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The Relationship Between Fire Severity And Eucalypt Health: Implications For Forest Structure And Carbon Balance, Declan Moylan

Science, Medicine & Health - Honours Theses

The capacity of resprouting eucalypts to regenerate foliage determines the extent of fire induced structural change and carbon dynamics within Australian dry sclerophyll forests. Resprouting eucalypts are traditionally considered resilient to severe fire, yet records of post-fire mortality are highly varied, reflecting the limited sample size of previous studies and the complexity of factors that govern stem death. Fire regimes are predicted to become increasingly severe throughout Mediterranean ecosystems under anthropogenic climate change, increasing the risk of carbon loss within forest communities. This study sought to further the ecological understanding of the effects of fire severity on eucalypt mortality and …