The Conversation

Entire hillsides of trees turned brown this summer. Is it the start of ecosystem collapse?

Author: Rachael Helene Nolan, Postdoctoral research fellow, Western Sydney University

Rachael Nolan, CC BY-NC

The drought in eastern Australia was a significant driver of this season’s unprecedented bushfires. But it also caused another, less well known environmental calamity this summer: entire hillsides of trees turned from green to brown.

We’ve observed extensive canopy dieback from southeast Queensland down to...

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