Frequent fire slows microbial decomposition of newly deposited fine fuels in a pyrophilic ecosystem

Hopkins, Jacob R; Huffman, Jean M.; Platt, William; Sikes, Benjamin A.

doi:10.1007/s00442-020-04699-5

Cited by 20 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 59 publications

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“…If low-severity fire favors functional groups like wood rot and truffle forming mycorrhizal fungi, decomposition of fine plant fuels (i.e. nonwoody litter) may slow and future plant fuel production may be favored respectively (Ficken and Wright 2017;Semenova-Nelsen et al 2019;Hopkins et al 2020). These changes could increase fine fuel loads over time, and increase the likelihood or spread of future fires in pyrophilic ecosystems.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This classification was based on known differences in fire characteristics (e.g. temperature and duration) and microbial communities that are caused by larger amounts of pine needle fuels near overstory pines (Platt et al 2016;Semenova-Nelsen et al 2019;Hopkins et al 2020). This gave a final count of 13 "near" and 11 "away" plots.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A 2.5cm diameter soil corer was used to collect soil samples (~2.5cm deep) from the center of each plot. Soils were sampled to this depth, because temperature related effects of fire are known to decrease rapidly with depth at this site (Hopkins et al 2020). Three total cores were collected (~50g total), and homogenized in sample bags to produce 1 sample per plot at each sampling time.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Fungal community structure and seasonal trajectories respond similarly to fire across pyrophilic ecosystems

Hopkins

Semenova‐Nelsen

Sikes

2020

FEMS Microbiology Ecology

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Fire alters microbial community composition, and is expected to increase in frequency due to climate change. Testing whether microbes in different ecosystems will respond similarly to increased fire disturbance is difficult though, because fires are often unpredictable and hard to manage. Fire recurrent or pyrophilic ecosystems, however, may be useful models for testing the effects of frequent disturbance on microbes. We hypothesized that across pyrophilic ecosystems, fire would drive similar alterations to fungal communities including altering seasonal community dynamics. We tested fire's effects on fungal communities in two pyrophilic ecosystems, a Longleaf pine savanna and tallgrass prairie. Fire caused similar fungal community shifts including a) driving immediate changes that favored taxa able to survive fire and take advantage of post-fire environments, and b) altering seasonal trajectories due to fire-associated changes to soil nutrient availability. This suggests that fire has predictable effects on fungal community structure and intra-annual community dynamics in pyrophilic ecosystems, and that these changes could significantly alter fungal function. Parallel fire responses in these key microbes may also suggest that recurrent fires drive convergent changes across ecosystems, including less fire frequented systems that may start burning more often.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Fungal community structure and seasonal trajectories respond similarly to fire across pyrophilic ecosystems

Hopkins

Semenova‐Nelsen

Sikes

2020

FEMS Microbiology Ecology

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“…Further areas of research should include embedding the current model within a spatial framework, additional experimental fires to fill the gaps in knowledge of C re-distribution and PyC accumulation, expanding modelling to other forest types and addressing the impact of fire frequency and severity on processes maintaining NPP including alteration of microbial communities regulating decomposition processes (Semenova-Nelsen et al 2019;Hopkins et al 2020). While our model was calibrated and validated with empirical data, changes in climate and fire regimes will lead to reduced accuracy of the model relative to the empirical data that can be expected from future fires.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of prescribed fire frequency on wildfire emissions and carbon sequestration in a fire adapted ecosystem using a comprehensive carbon model

Volkova

Roxburgh

Weston

2021

Journal of Environmental Management

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“…appeared within 6 months following the GSMNP fire and persisted for at least the next 2 years (Hughes et al, 2020a(Hughes et al, , 2020b. Shifts in microbial composition belowground can have functional consequences and even feedback to future fires, when decomposition slows (Hopkins et al, 2020). Moreover, shifts in decomposer fungi and bacteria may change soil resources pools and therefore affect AM fungal communities on longer time scales following a wildfire.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal response to fire and urbanization in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Kivlin

Harpe

Turner

et al. 2021

Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene

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Wildfires are increasing in frequency and intensity as drier and warmer climates increase plant detrital fuel loads. At the same time, increases in urbanization position 9% of fire-prone land within the United States at the wildland–urban interface. While rarely studied, the compounded effects of urbanization and wildfires may have unknown synergistically negative effects on ecosystems. Previous studies at the wildland–urban interface often focus on aboveground plant communities, but belowground ecosystems may also be affected by this double disturbance. In particular, it is unclear how much fire and urbanization independently or interactively affect nutritional symbioses such as those between arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi and the majority of terrestrial plants. In November 2016, extreme drought conditions and long-term fire suppression combined to create a wildfire within the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the neighboring exurban city of Gatlinburg, TN. To understand how the double disturbance of urbanization and fire affected AM fungal communities, we collected fine roots from the 5 dominant understory species in September 2018 at each of 18 sites spanning 3 burn severities in both exurban and natural sites. Despite large variation in burn severity, plant species identity had the largest influence on AM fungi. AM fungal colonization, richness, and composition all varied most among plant species. Fire and urbanization did influence some AM fungal metrics; colonization was lower in burned sites and composition was more variable among exurban locations. There were no interactions among burn severity and urbanization on AM fungi. Our results point to the large influence of plant species identity structuring this obligate nutritional symbiosis regardless of disturbance regime. Therefore, the majority of AM fungal taxa may be buffered from fire-induced ecosystem changes if plant community composition largely remains intact, plant species life history traits allow for AM fungal persistence after fire disturbance, and/or nearby undisturbed habitat can act as an inoculum source for recolonization following fires. Thus, it is critical to maintain natural, undisturbed habitats interspersed within the wildland–urban interface.

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Frequent fire slows microbial decomposition of newly deposited fine fuels in a pyrophilic ecosystem

Abstract: We furthered fire ecology by creating a fire-microbe interaction model. The model shows the importance of decomposition in pyrophilic systems, and provides a framework applicable to other ecosystems.

Cited by 20 publications

References 59 publications

Fungal community structure and seasonal trajectories respond similarly to fire across pyrophilic ecosystems

Fungal community structure and seasonal trajectories respond similarly to fire across pyrophilic ecosystems

Effects of prescribed fire frequency on wildfire emissions and carbon sequestration in a fire adapted ecosystem using a comprehensive carbon model

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal response to fire and urbanization in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park

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