Data set: Demographic effects of severe fire in montane shrubland on Tasmania’s Central Plateau

Australian montane sclerophyll shrubland vegetation is widely considered to be resilient to infrequent severe fire, but this may not be the case in Tasmania. Here, we report on the vegetative and seedling regeneration response of a Tasmanian non-coniferous woody montane shrubland following a severe fire, which burned much of the Great Pine Tier in the Central Plateau Conservation Area during the 2018–19 fire season when a historically anomalously large area was burned in central Tasmania. Our field survey of a representative area burned by severe crown fire revealed that more than 99% of the shrubland plants were top-killed, with only 5% of the burnt plants resprouting one year following the fire. Such a low resprouting rate means the resilience of the shrubland depends on seedling regeneration from aerial and soil seedbanks or colonization from plants outside the burned area. Woody species’ seedling densities were variable but generally low (25 m−2 ). The low number of resprouters, and reliance on seedlings for recovery, suggest the shrubland may not be as resilient to fire as mainland Australian montane shrubland, particularly given a warming climate and likely increase in fire frequency. p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 115%; background: transparent }

澳大利亚山地硬叶灌丛（montane sclerophyll shrubland）植被普遍被认为对偶发高强度火灾具有恢复力，但塔斯马尼亚的此类植被或并非如此。本研究针对塔斯马尼亚一处非针叶木本山地灌丛（non-coniferous woody montane shrubland），报道其在高强度火灾后的营养繁殖与幼苗更新（seedling regeneration）响应——该火灾于2018-2019年火灾季烧毁了中央高原保护区内的大片大松岭区域，彼时塔斯马尼亚中部过火面积创下历史异常纪录。我们对一处受高强度树冠火（crown fire）影响的典型过火区域开展野外调查，结果显示该灌丛中超过99%的植株地上部分死亡（top-killed），仅5%的过火植株在火灾后一年内实现萌蘖更新（resprouting）。如此低的萌蘖率意味着该灌丛的火灾恢复力依赖于地上与土壤种子库（seedbank）产生的幼苗更新，或依赖过火区域外植物的群落定植。木本植物的幼苗密度存在波动，但整体处于较低水平（25株/平方米）。萌蘖植株占比极低且依赖幼苗完成恢复，表明该灌丛对火灾的恢复能力或不如澳大利亚大陆的山地灌丛，在气候变暖与火灾频率大概率上升的背景下尤为如此。