Climate change is testing the resilience of native plants to fire, from ash forests to gymea lilies

Mon, 27 Sep 2021 05:54:05 +1000

Andrew Pam <xanni [at] glasswings.com.au>

Andrew Pam
<https://theconversation.com/climate-change-is-testing-the-resilience-of-native-plants-to-fire-from-ash-forests-to-gymea-lilies-167367>

"Green shoots emerging from black tree trunks is an iconic image in the days
following bushfires, thanks to the remarkable ability of many native plants to
survive even the most intense flames.

But in recent years, the length, frequency and intensity of Australian bushfire
seasons have increased, and will worsen further under climate change. Droughts
and heatwaves are also projected to increase, and climate change may also
affect the incidence of pest insect outbreaks, although this is difficult to
predict.

How will our ecosystems cope with this combination of threats? In our recently
published paper, we looked to answer this exact question — and the news isn’t
good.

We found while many plants are really good at withstanding certain types of
fire, the combination of drought, heatwaves and pest insects may push many
fire-adapted plants to the brink in the future. The devastating Black Summer
fires gave us a taste of this future."

Cheers,
       *** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net               Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/                 Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/            Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/               Manager, Serious Cybernetics

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