Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Responses of resilience traits to gradients of temperature, rainfall and fire frequency in fire-prone, Australian forests: potential consequences of climate change

  • Published:
Plant Ecology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The composition of plant communities may be driven by responses of key plant resilience traits (resprouting R+, non-resprouting R−, persistent P+ and transient P− seedbanks) to either resource competition or disturbance regimes. We explored responses of overall species richness and the richness of herbs and shrubs within the three most common functional types (i.e. facultative resprouters R+P+, obligate resprouters R+P−, obligate seeders R−P+) to orthogonal combinations of temperature (MAT), rainfall (MAP) and fire frequency (FF) in Dry Sclerophyll Forest in the Sydney basin (south-eastern Australia). R+ and P+ species were predominant (>72 % of total species). Overall richness was a significant positive function of MAT, MAP and FF. Positive relationships between species richness and MAP, MAT and FF occurred across all trait and functional type groups, with MAP being the most influential and FF the least. Responses of proportions of species within trait- and functional-type groups were complex. Proportion of R+ species was negatively related to MAT and MAP, but species-rich herb and shrub R+P+ proportions were positively and negatively related to MAT, respectively. The herb R+P+ proportion was negatively related to FF. The results were inconsistent with the disturbance frequency and resource competition models of resilience variation. Rises in MAT under climate change have the potential not only to increase overall species plus richness across all trait groups but also to diminish shrubs relative to herbs in the key R+P+ functional types. Such a scenario is highly uncertain given the variability in future MAP projections for the region.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11
Fig. 12

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Benson D, McDougall L (1998) Ecology of Sydney plant species. Part 6: Dicotyledon family Myrtaceae. Cunninghamia 5:809–987

    Google Scholar 

  • Bowman DMJS, Murphy BP, Neyland DLJ, Williamson GJ, Prior LD (2014) Abrupt fire regime change may cause landscape-wide loss of mature obligate seeder forests. Glob Chang Biol 20:1008–1015

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bradstock R, Kenny BJ (2003) An application of plant functional types to fire management in a conservation reserve in southeastern Australia. J Veg Sci 14:345–354

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bradstock R, Tozer MG, Keith DA (1997) Effects of high frequency fire on floristic composition and abundance in a fire-prone heathland near Sydney. Aust J Bot 45:641–655

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bradstock RA, Cary GJ, Davies I, Lindenmayer DB, Price OF, Williams RJ (2012) Wildfires, fuel treatment and risk mitigation in Australian eucalypt forests: insights from landscape-scale simulation. J Env Manag 105:66–75

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Buma B, Brown CD, Donato DC, Fontaine JB, Johnstone JF (2013) The impacts of changing disturbance regimes on serotinous plant populations and communities. Bioscience 63:866–876

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burnham K, Anderson D (2002) Model selection and multimodel inference: a practical information-theoretic approach. Springer, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Clarke H, Smith P, Pitman A (2011) Regional signatures of future fire weather over eastern Australia from global climate models. Int J Wildland Fire 20:550–562

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clarke PJ, Knox KJE, Wills KE, Campbell M (2005) Landscape patterns of woody plant response to crown fire: disturbance and productivity influence sprouting ability. J Ecol 93:544–555

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clarke PJ, Lawes MJ, Midgley JJ, Lamont BB, Ojeda F, Burrows GE, Enright NJ, Knox KJE (2013) Resprouting as a key functional trait: how buds, protection and resources drive persistence after fire. New Phytol 197:19–35

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Clarke PJ, Lawes MJ, Murphy BP, Russell-Smith J, Nano CEM, Bradstock R, Enright NJ, Fontaine JB, Gosper CR, Radford I, Midgley JJ, Gunton RM (2015) Postfire recovery traits of woody plants in Australian ecosystems: a continental synthesis for predicting the effects of changing fire regimes. Sci Tot Environ 534:31

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • CSIRO and Bureau of Meteorology 2015, Climate Change in Australia. Information for Australia’s Natural Resource Management Regions: Technical Report, CSIRO and Bureau of Meteorology, Australia

  • Di Stefano J, McCarthy MA, York A, Duff TJ, Slingo J, Christie F (2013) Defining vegetation age class distributions for multispecies conservation in fire-prone landscapes. Biol Conserv 166:111–117

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Enright NJ, Fontaine JB, Bowman DMJS, Bradstock RA, Williams RJ (2015) Interval squeeze: altered fire regimes and demographic responses interact to threaten woody species persistence as climate changes. Front Ecol Environ 13:265–272

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Falster DS, Westoby M (2005) Tradeoffs between height growth rate, stem persistence and maximum height among plant species in a post-fire succession. Oikos 111:57–66

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gosper CR, Prober SM, Yates CJ (2013) Estimating fire interval bounds using vital attributes: implications of uncertaint y and among-population variability. Ecol Appl 23:924–935

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hammill K, Bradstock RA (2006) Remote sensing of fire severity in the Blue Mountains: influence of vegetation type and inferring fire intensity. Int J Wildl Fire 15:213–226

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Huston M (2003) Understanding the effects of fire and other mortality-causing disturbances on species diversity. In: Abbott I, Burrows ND (eds) Fire in ecosystems of south west Western Australia: impacts and management. Backhuys, Leiden, pp 37–70

    Google Scholar 

  • Kattge J, Díaz S, Lavorel S, Prentice IC, Leadley P, Bönisch G, Garnier E, Westoby M et al (2011) TRY: a global database of plant traits. Glob Chang Biol 17:2905–2935

    Article  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Keeley JE, Bond WJ, Bradstock RA, Pausas JG, Rundel PW (2012) Fire Ecology, Evolution and Management in Mediterranean Climate Ecosystems. Cambridge University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Kenny B, Sutherland E, Tasker E, Bradstock, R (2004) Guidelines for ecologically sustainable fire management. Final report, NSW biodiversity strategy project priority action 43, NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, Hurstville

  • Keith D (2004) Ocean shores to Desert Dunes: the native vegetation of New South Wales and the ACT. NSW Department of Environment and Conservation, Hurstville

    Google Scholar 

  • Keith DA, Holman L, Rodoreda S, Lemmon J, Bedward M (2007) Plant functional types can predict decade-scale changes in fire-prone vegetation. J Ecol 95:1324–1337

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moritz M, Parisien M, Batllori E, Krawchuck M, Van Dorn J (2012) Climate change and disruptions to global fire activity. Ecosphere 3:article 49

  • Morrison DA, Gary GJ, Pengelly SM, Ross DG, Mullins BJ, Thomas CR, Anderson TS (1995) Effects of fire frequency on plant species composition of sandstone communities in the Sydney region: inter-fire interval and time-since-fire. Aust Ecol 20:239–247

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nano CEM, Clarke PJ (2011) How do drought and fire influence the patterns of resprouting in Australian deserts? Plant Ecol 212:2095–2110

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Noble IR, Slatyer RO (1980) The use of vital attributes to predict successional changes in plant communities subject to recurrent disturbances. Plant Ecol 43:5–21

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Olson R, Evans JP, Argueso D, Di Luca A (2014) NARCliM Climatological Atlas NARCliM Technical Note 4, Climate Change Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Kensington

  • Pausas J, Austin MP (2001) Patterns of plant species richness in relation to different environments: an appraisal. J Veg Sci 12:153–166

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pausas J, Bradstock RA (2007) Plant persistence fire traits along a productivity and disturbance gradient in Mediterranean shrublands of SE Australia. Glob Ecol Biogeogr 16:330–340

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pausas J., Bradstock, RA, Keith, DA, Keeley, JE, GCTW (Global Change in Terrestrial Ecosystems) Fire Network (2004) Plant functional traits in relation to fire in crown-fire ecosystems. Ecology, 85:1085–1100

  • Pausas JG, Keeley JE (2014) Evolutionary ecology of resprouting and seeding in fireprone ecosystems. New Phytol 204:55–65

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pausas J, Ribeiro E (2013) The global fire-productivity relationship. Glob Ecol Biogeogr 22:728–736

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pausas JG, Pratt RB, Keeley JE, Jacobsen AL, Ramirez AR, Vilagrosa A, Paula S, Kaneakua-Pia IN, Davis SD (2015) Towards understanding resprouting at the global scale. New Phytol. doi:10.1111/nph.13644

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pechony O, Shindell D (2010) Driving forces of global wildfires over the past millennium and the forthcoming century. Proc Nat Acad Sci USA 107:19167–19170

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Russell-Smith J, Gardener MR, Brock C, Brennan K, Yates CP, Grace B (2012) Fire persistence traits can be used to predict vegetation response to changing fire regimes at expansive landscape scales: an Australian example. J Biogeogr 39:1657–1668

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Specht RL (1981) Evolution of the Australian flora: some generalisations. In: Keast A (ed) Ecological biogeography of Australia. W. Junk, The Hague, pp 783–806

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Yang Y, Long D, Shang S (2013) Remote estimation of terrestrial evapotranspiration without using meteorological data. Geophys Res Lett 40:3026–3030

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

Data collection was funded by New South Wales Environmental Trusts Research Grant 2004/RD/0104. We express our gratitude to the numerous people who assisted with field sampling. This paper is dedicated to the memory of our colleague and friend, Peter Clarke. May his legacy be enduring.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. New South Wales Office of Environment and Heritage, PO Box 1967, Hurstville, NSW, 2220, Australia

    Kate Hammill

  2. School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, University of Melbourne, Creswick, VIC, 3363, Australia

    Trent Penman

  3. Centre for Environmental Risk Management of Bushfires, Centre for Sustainable Ecosystem Solutions, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, 2522, Australia

    Ross Bradstock

Authors
  1. Kate Hammill
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Trent Penman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Ross Bradstock
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ross Bradstock.

Additional information

Communicated by Prof. Michael Lawes and Prof. David Keith.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Hammill, K., Penman, T. & Bradstock, R. Responses of resilience traits to gradients of temperature, rainfall and fire frequency in fire-prone, Australian forests: potential consequences of climate change. Plant Ecol 217, 725–741 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-016-0578-9

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-016-0578-9

Keywords

Search

Navigation