Implications of the 2019-2020 megafires for the biogeography and conservation of Australian vegetation.
Nat Commun
; 12(1): 1023, 2021 02 15.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-33589628
ABSTRACT
Australia's 2019-2020 'Black Summer' bushfires burnt more than 8 million hectares of vegetation across the south-east of the continent, an event unprecedented in the last 200 years. Here we report the impacts of these fires on vascular plant species and communities. Using a map of the fires generated from remotely sensed hotspot data we show that, across 11 Australian bioregions, 17 major native vegetation groups were severely burnt, and up to 67-83% of globally significant rainforests and eucalypt forests and woodlands. Based on geocoded species occurrence data we estimate that >50% of known populations or ranges of 816 native vascular plant species were burnt during the fires, including more than 100 species with geographic ranges more than 500 km across. Habitat and fire response data show that most affected species are resilient to fire. However, the massive biogeographic, demographic and taxonomic breadth of impacts of the 2019-2020 fires may leave some ecosystems, particularly relictual Gondwanan rainforests, susceptible to regeneration failure and landscape-scale decline.
Texto completo:
1
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Conservação dos Recursos Naturais
/
Incêndios Florestais
/
Floresta Úmida
Limite:
Humans
País como assunto:
Oceania
Idioma:
En
Ano de publicação:
2021
Tipo de documento:
Article