Soil moisture and temperature drive emergence delays associated with fire seasonality in eucalypt forests.

Many ecosystems are well adapted to fire, although the impacts of fire seasonality and its effect on post-fire recruitment are less well understood. Late summer or autumn fires within eucalypt forests with a Mediterranean-type climate allow for seedling emergence during the cooler and wetter seasons. The emergence and survival after spring fires may be impacted by higher soil temperatures and water stress, delaying recruitment until the subsequent winter period.

Evidence of wet-dry cycles and mega-droughts in the Eemian climate of southeast Australia.

Understanding past climate variability is critical to informing debate of likely impacts of global warming on weather and climate, and water resources. Here we present a near annual resolution reconstruction of climate developed from a speleothem that spans the Eemian [Marine Isotope Stage 5e (MIS 5e)] from 117,500 to 123,500 years BP-the most recent period in the Earth's history when temperatures were similar to those of today. Using  Mg, Sr, and Ba as proxies, we show the first indication of solar and teleconnection cyclic forcing of Eemian climate in southeast Australia, a region at present often affected by severe drought and bushfires.

Global warming in the context of 2000 years of Australian alpine temperature and snow cover.

Annual resolution reconstructions of alpine temperatures are rare, particularly for the Southern Hemisphere, while no snow cover reconstructions exist. These records are essential to place in context the impact of anthropogenic global warming against historical major natural climate events such as the Roman Warm Period (RWP), Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA) and Little Ice Age (LIA). Here we show for a marginal alpine region of Australia using a carbon isotope speleothem reconstruction, warming over the past five decades has experienced equivalent magnitude of temperature change and snow cover decline to the RWP and MCA.