University of Tasmania
Browse

File(s) not publicly available

Age and growth of a fire prone Tasmanian temperate old-growth forest stand dominated by Eucalyptus regnans, the world's tallest angiosperm

journal contribution
posted on 2023-05-17, 04:30 authored by Wood, SW, Hua, Q, Kathryn AllenKathryn Allen, David BowmanDavid Bowman
Forests are key components of the global carbon cycle, with deforestation being an important driver of increased atmospheric carbon dioxide. Temperate old-growth forests have some of the highest above ground stores of carbon of any forest types on Earth. Unlike tropical forests, the ecology of many temperate forests is dominated by episodic disturbance, such as high intensity fire. An exemplar of a particularly carbon dense temperate forest system adapted to infrequent catastrophic fires is the Eucalyptus regnans forests of south eastern Australia. Knowledge of the growth and longevity of old-growth trees is crucial to understanding the carbon balance and fire regimes of these forest systems. In an old-growth E. regnans stand in the Styx Valley in southern Tasmania we used dendrochronological techniques and radiocarbon dating to determine the age and stem growth of E. regnans and Phyllocladus aspleniifolius, an understorey rainforest conifer. Our analysis revealed that an even-aged cohort of E. regnans and P. aspleniifolius established in 1490-1510AD, apparently after a stand-replacing fire. The stem growth rates of E. regnans in the first 100 years were very rapid compared to the co-occurring P. aspleniifolius. That the longevity of E. regnans is >500 years challenges the suggested 350-450 year timeframe proposed for the widely held model of succession from eucalypt to rainforest. These forests not only have the potential to store vast amounts of carbon, but can also maintain these high carbon densities for a long period of time. Estimates of the capacity of these forests to sequester and store carbon should explicitly consider past harvesting and fire regimes and the potential increases in the risk of fire associated with climate change. © 2010 Elsevier B.V.

History

Publication title

Forest Ecology and Management

Volume

260

Issue

4

Pagination

438-447

ISSN

0378-1127

Department/School

School of Natural Sciences

Publisher

Elsevier Science Bv

Place of publication

Po Box 211, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 1000 Ae

Repository Status

  • Restricted

Socio-economic Objectives

Native forests

Usage metrics

    University Of Tasmania

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC