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Effects of Sydney Coastal Dry Sclerophyll Forest Litter on Fuels and Fire Behaviour in Hornsby Shire

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Effects of Sydney Coastal Dry Sclerophyll Forest Litter on Fuels and Fire Behaviour in Hornsby Shire Effects of Sydney Coastal Dry Sclerophyll Forest Litter on Fuels and Fire Behaviour in Hornsby Shire Angela G. Gormley A thesis submitted to fulfil requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy School of Life and Environmental Sciences Faculty of Science The University of Sydney February 2019 ii Angela G. Gormley iii O! for a muse of fire, that would ascend the brightest heaven of invention Prologue The Life of King Henry V William Shakespeare iv Acknowledgements Most universities ban their students from setting fire to litter on the campus so it was necessary to transfer to the School of Life and Environmental Sciences, The University of Sydney, halfway through my degree. My supervisors, Assoc. Prof. Tina Bell and Dr Malcolm Possell, solved all my problems during our first meeting. I appreciate their guidance with my research, their support and, they took my research in an interesting direction. I would like to thank Veronica Quintanilla Berjon for help with the burning experiments. The School of Life and Environmental Sciences provided me with the facilities and equipment that were necessary to support my research. I appreciate the financial assistance and networking opportunities provided by the Bushfire and Natural Hazards Cooperative Research Centre. I appreciate the support of Amelia Jones and Michelle Brown from Hornsby Shire Council because they encouraged me to keep trying when it seemed impossible for my research to continue. They assisted me with access to sites, maps, accompanied me on my field trips and provided a lot of useful information. I would like to thank students and staff at the School of Life and Environmental Sciences and the Sydney Institute of Agriculture, The University of Sydney, because a friendly and sociable environment makes studying more enjoyable. v My friends always encouraged and supported me. Mary Beilby let me use her laboratory to explore different ideas during the early stages of my research. Forough and Norouz invited me to stay at their home when I attended field trips. Finley Guinness always wanted me to succeed and believed my research is important. vi Abstract Globally bushfires are an ecological phenomenon that can cause deaths and widespread destruction of assets such as homes, utilities and essential infrastructure. Bushfires usually start in forest litter on a forest floor. The research described in this thesis used empirical data to characterise the physical and chemical attributes of litter, a component of forest and woodland fuels that is particularly important for propagation of fire. Differences in the amounts, arrangement and flammability of components of litter were determined for Sydney Coastal Dry Sclerophyll Forest, a common vegetation type in the Sydney Basin. Surface litter was investigated at study sites at Rofe Park, Hornsby Heights and Halls Creek, Arcadia, New South Wales, Australia. Data describing fuel load, structure and condition of surface litter were gathered using semi-quantitative (fuel hazard score, percent cover score, pin transect) and quantitative methods (surface litter depth, bulk density and soil moisture). These methods indicated both the Halls Creek and Rofe Park sites had ladder fuels with an extreme risk of fire. Chemical analyses of litter fractions included total carbon and nitrogen. The carbon content of litter was similar between sites but there was a significant difference in nitrogen because of the presence of the nitrogen-fixing species, Allocasuarina littoralis, at Rofe Park. This site was also wetter compared to Halls Creek. However, these physical and chemical parameters provide little information about flammability of surface litter from these sites. Surface litter was sorted into fractions (e.g. whole leaves and twigs, partially and fully decomposed organic material) and used to determine which component or mixture of components were the most flammable. The Simplex Centroid Design (SCD) method was used to determine optimum mixtures of fuel fractions and a General Blending Model was used to determine the best statistical model fit for flammability metrics (ignitability, combustability, consumability and sustainability). Flammability measures included time to vii ignition, burn to completion, vertical fuel height, rate of spread, volume consumed, duration of vertical flame and residual mass fraction. Fuel from both sites had rapid time to ignition although, 60% of Halls Creek samples failed to burn compared to 35% of the Rofe Park mixtures. Surface fuels from Rofe Park proved to be more flammable than those from Halls Creek because visual flame heights were twice as high and rate of spreads were twice as rapid. Allocasuarina littoralis provided a non-additive effect by driving flammability of Rofe Park litter mixtures. Halls Creek samples had negative and positive non-additive effects for three flammability metrics; bulk density, residual mass fraction and rate of spread. Rofe Park samples had strong positive non-additive effects of six flammability metrics; burn to completion, residual mass fraction, rate of spread, volume consumed, vertical fuel height and duration of vertical flame. Allocasuarina littoralis was the most flammable component overall and twigs were the most flammable component in the litter from Halls Creek. The data were optimised to find the maximum or minimum fit for the SCD. These optimisations demonstrated the ideal litter mixtures from both sites that produce the maximum and minimum flammability for all flammability metrics. Knowledge about fuel flammability of litter from sites with the same fire-prone vegetation type will help inform management decisions about prioritising prescribed burning to mitigate the risk of fire. Future studies could investigate the use of the experimental methodology presented in other forest types. viii Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................................ vii Table of Contents .................................................................................................................................... ix List of Figures ....................................................................................................................................... ..xi List of Tables .......................................................................................................................................... xii Chapter One: Overview of fires globally and in Australia……………………………………………1 1.1 Characterisation of litter in the Sydney Basin………...………………………………………….2 1.2 Flammability of biomass……………………………………………………………………...….3 1.3 Forest litter .................................................................................................................................... 8 1.3.1 What is forest litter? ................................................................................................................. 8 1.3.2 What does litter do? ................................................................................................................. 9 1.4 Coarse woody debris ................................................................................................................... 11 1.5 Fire effect on fuel loads ............................................................................................................... 12 1.5.1 Consequences of fire for carbon and nitrogen cycling………………………………………14 1.6 Prescribed burning objectives ..................................................................................................... 16 1.6.1 Ecological aims ..................................................................................................................... 16 1.6.2 Risk management of prescribed burning ................................................................................ 17 1.6.3 Importance of flammability in assessing risk ......................................................................... 20 1.7 Summary ..................................................................................................................................... 29 Chapter Two: Characterising and quantifying surface fuel layers of Sydney Coastal Dry Sclerophyll Forest………………………………………………………………………………………………....32 2.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 32 2.1.1 Fuel layers in Australian vegetation ....................................................................................... 32 2.1.2 Characterising fuel flammability ........................................................................................... 34 2.1.3 Surface litter on the urban-bush interface .............................................................................. 35 2.1.4 Research hypothesis and aims................................................................................................ 36 2.2 Materials and methods ................................................................................................................ 36 2.2.1 Study sites and plot establishment ......................................................................................... 36 2.2.2 Characterisation of overstorey canopy ................................................................................... 38 2.2.3 Vertical structure assessment ................................................................................................. 38 2.2.4 Litter, live
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