New Database to Aid Understanding of Variation in Plant Responses to Fire

The BNHRC Environment Node has developed a new database which will improve our understanding of how plant species respond to fire events.

Many plants have evolved to persist under particular fire regimes. For example, some species have thick, protective bark, while others flower or release seeds in response to fire. Understanding how plants respond to fire is important for informing fire management strategies for biodiversity conservation.

Research and management applications have generated a substantial demand for fire-response trait data. However, while data exists in a number of trait databases, these tend to focus on fire-related plant traits alone.

The new Fire Ecology Database captures plant traits and responses in relation to fire events. It enhances the utility of the data by incorporating how plant responses to fire vary with different elements of the fire regime, including fire frequency, severity and seasonality.

“This will lead to a better understanding of how species as a whole respond to fire events, including changes in population size and structure, and community properties,” said one of the lead researchers, A/Prof Mark Ooi of UNSW.

Data pipeline in the Fire Ecology Database (FEDB). The two main data streams, direct field observations (purple) and existing data sources stream (blue), are integrated in the FEDB. Primary research sources include records summarising field observations, and secondary research sources includes records extracted from other sources. Users can access this information through reports, data records, or the Web App. (Image courtesy of the authors)

The work, led by UNSW’s Dr José Ferrer-Paris and Prof David Keith, with input from BNHRC Environment Node researchers A/Prof Mark Ooi, and Prof Will Cornwell, was developed and delivered as a key output from Work Package 4 from the Eureka Prize-winning NSW Bushfire Risk Management Research Hub.

The Database has now been further refined as part of the current BNHRC. Key end-user collaborators from NSW DCCEEW include Andrew Denham, Renee Woodward, Ada Sánchez-Mercado and Berin Mackenzie from the Applied Bushfire Science and Restoration Science teams in the Conservation and Restoration Science Branch.

The release of the Fire Ecology Database will encourage researchers to contribute further observations in the future, with an aim to provide more robust data to inform management.

The Fire Ecology Database is outlined in a recently published article, ‘Fire ecology database for documenting plant responses to fire events in Australia’ in the journal Scientific Data (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-025-04705-6).