Assessing plant functional diversity under varying climatic and burn regimes in the Anglesea heathy woodlands

Many plant communities across Southern Australia have been subject to altered patterns of fire and climatic conditions in recent years, which has caused significant shifts in species composition within these systems. More specifically, an acute decline in the richness of obligate seeder species has been recorded in systems whereby increasingly frequent fires have coincided with low levels of post-fire rainfall in what is known as an interval squeeze. We conducted a study to determine how recently changed fire and climatic conditions were influencing the Anglesea Heathy woodland by conducting vegetation assessments across the plant community in areas that had experienced varying patterns of prescribed burns and post-fire rainfall since 1983. In contrast to the current body of work, our findings suggested that both floristic complexity and the richness of obligate seeders remained unchanged in areas of the woodland that had experienced frequent fire and unfavourable post-fire climatic conditions, however species with no known response to fire were relatively higher in richness in these instances. Whilst there was no evidence to suggest that an interval squeeze is occurring in the system in response to increased prescribed burning, these trends in functional group composition may be indicative of a shift beginning to take place in the system. Given that prescribed burning will continue to be used to manage risk in these landscapes, it is imperative that further research is undertaken to further our understanding of how these shifts may influence the floristic composition and flammability of the Anglesea Heathy woodland into the future, so that fuel reduction burns can be conducted that protect both communities and biodiverse systems alike.