Investigating the Relationship between Fire Severity and Post-Fire Vegetation Regeneration and Subsequent Fire Vulnerability

The Australian 2019-2020 wildfires impacted the subtropical rainforest with a variety of burn severities, making them vulnerable to another burn. Rainforest post-fire regenerated vegetation could be highly flammable, containing fire-promoting species such as Lantana camara and fire-suppressing species such as Phytolacca octandra. This study investigated whether early post-fire regeneration may make rainforests more flammable and if this varies with fire severity. This study sampled three national parks where rainforest burnt in 2019-2020 across different fire severities to test if there were consistent patterns in post-fire regeneration flammability. We found that flammable species increased in the regions where fire severity was higher.

Automated summary

According to this study, the 2019-2020 wildfires in Australia had various impacts on subtropical rainforests, increasing their vulnerability to future fires. The post-fire regeneration of the rainforest vegetation could become highly flammable, with species that promote fires and species that suppress fires. The study investigated whether early post-fire regeneration would make rainforests more flammable and if this relationship varies with the severity of the fire. It was found that flammable species increased in regions where fire severity was higher.