Bushfire

smokey fire through bush

How can we support cross-cultural Indigenous fire partnerships to manage Australia's landscape?

Australia is in the midst of an unfolding extreme bushfire season, with far-reaching impacts for many communities across the nation, particularly in the southern and eastern areas. We wanted to check in with one of CSIRO’s senior climate researchers, Dr Michael Grose, to understand how extreme events like bushfires are linked to climate change, and where science leads to certainty in our understanding and where there are more research questions to be explored.

Photo of three Glossy Black-cockatoos in a eucalypt tree.

Kangaroo Island’s Glossy Black-Cockatoos are at risk due to the Australian bushfires. What are the issues?

The arsenal of tools to predict and alert the community of advancing fires is the product of close to 70 years of dedicated bushfire science.

Dry landscape burning with red son and black trees

Sydney and New South Wales (NSW) north coast residents continue to battle poor air quality as a result of fires burning through the state. Our bushfire expert Andrew Sullivan delves beyond the smoke haze to explain the current crisis and the tough conditions ahead.

A bushfire burns in the distance in Victoria.

The field of climate change event attribution research has emerged recently and can provide new insights into Australian climate extremes.

Burnt pencil pine and alpine flora, Mackenzie fire, Tasmania.

A collision of severe weather events can destroy lives and infrastructure, destabilising economies and ecosystems. In a rapidly warming world the frequency and magnitude of these compound events will only increase, according to the latest report from the IPCC.

A DIY gadget for detecting smoke has enabled primary school students to play detective and track down problems in the air around them.

green seedlings sprouting from blackened ground

Most plant research focuses on grown plants or on seedling behaviour. It is only now that researchers are beginning to examine seed traits and how the beginning of a plant’s life affects everything which comes after.