Shrub cover that causes increased risk of forest fires in Southeastern Australia at highest level ever recorded

Friday, 01 November 2024

New research from the University of Nottingham has highlighted that increased cultural burning by Indigenous Australians prevented high-intensity fires for millennia.

Forest fires are projected to increase in the coming years, as a result of anthropogenic climate change – climate change directly caused by human activity. Understanding the linkages between climate change, human activity and fires is important to plan for successful management of fire-prone landscapes, such as Australia’s.

The new research, published in Science, highlights how the intensity of forest fires in fire-prone southeastern Australia decreased over time alongside an increase in Indigenous populations.

Using tiny fossils preserved in ancient sediment, the research team reconstructed past landscapes across Southeastern Australia to understand how the vegetation has changed over time. They particularly focused on the shrub layer, as this allows flames to climb from ground to canopy and facilitates high-intensity fires.

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