TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2020//
TI  - Fire and rain are one: extreme rainfall events predict wildfire extent in an arid grassland
JO  - International journal of wildland fire
A1  - Verhoeven, Elise M.
A1  - Murray, Brad R.
A1  - Dickman, Chris R.
A1  - Wardle, Glenda M.
A1  - Greenville, Aaron C.
SP  - 702
EP  - 711
VL  - 29
IS  - 8
N2  - Assessing wildfire regimes and their environmental drivers is critical for effective land management and conservation. We used Landsat imagery to describe the wildfire regime of the north-eastern Simpson Desert (Australia) between 1972 and 2014, and to quantify the relationship between wildfire extent and rainfall. Wildfires occurred in 15 of the 42 years, but only 27% of the study region experienced multiple wildfires. A wildfire in 1975 burned 43% of the region and is the largest on record for the area. More recently, a large wildfire in 2011 reburned areas that had not burned since 1975 (47% of the 2011 wildfire), as well as new areas that had no record of wildfires (25% of the 2011 wildfire). The mean minimum wildfire return interval was 27 years, comparable with other spinifex-dominated grasslands, and the mean time since last wildfire was 21 years. Spinifex-dominated vegetation burned most frequently and over the largest area. Extreme annual rainfall events (> 93rd percentile) effectively predicted large wildfires occurring 2 years after those events. Extreme rainfall is predicted to increase in magnitude and frequency across central Australia, which could alter wildfire regimes and have unpredictable and far-reaching effects on ecosystems in the region's arid landscapes.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 1049-8001
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/WF19087
ID  - ref1
ER  -