Australia's bushfire crisis linked to colonial land use change

Research has found that colonialisation drove cascading changes in the landscape: increased fire temperature, a four-fold increase in eucalypt cover, transformation from an open woodland to forest, and increased soil erosion Reconstructing the past 1000 years of vegetation, fire and erosion in Southeastern Australia, researchers and Traditional owners found  that landscapes were more prone to burning, amplifying the influence of climate change and propelling Australia’s bushfire crisis X-ray fluorescence scanning at ANSTO was one of the many methods used in the research  Forest expansion and thickening after British colonisation has created landscapes more prone to burning, amplifying the influence of climate change and propelling Australia’s bushfire crisis, a new study finds.  ANSTO has supported research published yesterday in Nature by University of Melbourne researchers, in collaboration with Gunaikurnai Land and Waters Corporation, that reconstructed the past 1000 years of vegetation, fire and erosion in Croajingolong National Park in East Gippsland, one of southeastern Australia's most fire-prone forests. The researchers found that colonialisation drov...