Human disturbance and environmental factors as drivers of long-term post-fire regeneration patterns in Mediterranean forests

Baeza, M. Jaime; Valdecantos, Alejandro; Alloza, J.A.; Vallejo, V. Ramón

doi:10.1658/1100-9233(2007)18[243:hdaefa]2.0.co;2

Cited by 33 publications

(53 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…For example, Pinus halepensis and P. pinaster forests in eastern and Central Spain show very low resilience when burned frequently, turning into shrublands in the medium to long term after fire (e.g. Baeza et al, 2007;Pausas et al 2008). The same was shown by Arianoutsou et al (2002) for Pinus halepensis forests in central Greece.…”

Section: Fire Frequency Is Creating Homogeneous Areas Covered By Shrumentioning

confidence: 66%

“…In fact, topography interacts with local wind direction, microclimates and, in turn, vegetation type, fuel loads and moisture content. Several studies have shown topographic influences on vegetation composition and structure (Fontaine et al, 2007;Rescia et al, 1994), transpiration and desiccation conditions (Rana et al, 2005;Van der Trol et al, 2007), vegetation dynamics (Carmel andFlather, 2004;Mouillot et al, 2005), fire severity (Broncano and Retana 2004), and post-fire vegetation regeneration (Peñuelas et al, 2007;Baeza et al, 2007). Furthermore, some of the observed topographic effects on fire occurrence can be explained by human activities (e.g.…”

Section: Fire Hazard Is Higher In Specific Topographic Locationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Landscape – wildfire interactions in southern Europe: Implications for landscape management

Moreira¹,

Viedma²,

Arianoutsou³

et al. 2011

Journal of Environmental Management

701

567

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Every year approx. half a million hectares of land are burned by wildfires in southern Europe, causing large ecological and socio-economic impacts. Climate and land use changes in the last decades have increased fire risk and danger. In this paper we review the available scientific knowledge on the relationships between landscape and wildfires in the Mediterranean region, with a focus on its application for defining landscape management guidelines and policies that could be adopted in order to promote landscapes with lower fire hazard. The main findings are that (1) socio-economic drivers have favoured land cover changes contributing to increasing fire hazard in the last decades, (2) large wildfires are becoming more frequent, (3) increased fire frequency is promoting homogeneous landscapes covered by fire-prone shrublands; (4) landscape planning to reduce fuel loads may be successful only if fire weather conditions are not extreme. The challenges to address these problems and the policy and landscape management responses that should be adopted are discussed, along with the major knowledge gaps.

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Section: Fire Frequency Is Creating Homogeneous Areas Covered By Shrumentioning

confidence: 66%

Section: Fire Hazard Is Higher In Specific Topographic Locationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Landscape – wildfire interactions in southern Europe: Implications for landscape management

Moreira¹,

Viedma²,

Arianoutsou³

et al. 2011

Journal of Environmental Management

701

567

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In high seeding tree communities of Mediterranean P. halepensis, different authors (Broncano et al, 2005;Kazanis and Arianoutsou, 2004;Trabaud, 2002) suggest recovery times starting from 15 years. Local attributes like climate, terrain characteristics, or vegetation type influence vegetation cover recovery time (Baeza et al, 2007;Keeley, 2009).…”

Section: ⎧(Sgv) Hg ⎧(Sgv) Hg ⎧(Sgv) Hg ⎧(Sgv) Hg ⎧(Sgv) Hg ⎧(Sgv) Hg mentioning

confidence: 99%

Burn severity influence on post-fire vegetation cover resilience from Landsat MESMA fraction images time series in Mediterranean forest ecosystems

Fernández–Manso

Quintano

Roberts

2016

Remote Sensing of Environment

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Mediterranean ecosystems are adapted to recurrent forest fires by having regeneration mechanisms that overcome the immediate effects of fire. However, the increasing frequency of fires in most European Mediterranean countries is challenging the natural regrowth capability of these ecosystems. In this context, monitoring post-fire vegetation recovery is a priority for forest management and soil erosion control. In this work, a 13-year series (1999-2011) of Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper (TM)/Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM +) data was used to model post-fire vegetation recovery as a function of burn severity and to quantify post-fire resilience as a measure of vegetation cover regrowth. We evaluated a large forest fire located in Spain that burned approximately 30 km 2 of Pinus pinaster Ait. in August 1998. 88 field plots of four burn severity levels (unburned, low, moderate and high) were measured in the field a year after the fire. As a variable representative of vegetation, we chose the shade normalized green vegetation fraction image (SGV) obtained by applying Multiple Endmember Spectral Mixture Analysis (MESMA) to the original Landsat TM/ETM + images. The SGV values were extracted for the 88 field plots and, after performing a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), a Fisher's Least Significant Difference (LSD) test allowed us to estimate resilience of vegetation cover as the number of post-fire years exhibiting a statistically significant difference between burned and unburned areas. Next, SGV values were referenced to unburned control plots values and the vegetation recovery index (VRI) was defined. The evolution in time curve of VRI for low, moderate and highly fire affected vegetation was fit using trend models (specifically, an exponential trend for VRI in high and moderate burn severity levels; a linear trend for low burn severity level, Root Mean Square Error, RMSE = 0.18, 0.13, and 0.09, respectively). We observed that vegetation cover affected by low severity fire recovered to its original state after 7 years, and vegetation cover affected by moderate severity recovered after 13 years. Vegetation affected by high severity fire was estimated to recover after 20 years. We conclude that VRI time series based on multitemporal MESMA fractions from Landsat data can be considered a valuable indicator of the post-fire vegetation cover recovery. Its temporal evolution represented post-fire vegetation cover regrowth adequately and facilitated the estimate of vegetation cover resilience in Mediterranean forests.

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“…Moreno, 1998;Buhk and Hensen, 2006;Campo et al, 2006;Pausas, 2006;Shakesby and Doerr, 2006;Baeza et al, 2007). The role of fire for future ecosystem dynamics is underlined by the evidence that predicted climate warming will probably affect future fire dynamics Cramer, 2001;Moriondo et al, 2006;Running, 2006), given that fire severity and fire-surface extent are also climatically driven (Pausas, 2004;Keeley et al, 2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate versus human-driven fire regimes in Mediterranean landscapes: the Holocene record of Lago dell’Accesa (Tuscany, Italy)

Vannière

Colombaroli

Chapron

et al. 2008

Quaternary Science Reviews

213

169

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A high-resolution sedimentary charcoal record from Lago dell'Accesa in southern Tuscany reveals numerous changes in fire regime over the last 11.6 kyr cal. BP and provides one of the longest gap-free series from Italy and the Mediterranean region. Charcoal analyses are coupled with gamma density measurements, organic-content analyses, and pollen counts to provide data about sedimentation and vegetation history. A comparison between fire frequency and lake-level reconstructions from the same site is used to address the centennial variability of fire regimes and its linkage to hydrological processes. Our data reveal strong relationships among climate, fire, vegetation, and land-use and attest to the paramount importance of fire in Mediterranean ecosystems. The mean fire interval (MFI) for the entire Holocene was estimated to be 150 yr, with a minimum around 80 yr and a maximum around 450 yr. Between 11.6 and 3.6 kyr cal. BP, up to eight high-frequency fire phases lasting 300-500 yr generally occurred during shifts towards low lake-level stands (ca 11,300, 10,700, 9500, 8700, 7600, 6200, 5300, 3400, 1800 and 1350 cal. yr BP). Therefore, we assume that most of these shifts were triggered by drier climatic conditions and especially a dry summer season that promoted ignition and biomass burning. At the beginning of the Holocene, high climate seasonality favoured fire expansion in this region, as in many other ecosystems of the northern and southern hemispheres. Human impact affected fire regimes and especially fire frequencies since the Neolithic (ca 8000-4000 cal. yr BP). Burning as a consequence of anthropogenic activities became more frequent after the onset of the Bronze Age (ca 3800-3600 cal. yr BP) and appear to be synchronous with the development of settlements in the region, slash-and-burn agriculture, animal husbandry, and mineral exploitation. The anthropogenic phases with maximum fire activity corresponded to greater sensitivity of the vegetation and triggered significant changes in vegetational communities (e.g. temporal declines of Quercus ilex forests and expansion of shrublands and macchia). The link between fire and climate persisted during the mid-and late Holocene, when human impact on vegetation and the fire regime was high. This finding suggests that climatic conditions were important for fire occurrence even under strongly humanised ecosystem conditions.

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Human disturbance and environmental factors as drivers of long-term post-fire regeneration patterns in Mediterranean forests

Cited by 33 publications

References 2 publications

Landscape – wildfire interactions in southern Europe: Implications for landscape management

Landscape – wildfire interactions in southern Europe: Implications for landscape management

Burn severity influence on post-fire vegetation cover resilience from Landsat MESMA fraction images time series in Mediterranean forest ecosystems

Climate versus human-driven fire regimes in Mediterranean landscapes: the Holocene record of Lago dell’Accesa (Tuscany, Italy)

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