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Australian Journal of Botany Australian Journal of Botany Society
Southern hemisphere botanical ecosystems
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Recovery of subalpine grasslands 15 years after landscape level fires

Brodie Verrall A B and Catherine Marina Pickering A
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Environment Futures Research Institute, Griffith University, Gold Coast Mail Centre, Qld 4222, Australia.

B Corresponding author. Email: brodie.verrall@griffithuni.edu.au

Australian Journal of Botany 67(5) 425-436 https://doi.org/10.1071/BT19020
Submitted: 17 February 2019  Accepted: 9 August 2019   Published: 23 September 2019

Abstract

As conditions warm, previously rare landscape level fires are more likely to affect vegetation in the Australian Alps including in subalpine grasslands. The recovery of this community was assessed using paired unburnt and burnt plots (30 × 20 m) at 10 sites 15 years after largescale fires that burnt >70% of the subalpine zone in Kosciuszko National Park. There were few significant differences found: higher cover of shrubs (17.8% burnt vs 11.3% unburnt plots), and taller vegetation (22.6 vs 19 cm). However, vegetation cover (97%), species richness (38 taxa), composition and limited presence of invasive plants (10 species, 8.5% cover) were not significantly different. This differs from results six weeks and one year post-fire, when there were clear differences in the cover and composition of vegetation. These results indicate that subalpine grasslands recover from single fires, but with warmer and drier conditions becoming more common, and repeat fires in some areas, the distribution, structure and composition of this and other communities in the Australian Alps will change.

Additional keywords: Australian Alps, fire ecology, Kosciuszko National Park, vegetation cover, vegetation recovery.


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