干旱区生态环境知识资源中心(Arid): Rainfall-Linked Megafires as Innate Fire Regime Elements in Arid Australian Spinifex (Triodia spp.) Grasslands

Arid

DOI	10.3389/fevo.2021.666241
	Rainfall-Linked Megafires as Innate Fire Regime Elements in Arid Australian Spinifex (Triodia spp.) Grasslands
	Wright, Boyd R.; Laffineur, Boris; Roye, Dominic; Armstrong, Graeme; Fensham, Roderick J.
通讯作者	Wright, BR (corresponding author), Univ New England, Sch Environm & Rural Sci, Dept Bot, Armidale, NSW, Australia. ; Wright, BR (corresponding author), Univ Queensland, Sch Agr & Food Sci, St Lucia, Qld, Australia. ; Wright, BR (corresponding author), Northern Terr Herbarium, Dept Land Resource Management, Alice Springs, NT, Australia.
来源期刊	FRONTIERS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
ISSN	2296-701X
出版年	2021
卷号	9
英文摘要	Large, high-severity wildfires, or megafires, occur periodically in arid Australian spinifex (Triodia spp.) grasslands after high rainfall periods that trigger fuel accumulation. Proponents of the patch-burn mosaic (PBM) hypothesis suggest that these fires are unprecedented in the modern era and were formerly constrained by Aboriginal patch burning that kept landscape fuel levels low. This assumption deserves scrutiny, as evidence from fire-prone systems globally indicates that weather factors are the primary determinant behind megafire incidence, and that fuel management does not mitigate such fires during periods of climatic extreme. We reviewed explorer's diaries, anthropologist's reports, and remotely sensed data from the Australian Western Desert for evidence of large rainfall-linked fires during the pre-contact period when traditional Aboriginal patch burning was still being practiced. We used only observations that contained empiric estimates of fire sizes. Concurrently, we employed remote rainfall data and the Oceanic Nino Index to relate fire size to likely seasonal conditions at the time the observations were made. Numerous records were found of small fires during periods of average and below-average rainfall conditions, but no evidence of large-scale fires during these times. By contrast, there was strong evidence of large-scale wildfires during a high-rainfall period in the early 1870s, some of which are estimated to have burnt areas up to 700,000 ha. Our literature review also identified several Western Desert Aboriginal mythologies that refer to large-scale conflagrations. As oral traditions sometimes corroborate historic events, these myths may add further evidence that large fires are an inherent feature of spinifex grassland fire regimes. Overall, the results suggest that, contrary to predictions of the PBM hypothesis, traditional Aboriginal burning did not modulate spinifex fire size during periods of extreme-high arid zone rainfall. The mechanism behind this is that plant assemblages in seral spinifex vegetation comprise highly flammable non-spinifex tussock grasses that rapidly accumulate high fuel loads under favorable precipitation conditions. Our finding that fuel management does not prevent megafires under extreme conditions in arid Australia has parallels with the primacy of climatic factors as drivers of megafires in the forests of temperate Australia.
英文关键词	arid vegetation fire ecology grass-fire feedbacks patch-burning indigenous land management
类型	Article
语种	英语
开放获取类型	Green Published, gold
收录类别	SCI-E
WOS记录号	WOS:000674377600001
WOS关键词	EL-NINO/SOUTHERN OSCILLATION ; SOUTHERN-CALIFORNIA ; GIBSON DESERT ; MANAGEMENT ; WILDFIRES ; INTERVAL ; POACEAE ; MODEL
WOS类目	Ecology
WOS研究方向	Environmental Sciences & Ecology
资源类型	期刊论文
条目标识符	http://119.78.100.177/qdio/handle/2XILL650/363298
作者单位	[Wright, Boyd R.] Univ New England, Sch Environm & Rural Sci, Dept Bot, Armidale, NSW, Australia; [Wright, Boyd R.] Univ Queensland, Sch Agr & Food Sci, St Lucia, Qld, Australia; [Wright, Boyd R.] Northern Terr Herbarium, Dept Land Resource Management, Alice Springs, NT, Australia; [Laffineur, Boris; Fensham, Roderick J.] Queensland Herbarium, Toowong, Qld, Australia; [Roye, Dominic] Univ Santiago de Compostela, Dept Geog, La Coruna, Spain; [Armstrong, Graeme] NSW Natl Parks & Wildlife Serv, Broken Hill, NSW, Australia; [Fensham, Roderick J.] Univ Queensland, Sch Biol Sci, St Lucia, Qld, Australia
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	Wright, Boyd R.,Laffineur, Boris,Roye, Dominic,et al. Rainfall-Linked Megafires as Innate Fire Regime Elements in Arid Australian Spinifex (Triodia spp.) Grasslands[J],2021,9.
APA	Wright, Boyd R.,Laffineur, Boris,Roye, Dominic,Armstrong, Graeme,&Fensham, Roderick J..(2021).Rainfall-Linked Megafires as Innate Fire Regime Elements in Arid Australian Spinifex (Triodia spp.) Grasslands.FRONTIERS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION,9.
MLA	Wright, Boyd R.,et al."Rainfall-Linked Megafires as Innate Fire Regime Elements in Arid Australian Spinifex (Triodia spp.) Grasslands".FRONTIERS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION 9(2021).