Terrestrial Biodiversity Adaptation Research Network

Bushfires, Biodiversity and Climate Change workshop.

This workshop took place in Hobart, on 21st - 25th May 2012 and was convened by David Bowman and Dick Williams. It’s primary goal was to develop an adaptive management framework to understand the efficacy of fire management interventions in Australian flammable ecosystems under climate change. Participants were asked to identify key threatening processes in the interactions between climate change, fire and biodiversity and to develop an adaptive management framework for fire and biodiversity in Australia under global warming conditions.

Workshop participants have produced a brochure aimed at end-users within fire and land management organizations. The publication outlines the concept of fire countries and highlights the challenges in the fire, biodiversity and climate change nexus. The foundations of an adaptive management framework for monitoring the impacts of management, changing fire regimes and climate change on biodiversity is also described .

The main publication for this has been a meeting report in New Phytologist (Appendix 6). The publication is:

1. Williams, R & Bowman, D. (2012) Fire futures for a megadiverse continent. New Phytologist.

Convenor David Bowman also published an article in The Conversation as a result of this workshop, which can be found here.