Carbon Accounting and Savanna Fire Management

Brett P. Murphy is a tropical fire ecologist at the University of Melbourne, whose work focuses on the broad question of how to optimally manage landscape fire for the conservation of biodiversity, especially in the vast savanna landscapes of northern Australia. His current research examines the role of altered fire regimes in the ongoing decline of northern Australian mammals, and the role of fire in controlling the structure and function of northern Australian savanna vegetation. Andrew C. Edwards is a fire ecologist and remote-sensing specialist at the Darwin Centre for Bushfire Research at Charles Darwin University. He played a central role in developing the extensive spatial datasets for the groundbreaking West Arnhem Land Fire Abatement project. This work underpinned the development of the first Savanna Burning methodology for greenhouse gas emissions abatement. He was also part of the team that undertook extensive survey work to describe the seasonality of patchiness and fire severity, and the accumulation of bio-fuels for that methodology. Andrew has since developed satellite-derived fire severity mapping. Mick Meyer is an atmospheric scientist at the CSIRO with 35 years’ experience measuring emissions and uptake of pollutants and greenhouse gases and developing methods for their accounting. Mick is the author of the current national accounting methodologies for greenhouse gas emissions from bushfires, and is an active contributor to UN and IPCC accounting methodologies for combustion processes. Jeremy Russell-Smith is a consultant ecologist with 25 years’ experience in northern Australia. He coordinates fire research programs for the Darwin Centre for Bushfire Research and works on other natural resource management projects in South-East Asia. He has an abiding interest in the ecology, biogeography and management of monsoon rainforests and sandstone heaths. He often works with Indigenous people on landscape and resource management issues.

Preface and acknowledgements

List of contributors



Chapter 1

Reimagining fire management in fire-prone northern Australia



Chapter 2

Fire patterns in north Australian savannas: extending the reach of incentives for savanna fire emissions abatement



Chapter 3

Fire extent mapping - procedures, validation and website application



Chapter 4

Vegetation Fuel type classification for lower rainfall savanna burning abatement projects


Chapter 5

The operational role of satellite-based fire data in Savanna Burning Methodologies


Chapter 6

Fuel Accumulation, consumption and fire patchiness in the lower rainfall savanna region


Chapter 7

Leaf and Coarse Fuel Accumulation and Relationships with Vegetation Attributes in 'Evergreen' Tropical Eucalypt Savannas


Chapter 8

Measuring and Mapping Fire Severity in the Tropical Savannas


Chapter 9

Biomass combustion and emission processes in the Northern Australian Savannas


Chapter 10

Application of a ‘lower rainfall’ savanna burning emissions abatement methodology


Chapter 11

Reconciling ‘bottom-up’ and ‘top-down’ greenhouse gas accounting methodologies for savanna burning in Northern Australia


Chapter 12

Fire or water – which limits tree biomass in Australian savannas?


Chapter 13

Predicting the effects of fire management on carbon stock dynamics using statistical and process-based modelling


Chapter 14

Towards a methodology for increased carbon sequestration in dead fuels through implementation of less severe fire regimes in savannas


Chapter 15

Where to from here?


Index



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