Recovery after wildfire: warm temperate rainforest at Jones Creek, East Gippsland, Victoria.
1991
Chesterfield E.A. | Taylor S.J. | Molnar C.D.
In 1987, after a severe fire in February 1983, 77 permanent quadrats were established on a grid to monitor vegetation changes. Fives years after the fire, the vegetation composition was dominated by species which characterise mature rainforest. Large increases also occurred in the populations of Acacia melanoxylon, Eucalyptus sp., sclerophyll shrubs and a number of disturbance- dependent herbs. Rainforest species recovered through both seedlings and epicormic sprouts. Few species were obligate seed regenerators and these included species restricted to early regeneration stages, as well as uncommon rainforest overstorey species. It was concluded that earlier fires had influenced the species composition of the rainforest and contributed to its invasion by sclerophyll species. This invasion had been greatly extended by the most recent fire. The distribution and abundance of the sclerophyll overstorey is considered likely to increase with each successive disturbance by fire until eucalypts dominate the area entirely. The future fire regime will also determine the composition of the understorey. An interval between fires of less than 40-50 years is likely to cause a progressive decline in the proportion of rainforest species, with the rate determined by both frequency and intensity of burning.
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