{"id":317198,"date":"2022-04-28T13:50:26","date_gmt":"2022-04-28T03:50:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=317198"},"modified":"2022-04-28T14:42:06","modified_gmt":"2022-04-28T04:42:06","slug":"rainforests-struggling-after-fires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2022\/04\/28\/rainforests-struggling-after-fires\/","title":{"rendered":"Rainforests Struggling After Fires"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Burnt rainforest after the devastating 2019-20 bushfires … researchers say its recovery will be slow, if at all (Photo: UNSW)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

April 28, 2022<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bird populations vital to rainforest regeneration are struggling to recover after the black summer bushfires devastated Australia, according to a study from the Centre for Ecosystem Science at the University of NSW.<\/p>\n

The study, published in Global Ecology and Conservation, investigated the impact of the 2019-20 bushfire season on the ancient Gondwanan rainforests of the Australian World Heritage Area, which were burned for the first time in recorded history.<\/p>\n

The researchers found that the megafires negatively affected the diversity of functional rainforest bird communities among burnt areas compared with surviving regions, as well as adjacent dry sclerophyll forests, woodland areas characterised by hard leafed and drought-adapted vegetation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was important for us to compare areas that had been burnt to those that had not and also rainforests to dry sclerophyll forests, which are more adapted to burning,\u201d Prof Richard Kingsford said.<\/p>\n

The researchers found that the number of functional species, and the relative abundances of species, was lower in burnt areas compared with unburnt areas across five national parks surveyed.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThese results contrasted the less affected and more fire-adapted and adjacent dry sclerophyll forests, which increased in diversity,\u201d lead author Josh Lee said.<\/p>\n

The researchers said the 2019-20 blazes were some of the worst in bushfire history, wiping out an estimated 50 per cent of the already scarce Gondwanan rainforest habitat.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese rainforests are 40 million years old, and the fact we\u2019ve burned up to half of it in just one fire season \u2013 which we can confidently attribute to climate change \u2013 is astounding. It\u2019s another page in the story that is the huge impact we\u2019re having on unique ecosystems worldwide,\u201d Mr Lee said.<\/p>\n

The study found the most affected rainforest birds were species that eat insects, leaves or fruit. Of particular concern were fruit-eating birds such as the wompoo fruit-dove and paradise riflebird, that have significant roles in rainforest regeneration.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe found there were fewer fruit-eating birds in the burnt rainforest than the unburnt areas, which is potentially a bad sign because it might mean that there\u2019s less of that rainforest regeneration happening,\u201d Mr Lee said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese fruit eaters disperse rainforest seeds over large distances. Rainforests need these birds to eat and then disperse the seeds for them to grow in other parts of the rainforest. If we don\u2019t have the pigeons and doves to help the fire-affected areas of the rainforest regenerate, we are in real trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because of the impact on seed-dispersing birds, the recovery of the rainforest is likely to be extremely slow and highly dependent on the emigration of animals from outside burnt areas.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe evolutionary lineage of these rainforests is that they\u2019re typically wet, which means their species aren\u2019t used to exposure to fire and just aren\u2019t well adapted to recover in general,\u201d Mr Lee said.<\/p>\n

Associate Professor Will Cornwell, co-author of the study, said the researchers were\u00a0particularly concerned about the ramifications of increasing drying with climate change and more intense bushfires on really fire-sensitive forests.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cBecause of just how unique these ecosystems are and how rarely they burn, we really don\u2019t know much about what the recovery will look like,\u201d Mr Lee said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt remains to be seen what the impacts will be in years to come or whether the rainforest and the birds will come back at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The wompoo fruit-dove is one of the bird species whose numbers have have declined (Photo: UNSW)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bird populations vital to rainforest regeneration are struggling to recover after the black summer bushfires devastated Australia, according to a study from the Centre for Ecosystem Science at the University of NSW.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":317206,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,36],"tags":[1134],"yoast_head":"\nRainforests Struggling After Fires - southburnett.com.au<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Bird populations vital to rainforest regeneration are struggling to recover after the black summer bushfires devastated Australia, according to a study from the Centre for Ecosystem Science at the University of NSW.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2022\/04\/28\/rainforests-struggling-after-fires\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rainforests Struggling After Fires - southburnett.com.au\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Bird populations vital to rainforest regeneration are struggling to recover after the black summer bushfires devastated Australia, according to a study from the Centre for Ecosystem Science at the University of NSW.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2022\/04\/28\/rainforests-struggling-after-fires\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"southburnett.com.au\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-04-28T03:50:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-04-28T04:42:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/20220428rainforest1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"740\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"460\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Anne Miller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Anne Miller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2022\/04\/28\/rainforests-struggling-after-fires\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2022\/04\/28\/rainforests-struggling-after-fires\/\",\"name\":\"Rainforests Struggling After Fires - southburnett.com.au\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2022-04-28T03:50:26+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-04-28T04:42:06+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#\/schema\/person\/d43a5027bdddc95f54e9c6274d8a57ae\"},\"description\":\"Bird populations vital to rainforest regeneration are struggling to recover after the black summer bushfires devastated Australia, according to a study from the Centre for Ecosystem Science at the University of NSW.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2022\/04\/28\/rainforests-struggling-after-fires\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/\",\"name\":\"southburnett.com.au\",\"description\":\"Kingaroy and South Burnett News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#\/schema\/person\/d43a5027bdddc95f54e9c6274d8a57ae\",\"name\":\"Anne Miller\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/author\/anne-miller\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Rainforests Struggling After Fires - southburnett.com.au","description":"Bird populations vital to rainforest regeneration are struggling to recover after the black summer bushfires devastated Australia, according to a study from the Centre for Ecosystem Science at the University of NSW.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2022\/04\/28\/rainforests-struggling-after-fires\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Rainforests Struggling After Fires - southburnett.com.au","og_description":"Bird populations vital to rainforest regeneration are struggling to recover after the black summer bushfires devastated Australia, according to a study from the Centre for Ecosystem Science at the University of NSW.","og_url":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2022\/04\/28\/rainforests-struggling-after-fires\/","og_site_name":"southburnett.com.au","article_published_time":"2022-04-28T03:50:26+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-04-28T04:42:06+00:00","og_image":[{"width":740,"height":460,"url":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/20220428rainforest1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Anne Miller","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Anne Miller","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2022\/04\/28\/rainforests-struggling-after-fires\/","url":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2022\/04\/28\/rainforests-struggling-after-fires\/","name":"Rainforests Struggling After Fires - southburnett.com.au","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#website"},"datePublished":"2022-04-28T03:50:26+00:00","dateModified":"2022-04-28T04:42:06+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#\/schema\/person\/d43a5027bdddc95f54e9c6274d8a57ae"},"description":"Bird populations vital to rainforest regeneration are struggling to recover after the black summer bushfires devastated Australia, according to a study from the Centre for Ecosystem Science at the University of NSW.","inLanguage":"en-AU","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2022\/04\/28\/rainforests-struggling-after-fires\/"]}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#website","url":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/","name":"southburnett.com.au","description":"Kingaroy and South Burnett News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-AU"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#\/schema\/person\/d43a5027bdddc95f54e9c6274d8a57ae","name":"Anne Miller","url":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/author\/anne-miller\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317198"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=317198"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317198\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":317214,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317198\/revisions\/317214"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/317206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}