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Wang B, Spessa AC, Feng P, Hou X, Yue C, Luo JJ, Ciais P, Waters C, Cowie A, Nolan RH, Nikonovas T, Jin H, Walshaw H, Wei J, Guo X, Liu DL, Yu Q. Extreme fire weather is the major driver of severe bushfires in southeast Australia. Sci Bull (Beijing) 2022; 67:655-664. [PMID: 36546127 DOI: 10.1016/j.scib.2021.10.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/20/2021] [Revised: 09/07/2021] [Accepted: 09/08/2021] [Indexed: 01/06/2023]
Abstract
In Australia, the proportion of forest area that burns in a typical fire season is less than for other vegetation types. However, the 2019-2020 austral spring-summer was an exception, with over four times the previous maximum area burnt in southeast Australian temperate forests. Temperate forest fires have extensive socio-economic, human health, greenhouse gas emissions, and biodiversity impacts due to high fire intensities. A robust model that identifies driving factors of forest fires and relates impact thresholds to fire activity at regional scales would help land managers and fire-fighting agencies prepare for potentially hazardous fire in Australia. Here, we developed a machine-learning diagnostic model to quantify nonlinear relationships between monthly burnt area and biophysical factors in southeast Australian forests for 2001-2020 on a 0.25° grid based on several biophysical parameters, notably fire weather and vegetation productivity. Our model explained over 80% of the variation in the burnt area. We identified that burnt area dynamics in southeast Australian forest were primarily controlled by extreme fire weather, which mainly linked to fluctuations in the Southern Annular Mode (SAM) and Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD), with a relatively smaller contribution from the central Pacific El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Our fire diagnostic model and the non-linear relationships between burnt area and environmental covariates can provide useful guidance to decision-makers who manage preparations for an upcoming fire season, and model developers working on improved early warning systems for forest fires.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bin Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion and Dryland Farming on the Loess Plateau, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, China; New South Wales Department of Primary Industries, Wagga Wagga Agricultural Institute, Wagga Wagga 2650, Australia.
| | - Allan C Spessa
- Department of Geography, College of Science, Swansea University, Singleton Park, Swansea SA2 8PP, UK
| | - Puyu Feng
- College of Land Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China
| | - Xin Hou
- College of Natural Resources and Environment, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, China
| | - Chao Yue
- State Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion and Dryland Farming on the Loess Plateau, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, China
| | - Jing-Jia Luo
- Institute for Climate and Application Research (ICAR)/Key Laboratory of Meteorological Disaster of Ministry of Education (KLME), Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing 210044, China.
| | - Philippe Ciais
- Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement, CEA-CNRS-UVSQ, Gif sur Yvette F-91191, France
| | - Cathy Waters
- New South Wales Department of Primary Industries, Dubbo 2830, Australia
| | - Annette Cowie
- New South Wales Department of Primary Industries, Armidale 2351, Australia; School of Environmental and Rural Science, University of New England, Armidale 2351, Australia
| | - Rachael H Nolan
- Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Penrith 2751, Australia
| | - Tadas Nikonovas
- Department of Geography, College of Science, Swansea University, Singleton Park, Swansea SA2 8PP, UK
| | | | | | - Jinghua Wei
- Institute for Climate and Application Research (ICAR)/Key Laboratory of Meteorological Disaster of Ministry of Education (KLME), Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing 210044, China
| | - Xiaowei Guo
- Key Laboratory of Adaptation and Evolution of Plateau Biota, Northwest Institute of Plateau Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xining 810008, China
| | - De Li Liu
- New South Wales Department of Primary Industries, Wagga Wagga Agricultural Institute, Wagga Wagga 2650, Australia; Climate Change Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney 2052, Australia
| | - Qiang Yu
- State Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion and Dryland Farming on the Loess Plateau, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, China; College of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
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Doubleday ZA, Izzo C, Haddy JA, Lyle JM, Ye Q, Gillanders BM. Long-term patterns in estuarine fish growth across two climatically divergent regions. Oecologia 2015; 179:1079-90. [PMID: 26245148 DOI: 10.1007/s00442-015-3411-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/09/2014] [Accepted: 07/24/2015] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
Long-term ecological datasets are vital for investigating how species respond to changes in their environment, yet there is a critical lack of such datasets from aquatic systems. We developed otolith growth 'chronologies' to reconstruct the growth history of a temperate estuarine fish species, black bream (Acanthopagrus butcheri). Chronologies represented two regions in south-east Australia: South Australia, characterised by a relatively warm, dry climate, and Tasmania, characterised by a relatively cool, wet climate. Using a mixed modelling approach, we related inter-annual growth variation to air temperature, rainfall, freshwater inflow (South Australia only), and El Niño-Southern Oscillation events. Otolith chronologies provided a continuous record of growth over a 13- and 21-year period for fish from South Australia and Tasmania, respectively. Even though fish from Tasmania were sourced across multiple estuaries, they showed higher levels of growth synchronicity across years, and greater year-to-year growth variation, than fish from South Australia, which were sourced from a single, large estuary. Growth in Tasmanian fish declined markedly over the time period studied and was negatively correlated to temperature. In contrast, growth in South Australian fish was positively correlated to both temperature and rainfall. The stark contrast between the two regions suggests that Tasmanian black bream populations are more responsive to regional scale environmental variation and may be more vulnerable to global warming. This study highlights the importance of examining species response to climate change at the intra-specific level and further validates the emerging use of growth chronologies for generating long-term ecological data in aquatic systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zoë A Doubleday
- Southern Seas Ecology Laboratories and The Environment Institute, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, 5005, Australia.
| | - Christopher Izzo
- Southern Seas Ecology Laboratories and The Environment Institute, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, 5005, Australia
| | - James A Haddy
- Fisheries and Aquaculture Centre, Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania, Locked Bag 1370, Launceston, TAS, Australia
| | - Jeremy M Lyle
- Fisheries and Aquaculture Centre, Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania, Private Bag 49, Hobart, TAS, 7001, Australia
| | - Qifeng Ye
- South Australian Research and Development Institute (Aquatic Sciences), West Beach, SA, 5024, Australia
| | - Bronwyn M Gillanders
- Southern Seas Ecology Laboratories and The Environment Institute, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, 5005, Australia
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