understanding how life
bounces back
Here in the Davies Lab, we study the resilience of plants and animals to forest fires. We work in the Wog Wog Forest Fragments Experiment: a large-scale, long-term experiment, now in its 41st year. The experiment has 12 forest “islands”, or fragments, each with their populations of plant and animal species. Our quest is to understand how life rebounds from disturbance. Our work has previously been funded by the National Science Foundation.
Since 1985, wog wog has helped us understand the ecology of forest plants and animals
01
Understanding the dynamics of populations at large scales
The Wog Wog Experiment established forest fragments of different sizes, each its own ecosystem. This allows us to investigate the importance of population size to long term dynamics. The Wog Wog experiment is one of the largest scale and longest-running ecology experiments in the world.
02
Understanding how life persists on forest fragments
For 41 years, we have monitored how the forest and its wildlife have persisted on these forest fragments. We have studied over 1000 species of invertebrates, particularly beetles, as well as trees, understory plants, skinks, and birds.
03
Understanding the impacts of mega-fire
In 2020, the Wog Wog Experiment burned in a huge fire, called a megafire, which also burned an enormous area of surrounding forest. These fires provide a unique opportunity to study the resilience of species to extreme disturbance.
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