Melbourne School of Land and Environment Department of Forest and Ecosystem Science

Project 1

Nutrient gains and losses from prescribed and wildfires in Australia

The production of smoke through the combustion of vegetation (biomass burning) is one of the most common of all chemical reactions but it is one of the least studied and understood. A large variety of chemicals are released to the atmosphere when living and decomposing vegetation is combusted including important nutrient losses by volatilisation of carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and sulphur (S). The aim of this PhD project will be to determine the type and quantity of nutrient losses during prescribed and wildfires and the impacts of this loss on ecosystems such as forests and heathlands. Key outcomes will include:

•  Development of predictive equations relating fire temperature and duration to rates of nutrient loss from a wide range of species and litter compositions

•  Models that describe likely losses as functions of the number and types of fires for a range of ecosystems

•  Improved understanding of monitoring requirements required (e.g. which compounds should be analysed) for better management of nutrients at ecosystem scale

This project is a component of Bushfire CRC Project B2.2 (http://www.bushfirecrc.com/html/B22.htm) and supervised by Dr Tina Bell (UM) and Prof. Mark Adams (UNSW).

Link to Bushfire Research and Developement Group

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