Flammable Australia

Author: Ross A. Bradstock
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521805919
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 488

Book Description
Fire is pivotal to the functioning of ecosystems in Australia, affecting the distribution and abundance of the continent's unique and highly diverse range of plants and animals. Conservation of this natural biodiversity therefore requires a good understanding of scientific processes involved in the action of fire on the landscape. This book provides an up-to-date synthesis of current knowledge in this area and its application in contemporary land management. Central to the discussion is an exploration of the concept of the fire regime and its interactions with biodiversity.

Flammable Australia

Author: Richard J Williams
Publisher: CSIRO PUBLISHING
ISBN: 0643104844
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 345

Book Description
In Flammable Australia: Fire Regimes, Biodiversity and Ecosystems in a Changing World, leading researchers in fire ecology and management discuss how fire regimes have shaped and will continue to shape the distribution and abundance of Australia’s highly diverse plants and animals. Central to this is the exploration of the concept of the fire regime – the cumulative pattern of fires and their individual characteristics (fire type, frequency, intensity, season) and how variation in regime components affects landscapes and their constituent biota. Contributions by 44 authors explore a wide range of topics including classical themes such as pre-history and evolution, fire behaviour, fire regimes in key biomes, plant and animal life cycles, remote sensing and modelling of fire regimes, and emerging issues such as climate change and fire regimes, carbon dynamics and opportunities for managing fire regimes for multiple benefits. In the face of significant global change, the conservation of our native species and ecosystems requires an understanding of the processes at play when fires and landscapes interact. This book provides a comprehensive treatment of this complex science, in the context of one of the world’s most flammable continents.

Australia Burning

Author: Geoffrey Cary
Publisher: CSIRO PUBLISHING
ISBN: 9780643069268
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 284

Book Description
Integrates both the natural and social sciences in addressing the issues of fire management and policy.

Culture, Ecology, and Economy of Fire Management in North Australian Savannas

Author: Jeremy Russell-Smith
Publisher: CSIRO PUBLISHING
ISBN: 0643094024
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 417

Book Description
In 12 multi-authored chapters, this book documents key challenges and novel options for addressing chronic landscape scale fire management issues in North Australian Savannas through development of both collaborative, cross cultural approaches and commercially supported enviroment programs.

Australia's Biodiversity and Climate Change

Author: Will Steffen
Publisher: CSIRO PUBLISHING
ISBN: 0643096051
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 249

Book Description
"Australia's unique biodiversity is under threat from a rapidly changing climate. The effects of climate change are already discernible at all levels of biodiversity - genes, species, communities and ecosystems. Many of Australia's most valued and iconic natural areas - the Great Barrier Reef, south-western Australia, the Kakadu wetlands and the Australian Alps - are among the most vulnerable. But much more is at stake than saving iconic species or ecosystems. Australia's biodiversity is fundamental to the country's national identity, economy and quality of life. In the face of uncertainty about specific climate scenarios, ecological and management principles provide a sound basis for maximising opportunities for species to adapt, communities to reorganise and ecosystems to transform while maintaining basic functions critical to human society. This innovative approach to biodiversity conservation under a changing climate leads to new challenges for management, policy development and institutional design. This book explores these challenges, building on a detailed analysis of the interactions between a changing climate and Australia's rich but threatened biodiversity. Australia's Biodiversity and Climate Change is an important reference for policy makers, researchers, educators, students, journalists, environmental and conservation NGOs, NRM managers, and private landholders with an interest in biodiversity conservation in a rapidly changing world."--Publisher.

Safer Gardens

Author: Lesley Corbett
Publisher: Australian Scholarly Publishing
ISBN: 1922454605
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 541

Book Description
Destructive bushfires are increasing in frequency and intensity around the world. For people living in fire prone areas there are no reliable guides about which plants have low flammability and which are frighteningly flammable. Safer Gardens is that guide, with over 500 plants assessed, based on fire research from around the world. Readers can look up a plant in the Plant Flammability Table to get an idea of its flammability then turn to the A–Z for more detailed information. The book contains advice about ways to create a more firesafe garden, including the need to carefully manage the use of mulch and hedges. This is citizen science, written by a gardener for other gardeners. Complex and potentially confusing science is made comprehensible and usable, to help you make your garden and hence your house safer.

Australian Vegetation

Author: David A. Keith
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108210546
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 771

Book Description
Australian Vegetation has been an essential reference for students and researchers in botany, ecology and natural resource management for over 35 years. Now fully updated and with a new team of authors, the third edition presents the latest insights on the patterns and processes that shaped the vegetation of Australia. The first part of the book provides a synthesis of ecological processes that influence vegetation traits throughout the continent, using a new classification of vegetation. New chapters examine the influences of climate, soils, fire regimes, herbivores and aboriginal people on vegetation, in addition to completely revised chapters on evolutionary biogeography, quaternary vegetation history and alien plants. The book's second half presents detailed ecological portraits for each major vegetation type and offers data-rich perspectives and comparative analysis presented in tables, graphs, maps and colour illustrations. This authoritative book will inspire readers to learn and explore first-hand the vegetation of Australia.

On the Ecology of Australia’s Arid Zone

Author: Hans Lambers
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319939432
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 388

Book Description
This book will appeal to an international audience as well as be irresistible to local readers. Anyone working or with an interest in Australia’s arid zone should need ready access to this book. There is no equivalent publication out there at the moment, and this book has many authoritative chapters, richly illustrated with colourful material. The challenge of this book was to assemble current knowledge on particular topics and concepts, and principles relating to them. It is also forward-looking by identifying where there are gaps or inadequacies in knowledge, and where future research needs to be directed. Lead authors were encouraged to take such an approach; they had the opportunity to involve any author they considered appropriate. The final product shouldbe a fabulous resource, also for university courses, especially at MSc level.

Australia's Megafires

Author: Stephen van Leeuwen
Publisher: CSIRO PUBLISHING
ISBN: 1486316662
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 642

Book Description
The Australian wildfires of 2019–20 (Black Summer) were devastating and unprecedented. These megafires burnt more than 10 million hectares, mostly of forests in southern and eastern Australia. Many of the fires were uncontrollable. These megafires affected many of Australia’s most important conservation areas and severely impacted threatened species and ecological communities. They were a consequence of climate change – and offered a glimpse of how this is likely to continue to affect our future. Australia’s Megafires includes contributions by more than 200 researchers and managers with direct involvement in the management and conservation of the biodiversity affected by the Black Summer wildfires. It provides a comprehensive review of the impacts of these fires on all components of biodiversity, and on Indigenous cultural values. These fires also triggered an extraordinary and highly collaborative response by governments, NGOs, Indigenous groups, scientists, landholders and others, seeking to recover the fire-affected species and environments – to restore Country. This book documents that response. It draws lessons that should be heeded to sustain that recovery and to be better prepared for the inevitable future comparable catastrophes. Such lessons are of global relevance, for wildfires increasingly threaten biodiversity and livelihoods across the globe.

Sustainable Land Sector Development in Northern Australia

Author: Jeremy Russell-Smith
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 0429895585
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 226

Book Description
Key Features: Provides clear and authoritative recommendations for managing fire in ecological and social contexts Authors are all international leaders in their fields and include not only academics but also leaders of Indigenous communities Explains Indigenous cultural and knowledge systems to a degree that has rarely been accessible to lay and academic readers outside specialized disciplines like Anthropology Responds to growing need for new approaches to managing human-ecological systems that are in greater sympathy with Australia’s natural environments/climate, and value the knowledge of Indigenous people Timely for scholarly and interest groups intervention, as the Australian government is again looking to ‘develop the north' Sustainable Land Sector Development in Northern Australia sets out a vision for developing North Australia based on a culturally appropriate and ecologically sustainable land sector economy. This vision supports both Indigenous cultural responsibilities and aspirations, as well as enhancing enterprise opportunities for society as a whole. In the past, well-meaning if often misguided policy agendas have failed - and continue to fail - North Australians. This book helps breach that gap by acknowledging and harnessing Indigenous cultural strengths and knowledge systems for looking after the country and its people, as part of a smart, novel and diversified ecosystem services economy.