Impact of Fire on Surface Heat and Moisture Fluxes in Australian Tropical Savanna and Feedbacks to Regional Climate
Fire is probably the greatest natural and anthropogenic environmental disturbance in Australian tropical savannas, with vast tracts burnt each year, particularly by pastoralists, Aboriginal land holders and conservation managers. Globally, savanna ecosystems account for 11.5% of the global landscape; burning them consumes three times as much dry matter per year as the burning of tropical forests, accounting for more than 40% of biomass burned globally. The figures for Australia assume even greater significance given predictions of increases of up to 30% in seasonal cumulative fire danger (and a likely associated increase in fire activity) in parts of northern Australia under predicted climate change due to increased greenhouse gas emissions. Landscape fires that occur on the scale described above have large impacts on the regional water, energy and carbon dioxide exchanges, and as a result are likely to have important feedbacks to the atmosphere and regional climate. In addition, different burning regimes can result in either a stable ordynamic change in vegetation composition and structure, which in turn can feedback to affect the atmosphere through changes in land surface properties Most of these impacts are not well understood. In this study we use contemporary theoretical understandings, observations and modelling approaches to investigate how current burning practices impact the atmosphere.
Links
The Savanna Fire Experiment (SAFE)
Participants
- Monash University
- Charles Darwin University