Fire exclusion and the changing landscape of Queensland’s Wet Tropics Bioregion 1. The extent and pattern of transition

Fire exclusion is the primary driver of irreversible changes in Queensland’s Wet Tropics Bioregion, with 53% of native vegetation consisting of non-rainforest types dominated by sclerophyll woodlands and forests. Analysis of high-resolution aerial photography and ground truthing revealed that 17% (124,690 ha) of these sclerophyll ecosystems have undergone irreversible transformation, primarily due to rainforest understory invasion preventing canopy regeneration. No climatic or environmental factors beyond altered fire regimes were identified as causative. The study provides the first comprehensive mapping of vegetation condition across the entire bioregion using a 1:50,000 scale GIS database, offering unprecedented insights into landscape-scale impacts of fire exclusion on biodiversity.

Stanton, P., Stanton, D., Stott, M., & Parsons, M. (2014). Fire exclusion and the changing landscape of Queensland’s Wet Tropics Bioregion 1. The extent and pattern of transition. Australian Forestry, 77(1), 51–57. https://doi.org/10.1080/00049158.2014.881702