Obligate seeder trees requiring high‐severity fires to regenerate may be vulnerable to population collapse if fire frequency increases abruptly. We tested this proposition using a long‐lived obligate seeding forest tree, alpine ash ( Eucalyptus delegatensis ), in the Australian Alps. Since 2002, 85% of the Alps bioregion has been burnt by several very large fires, tracking the regional trend of more frequent extreme fire weath...

We identified 100 scientific questions that, if answered, would have the greatest impact on conservation practice and policy. Representatives from 21 international organizations, regional sections and working groups of the Society for Conservation Biology, and 12 academics, from all continents except Antarctica, compiled 2291 questions of relevance to conservation of biological diversity worldwide. The questions were gathered...

Aim To study changes in woody vegetation in both floodplains and eucalypt savanna over a 40‐year period using multi‐temporal spatial analysis of variation in density of a large introduced herbivore, the Asian water buffalo ( Bubalus bubalis ). Feral buffalo built up to high densities in the study area until c. 1985, after which a control programme almost eliminated the animals. From 1990, low densities of managed buffalo were...

A 2.34 m sediment profile from the base of the crater of Mt St John volcano (a small basaltic cone on Auckland Isthmus) provides a partial environmental record of the Late Quaternary. The record highlights potential age control problems with sediment cores taken directly from archaeological sites. Two distal tephras were recorded: 9.5 ka Rotoma and 7 ka Tuhua. A date of 16 309 ± 90 14C yr BP from the basal scoria of the profil...

Aim To compare woody vegetation of Eucalyptus tetrodonta savanna in an area that has had near continuous management by Aboriginal people with that of an area managed by neither Aborigines nor Europeans for the last 50 years. In particular, we tested the hypothesis that Aboriginal landscape burning increases the abundance of tree species, particularly those that bear edible fruit. We also examined whether Aboriginal burning inc...

Aim To describe the spatial and temporal pattern of landscape burning with increasing distance from Aboriginal settlements. Location Central Arnhem Land, a stronghold of traditional Aboriginal culture, in the Australian monsoon tropics. Methods Geographical information system and global positioning system technologies were used to measure spatial and temporal changes in fire patterns over a one decade period in a 100 × 80 km a...