Aim Catastrophic forest mortality due to more extreme rainfall deficits and higher temperatures under future climate scenarios has been predicted. The aim of this study is to explore the magnitude of historical drought‐induced tree mortality under pre‐warming conditions. Location North‐eastern Australia. Time period 1845–2017. Major taxa studied Trees. Methods Field survey, historical analysis and climate analysis. Results We...

Predicting the consequences of climate change on forest systems is difficult because trees may display species‐specific responses to exaggerated droughts that may not be reflected by the climatic envelope of their geographic range. Furthermore, few studies have examined the postdrought recovery potential of drought‐susceptible tree species. This study develops a robust ranking of the drought susceptibility of 21 tree species b...

Aim To investigate the role of clay in limiting the development of woody biomass in drylands. Location A ustralia. Methods Spatial data representing woody biomass, soil clay content and climate for the A ustralian continent were interpreted to explore the relationship between a moisture index and woody biomass on clay and non‐clay substrates. Moisture and soil water potential were investigated through time for clay and sand pl...

Aim We examined patterns of rarity in the flora of a semi‐arid mountain range with a high concentration of rare species and 150 years of elevated grazing pressure, to establish the influences of habitat specialization, species biology, biogeography and grazing pressure in determining the distributions and abundances of species. Location Grey Range and associated Tertiary sandstone ranges, eastern semi‐arid Australia. Methods W...

Aim To assess hypotheses about the role of anthropogenic fire in the maintenance and origin of a fine‐scale vegetation mosaic of rain forest, eucalypt savanna and grassland. Location Bunya Mountains, subtropical eastern Australia. Methods A time series of vegetation maps was compiled from historical and recent aerial photography and field surveys. Geospatial models were constructed of environmental domains for rain forest, sav...

Aim Comparative analyses of fire regimes at large geographical scales can potentially identify ecological and climatic controls of fire. Here we describe A ustralia's broad fire regimes, and explore interrelationships and trade‐offs between fire regime components. We postulate that fire regime patterns will be governed by trade‐offs between moisture, productivity, fire frequency and fire intensity. Location Australia. Methods...