PhD Project: William Mc Neice

Primary supervisor: Assoc Prof Rachael Nolan

Background:

Live fuel moisture content (LFMC) influences fire size, intensity, and rate of spread.

Forecasting of LFMC requires information about how LFMC varies between species, and across regions.

Species-level variation in LFMC can be determined via physiological methods, specifically, though pressure-volume and hydraulic vulnerability curves. Such curves use water potential to measure hydraulic traits, which could be further applied to infer the maximum (i.e., when foliage is at saturation) and the minimum LFMC in a species (i.e., when moisture levels get so low that dieback occurs due to hydraulic failure, transforming live fuel into dead fuel).

In my thesis I show that plant traits widely studied in a physiological context determine ranges of LFMC, which in turn affect ignitability. The results are relevant for projects aiming to forecast LFMC and quantify the relative flammability of plant species.