Ecological consequences of compound disturbances in forest ecosystems: a systematic review

Kleinman, Jonathan S.; Goode, Jonathan D.; Fries, Andreas; Hart, Justin L.

doi:10.1002/ecs2.2962

Cited by 55 publications

(45 citation statements)

References 94 publications

(248 reference statements)

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“…At the same time progressive warming conditions are likely to promote compound occurrence of multiple disturbances, such as droughts and insect outbreaks, both promoted by warm and dry conditions. Interactions between compounding disturbances can further contribute to forest C losses (Seidl et al, 2017;Kleinman et al, 2019). To anticipate such impacts, process-based modelling of ecosystem response to such events is needed.…”

Section: Implications For Earth System Modellingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Increased vulnerability of European ecosystems to two compound dry and hot summers in 2018 and 2019

Bastos

Orth

Reichstein

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Abstract. In 2018 and 2019, central Europe was stricken by two consecutive extreme dry and hot summers (DH2018 and DH2019). The DH2018 had severe impacts on ecosystems and likely affected vegetation activity in the subsequent year, for example though depletion of carbon reserves or damage from drought. Such legacies from drought and heat stress can further increase vegetation susceptibility to additional hazards. Temporally compound extremes such as DH2018 and DH2019 can, therefore, result in an amplification of impacts by preconditioning effects of past disturbance legacies.Here, we evaluate how these two consecutive extreme summers impacted ecosystems in central Europe and how the vegetation responses to the first compound event (DH2018) modulated the impacts of the second (DH2019). To quantify the modulating role of vegetation responses to the impacts of each compound event, we first train a set of statistical models for the period 2001–2017 to predict the impacts of DH2018 and DH2019 on Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) anomalies from MODIS. These estimates can be seen as the expected EVI anomalies, had the impacts of DH2018 and DH2019 been consistent with past sensitivity to climate. These can then be used to identify modulating effects by vegetation activity and composition or other environmental factors such as elevated CO2 or warming trends.We find two regions in which the impacts of the two DH events were significantly stronger than those expected based on previous climate–vegetation relationships. One region, largely dominated by grasslands and crops, showed much stronger impacts than expected in both DH events due to an amplification of their sensitivity to heat and drought, possibly linked to changing background CO2 and temperature conditions. A second region, dominated by forests, showed browning from DH2018 to DH2019, even though dry and hot conditions were partly alleviated in 2019. This browning trajectory was mainly explained by the preconditioning role of DH2018 to the observed response to DH2019 through legacy effects, and possibly by increased susceptibility to biotic disturbances, which are also promoted by warm conditions.Dry and hot summers are expected to become more frequent in the coming decades posing a major threat to the stability of European forests. We show that state-of-the-art process based models miss these legacy effects. These gaps may result in an overestimation of the resilience and stability of temperate ecosystems in future model projections.

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Section: Implications For Earth System Modellingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Increased vulnerability of European ecosystems to two compound dry and hot summers in 2018 and 2019

Bastos

Orth

Reichstein

et al. 2021

Preprint

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“…For example, here we report that, although prescribed fire offset differences in sapling densities between unlogged and logged winddisturbed sites (Kleinman et al, 2020), ground flora assemblages remained disparate. It is therefore critical to consider the "resilience of what" in assessments of post-disturbance management actions on ecosystem recovery (Carpenter et al, 2001;Kleinman et al, 2019). life form, however, was apparently unaffected by catastrophic wind disturbance, salvage logging, and prescribed fire.…”

Section: Con Clus Ionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, negative ecological consequences of salvage logging are not inevitable, especially with respect to woody plant recovery (Royo et al, 2016; Taylor et al, 2017). To achieve a more comprehensive understanding of post‐disturbance salvage logging and compound disturbance interactions, greater research focus is needed on the recovery of non‐woody plants (Leverkus et al, 2018; Kleinman et al, 2019). Indeed, the forest disturbance ecology literature is focused primarily on metrics of tree regeneration despite understorey plant communities often hosting markedly more floristic diversity than canopy strata (Roberts, 2004; Gilliam, 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Ground flora cover, diversity, and life‐history trait representation after wind disturbance, salvage logging, and prescribed fire in a Pinus palustris woodland

Kleinman

Goode

Hart

2020

Applied Vegetation Science

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Question: Salvage logging and prescribed fire are commonly applied in forests worldwide, yet little is known about the combined impacts of these management actions on early-successional ecosystems. We questioned how operational-scale prescribed fire would affect ground flora cover, species diversity, and life-history trait expression in Pinus palustris woodlands differentially impacted by an Enhanced Fujita scale 3 (EF3) tornado and salvage logging. Location: Fall Line Hills, Alabama, USA (32°55ʹ30ʺ N, 87°24ʹ00ʺ W). Methods: The composition and foliar cover of woody and herbaceous plants ≤1 m height were monitored before and after prescribed fire in 600 1-m 2 quadrats distributed throughout mature, wind-disturbed, and salvage-logged Pinus palustris woodlands. Plant taxa were categorized by growth habit and life form to aid interpretation of multivariate analyses used to illustrate differences in ground flora assemblages between disturbance categories. Results: Prescribed fire reduced ground flora cover, but not diversity, which remained greatest in wind-disturbed sites that were not salvage-logged. Though ground flora assemblages remained disparate between disturbance categories, prescribed fire imposed some consistent selective pressures on plants with common life-history strategies. Post-fire understorey tree cover reductions coincided with increased shrub cover throughout the treatment area. Nonetheless, differences in graminoid cover were exaggerated after prescribed fire, and representation of the geophyte life form was relatively constant across space and time. Conclusions: Prescribed fire did not counteract salvage-mediated reductions in ground flora diversity. Retention of downed deadwood maximized early-successional plant diversity in wind-disturbed sites. Trait-based ground flora analyses enabled a more detailed understanding of disturbance effects than aggregate metrics of foliar cover and diversity. In ecosystems with high floristic diversity, grouping plants by common life-history traits can provide a simple and effective means to monitor impacts of management actions on ecosystem recovery.

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“…Although numerous studies have focused on how fires kill trees [15,23,31], the compounded effects of drought stress and fire on mortality and recovery of surviving trees are not well understood [7,27,45]. Studies in temperate [46] and tropical forests [47,48] have observed that pre-fire drought stress significantly amplifies tree mortality in subsequent fires.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Drought Increases Vulnerability of Pinus ponderosa Saplings to Fire-Induced Mortality

Partelli‐Feltrin

Johnson

Sparks

et al. 2020

Fire

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The combination of drought and fire can cause drastic changes in forest composition and structure. Given the predictions of more frequent and severe droughts and forecasted increases in fire size and intensity in the western United States, we assessed the impact of drought and different fire intensities on Pinus ponderosa saplings. In a controlled combustion laboratory, we exposed saplings to surface fires at two different fire intensity levels (quantified via fire radiative energy; units: MJ m−2). The recovery (photosynthesis and bud development) and mortality of saplings were monitored during the first month, and at 200- and 370-days post-fire. All the saplings subjected to high intensity surface fires (1.4 MJ m−2), regardless of the pre-fire water status, died. Seventy percent of pre-fire well-watered saplings recovered after exposure to low intensity surface fire (0.7 MJ m−2). All of the pre-fire drought-stressed saplings died, even at the lower fire intensity. Regardless of the fire intensity and water status, photosynthesis was significantly reduced in all saplings exposed to fire. At 370 days post-fire, burned well-watered saplings that recovered had similar photosynthesis rates as unburned plants. In addition, all plants that recovered or attempted to recover produced new foliage within 35 days following the fire treatments. Our results demonstrate that the pre-fire water status of saplings is an important driver of Pinus ponderosa sapling recovery and mortality after fire.

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Ecological consequences of compound disturbances in forest ecosystems: a systematic review

Cited by 55 publications

References 94 publications

Increased vulnerability of European ecosystems to two compound dry and hot summers in 2018 and 2019

Increased vulnerability of European ecosystems to two compound dry and hot summers in 2018 and 2019

Ground flora cover, diversity, and life‐history trait representation after wind disturbance, salvage logging, and prescribed fire in a Pinus palustris woodland

Drought Increases Vulnerability of Pinus ponderosa Saplings to Fire-Induced Mortality

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