Mick Pettit9, Tim Brown2 and Abigail Widdup2, (1)Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia, (2)Australian National University, Canberra, Australia, (3)Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia, (4)University of Tasmania, Hobart, TAS, Australia, (5)University of Canberra, Canberra, Australia, (6)University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, (7)The Australian National University, Fenner School of Environment and Society, Acton, Australia, (8)Australian Department of Primary Industry and Environment, Sydney, Australia, (9)New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service, Jindabyne, Australia
Abstract:
Australia is predominantly flat and arid with only 0.15% of the landmass considered alpine or subalpine. Although a small portion of the continent, this bioregion contains a high amount of biodiversity, immense stores of carbon in peat, provides AUD10B/yr of water to the national economy, and is culturally important to both indigenous and non-indigenous Australians. Before European settlement, indigenous Australians used infrequent fires as part of their land management activities. European pastoralism dramatically increased the frequency of fires in the mountains until the area was reserved mid-20th century. In recent decades, wildfires have scorched the Australian Alps during periods of severe drought. Observations of biodiversity following the alpine fires of the early 2000s suggests many plant species in this region are resilient to infrequent, intense fires. However, increased prevalence of severe drought in the face of climate change may lead to greater frequency and intensity of fires. What’s more, post-fire recovery in the future is likely to co-occur with drought, altered snowpack and changed thermal regimes. Thus, forecasting future ecosystem recovery requires long term monitoring and controlled perturbation of fire-affected systems. The Australian Mountain Research Facility is a network of research infrastructure strategically positioned in alpine landscapes affected by the 2019-2020 fires. Monitoring station nodes provide data streams from the leaf to landscape scale and from the soil subsurface to the atmosphere. Several nodes are equipped to measure landscape-level carbon and water flux, seismographic activity and all measure micrometeorological parameters. Manipulation experiments simulate drought and altered thermal regimes through passive manipulation and controlled chambers. Here we present an overview of fire in the Australian Alps, our network design and the direction of our current research aims as they relate to fire-affected sub/alpine systems.

We invite interested parties to contact us via our website (AMRF.org.au).

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