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Cited by 303Fire effects on ecosystemsRangeland and Wildlife ManagementLand Use and Ecosystem Services

Contemporary fire regimes of northern Australia, 1997–2001: change since Aboriginal occupancy, challenges for sustainable management

Russell-Smith, Jeremy, Yates, Cameron, Edwards, Andrew, Allan, Grant E., Cook, Garry D., Cooke, Peter, Craig, Ron, Heath, Belinda +1 more·2003·International Journal of Wildland Fire
DOI 10.1071/wf03015
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Abstract

Considerable research has been undertaken over the past two decades to apply remote sensing to the study of fire regimes across the savannas of northern Australia. This work has focused on two spatial scales of imagery resolution: coarse-resolution NOAA-AVHRR imagery for savanna-wide assessments both of the daily distribution of fires ('hot spots'), and cumulative mapping of burnt areas ('fire-scars') over the annual cycle; and fine-resolution Landsat imagery for undertaking detailed assessments of regional fire regimes. Importantly, substantial effort has been given to the validation of fire mapping products at both scales of resolution. At the savanna-wide scale, fire mapping activities have established that: (1) contrary to recent perception, from a national perspective the great majority of burning in any one year typically occurs in the tropical savannas; (2) the distribution of burning across the savannas is very uneven, occurring mostly in sparsely settled, higher rainfall, northern coastal and subcoastal regions (north-west Kimberley, Top End of the Northern Territory, around the Gulf of Carpentaria) across a variety of major land uses (pastoral, conservation, indigenous); whereas (3) limited burning is undertaken in regions with productive soils supporting more intensive pastoral management, particularly in Queensland; and (4) on a seasonal basis, most burning occurs in the latter half of the dry season, typically as uncontrolled wildfire. Decadal fine-resolution fire histories have also been assembled from multi-scene Landsat imagery for a number of fire-prone large properties (e.g. Kakadu and Nitmiluk National Parks) and local regions (e.g. Sturt Plateau and Victoria River District, Northern Territory). These studies have facilitated more refined description of various fire regime parameters (fire extent, seasonality, frequency, interval, patchiness) and, as dealt with elsewhere in this special issue, associated ecological assessments. This paper focuses firstly on the patterning of contemporary fire regimes across the savanna landscapes of northern Australia, and then addresses the implications of these data for our understanding of changes in fire regime since Aboriginal occupancy, and implications of contemporary patterns on biodiversity and emerging greenhouse issues.

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  • Human impacts, novel climates, and evolving vegetation can alter the type of fire that occurs in a location.

    “It is also clear that HIs, novel climates, and evolving vegetation can alter the type of fire that occurs in a location (15, 17, 27, 46–48).”

    From Defining pyromes and global syndromes of fire regimes (2013) · cites this paper as [48]

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Authors
Russell-Smith, J., Yates, C., Edwards, A., Allan, G. E., Cook, G. D., Cooke, P., Craig, R., Heath, B., & Smith, R.
Affiliations
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (AU)
ORCID
Venue
International Journal of Wildland Fire
Publisher
CSIRO Publishing
Published
2003-11-28
Volume
12
Issue
4
Pages
283-297
ISSN
  • 1049-8001 (ISSN-L)
  • 1448-5516
DOI
10.1071/wf03015
OpenAlex
W2032467485
Cited by
303
References
75
Citations by year
2026: 5 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 21 · 2020: 16 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 14 · 2015: 21 · 2014: 18 · 2013: 15 · 2012: 16
FWCI
10.98
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
International Journal of Wildland Fire (publishedVersion)
Funders
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Fire effects on ecosystems
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Rangeland and Wildlife Management
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Land Use and Ecosystem Services
Keywords
fire regimes, tropical savanna, northern Australia, fire mapping, fire scars, hot spots, Landsat imagery, AVHRR, fire history, fire seasonality, fire frequency, fire return interval, Aboriginal burning, fire regime change, greenhouse gas emissions, fire management

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