Podocarpus lawrencei (Hook. f.): Population structure and fire history at Goonmirk Rocks, Victoria

Abstract

Abstract Podocarpus lawrencei is a native conifer which normally occurs as a shrub in alpine, and less often in sub‐alpine, communities in New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania. A disjunct and unusual distribution occurs at Goonmirk Rocks, in north‐east Victoria, in a montane, wet forest environment in which P. lawrencei grows as a procumbent and sometimes vertical tree up to 13 m tall. The communities in which P. lawrencei occurs at Goonmirk Rocks are described, and the population structure of P. lawrencei is determined using an age class model. Measurement of light regimes and of the nutrient status of these communities indicate differences between areas of active regeneration and those with none, and between forest types that do support P. lawrencei and those that do not. P. lawrencei is determined to be a stable component of the vegetation of Goonmirk Rocks, where it attains its best development on the margins of cool temperate rainforest where a broken canopy and the long‐term absence of fire allow it to develop into a low scrub with simple floristics. A community fire history is reconstructed using the age class model, fire scars and the age of Acacia dealbata.