Ryan, Rebecca, Thomas, Zoë, Simkovic, Ivan, Dlapa, Pavel, Worthy, Martin, Wasson, Robert, Bradstock, Ross, Mooney, Scott, Haynes, Katharine, and Dosseto, Anthony (2024) Assessing changes in high-intensity fire events in south-eastern Australia using Fourier Transform Infra-red (FITR) spectroscopy. International Journal of Wildland Fire, 33. WF24064.

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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: Using Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, we assessed how fire intensity has changed in two fire-prone landscapes in south-eastern Australia: (1) the Blue Mountains; and (2) Namadgi National Park during the past 3000 years.

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 past ~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 past 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 in the past ~3000 years and can be used to inform models for future predictions and management strategies.

Item ID:	85510
Item Type:	Article (Research - C1)
ISSN:	1448-5516
Copyright Information:	© 2024 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of IAWF. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND).
Date Deposited:	15 May 2025 23:20
FoR Codes:	37 EARTH SCIENCES > 3709 Physical geography and environmental geoscience > 370903 Natural hazards @ 50% 37 EARTH SCIENCES > 3702 Climate change science > 370299 Climate change science not elsewhere classified @ 50%
SEO Codes:	19 ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY, CLIMATE CHANGE AND NATURAL HAZARDS > 1904 Natural hazards > 190401 Climatological hazards (e.g. extreme temperatures, drought and wildfires) @ 50% 19 ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY, CLIMATE CHANGE AND NATURAL HAZARDS > 1905 Understanding climate change > 190508 Understanding the impact of natural hazards caused by climate change @ 50%
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