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I would expect that intensive large fires will destroy all forests in affected areas... So next season will be 'fine' (= no trees at all).
by raaaaraaaa2 7y ago
I would expect that intensive large fires will destroy all forests in affected areas... So next season will be 'fine' (= no trees at all).
- Tehdasi 7y agoNot quite, there will be less fuel, but not less trees. The bushland of Australia has had regular fires baked into it's ecosystem, so the plant species all have coping mechanisms to deal with fire. A good example is are the Banksia varieties that rely on a bushfire to germinate.
- Scarblac 7y agoYes, but apparently there are now also lots of forests burning that have never burned before and where the trees aren't adapted for it.
- gwillz 7y agoIn addition to that, some fires are burning so hot and so regularly that the trees and seeds completely die. They haven't got the breathing time to recover.
- h0l0cube 7y agoThese are typically areas where eucalypts have died off after centuries, allowing other species to fill the gap. Now that the fires have come through, the eucalypts will come back to fill the gaps and will quickly out-compete any other plants with superior height and canopy. They will get their next chance, a few centuries hence.
- bjowen 7y agoThis isn’t true of the areas of greatest concern, where Gondwanan rainforest is burning. Eucalyptus is the newcomer, and it is fire-adapted and hot weather adapted, it out-competes the ancient forests where there are fires, and the nothofagus does not grow back.
- h0l0cube 7y agoThis process happens too in Tasmania where most of that beautiful nothofagus grows. But you are right, these populations could be wiped out completely if fires increase and there's no chance for recovery - or the entire population is burnt. I wasn't suggesting that everything is okay, because it clearly isn't.