Fire management on private conservation lands: knowledge, perceptions and actions of landholders in eastern Australia

2012 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 197 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucy G. Halliday ◽  
J. Guy Castley ◽  
James A. Fitzsimons ◽  
Cuong Tran ◽  
Jan Warnken
Keyword(s):  
Fire Management ◽  
Conservation Management ◽  
Natural Disturbance ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Vegetation Types ◽  
Management Planning ◽  
Management Actions ◽  
Eastern Australia ◽  
Established Role

Fire is an important natural disturbance process within the Australian landscape, but the complex and hazardous nature of fire creates a conservation management dilemma. For landholders of private conservation lands, management for conservation of biodiversity and risk reduction is complicated. Private conservation landholders in eastern Australia directed far less effort towards fire management than other conservation management actions, despite clearly acknowledging the risk and associated responsibilities of fire management on their lands. Nonetheless, landholders did undertake actions to reduce fuel hazards and prepare for wildfire events on their land. Despite the established role and benefits of fire to many ecosystems in the region, landholder understanding of the ecological role of fire was generally poor. Few landholders were aware of ecologically appropriate fire regimes for the vegetation types on their property, and few undertook fire management actions to achieve ecological outcomes. Site-specific obstacles, lack of fire management knowledge and experience, and legal and containment concerns contributed to the low level of fire management observed. There is a need for property-specific fire management planning across all private conservation lands, to further integrate ecological fire requirements into biodiversity management, and prioritise actions that aim to improve conservation outcomes while safeguarding life and property.

scholarly journals A reconstruction of the recent fire regimes of Majete Wildlife Reserve, Malawi, using remote sensing

Fire Ecology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Willem A. Nieman ◽  
Brian W. van Wilgen ◽  
Alison J. Leslie
Keyword(s):  
Remote Sensing ◽  
Fire Management ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Dry Season ◽  
Annual Rainfall ◽  
Vegetation Types ◽  
Local Evidence ◽  
Hot Dry Season ◽  
Wildlife Reserve

Abstract Background Fire is an important process that shapes the structure and functioning of African savanna ecosystems, and managers of savanna protected areas use fire to achieve ecosystem goals. Developing appropriate fire management policies should be based on an understanding of the determinants, features, and effects of prevailing fire regimes, but this information is rarely available. In this study, we report on the use of remote sensing to develop a spatially explicit dataset on past fire regimes in Majete Wildlife Reserve, Malawi, between 2001 and 2019. Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) images were used to evaluate the recent fire regime for two distinct vegetation types in Majete Wildlife Reserve, namely savanna and miombo. Additionally, a comparison was made between MODIS and Visible Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) images by separately evaluating selected aspects of the fire regime between 2012 and 2019. Results Mean fire return intervals were four and six years for miombo and savanna vegetation, respectively, but the distribution of fire return intervals was skewed, with a large proportion of the area burning annually or biennially, and a smaller proportion experiencing much longer fire return intervals. Variation in inter-annual rainfall also resulted in longer fire return intervals during cycles of below-average rainfall. Fires were concentrated in the hot-dry season despite a management intent to restrict burning to the cool-dry season. Mean fire intensities were generally low, but many individual fires had intensities of 14 to 18 times higher than the mean, especially in the hot-dry season. The VIIRS sensors detected many fires that were overlooked by the MODIS sensors, as images were collected at a finer scale. Conclusions Remote sensing has provided a useful basis for reconstructing the recent fire regime of Majete Wildlife Reserve, and has highlighted a current mismatch between intended fire management goals and actual trends. Managers should re-evaluate fire policies based on our findings, setting clearly defined targets for the different vegetation types and introducing flexibility to accommodate natural variation in rainfall cycles. Local evidence of the links between fires and ecological outcomes will require further research to improve fire planning.

Is the END (emulation of natural disturbance) a new beginning? A critical analysis of the use of fire regimes as the basis of forest ecosystem management with examples from the Canadian western Cordillera

2016 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 233-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Stockdale ◽  
Mike Flannigan ◽  
Ellen Macdonald
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Ecosystem Management ◽  
Forest Structure ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Natural Disturbance ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Disturbance Regime ◽  
Ecological Processes ◽  
High Severity ◽  
Management Actions

As our view of disturbances such as wildfire has shifted from prevention to recognizing their ecological necessity, so too forest management has evolved from timber-focused even-aged management to more holistic paradigms like ecosystem-based management. Emulation of natural disturbance (END) is a variant of ecosystem management that recognizes the importance of disturbance for maintaining ecological integrity. For END to be a successful model for forest management we need to describe disturbance regimes and implement management actions that emulate them, in turn achieving our objectives for forest structure and function. We review the different components of fire regimes (cause, frequency, extent, timing, and magnitude), we describe low-, mixed-, and high-severity fire regimes, and we discuss key issues related to describing these regimes. When characterizing fire regimes, different methods and spatial and temporal extents result in wide variation of estimates for different fire regime components. Comparing studies is difficult as few measure the same components; some methods are based on the assumption of a high-severity fire regime and are not suited to detecting mixed- or low-severity regimes, which are critical to END management, as this would affect retention in harvested areas. We outline some difficulties with using fire regimes as coarse filters for forest management, including (i) not fully understanding the interactions between fire and other disturbance agents, (ii) assuming that fire is strictly an exogenous disturbance agent that exerts top-down control of forest structure while ignoring numerous endogenous and bottom-up feedbacks on fire effects, and (iii) assuming by only replicating natural disturbance patterns we preserve ecological processes and vital ecosystem components. Even with a good understanding of a fire regime, we would still be challenged with choosing the temporal and spatial scope for the disturbance regime we are trying to emulate. We cannot yet define forest conditions that will arise from variations in disturbance regime; this then limits our ability to implement management actions that will achieve those conditions. We end by highlighting some important knowledge gaps about fire regimes and how the END model could be strengthened to achieve a more sustainable form of forest management.

Habitat use and movements of Australian grayling (Prototroctes maraena) in a Victorian coastal stream

2018 ◽  
Vol 69 (8) ◽  
pp. 1259 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. R. Dawson ◽  
W. M. Koster
Keyword(s):  
Habitat Use ◽  
Conservation Management ◽  
Radio Telemetry ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Movement Ecology ◽  
Ecological Requirements ◽  
Management Actions ◽  
Eastern Australia ◽  
The World ◽  
Australian Grayling

Riverine fishes are among the most imperilled fauna in the world; however, for many species, there is little or no understanding of their ecological requirements. The Australian grayling (Prototroctes maraena) is a small diadromous fish endemic to rivers in south-eastern Australia that has declined considerably in range and abundance and is listed as threatened nationally. To improve understanding of the species’ movement ecology and to inform the development of conservation management actions, we examined the day-to-day movements and habitat use of Australian grayling (n=7) over 8 weeks by using radio-telemetry. Tagged individuals of Australian grayling typically occupied restricted (i.e. tens to hundreds of metres) reaches of stream, and were mostly located in moderate- to fast-flowing habitats (i.e. glide or run), although, at night, use of slower-flowing habitats (i.e. pools) increased. They also undertook longer-distance downstream movements during a period of increased streamflow. Incorporation of such information into management strategies has the potential to improve our capacity to maintain or re-instate the conditions required to conserve and restore Australian grayling populations.

scholarly journals Multiproxy Holocene Fire Records From the Tropical Savannas of Northern Cape York Peninsula, Queensland, Australia

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma Rehn ◽  
Cassandra Rowe ◽  
Sean Ulm ◽  
Patricia Gadd ◽  
Atun Zawadzki ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Fire Management ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Fire Intensity ◽  
Methodological Innovation ◽  
Management Planning ◽  
Indigenous Management ◽  
Northern Cape ◽  
Cape York

Paleoecology has demonstrated potential to inform current and future land management by providing long-term baselines for fire regimes, over thousands of years covering past periods of lower/higher rainfall and temperatures. To extend this potential, more work is required for methodological innovation able to generate nuanced, relevant and clearly interpretable results. This paper presents records from Cape York Peninsula, Queensland, Australia, as a case study where fire management is an important but socially complex modern management issue, and where palaeofire records are limited. Two new multiproxy palaeofire records are presented from Sanamere Lagoon (8,150–6,600 cal BP) and Big Willum Swamp (3,900 cal BP to present). These records combine existing methods to investigate fire occurrence, vegetation types, and relative fire intensity. Results presented here demonstrate a diversity of fire histories at different sites across Cape York Peninsula, highlighting the need for finer scale palaeofire research. Future fire management planning on Cape York Peninsula must take into account the thousands of years of active Indigenous management and this understanding can be further informed by paleoecological research.

LANDFIRE: a nationally consistent vegetation, wildland fire, and fuel assessment

2009 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 235 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew G. Rollins
Keyword(s):  
Fire Management ◽  
Wildland Fire ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
The United States ◽  
Development Programs ◽  
Department Of Agriculture ◽  
Management Planning ◽  
Vegetation Modelling ◽  
The Us ◽  
Data Products

LANDFIRE is a 5-year, multipartner project producing consistent and comprehensive maps and data describing vegetation, wildland fuel, fire regimes and ecological departure from historical conditions across the United States. It is a shared project between the wildland fire management and research and development programs of the US Department of Agriculture Forest Service and US Department of the Interior. LANDFIRE meets agency and partner needs for comprehensive, integrated data to support landscape-level fire management planning and prioritization, community and firefighter protection, effective resource allocation, and collaboration between agencies and the public. The LANDFIRE data production framework is interdisciplinary, science-based and fully repeatable, and integrates many geospatial technologies including biophysical gradient analyses, remote sensing, vegetation modelling, ecological simulation, and landscape disturbance and successional modelling. LANDFIRE data products are created as 30-m raster grids and are available over the internet at www.landfire.gov, accessed 22 April 2009. The data products are produced at scales that may be useful for prioritizing and planning individual hazardous fuel reduction and ecosystem restoration projects; however, the applicability of data products varies by location and specific use, and products may need to be adjusted by local users.

Ecological implications of standard fire-mapping approaches for fire management of the World Heritage Area, Fraser Island, Australia

2013 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 381 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sanjeev Kumar Srivastava ◽  
Lee King ◽  
Chris Mitchell ◽  
Aaron Wiegand ◽  
R. W. Carter ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Remote Sensing ◽  
Conservation Management ◽  
World Heritage ◽  
Vegetation Types ◽  
Ongoing Research ◽  
Affected Area ◽  
Eastern Australia ◽  
World Heritage Area ◽  
Heritage Area ◽  
Fire Patchiness

The characterisation of spatiotemporal fire patchiness is requisite for informing biodiversity conservation management in many landscape settings. Often, conservation managers are reliant on manually derived fire-history mapping products that delineate fire perimeters. An alternative standard approach concerns the application of remote sensing, typically using band combination indices obtained from relatively fine-scale imagery sensors. For Fraser Island, a World Heritage Area in subtropical, fire-prone eastern Australia, we contrast diagnostic fire-regime characteristics for different vegetation types over a 20-year period (1989–2008) as derived from historical manual, and remotely sensed, fire-mapping approaches. For the remote sensing component we adapt a commonly used approach utilising a differenced normalised burn ratio (dNBR) index derived from Landsat Thematic Mapper imagery. Manual mapping resulted in overestimation of fire-affected area (especially large fires) and fire frequency, whereas the dNBR procedure resulted in underestimation of fire-affected area under low fire-severity conditions, and overestimation of fire patchiness. Of significance for conservation management, (1) age class and related distributions for flammable vegetation types differed markedly between the two mapping approaches, (2) regardless, both methods demonstrated that substantial fuel loads had accumulated in flammable vegetation types by the end of the study period and (3) fuel age was shown to have a more significant effect than did seasonality on the incidence of very large (>1000 ha) fires. The study serves as an introduction to ongoing research concerning the measurement and application of fire patchiness to conservation management in flammable eastern Australian vegetation types.

Repeated disturbance through chaining and burning differentially affects recruitment among plant functional types in fire-prone heathlands

2010 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carl R. Gosper ◽  
Suzanne M. Prober ◽  
Colin J. Yates
Keyword(s):  
Fire Management ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Agricultural Landscapes ◽  
Plant Functional Types ◽  
Vegetation Composition ◽  
Management Planning ◽  
Functional Types ◽  
Disturbance Response ◽  
A Chain ◽  
In Fire

Managing fire regimes is increasingly recognised as important for biodiversity conservation in fragmented agricultural landscapes in fire-prone regions. In the global biodiversity hotspot of south-west Western Australia, chaining and burning is a novel technique for facilitating fire management. Vegetation is first dislodged using a chain, then after a period of curing, burnt. The effects on plant communities are largely unstudied, despite the potential consequences of combining two disturbance events. We hypothesised that outcomes would vary depending on plant functional types defined by disturbance response. We compared plant community composition and recruitment and resprouting of plant functional types in mallee-heath subject to chaining and burning, burning only and neither of these. The effects of chaining and burning did not differ from only burning at the community level. Importantly, however, we recorded 90% fewer recruits of serotinous, obligate seeders in chained and burnt compared with only burnt plots, and a 44% decrease in their species richness. By contrast, recruits of obligate seeding shrubs and fire-ephemeral herbs with persistent soil-stored seed banks increased by 166% in chained and burnt plots. Sprouters showed little difference. We conclude that chaining and burning is likely to significantly alter vegetation composition, and potentially poses a significant threat to serotinous, obligate seeders. These impacts require consideration in fire management planning.

Energy Management of Electromechanical Systems on the Board of a Ship

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 14-19
Author(s):  
Laurențiu Bogdan Asalomia ◽  
Gheorghe Samoilescu
Keyword(s):  
Energy Management ◽  
Management System ◽  
Integrated Management ◽  
Integrated Management System ◽  
Management Actions ◽  
Energy Flows ◽  
Reduce Emissions ◽  
Technical Solutions ◽  
Productive Time

AbstractThe paper analyzes, starting from the Integrated Management System, the role of automation, the role of the officer and the role of the Energy Management System on board the ship. The implementation of an EnMS establishes the structure and discipline of identifying energy flows, implementing management actions and, finally, applying technical solutions, which significantly reduce energy costs, reduce non-productive time in production, and reduce emissions. of Greenhouse Gases in the environment. The steps to be highlighted in the realization of energy management are analyzed.

scholarly journals Long-term changes in the plant ecology of an African savanna landscape and the implications for ecosystem theory and conservation management

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
David Western ◽  
Victor N. Mose ◽  
David Maitumo ◽  
Caroline Mburu
Keyword(s):  
Human Impact ◽  
National Parks ◽  
Conservation Management ◽  
Plant Ecology ◽  
Ecological Resilience ◽  
Pasture Production ◽  
Ecosystem Theory ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Background Studies of the African savannas have used national parks to test ecological theories of natural ecosystems, including equilibrium, non-equilibrium, complex adaptive systems, and the role of top-down and bottom-up physical and biotic forces. Most such studies have excluded the impact of pastoralists in shaping grassland ecosystems and, over the last half century, the growing human impact on the world’s rangelands. The mounting human impact calls for selecting indicators and integrated monitoring methods able to track ecosystem changes and the role of natural and human agencies. Our study draws on five decades of monitoring the Amboseli landscape in southern Kenya to document the declining role of natural agencies in shaping plant ecology with rising human impact. Results We show that plant diversity and productivity have declined, biomass turnover has increased in response to a downsizing of mean plant size, and that ecological resilience has declined with the rising probability of extreme shortfalls in pasture production. The signature of rainfall and physical agencies in driving ecosystem properties has decreased sharply with growing human impact. We compare the Amboseli findings to the long-term studies of Kruger and Serengeti national parks to show that the human influence, whether by design or default, is increasingly shaping the ecology of savanna ecosystems. We look at the findings in the larger perspective of human impact on African grasslands and the world rangelands, in general, and discuss the implications for ecosystem theory and conservation policy and management. Conclusions The Amboseli study shows the value of using long-term integrated ecological monitoring to track the spatial and temporal changes in the species composition, structure, and function of rangeland ecosystems and the role of natural and human agencies in the process of change. The study echoes the widespread changes underway across African savannas and world’s rangelands, concluding that some level of ecosystem management is needed to prevent land degradation and the erosion of ecological function, services, and resilience. Despite the weak application of ecological theory to conservation management, a plant trait-based approach is shown to be useful in explaining the macroecological changes underway.

scholarly journals The Role of Communication and Engagement in Airport Noise Management

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 6088
Author(s):  
Graeme Heyes ◽  
Paul Hooper ◽  
Fiona Raje ◽  
Ian Flindell ◽  
Delia Dimitriu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Research Priorities ◽  
Considerable Effect ◽  
Management Tool ◽  
Management Activity ◽  
Community Attitudes ◽  
Management Actions ◽  
Aviation Noise ◽  
Noise Management

Research suggests that non-acoustic factors can have a considerable effect on community attitudes and opinions towards aviation noise and that these can be influenced through processes of communication and engagement. This paper reviews literature from various fields to identify the key elements of effective practice, using them as a lens through which to assess case study noise management actions conducted at European airports. This analysis found that communication and engagement holds significant potential for noise management, but that this remains largely unfulfilled due to such methods being used as an ancillary management activity, rather than as a powerful tool to aid in the design and delivery of noise management actions. A series of recommendations and research priorities are proposed that could shape the future of noise management, including potential changes to European policy that more explicitly advocate for communication and engagement as a noise management tool in its own right.

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