Schematic of carbon stocks in the forest ecosystem and stock changes resulting from fire.

<p>Schematic of carbon stocks in the forest ecosystem and stock changes resulting from fire.</p

Summary of biomass components combusted by low- and high-severity fires.

1<p>Mass of carbon (mean ±standard error, n = 6 sites).</p>2<p>Total biomass combusted is the sum of all components combusted.</p>3<p>Total carbon stock (above- and below-ground) pre-fire is current carbon stock before the fire.</p>4<p>Proportion combusted is the total biomass combusted divided by the pre-fire carbon stock.</p><p>Summary of biomass components combusted by low- and high-severity fires.</p

Design of 1 ha experimental sites.

<p>Sites of 100 m×100 m included central and perpendicular transects (dashed lines), 10 m×10 m plots (hatched), 10 m transects (black lines), and area sampled for large trees 2×30 m×100 m = 0.51 ha) (grey shaded area). Different biomass components were sampled in different parts of the site.</p

Methods for measuring carbon stocks in biomass components within 1 ha sites post-fire at burnt and unburnt sites.

<p>Methods for measuring carbon stocks in biomass components within 1 ha sites post-fire at burnt and unburnt sites.</p

Spatial extent of the 2009 wildfire within the study region.

<p>The fire was categorised as low-severity where most trees survived, and high-severity where most trees were killed.</p

Spatially modelled change in carbon density (tC ha⁻¹) across the montane ash forest region.

<p>Change in carbon stock was calculated as the difference between pre- and post-2009 wildfire, including total biomass of living and dead trees, above- and below-ground, shrubs, litter and coarse woody debris.</p

Simulated carbon stock change in biomass components of forests of different ages after high-severity wildfire.

<p>Initial fire occurred in year 1 and the change over time in each biomass component, plus the total biomass, is simulated; (a) old growth forest initially that is burnt in year 1 and recovery is simulated over 250 years assuming no other disturbance; (b) old growth forest initially that is burnt in years 1 and 113, according to the average fire frequency, and recovery simulated over two fire cycles; (c) 1939 regrowth forest initially that is simulated over two fire cycles; (d) 1983 regrowth forest initially that is simulated over two fire cycles.</p

Distribution of carbon stocks in trees according to their size.

<p>Carbon stock is shown as the proportion in stem size classes of DHB and trees with hollows, averaged for the sites in each age/fire category (n = 6 sites per category).</p

Location of the study region in the Central Highlands of Victoria, Australia.

<p>Location of field sites is marked, including long-term ecological monitoring sites (n = 54) where carbon stocks in biomass components were measured, and inventory sites (n = 876) where carbon stocks were estimated and used for upscaling. The spatial extent of wildfires shown represents the outer boundary of the burnt area.</p

Input data and equations to predict biomass carbon stock (B in tC ha⁻¹) as functions of time (t) since disturbance in the model of change in carbon stocks after a high-severity wildfire in old growth montane ash forest.

<p>Input data and equations to predict biomass carbon stock (B in tC ha⁻¹) as functions of time (t) since disturbance in the model of change in carbon stocks after a high-severity wildfire in old growth montane ash forest.</p