Research leader

Dr James Furlaud Research Leader

Research team

Prof David Bowman Research Team

This project was completed with the support of the CRC's funding for quick response. The research is based on the immediate post-fire vegetation re-measurement of TERN plots burnt after the 2015-2016 bushfire season.

Within the season, four Ausplot tall wet forest plots burnt; two were located in northern Queensland. one in southwest Western Australia and one in northern Tasmania. This project used data gathered from the previous year from the Ausplots to better measure and understand fire severity and initial regrowth at time zero before the following growing season. 

There is a highly variable relationship between fire severity and the resulting vegetation response within a fire. Understanding this relationship at a fine scale is crucial, as the post-vegetation response and rate of re-accumulation of fuels will determine how long it takes the forest to regrow enough to carry another fire. Knowledge of the resulting relationship between severity and future fire risk provide managers with a valuable tool with which to develop fuel management regimes. Additionally, as the Ausplots are permanent plots, these measurements provide baseline data to which future measurements can be compared. 

Read the final report from this project here.