Implications of the 2019–2020 megafires for the biogeography and conservation of Australian vegetation

Robert C. Godfree (), Nunzio Knerr, Francisco Encinas-Viso, David Albrecht, David Bush, D. Christine Cargill, Mark Clements, Cécile Gueidan, Lydia K. Guja, Tom Harwood, Leo Joseph, Brendan Lepschi, Katharina Nargar, Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn and Linda M. Broadhurst
Additional contact information
Robert C. Godfree: CSIRO National Research Collections Australia
Nunzio Knerr: CSIRO National Research Collections Australia
Francisco Encinas-Viso: CSIRO National Research Collections Australia
David Albrecht: Australian National Botanic Gardens
David Bush: CSIRO National Research Collections Australia
D. Christine Cargill: Australian National Botanic Gardens
Mark Clements: Australian National Botanic Gardens
Cécile Gueidan: CSIRO National Research Collections Australia
Lydia K. Guja: Australian National Botanic Gardens
Tom Harwood: CSIRO Land and Water
Leo Joseph: CSIRO National Research Collections Australia
Brendan Lepschi: Australian National Botanic Gardens
Katharina Nargar: James Cook University
Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn: CSIRO National Research Collections Australia
Linda M. Broadhurst: CSIRO National Research Collections Australia

Nature Communications, 2021, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-13

Abstract: Abstract Australia’s 2019–2020 ‘Black Summer’ bushfires burnt more than 8 million hectares of vegetation across the south-east of the continent, an event unprecedented in the last 200 years. Here we report the impacts of these fires on vascular plant species and communities. Using a map of the fires generated from remotely sensed hotspot data we show that, across 11 Australian bioregions, 17 major native vegetation groups were severely burnt, and up to 67–83% of globally significant rainforests and eucalypt forests and woodlands. Based on geocoded species occurrence data we estimate that >50% of known populations or ranges of 816 native vascular plant species were burnt during the fires, including more than 100 species with geographic ranges more than 500 km across. Habitat and fire response data show that most affected species are resilient to fire. However, the massive biogeographic, demographic and taxonomic breadth of impacts of the 2019–2020 fires may leave some ecosystems, particularly relictual Gondwanan rainforests, susceptible to regeneration failure and landscape-scale decline.

Date: 2021
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-21266-5

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