Dr Tina Bell
|
|
Research Projects |
|---|
This integrated research project aims to provide science-based ecological burning strategies which achieve both biodiversity and asset protection objectives at a landscape-scale across all land tenures. This includes gaining knowledge about vital attributes of plant species, determining key fire-response species and their relationship to fire cycles and understanding the influence of fire on ecological processes. Such data are lacking for the heathy Stringybark woodlands of southwest Victoria and a series of projects are being undertaken to help address this knowledge gap. Sub-projects in which I am involved include:
- Biodiversity and ecosystem processes: the role of fire at the soil-litter interface
- Effects of fire regime on vegetation composition, structure and pattern
- Coarse woody debris in fire-prone forests: achieving both fire management and conservation objectives
Funding for this research comes from the Department of Sustainability and Environment, Parks Victoria and the Bushfire CRC.
2. Smoke composition and impact on human health and ecosystems
The overall objective of this project is to reduce the impact of smoke from prescribed and fuel reduction burns and wildfires on community health and safety. While regular prescribed or fuel reduction fires may be a perceived method in which the severity of wildfires can be controlled, the impact of the smoke produced on the community may be as great as, or greater than, that produced by occasional wildfires. With the ability to predict the composition, behaviour and dispersion of smoke plumes the potential risks to human health can be better communicated and therefore potentially minimised. Ecological and environmental considerations are also being addressed by asking questions such as:
- What contribution does prescribed burning and wildfires make to greenhouse gases in the atmosphere?
- What might be the extent of loss or gain of nutrients through volatilisation and oxidation of C, N and S?
- Is there a “good” side to smoke such as promotion of germination of seeds?
Funding for this research comes from the Bushfire CRC and the Department of Sustainability and Environment.
3. HighFire
The HighFire project sits within the Bushfire CRC and aims to inform policy and practice of the land management agencies and local communities through creation of a solid knowledge base on impacts of fuels management in alpine regions in Australia. My role is to investigate fuel accumulation after fire and the effect of fire on carbon and nitrogen cycling and emissions through supervision of PhD and Honours students. Relevant undergraduate and postgraduate student projects that have been completed or underway include:
- Edaphic and vegetation factors controlling carbon and nitrogen pool sizes and greenhouse gas emissions in south-eastern (sub-alpine) Australia
- Influences of fire and temperature on nitrogen cycling in an alpine ecosystem of Australia with special reference to climate change
- Carbon budgets and implications for fuel load and flammability of shrub dominated ecosystems in the High country
- The effect of fire on soil microbial populations and processes in alpine ecosystems
- Regeneration of high elevation eucalypts (Eucalyptus delegatensis R.T. Baker and Eucalyptus pauciflora Sieb. ex Spreng.) after fire
- Regeneration of Acacia obliquinervia in the Victorian Alps following the 2003 fires – growth, seedling density and N2 fixation
- Nitrogen nutrition of regenerating vegetation in Alpine Ash forests
4. Mycorrhizal associations in the Fabaceae: are they really needed?
The aim of this research is to increase the understanding of the nutrient requirements of a common component of Australian heathlands, the Fabaceae. Members of this family have been reported to have a range of root specialisations for acquiring nutrients (including nitrogen-fixing nodules, cluster roots and mycorrhizal associations) and the objective of this project will be to determine the relative importance of these strategies for uptake of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P).
Funding for this research comes from the Australian Flora Foundation.