The influence of cultural burns on the density and stress response of koalas on Minjerribah, North Stradbroke Island. ...

• Main Author: Samarawickrama, Asitha
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland 2023
• Subjects: koala; First Nations Peoples; cultural burns; fire regime; fire intensity; fire severity; megafire; anthropogenic climate change; endangered species; drone; faecal glucocorticoid metabolites; Ecology; FOS Biological sciences; First Nations
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.25907/00726; https://research.usc.edu.au/esploro/outputs/graduate/99702198802621

Australia is the most fire prone continent on earth and Australian ecosystems have been influenced by fire for millennia. Although fires are typically considered a natural disturbance, humans have influenced the frequency and intensity of fires. Sediment cores confirm an increased frequency of fire coinciding with the arrival of First Nations Peoples to Australia. First Nations Peoples have utilised low intensity fire in mosaic patches, to manage resources and maintain biodiversity, and have accumulated and transferred traditional fire knowledge across multiple generations. However, the suppression of traditional fire management, mainly due to the European colonisation of Australia and the removal of First Nations Peoples from their lands, and the loss of cultural knowledge, contributed to a change in fire regimes across the continent. In addition, anthropogenic climate change is also contributing to unparalleled fire activity, and the frequency of high intensity, severe wildfire events is expected to ... : After centuries of suppression, the reestablishment of patch mosaic cultural burning has resulted in ecological, social and environmental benefits, especially in Australia’s northern savannas and western deserts. Cultural burning is also abating greenhouse gas emissions, by preventing and mitigating large wildfires in flammable ecosystems, hence demonstrating that traditional fire management is an effective tool for mitigating climate change impacts. Following the megafires of 2019-2020, which burnt over 12 million hectares in eastern Australia, there have been calls for the reestablishment of cultural burning to mitigate the impacts of high intensity wildfires on koalas and their preferred eucalypt habitat. ...