Minireviews: Neighborhood Effects, Disturbance Severity, and Community Stability in Forests

Frelich, Lee E.; Reich, Peter B.

doi:10.1007/s100219900066

Cited by 168 publications

(142 citation statements)

References 78 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

134

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Characteristics of drivers vary from place to place and from time to time, and can interact to generate nonlinear ecological dynamics (Frelich and Reich 1999). Climatic drivers, for instance, are modified in intensity and duration by such processes as global and regional atmospheric circulation patterns, or shifts in storm tracks.…”

Section: Driversmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cross-system comparisons elucidate disturbance complexities and generalities

et al. 2011

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

. 2011. Cross-system comparisons elucidate disturbance complexities and generalities. Ecosphere 2(7):art81.doi:10.1890/ES11-00115.1Abstract. Given that ecological effects of disturbance have been extensively studied in many ecosystems, it is surprising that few quantitative syntheses across diverse ecosystems have been conducted. Multi-system studies tend to be qualitative because they focus on disturbance types that are difficult to measure in an ecologically relevant way. In addition, synthesis of existing studies across systems or disturbance types is challenging because sufficient information needed for analysis is not easily available. Theoretical advances and improved predictions can be advanced by generalizations obtained from synthesis activities that include multiple sites, ecosystems, and disturbance events. Building on existing research, we present a conceptual framework and an operational analog to integrate this rich body of knowledge and to promote quantitative comparisons of disturbance effects across different types of ecosystems and disturbances. This framework recognizes individual disturbance events that consist of three quantifiable components: (1) environmental drivers, (2) initial system properties, and (3) physical and biological mechanisms of effect, such as deposition, compaction, and combustion. These components result in biotic and abiotic legacies that can interact with subsequent drivers and successional processes to influence system response. Through time, a coarse-scale quasi-equilibrial state can be reached where variation in drivers interacting with biotic processes and feedbacks internal to the system results in variability in dynamics. At any time, a driver of sufficient magnitude can push the system beyond its realm of natural variability to initiate a new kind of event. We use long-term data from diverse terrestrial ecosystems to illustrate how our approach can facilitate cross-system comparisons, and provide new insights to the role of disturbance in ecological systems. We also provide key disturbance characteristics and measurements needed to promote future quantitative comparisons across ecosystems.

show abstract

Section: Driversmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cross-system comparisons elucidate disturbance complexities and generalities

et al. 2011

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…When insect outbreaks, fire, and harvesting occur in rapid succession, their combined impact can dramatically reduce the spruce seed pool, not only immediately after disturbance but for a prolonged period, thereby engendering a shift from closed forest to sparse trees with thick lichen mats that inhibit further tree establishment in a positive feedback loop (Payette et al 2000;Payette and Delwaide 2003). Wind and fire can similarly occur as cascading catastrophic perturbations in northern hemlockhardwood forests, causing a shift in dominance from shadetolerant trees to sustained aspen-birch dominance (Lorimer 1977;Frelich and Reich 1999). Likewise, in the near-boreal forests of Minnesota, USA, when two severe fires occur within 10 years, a shift in species dominance from jack pine (Pinus banksiana Lamb.)…”

Section: Alternative Stable Statesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can forest management based on natural disturbances maintain ecological resilience?

Drever¹,

Peterson²,

Messier³

et al. 2006

Can. J. For. Res.

309

192

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Given the increasingly global stresses on forests, many ecologists argue that managers must maintain ecological resilience: the capacity of ecosystems to absorb disturbances without undergoing fundamental change. In this review we ask: Can the emerging paradigm of natural-disturbance-based management (NDBM) maintain ecological resilience in managed forests? Applying resilience theory requires careful articulation of the ecosystem state under consideration, the disturbances and stresses that affect the persistence of possible alternative states, and the spatial and temporal scales of management relevance. Implementing NDBM while maintaining resilience means recognizing that (i) biodiversity is important for long-term ecosystem persistence, (ii) natural disturbances play a critical role as a generator of structural and compositional heterogeneity at multiple scales, and (iii) traditional management tends to produce forests more homogeneous than those disturbed naturally and increases the likelihood of unexpected catastrophic change by constraining variation of key environmental processes. NDBM may maintain resilience if silvicultural strategies retain the structures and processes that perpetuate desired states while reducing those that enhance resilience of undesirable states. Such strategies require an understanding of harvesting impacts on slow ecosystem processes, such as seed-bank or nutrient dynamics, which in the long term can lead to ecological surprises by altering the forest's capacity to reorganize after disturbance.Résumé : Étant donné l'augmentation globale des stress dans les forêts, plusieurs écologistes croient que les gestionnaires doivent maintenir la résilience écologique, c'est-à-dire la capacité des écosystèmes à absorber les perturbations sans subir de changements importants. Dans cette revue, nous nous demandons si le nouveau paradigme de l'aménagement basé sur les perturbations naturelles peut maintenir la résilience écologique dans les forêts aménagées? L'application de la théorie de la résilience exige une articulation minutieuse de l'état de l'écosystème considéré, des perturbations et des stress qui affectent la persistance d'états alternatifs potentiels ainsi que les échelles spatiales et temporelles de la pertinence de l'aménagement. L'application de l'aménagement basé sur les perturbations naturelles, tout en maintenant la résilience, oblige à reconnaître que (i) la biodiversité est importante pour la persistance à long terme de l'écosystème, (ii) les perturbations naturelles jouent un rôle crucial dans la genèse de l'hétérogénéité de la structure et de la composition à de multiples échelles et (iii) l'aménagement traditionnel tend à rendre les forêts plus homogènes que celles qui sont naturellement perturbées et à augmenter les chances de changements catastrophiques inattendus en réduisant la variation de processus environnementaux clés. L'aménagement basé sur les perturbations naturelles peut maintenir la résilience si les stratégies sylvicoles permettent de conserver les ...

show abstract

“…They reflect past average effects of underlying processes that occurred at specific times and these effects may not exactly repeat themselves in the future. For instance, Markovian transition matrices are aspatial and ignore the importance of local neighbouring effects on forest succession [71]: if the abundance of open forest changes with time, local effects (historical legacies) should also change, which would impact the prediction of successive forest succession events. Forest succession is also conditioned by fire severity [65][66][67][68] that has been shown to be related to specific fire events [72].…”

Section: Correlation Of Fire Frequency With the Abundance Of Open Standsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Regional Instability in the Abundance of Open Stands in the Boreal Forest of Eastern Canada

Rapanoela

Raulier

Gauthier

2016

Forests

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract:Fires are a key disturbance of boreal forests. In fact, they are the main source of renewal and evolution for forest stands. The variability of fire through space and time results in a diversified forest mosaic, altering their species composition, structure and productivity. A resilient forest is assumed to be in a state of dynamic equilibrium with the fire regime, so that the composition, age structure and succession stages of forests should be consistent with the fire regime. Dense spruce-moss stands tend, however, to diminish in favour of more open stands similar to spruce-lichen stands when subjected to more frequent and recurring disturbances. This study therefore focused on the effects of spatial and temporal variations in burn rates on the proportion of open stands over a large geographic area (175,000 km 2 ) covered by black spruce (Picea mariana (Mill.) Britton, Sterns, Poggenb.). The study area was divided into 10 different zones according to burn rates, as measured using fire-related data collected between 1940 and 2006. To test if the abundance of open stands was unstable over time and not in equilibrium with the current fire regime, forest succession was simulated using a landscape dynamics model that showed that the abundance of open stands should increase progressively over time in zones where the average burn rate is high. The proportion of open stands generated during a specific historical period is correlated with the burn rate observed during the same period. Rising annual burn rates over the past two decades have thereby resulted in an immediate increase in the proportion of open stands. There is therefore a difference between the current proportion of open stands and the one expected if vegetation was in equilibrium with the disturbance regime, reflecting an instability that may significantly impact the way forest resources are managed. It is apparent from this study that forestry planning should consider the risks associated with the temporal variability of fire regimes on the forest ecosystem, as the resulting changes can have a significant impact on biodiversity and allowable cut estimates.

show abstract

Minireviews: Neighborhood Effects, Disturbance Severity, and Community Stability in Forests

Cited by 168 publications

References 78 publications

Cross-system comparisons elucidate disturbance complexities and generalities

Cross-system comparisons elucidate disturbance complexities and generalities

Can forest management based on natural disturbances maintain ecological resilience?

Regional Instability in the Abundance of Open Stands in the Boreal Forest of Eastern Canada

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About