53. Fire and Carbon Budgets

Organised by Ross Bradstock (U Wollongong) and Dick Williams (CSIRO Tropical Ecosystems) to be held at ANU, Canberra. First meeting 26-28 November 2008

PARTICIPANTS INCLUDE Ross Bradstock - U Wollongong - fire regime modelling in temperate forests and woodlands Dick Williams -CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems, Darwin and Tropical Savanna CRC - fuel dynamics and fire behaviour in savannas Damian Barrett - CSIRO Land and Water, Canberra - national carbon dynamics modelling Matthias Boer - U Western Australia, Perth - ecosystem, landscape and fire regime modelling Geoff Cary - Australian National U, Canberra and Bushfire CRC - fire regime modelling; FIRESCAPE fire model Garry Cook - CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems, Darwin and Tropical Savanna CRC - fuel dynamics fire modelling in savannas; FLAMES savanna fire model Malcolm Gill - CSIRO Plant Industry/ANU/Canberra and Bushfire CRC - fire regime modelling Lindsay Hutley - Charles Darwin U, Darwin and TS-CRC - eddy covariance flux measurements in temperate forests and savanna systems; fire and carbon Heather Keith - Australian National U, Canberra - forest carbon Brendan Mackey - Australian National U, Canberra - forest carbon Mick Meyer - CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research, Melbourne and BF-CRC - GHG inventory methods; NGGI and IPCC accounting rules Stefan Maier - Charles Darwin U, Darwin - remote sensing of fire regimes Owen Price - U Wollongong - fire regime modelling; risk modelling Stephen Roxburgh - CSIRO/ANU and BF-CRC, Canberra - ecosystem carbon modelling Jeremy Russell-Smith - Bushfire NT and TS-CRC, Darwin - WALFA Project Instigator, savanna fire ecology; emissions abatement accounting and management Richard Thornton - Bushfire CRC, Melbourne

Nov 08 >

GOAL

The aim of this Working Group is to develop a national framework to examine the extent to which management of fire regimes at landscape scales can achieve greenhouse gas benefits – through emissions reduction, enhanced carbon sequestration, or both.

Background: Biomass burning contributes substantial amounts of greenhouse gas (GHG) to the atmosphere globally, the majority of which is from fires in the tropical savannas (Justice et al. 2003 Int. J. Wild. Fire). Nationally, savanna biomass burning emissions (Non CO2, primarily CH4 and N20) are between 5-15 Mt CO2-e annually, or about 3% of Australia’s accountable emissions (National Greenhouse Gas Inventory 2005; Cook et al. 2008 Rangel. Ecol. Mange.). There is national concern for abating such emissions, and an explicit fire abatement program, the West Arnhem Land Fire Abatement Project (WALFA) has commenced recently in the NT, with the explicit aim of managing savanna fire regimes to achieve GHG abatement. In addition to research on the emissions footprint of savannas, recent research has shown that Australia’s tropical savannas are potential carbon sinks (Williams et al. 2004 Funct. Pl. Biol; Beringer et al. 2007 GCB). Sequestration capacity is sensitive to fire regime, with sink capacity maintained under a regime of relatively low intensity, early dry season fires, but lost (with savannas becoming carbon sources) under more severe fire regimes characterised by frequent, intense late dry season fires (Cook et al. 2005 Aust. J. Bot.). Moreover, fire abatement to achieve emissions reductions also brings a sequestration benefit.

The WALFA project is currently operational in a remote area currently subject to frequent, intense late dry season fires (Russell-Smith et al. 2009; ‘Managing fire regimes in north Australian savannas—ecology, culture, economy’ CSIRO Press). Reducing the extent of such fires by the use of early dry season landscape scale prescribed burning (PB), is a fundamental component of the scheme. PB is carried out by local Aboriginal people in partnership with State and Federal fire management agencies. This is a multi-million dollar scheme, funded through both private and public sources. Such schemes bring multiple benefits - greenhouse gas abatement, carbon sequestration, and enhancement of the livelihoods of remote Aboriginal communities. There are potential applications of the model in other land tenures in north Australia (e.g. pastoral lands) and in other off-shore savanna regions (e.g. Eastern Indonesia; South Africa).

The workshop will therefore explore the extent to which this logic and technology can be applied in southern Australia.

 

Last Updated August 2008