TERN: Data infrastructure that enables fire management

Nikki Thurgate, S. Guru and T. Clancy

TERN:• Infrastructure and networks to support a coordinated, collaborative

ecosystem science community• Enabling sustained, long-term collection, storage, synthesis and

sharing of ecosystem data• Connecting science with policy and management

TERN: Australia’s ecosystem observatory delivering data streams to enable environmental research and

management

Instruments + Sensors

Policy + Management

Analysis + Synthesis

Modelling

Data Searching

Data Sharing

Data Curation + Publishing

Data Storage

Processing + Analysis

Collection Methods

TERN FIRE DATA- TASMANIA 2016- COMBINATION OF METHODS ALLOWS IMPROVED BUSHFIRE PREDICTION MODELS

Connecting science

TERN Fire data- Repeated fuel reduction burns in temperate forests, like this one in southeast Australia, have little long-term impact on soil greenhouse gas exchange

Fire Management

Pre-processed MODIS fire burnt area satellite imagery

Vegetation Map andExpert elicitation

Thank youCarl Gosper, Suzanne Prober and Colin Yates

t (08) 9333 6442

e carl.gosper@csiro.au

CSIRO ECOSYSTEM SCIENCES AND DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENT & CONSERVATION

FURTHER INFORMATION:

Parsons & Gosper (2011) International Journal of Wildland Fire 20, 184-194

Prober et al. (2012) Climatic Change 110, 227-248

Gosper et al. (in press) Australian Journal of Botany doi: 10.1071/BT12212

Age-structure in GWW woodlands

Age class (years since fire)

Per

cent

age

of w

oodl

and

area

0

20

40

60

80Satellite image analysis

0-60 61+

• Understanding the age structure of GWW woodlands could provide clues as to whether recent levels of woodland fire are unprecedented

• To provide a crude assessment of the age structure of woodlands across the GWW, we extrapolated the results from gimlet woodlands and landsat fire mapping to the regional scale, by assuming that the distribution in age classes older than 60 years is proportional to random samples from E. salubris woodlands

Area mapped for fire age

GWW boundary

Square-root (years since fire)

0 5 10 15 20 25

Sha

nnon

Div

ersi

ty

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

3.0

3.5

4.0y = 3.313 - 0.194x + 0.011x2

Adj. r2 = 0.304, F2,69 = 16.5, P < 0.0001

•globally rare ‘U’-shaped relationship between diversity and time since fire is likely to be driven by dominant trees and shrubs having maximum competitive influence at intermediate times since fire

Results (1):

Young Mature

Intermediate

•graph shows linear model for stand age

Management implications• As diversity was highest in mature woodlands, there is no support for gimlet woodlands requiring recurrent fire to maintain plant diversity, at least within 400+ year timeframes• Intense stand-replacing fires at intervals of < 200 yrs would have adverse implications for biodiversity conservation. Species diversity would not increase to the community maximum

Multi-century changes in plant diversity

International Partners

TERN is supported by the Australian Government through the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy

www.tern.org.au

More information?