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Assessing changes in high-intensity fire events in southeastern Australia using FTIR spectroscopy

Rebecca Ryan , Zoe Thomas, Ivan Simkovic, Pavel Dlapa , Martin Worthy, Robert Wasson, Ross Bradstock, Scott Mooney , Katharine Haynes, Anthony Dosseto

Abstract

Background: As fire regimes continue to evolve in response to climate change, understanding how fire characteristics have responded to changes in the recent past is vital to inform predictions of future fire events. Aims and Methods: We aim to assess how fire intensity has changed in two fire-prone landscapes in southeastern Australia, the Blue Mountains and Namadgi National Park, during the last 3000 years using Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. Key Results: Higher aromatic/aliphatic ratios suggest increased high-intensity fire frequency in sediments at the surface of both cores. Increases in the frequency of extreme drought periods, coupled with the change in vegetation and anthropogenic ignitions following colonisation, could have increased the frequency of high-intensity fires in the last ~200 years. Conclusions: FTIR spectroscopy can be used in sediment deposits to infer that the frequency of high-intensity fire events has increased in the last 200 years compared to the previous ~3000 years. Implications: These results are important for understanding how past fire regimes have responded to climate, people and vegetation shifts over the last ~3000 years and can be used to inform models for future predictions and management strategies.

WF24064  Accepted 03 August 2024

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