Tasmanian and southeastern Australian landscape change and the effects of burning and grazing histories.
This project aims to investigate the land-cover changes on the islands located in Tasmania and south-eastern Australia. Following European colonization, and subsequent cessation of Aboriginal fire management, these landscapes underwent dramatic shifts in land use and management strategies with complex clearing, livestock grazing and burning histories, making them excellent case studies to compare the effect of different anthropogenic disturbance on land-cover dynamics and fire regimes. The project will combine field surveys and remote sensing analyses to uncover the anthropogenic and environmental correlates of historical changes in land cover and fire activity, to identify sustainable fire management practices based on local characteristics and future climate predictions. This research is closely linked with a current project with the Australian National University and is supported by an ARC Laureate fellowship held by Professor David Bowman.
Supervisor
Dr Stefania Ondei
