Aboriginal patch burning and the quest for sustainable fire management. This project aims to document historical changes in the spatial grain of the patch burning mosaic in an Arnhem Land savannah with an unbroken history of management by Aboriginal people, and in adjacent areas where traditional management has ceased. The mosaic's spatial grain will be inferred by mapping the individual ages of the long-lived conifer Callitris intratropica. Prior research has shown that Callitris individuals c ....Aboriginal patch burning and the quest for sustainable fire management. This project aims to document historical changes in the spatial grain of the patch burning mosaic in an Arnhem Land savannah with an unbroken history of management by Aboriginal people, and in adjacent areas where traditional management has ceased. The mosaic's spatial grain will be inferred by mapping the individual ages of the long-lived conifer Callitris intratropica. Prior research has shown that Callitris individuals can be reliably aged, and population structures are very sensitive to fire regimes: saplings only establish if unburnt for 10 years. This research is expected to provide the first direct test of the hypothesis that Aboriginal people maintained fine-grained fire mosaics in savannas, and inform bushfire policy debates.Read moreRead less
Pyroherbivory and the nexus between Aboriginal fire mosaics and kangaroos. This project aims to examine the effects of traditional Aboriginal and contemporary fire management on kangaroo abundance. There is concern that the cessation of Aboriginal patch burning is causing savanna kangaroo populations to decline across northern Australia. In this project, surveys will be planned to determine whether fire regime (frequency, extent, season) affects kangaroo distribution and abundance and the degree ....Pyroherbivory and the nexus between Aboriginal fire mosaics and kangaroos. This project aims to examine the effects of traditional Aboriginal and contemporary fire management on kangaroo abundance. There is concern that the cessation of Aboriginal patch burning is causing savanna kangaroo populations to decline across northern Australia. In this project, surveys will be planned to determine whether fire regime (frequency, extent, season) affects kangaroo distribution and abundance and the degree to which non-native large herbivores compete with kangaroos for forage. Experiments will also be planned to discover how the season of burning influences forage quality and quantity. This project is designed to determine if patch burning can be used for ecological restoration in areas where this type of fire management has ceased and for improvement of tropical savanna fire management.Read moreRead less