<
https://theconversation.com/invasive-grasses-are-worsening-bushfires-across-australias-drylands-215530>
"As the semi-arid Pilliga Scrub burns in New South Wales, many of us are
thinking about fire once again. It’s an El Niño summer in the hottest year on
record. And there’s a remarkable amount of grass drying out and ready to burn.
Over the past few years, more rain than usual has fallen over vast regions of
Australia’s rangelands, the arid and semi-arid regions that account for most of
our land mass.
These rains have triggered an enormous boom in native grasses. But it’s also
boom time for introduced species such as buffel grass (
Cenchrus ciliaris) in
the deserts, and Gamba grass (
Andropogon Gayanus) in the savannas. These
fast-growing grasses have outcompeted native grasses in many areas.
As they dry out, they become fuel for grass fires. Fuel loads have become
extreme, especially in areas where invasive grasses are abundant. Already this
fire season, enormous tracts of rangelands have burned, covering an area the
size of Spain.
Our bushfire-mapping site has captured the rangeland fire season so far.
Fast-moving grassfires recently hit South Australia. These grassfires can have
fronts hundreds of kilometres wide. Yet this is only the beginning of the
summer fire season."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
