Effectiveness of mechanical thinning and prescribed burning on fire behavior in Pinus nigra forests in NE Spain

Piqué, Míriam; Domènech, Rut

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.09.316

Cited by 44 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…It is widely accepted that Pinus nigra exhibits a self-pruning strategy [20,23] with high crown base heights [21] that enable adult trees to resist fire. The present data are consistent with the previously reported crown base height of 7.3 m for the same species in stands in northeastern Spain [22]. Nevertheless, an average base height of 4.0 ± 0.15 m has been reported for Pinus nigra stands in eastern Spain [20].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

“…(maritime pine), the species considered in this study, has evolutionary adaptations that help them to persist in fire-prone environments [19,20]. Thus, Pinus nigra has a thick bark, a high crown base height [21], and a self-pruning strategy [22,23]. Bark is considered as the main protective tissue of the cambium [24] and is necessary for photosynthate transport to the crown and nutrient and water storage [25].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Use of Bayesian Modeling to Determine the Effects of Meteorological Conditions, Prescribed Burn Season, and Tree Characteristics on Litterfall of Pinus nigra and Pinus pinaster Stands

Espinosa

Rivera

Madrigal

et al. 2020

Forests

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Research Highlights: Litterfall biomass after prescribed burning (PB) is significantly influenced by meteorological variables, stand characteristics, and the fire prescription. Some of the fire-adaptive traits of the species under study (Pinus nigra and Pinus pinaster) mitigate the effects of PB on litterfall biomass. The Bayesian approach, tested here for the first time, was shown to be useful for analyzing the complex combination of variables influencing the effect of PB on litterfall. Background and Objectives: The aims of the study focused on explaining the influence of meteorological conditions after PB on litterfall biomass, to explore the potential influence of stand characteristic and tree traits that influence fire protection, and to assess the influence of fire prescription and fire behavior. Materials and Methods: An experimental factorial design including three treatments (control, spring, and autumn burning), each with three replicates, was established at two experimental sites (N = 18; 50 × 50 m2 plots). The methodology of the International Co-operative Program on Assessment and Monitoring of Air Pollution Effects on Forests (ICP forests) was applied and a Bayesian approach was used to construct a generalized linear mixed model. Results: Litterfall was mainly affected by the meteorological variables and also by the type of stand and the treatment. The effects of minimum bark thickness and the height of the first live branch were random. The maximum scorch height was not high enough to affect the litterfall. Time during which the temperature exceeded 60 °C (cambium and bark) did not have an important effect. Conclusions: Our findings demonstrated that meteorological conditions were the most significant variables affecting litterfall biomass, with snowy and stormy days having important effects. Significant effects of stand characteristics (mixed and pure stand) and fire prescription regime (spring and autumn PB) were shown. The trees were completely protected by a combination of low-intensity PB and fire-adaptive tree traits, which prevent direct and indirect effects on litterfall. Identification of important variables can help to improve PB and reduce the vulnerability of stands managed by this method.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Use of Bayesian Modeling to Determine the Effects of Meteorological Conditions, Prescribed Burn Season, and Tree Characteristics on Litterfall of Pinus nigra and Pinus pinaster Stands

Espinosa

Rivera

Madrigal

et al. 2020

Forests

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“…Management implications useful for silvicultural treatments and for supporting restoration strategies and policies could be derived from the historical analysis of arson incidence, reinforcing some recommendations by other authors (e.g., [62]) and introducing other actions that may be quite relevant if future conditions evolve as expected in the socioeconomic and ecological environment of Spain. Fuel management is technically well developed in European Mediterranean countries and in Spain, and abundant literature exists on the application of prescribed burning, mechanical thinning or mastication [63,64], but treatments and effects are usually analyzed for individual species (i.e., P. nigra, Piqué and Domenech [65]; P. halepensis, Palmero-Iniesta [66]; P. pinaster, Molina et al [67] without considering stand origin. In agreement with these findings, aged, more mature forest structures and closed canopy cover generally lead to less severe fires in our models, even in Eucalyptus or P. pinaster stands, but not in P. halepensis, P. nigra and P. sylvestris forests if vertical fuel connectivity was present.…”

Section: Wildfire Incidence: Neural Network Models For Fire Behaviourmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lessons Learned from Arson Wildfire Incidence in Reforestations and Natural Stands in Spain

Ponte

Costafreda-Aumedes

Vega‐García

2019

Forests

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Wildfires are currently considered the major threat to forests in Mediterranean countries. It has been implied that a large percentage of arson-caused fires in Spain are connected with the extensive reforestation programs implemented between 1940 and 1970. However, no consistent studies have been conducted to study the relationships between arson-caused fires and stand origin. Therefore, the goal of this study was to analyze occurrences and model the influence of forest stand origin (artificial or not) on the development of wildfires in peninsular Spain. Twenty-one neural network models were trained to estimate fire incidence through fire type (surface or crown fire), burned area and total treed burned area, based on stand age (years), canopy cover (%), natural age class (from seedling to mature stages) and fuel type classification. Models were built for reforested stands and natural stands of Pinus pinaster Ait., the Mediterranean pines Pinus sylvestris L., Pinus nigra Arn., Pinus halepensis Mill. and Eucalyptus sp. L’Hér., or groups of these species, and the resulting models were compared. Reforested stands presented higher fire incidence than natural stands mainly for productive species like Pinus pinaster Ait. According to the fire type models, thickets had a large influence in the development of crown fires in reforested stands in a general model for all species, the model with the Mediterranean group of pines, and the Pinus pinaster Ait. model. Vertical continuity influenced crown fire propagation in natural Mediterranean pines and in Eucalyptus stands. Presence of shrubs, grasslands and wood slash was related to surface fires in models for both reforested and natural stands. The results suggested that stand origin was influential on fire incidence, at least with regard to fire type and commercial species in the northwestern region of Spain.

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“…In the majority of these studies, the evaluation of fuel treatment effectiveness has been mainly based on the application of several fire models such as FARSITE, FlamMap and NEXUS, simulating wildfire behavior before and after the establishment of various silvicultural treatments. However, few studies have evaluated the effectiveness of fuel treatments at the stand level in Mediterranean species [30].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fuel Treatments and Potential Fire Behavior in Peri-Urban Forests, N. Greece

Samara¹,

Raptis²,

Spanos³

2018

Preprint

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The peri-urban and urban forests in Greece occupy a total area of 105.353 ha. In these vulnerable ecosystems, fire constitutes a natural disaster presenting particular challenges and specific difficulties. These include the high number of visitors as well as forests characteristics - such as the presence of particularly flammable tree species and high accumulation of combustible biomass – that make the on-start of fires more likely. The main purpose of the current research is to identify the optimum combination of silvicultural treatments to efficiently reduce potential forest fire severity and to facilitate their successful suppression by firefighting crews. In order to simulate the basic fire environment of urban forests, two main experimental plots were established and several tree and topographical characteristics were measured. Additionally, the NEXUS wildfire system was used to simulate forest fire potential behavior before and after the adoption of the silvicultural treatments that altered critical characteristics of the forest fire environment. The results clearly show that specific silvicultural prescriptions altered the type of forest fire spreading potential, revealing the overall efficiency of preventing actions during forest management.

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Effectiveness of mechanical thinning and prescribed burning on fire behavior in Pinus nigra forests in NE Spain

Cited by 44 publications

References 23 publications

Use of Bayesian Modeling to Determine the Effects of Meteorological Conditions, Prescribed Burn Season, and Tree Characteristics on Litterfall of Pinus nigra and Pinus pinaster Stands

Use of Bayesian Modeling to Determine the Effects of Meteorological Conditions, Prescribed Burn Season, and Tree Characteristics on Litterfall of Pinus nigra and Pinus pinaster Stands

Lessons Learned from Arson Wildfire Incidence in Reforestations and Natural Stands in Spain

Fuel Treatments and Potential Fire Behavior in Peri-Urban Forests, N. Greece

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