Ecological Consequences of Australian 'Black Summer' (2019/20) Fires.

During the summer of 2019-2020, more than 15,000 wildfires burned up to 19 million hectares of forest and woodland regions across Australia. These fires culminated in the worst Australian fire season on record, producing what has come to be known as the Australian 'Black Summer'. The fires have been described as an 'ecological disaster', but the scale of the impacts is so extensive that the full ecological consequence may take years to assess. In the immediate aftermath of the Black Summer fires, two major national investigations were established by the Australian Commonwealth Government. By reviewing reports produced by these two investigations, high-level insights to the scale of the ecological consequences of the Black Summer fires have been obtained and are summarised here. Through these insights, the urgency for action to reduce the occurrence, and improve the management, of future comparable fire events is made clear. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.