Changing Forests in a Changing Climate - What Might the Future Hold? (Short)
Channel: The Royal Society of Victoria
Date: 2021-03-30

Over the past 25 years the unique forests of south-eastern Australia have taken a pounding -- the Millennium Drought, the Eastern Alps/Canberra fires of 2003, the Great Divide bushfires of 2006/7, the Black Saturday fires of 2009, the 2017-19 drought, and, most recently, the unprecedented 2019/20 fire season. Model projections of climate in the coming decades suggest that the frequency and intensity of droughts and fire are likely to increase.
This raises an obvious, and troubling, question: Are the region's forests able to persist under this onslaught of climate-driven disturbance?

In answering this question, we need to consider whether there is a role for forest management and, if so, what that might look like. Silviculturist and forest ecologist Professor Patrick Baker from the University of Melbourne here puts recent climate variability into a broader historical context, discusses the implications of expected future climates for forests and forest dynamics, and considers forest management practices that might help to buffer south-eastern Australia's forests against climate-related disturbances.

Presented with the support of the Inspiring Victoria program. Full presentation available at https://youtu.be/gRVJWXt__Vo.