Post‐fire succession in the northern jarrah forest of Western Australia

Abstract

Abstract Post‐fire species changes were documented over a portion of the northern section of the jarrah forest of Western Australia from a series of sites of known age since last fire. Species richness and species diversity were observed to increase following fire for several years, followed by a gradual decline. Dominance‐diversity curves indicated that maximum diversity occurred from 3 to 5 years following fire. The species composition of sites of different regions was more similar than sites of similar time since burn. The significance of the results to the programme of controlled burns is discussed.