Thursday 25 November 2021

Fire ecologists are meeting online this week as part of the 61st annual conference of the Ecological Society of Australia (ESA2021), to discuss the increasing threat of ‘mega-fires’ and their impacts on natural ecosystems.

The Black Summer bushfires of 2019/20 were catastrophic and unprecedented in their extent and severity. Worryingly, such ‘mega-fires’ are predicted to become increasingly common as global temperatures rise with climate change. With a high number of endemic and localised species in Australia, documenting and learning from the experience is critical. 

In the past two years, ecologists across the country have been studying these ‘mega-fires’ to better understand why they are occurring and their impacts on natural ecosystems. They will come together this week to share their findings, including population declines of species varying from koalas to alpine butterflies; and post-fire recovery of threatened plants.

They will also examine the impacts of European colonisation on present-day fire regimes. New modelling to be presented at ESA2021 by Dr Simon Connor of the ANU School of Culture History and Language suggests that the most flammable forests of south-eastern Australia were once much grassier than they are today. A transition from grasses to dense understorey shrubs in the flammable sclerophyll forests of the region has altered forest fuel structures by increasing fine woody fuels in the zone between the ground and canopy, thereby facilitating fire spread. Dr Connor will argue that widespread reintroduction of cultural burning will control woody thickening and help mitigate ecologically damaging fires.

Research to be presented by Mr Matthew Adeleye from the Australian National University found that palaeofire records suggest Indigenous cultural burning led to reductions in biomass burned on the landscape. These results provide long-term evidence of the effectiveness of Indigenous cultural fire management and its potential to help stabilize future fire regimes in southeast Australia.

Selected presentations on this topic:

• ‘The 2019/20 mega-fires: what did we learn and will it equip us for the future?’, Emeritus Professor Ross Bradstock & Dr Rachael Nolan, University Of Wollongong, Western Sydney University & NSW Bushfire Risk Management Research Hub, 9.30-11.00am Monday 22 November
• ‘Fire severity and its local extent is key to assessing impacts of mega-fires on koalas’, Dr Brad Law, NSW Department of Primary Industries, 11.38-11.49am Monday 22 November
• ‘Assessing impacts and threats on 100 priority NSW plants after the 2019-2020 bushfires’, Dr Elizabeth Tasker, NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment, 12.09-12.22pm Monday 22 November
• ‘Protecting threatened species and ecological communities before and during bushfire: Learning from the 2019/20 fires’, Dr Kelly de Bie, University Of Melbourne, 12.46-12.58pm Monday 22 November
• ‘Have we abandoned Australia’s forests to catastrophic fire?’, Dr Simon Connor, Australian National University & ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, 11.15-11.24am Friday 26 November
• ‘Did European Invasion add fuel to the fire? Interrogating historical fire management through subfossil record’, Ms Caitlin O’Shea, University Of Melbourne, 11.54am-12.0pm Friday 26 November
• ‘The role of Indigenous cultural burning in stabilizing past fire regimes—new insights from Bass Strait’, Mr Matthew Adeleye, Australian National University, 12.07-12.19pm Friday 26 November

Participants available for interview – contact Grace Heathcote; Ecological Society of Australia on
0404 542 523 or  

Media releases: www.ecolsoc.org.au/media-and-events/media-releases
On Twitter: #ESAus21 // @EcolSocAus

Conference website: www.esa2021.org.au/