LTERN Data Portal

Each long term monitoring site is 3 ha, with monitoring occurring only on the central hectare which is usually square, being 100 m x 100 m. Occasionally sites are 200 m x 50 m where they back onto a gully.

The central hectare “the site” has a transect line running up the middle from 0 m (usually on the road edge) to the back of the site (100 m mark), perpendicular to the road. Along the transect are three 10m x 10m plots, located at 10-20 m (plot 1), 50-60 m (plot 2) and 90-100 m (plot 3). These straddle the transect, 5 m either side. The first plot is set back from the road to reduce roadside influences. The central transect is flagged. Bird counts are conducted at 0, 50 m and 100 m along the central 100 m transect.

Birds are counted using repeated time-controlled (5min) point interval counts conducted at 0, 50 m and 100 m along a permanent 100 m long transect every year. These transect points are not intended to represent different sites, but rather to increase the chances of observing the presence of birds at each site.

Starting at dawn, and working through until 10-11 am depending on the temperature (on hotter days the birds stop calling earlier). Each site has 3x (five minute) counts of all the birds seen and heard during the five minute period. Species type, abundance and distance away are recorded as well as time and weather variables. A separate data sheet is filled in for each plot.

Within months of the February 2009 Black Saturday fires, a number of variables were collected.

Fire severity – scorch/consumption of strata:

Three readings were taken on each site, one in each 10 m x 10 m plot. The readings referred only to the vegetation within each plot, not an average of the whole site. At each plot, the forest was divided into four strata based on height:

1) 0-2 m Ground cover and low shrubs

2) 2-10 m Shrub layer and small trees

3) 10-30 m Understorey trees

4) 30+ m Overstorey trees

Within each 10 m x 10 m plot, an estimate was made of the amount (%) of each stratum that was:

1) Green/unburnt

2) Scorched

3) Consumed

The total of all three burn classes above should equal 100%. A fire severity scale was then developed. This was initially a scale of 1-3, then 1-4 and finally 1-5 as the severity was divided. (The Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment scale is similar, however it runs reverse to ours with 6=unburnt and 1=highest severity.)

For 0-2 m Ground cover and low shrubs:

1) Unburnt

2) Light mosaic ‘trickle burn’

3) Consumed/scorched

4) Consumed

5) Consumed

For 2-10 m Shrub layer and small trees:

1) Unburnt

2) Patchy scorch

3) Consumed/scorched

4) Consumed

5) Consumed

For 10-30 m Understorey trees:

1) Unburnt

2) Unburnt

3) Mostly scorched

4) Consumed/scorched

5) Consumed

For 30+ m Overstorey trees:

1) Unburnt

2) Unburnt

3) Unburnt/patchy scorch

4) Scorched

5) Consumed

Scorch and consumption refers to fine fuels only such as leaves and fine twigs.