Live fuel moisture content and leaf ignition of forest species in Andean Patagonia, Argentina

Bianchi, L.; Defossé, Guillermo Emilio

doi:10.1071/wf13099

Cited by 28 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 40 publications

(53 reference statements)

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“…). For example, lower leaf water content and lower LMA are associated with faster leaf ignition (Bianchi and Defossé , Grootemaat et al. ), while higher LMA and larger leaf area (LA) are related to longer duration of leaf burn (Grootemaat et al.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While landscape variation among species in traits such as LMA is driven largely by environmental gradients, laboratory studies have also found to varying degrees that interspecific variation in leaf traits can often be a predictor of variation in leaf flammability (Gill and Moore 1996, Ganteaume et al 2013, Murray et al 2013, Grootemaat et al 2015. For example, lower leaf water content and lower LMA are associated with faster leaf ignition (Bianchi andDefoss e 2015, Grootemaat et al 2015), while higher LMA and larger leaf area (LA) are related to longer duration of leaf burn (Grootemaat et al 2015). What has yet to be considered, however, is the possibility that if leaf traits are found to vary among species as a function of environmental conditions across a landscape, with these traits in turn driving differences among species in leaf flammability, then landscape variation in leaf level flammability might be largely predictable on the basis of variation in a few key leaf traits responding to environmental gradients.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Landscape variation in plant leaf flammability is driven by leaf traits responding to environmental gradients

Krix

Murray

2018

Ecosphere

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Abstract. Landscape differences in environmental conditions select for divergences among plant species in strategically important leaf traits such as leaf mass per area (LMA) and leaf area (LA). Interspecific variation in some of these same leaf traits has been associated to varying degrees with differences among species in leaf flammability, including the attributes ignitibility, sustainability, and combustibility. Yet, how environmentally selected variation in leaf traits drives variation in leaf flammability at landscape scales remains largely unknown. Here, we compared leaf traits and flammability attributes between species of sheltered forest vegetation (low light, moist habitat) and plant species of exposed woodland vegetation (high light, dry habitat) in a fire-prone landscape of south-eastern Australia. We found that leaves of sheltered forest species were significantly more flammable via both higher ignitibility and combustibility compared with exposed woodland species. These significant differences in leaf ignitibility and combustibility were underpinned by sheltered forest species having leaves with significantly larger LA and lower LMA compared with exposed woodland species. Further, multiple regression analyses revealed that both LA and LMA were significantly and uniquely related to faster time to ignition (TTI; ignitibility) and higher mean mass loss rate (combustibility). Most notably, although significantly higher fuel moisture content (FMC) of leaves of sheltered forest species significantly lengthened TTI, the lower LMA of these species played a more critical role in reducing TTI, with low LMA explaining more unique variation (partial r 2 = 0.78) in high leaf ignitibility than low FMC (partial r 2 = 0.49). Our findings provide the first evidence that landscape-scale variation in leaf flammability is tightly coordinated with the primary strategic response of the leaf traits LMA and LA to an environmental gradient. Furthermore, projections for increasing wildfire frequency and intensity in the region will likely allow wildfires to overcome the once protective nature provided by topography to sheltered forest vegetation, which means that higher leaf flammability in sheltered forest species has the potential to exacerbate the effects of changing weather conditions to place sheltered forest habitat, their plants, and their animals, at even higher risk of catastrophic wildfire.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Landscape variation in plant leaf flammability is driven by leaf traits responding to environmental gradients

Krix

Murray

2018

Ecosphere

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“…(); White & Zipperer (); Blackhall, Raffaele & Veblen (); Cóbar‐Carranza et al . (); Bianchi & Defossé (); Blackhall, Veblen & Raffaele ().…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of biological legacies and herbivory on fuels and flammability traits: A long‐term experimental study of alternative stable states

et al. 2017

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Summary Ecological memory, often determined by the extent and type of retained biological legacies present following disturbance, may produce persistent landscape patterns. However, after fire, the persistence or switch to an alternative state may depend on the complex interplay of ecological memory (biological legacies) and potential effects of new external factors influencing the post‐fire environment. The current study assesses both the strength of ecological memory resulting from biological legacies of pre‐burn vegetation types as well as post‐fire effects of livestock. Following a severe fire in 1999, we set up a network of long‐term exclosures to examine the effects of legacies and cumulative herbivory by cattle on fuel types, amounts, distribution, flammability and microenvironmental conditions in two post‐fire communities representing alternative fire‐driven states: pyrophobic Nothofagus pumilio subalpine forests and pyrophytic Nothofagus antarctica tall shrublands in northwestern Patagonia, Argentina. Our results show that the retained post‐disturbance legacies of tall shrublands and subalpine forests largely determine fuel and flammability traits of the post‐fire plant communities 16 years after fire. The importance of biological legacies retained from the unburned plant communities was reflected by the substantially higher amounts of total fine fuel, greater vertical and horizontal fuel continuity and the higher temperatures reached during experimental tissue combustion at post‐fire shrubland compared to post‐fire forest sites. We show that herbivores may produce antagonistic effects on flammability by decreasing tissue ignitability, total fine fuel and litter depth, and disrupting the vertical and horizontal fine fuel continuity, therefore reducing the probability of fire propagation. However, cattle can increase ratios of dead to live fine fuels, reduce soil moisture, and inhibit tree height growth to canopy size, consequently impeding the development of a closed pyrophobic forest canopy. Synthesis. Our results support the hypothesis that biological legacies, most importantly the dominance by pyrophytic woody plants that resprout vigorously vs. the dominance by pyrophobic obligate seeders, favour fuel and flammability characteristics at the community level which reinforce the mechanisms maintaining pyrophytic shrublands vs. pyrophobic forests. Herbivory by introduced cattle can partially blur sharp pyrophobic/pyrophytic state boundaries by promoting the development of novel post‐fire transitional states.

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“…Leaves were harvested at 2-m height on north aspect (Bianchi and Defossé 2015). The compositions of the mixed samples (i.e.…”

Section: Biodiversity: Shannon Index Plant Cover Richnessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of firewood harvesting intensity on biodiversity and ecosystem services in shrublands of northern Patagonia

et al. 2020

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Background: Forest management has historically focused on provisioning of goods (e.g. timber, biomass), but there is an increasing interest to manage forests also to maintain biodiversity and to provide other ecosystem services (ES). Methods: We evaluated the effects of firewood harvesting intensity on biodiversity and different ES in three contrasting shrubland sites in northern Patagonia (Argentina). At each site, four harvesting treatments, representing various levels of harvest intensity, were randomly assigned to eight permanent sample plots of 31.5 m × 45 m during 2013-2014. Results: We found that the effects of increasing harvesting intensity on plant diversity changed from negative to positive (and from nonlinear to more linear responses) with increasing site productivity. Harvesting intensity showed contrasting effects on variables related to fire protection ecosystem service, since it reduced fuel amount (potentially reducing fire spread) but also reduced live fuel moisture content (potentially increasing flammability) at the three sites. Two variables related to soil formation and protection ES, leaf litter cover and aerial soil cover, decreased with harvesting intensity at the three sites. Conclusions: We conclude that shrubland management for firewood production may enhance biodiversity without compromising certain important ES. The intensity of harvesting should be determined according to site conditions and forecasted impacts on biodiversity, fire and soil formation and protection.

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Live fuel moisture content and leaf ignition of forest species in Andean Patagonia, Argentina

Cited by 28 publications

References 40 publications

Landscape variation in plant leaf flammability is driven by leaf traits responding to environmental gradients

Landscape variation in plant leaf flammability is driven by leaf traits responding to environmental gradients

Effects of biological legacies and herbivory on fuels and flammability traits: A long‐term experimental study of alternative stable states

Effects of firewood harvesting intensity on biodiversity and ecosystem services in shrublands of northern Patagonia

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