7 ms·

Can someone tell me how quick and easily nature can bounce back? I guess the speed of tree growth might be a bottleneck.

cyorir 7y ago
This question is complicated by the presence of other ongoing pressures, such as climate change. Realistically, nature won't just "bounce back" to the way it used to be because of these ongoing changes.
donavanm 7y ago
Unknown, but unlikely in relevant time scales. The fires have been much larger and hotter than typical. The vegetation that does regrow probably wont be the same as we lost, ie pyrophillic scrubland replacing forrest. The fires are also destructive enough to destroy pyrophytic plants that would resist previous bushfires. Both of these are going to disrupt the regrowth of the ecosystem in unexpected/abnormal ways. Concern is that it leads to a long term cycle of more, hotter, larger fires and permanent habitat loss. Edit: as a comparison I was just out on the tasman penninsula which burned in 2013. It was doing well enough, with medium sized trees and full ground cover.
cmdshiftf4 7y ago
>I guess the speed of tree growth might be a bottleneck. Also depends on what grows back in their place. For example, re-forestation efforts in places like Ireland have lead to an "ecological dead zone" [0] due to the choice of the trees that have been planted, the Sitka spruce and its sheddings offering or removing habitable areas for animals to prosper. Without an expensive and concerted effort to clear the floors of ash and re-plant animal-friendly, indigenous fauna I would imagine we won't see much of a recovery in our lifetimes, if ever. [0]https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/oct/10/trees-ireland-biodiversity-sitka-birds-extinction https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/oct/10/trees-...
- perilunar 7y ago
  This is Australian bush we are talking about: there won't be any ash clearing or replanting. The indigenous flora will regrow by itself.
xenospn 7y ago
Out here (Southern CA) we had devastating fires. We used to have thousands of rabbits. A year later and they’re still gone. And they’re supposed to be the first ones to bounce back.
Tomminn 7y ago
One of the problems is the bounce back is not evenly distributed. The fastest breeding animals bounce back fast, the slow breeding animals take hundreds to thousands of years, if they ever recover at all.

cyorir 7y ago

This question is complicated by the presence of other ongoing pressures, such as climate change. Realistically, nature won't just "bounce back" to the way it used to be because of these ongoing changes.

donavanm 7y ago

Unknown, but unlikely in relevant time scales. The fires have been much larger and hotter than typical. The vegetation that does regrow probably wont be the same as we lost, ie pyrophillic scrubland replacing forrest. The fires are also destructive enough to destroy pyrophytic plants that would resist previous bushfires. Both of these are going to disrupt the regrowth of the ecosystem in unexpected/abnormal ways. Concern is that it leads to a long term cycle of more, hotter, larger fires and permanent habitat loss. Edit: as a comparison I was just out on the tasman penninsula which burned in 2013. It was doing well enough, with medium sized trees and full ground cover.

cmdshiftf4 7y ago

>I guess the speed of tree growth might be a bottleneck. Also depends on what grows back in their place. For example, re-forestation efforts in places like Ireland have lead to an "ecological dead zone" [0] due to the choice of the trees that have been planted, the Sitka spruce and its sheddings offering or removing habitable areas for animals to prosper. Without an expensive and concerted effort to clear the floors of ash and re-plant animal-friendly, indigenous fauna I would imagine we won't see much of a recovery in our lifetimes, if ever. [0]https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/oct/10/trees-ireland-biodiversity-sitka-birds-extinction https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/oct/10/trees-...

perilunar 7y ago
This is Australian bush we are talking about: there won't be any ash clearing or replanting. The indigenous flora will regrow by itself.

xenospn 7y ago

Out here (Southern CA) we had devastating fires. We used to have thousands of rabbits. A year later and they’re still gone. And they’re supposed to be the first ones to bounce back.

Tomminn 7y ago

One of the problems is the bounce back is not evenly distributed. The fastest breeding animals bounce back fast, the slow breeding animals take hundreds to thousands of years, if they ever recover at all.