Environmental Futures Seminar - Rebecca Ryan

Fire has shaped the Australian landscape and biodiversity for millennia; however, as climate change continues to alter the fire regime, fire characteristics such as severity, intensity and area burnt are expected to evolve. In order to more accurately forecast the occurrence of future fire events, there is a need to develop new techniques that can extend our existing record of past fire characteristics. Boron isotopes and Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) Spectroscopy lend themselves as novel proxies for past fire characteristics due to their sensitivity to changes in vegetation and chemical bonds, respectively. Samples were analysed from known fire hotspots in southeastern Australia, and the existing fire record was extended by centuries to millennia, increasing model data input to improve forecasts and inform mitigation efforts of future events.

About the speaker

Rebecca completed her PhD in 2025 in the School of Science, supervised by Professor Anthony Dosseto (UOW), Dr Katharine Haynes (UOW/DCEEW) and Dr Zoe Thomas (University of Southampton). Her PhD project also forms part of the ARC Discovery Project “Shaping a Sunburnt Country”. Rebecca will begin a post-doc at the California Institute of Technology in 2025.