Fire research in Australia’s fire-prone heathlands
Fire research in Australia’s fire-prone heathlands
Mark Ooi (Senior Research Fellow from UNSW) is conducting research into post fire recovery of Australia’s heathlands and thanks to Queensland Fire and Biodiversity Consortium, Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service and HQ Plantations is extending his research into the heathlands of the South East Queensland. The overall project is aimed at improving conservation outcomes for planned burns. The study will help to improve understanding of post-fire recovery and recruitment of the vegetation in these areas, especially the threatened species Boronia keysii and rare B. rivularis. We are particularly interested in the effects of conducting burns in different seasons.
Ian Last (HQ Plantations), Justin Collette (UNSW), Mark Ooi (UNSW), and Peter Leeson (QPWS) conducting a planned burn. Image by Kate Clapson (HQ Plantations).This project is supported by the Queensland Fire and Biodiversity Consortium and is part of the Australian Government's National Environmental Science Program (NESP) funded work (as part of their Threatened Species Recovery Hub - Project 1.3).
This project is based at the Centre for Ecosystem Science, School of Biological Earth & Environmental Sciences, UNSW.
Research on the Boronias is being conducted by Dr Mark Ooi and PhD student Justin Collette both from UNSW.
This fire (pictured right) was implemented as an ecological burn in a collaborative effort between Mark Ooi collecting soil samples post fire. Image by Justin Collette (UNSW).Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service and HQ Plantations. The burn on the day was successful, with good conditions.
The team is planning a future burn to be completed later this year to compare recovery after the two seasons.