Short-term recovery of cushion plant communities after fire on the Central Plateau, Tasmania

Abstract

There is slow or no regeneration of many Tasmanian alpine plant species after fire. At the decades scale cushion plants recover well, but there are no data on their short-term recovery. We determine the recovery of individual cushion bolsters and bolster communities at three locations on the Central Plateau of Tasmania burned less than five years before our repeat photography. Most cushions were scorched at the surface and perimeter rather than deeply combusted. Except where the bolsters were most intensively burnt, they revegetated within two years of fire. Cushion species extended their cover on the burned bolster surfaces at greater than twice the rate of all other species. Cushion segments that appeared to be deeply combusted during fire did not recover vegetatively.