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Grant fuels study into high country ecosytems

17 August 2005

Monash researcher Dr Jason Beringer has received $106,000 to examine the long-term impact of bushfires on the ecology of south-eastern Australia's high country.

Dr Beringer (pictured), a senior lecturer in the School of Geography and Environmental Science, was awarded the grant for his project 'Alpine ecosystems responses to fire'. The three-year grant includes funding for a PhD scholarship.

The project, funded by the Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre (CRC), is part of a wider national study on high country fuels and ecosystems

"The study will provide valuable information to aid in the sustainable management of water resources and the important and inevitable role of fire," Dr Beringer said.

"South-eastern Australia is one of the most fire-prone environments in the world. In January 2003, almost one million hectares of national park and other reserves were burnt. Due to the fire's high intensity, there were significant ecological impacts in these areas."

Dr Beringer's project will examine the accumulation of high country fuels such as sticks and leaf litter and how much potential fuel is produced, as well as the long-term impact of water runoff from the 2003 fires on water quality and alpine streams.

The Bushfire CRC is a collaborative venture established under the Commonwealth Government's Cooperative Research Centres Program.

The centre involves state fire and land management agencies, eight universities, CSIRO, federal government agencies including the Bureau of Meteorology, Emergency Management Australia and the Australian Building Codes Board, and New Zealand fire and forest research agencies.

Research funded by the centre is aimed at enhancing the management of the bushfire risk to the community in an economically and ecologically sustainable way.