A team of CSIRO and Charles Darwin University scientists have been carrying out a controlled burning project in Darwin to determine whether prevention burning is damaging biodiversity. The results show a nuanced approach to burns could be good for both emissions and local wildlife.
There aren't many people who go to stand in the middle of a bushfire on purpose.Research shows different frequency of burning different areas helps balance biodiversity and carbonBut Charles Darwin University associate professor of ecology Brett Murphy, his colleagues and students have been doing this for 17 years.
On a study site north of Darwin several times a year, the scientists set fire to some of a series of 1 hectare plots of bushland.Brett Murphy is studying how bushfires threaten small mammals. They burn networks of firebreaks into the landscape in the cooler part of the early dry season, when bushfires as less destructive, to prevent hotter out of control wildfires in the late dry season.
So the scientists have studied how regularly, and what times of the year, areas should be burnt to achieve the best balance between protecting communities, preventing the release of greenhouse gases and preserving biodiversity. At the same time, CSIRO research scientist Anna Richards has been studying how much carbon is being stored in the plants, trees and soil on the different plots.
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