Resilience of Mediterranean terrestrial ecosystems and fire severity in semiarid areas: Responses of Aleppo pine forests in the short, mid and long term

Vega, S. González-De; Heras, Jorge de las; Moya, Daniel

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.03.115

Cited by 108 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…Pine forest is one of the Mediterranean ecosystems most impacted by fire (González De Vega et al 2016). Mediterranean pine species live in fire-prone environments (Trabaud 1995, Hernández-Serrano et al 2014) and they have developed strategies to survive fires, such as serotiny (Rodrigo et al 2004, De Las Heras et al 2012.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Role of serotiny on Pinus pinaster Aiton germination and its relation to mother plant age and fire severity

Cruz¹,

García-Duro²,

Casal³

et al. 2019

iForest

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Serotiny degree may hypothetically depend on mother plant age and fire severity, and fire severity can strongly affect the regeneration of Pinus pinaster Aiton, which is an obligate seeder species with aerial seed banks stocked in cones showing a certain degree of serotiny. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of serotiny and mother plant age on seed germination of P. pinaster in relation to fire severity. For this purpose, cones were collected in two stands from mother trees of different ages. Serotinous cones were opened in oven at increasing temperatures to determine the number of seeds released. The length of cones and the number and weight of seeds were measured. Seeds from both classes of mother plant age were subjected to 34 different treatments simulating different fire severity levels, and their germination was recorded. The results showed that serotiny was significantly higher in cones from young mother trees. Seed germination in the control groups from serotinous cones was always higher than that from non-serotinous cones without thermal shock. Fire severity decreased seed germination as fire severity increases in both mother age classes. Mother plant age was related to the serotiny level, which was higher in young than in old trees, suggesting a strong selection in the population due to a recent fire.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Role of serotiny on Pinus pinaster Aiton germination and its relation to mother plant age and fire severity

Cruz¹,

García-Duro²,

Casal³

et al. 2019

iForest

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“…To avoid an interaction of the unburned plots, we found marked differences in the specific diversity values for years 5 after the fire, with values remaining above those of the more severely burned plots. This indicated that there is a sustainable fire frequency (more than 25 years) since the high alpha diversity decreases rapidly in the short term [51] although a high burn severity could induce changes in post-fire recovery patterns [17,22].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…In the Mediterranean Basin, modal natural fire frequency ranges from 25 to 50 years, which promotes a high alpha diversity after disturbance, but shorter-lived species are rapidly excluded [17]. However, fire exclusion reduces fire frequency, and promotes fire severity, which could induce changes in post-fire recovery patterns related to burn severity [18].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Post-Fire Regeneration and Diversity Response to Burn Severity in Pinus halepensis Mill. Forests

Vega¹,

Heras²,

Moya³

2018

Forests

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In recent decades, fire regimes have been modified by various factors such as changes in land use, global change or forest management policies. The vulnerability of Mediterranean terrestrial ecosystems is increasing due to more severe and frequent droughts. This study aimed to determine the plant response of ecosystems during the short-term post-fire period by relating alpha diversity, floristic richness and tree recruitment dynamics to burn severity 5 years after a wildfire. Our results conclude that in the short term, Pinus halepensis Mill. stands in southeastern Spain quickly recovered alpha diversity values, mainly in areas burned with low severity. We observed that moderate and high severities affected the ecosystem more significantly, showing higher values for the Shannon Index but lower for the Simpson index. Pine recruitment was higher in burned areas, and we found the highest number of Aleppo pine seedlings under a moderate burn severity. Post-fire regeneration functional groups (obligate seeders and resprouters) were promoted under moderate and high burn severity, increasing their abundance. Annual species (mainly herbs) colonized burned areas, persisting with higher presence under moderate burn severity. Restoration tools should be focused on reducing fire severity, mainly in areas at high risk of desertification, and promoting resistance, vulnerability and resilience of these ecosystems.

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“…Key and Benson [6] distinguished between initial assessment of burn severity, which aims to map burn severity immediately after fire, from an extended assessment, whose goal is to map burn severity when survivorship and mortality are detectable. Increases in burn severity due to changes in climate and land cover may modify vegetation characteristics (composition, resilience, structure) and soil attributes, even in Mediterranean ecosystems that are well adapted to fire [7,8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can Landsat-Derived Variables Related to Energy Balance Improve Understanding of Burn Severity From Current Operational Techniques?

2020

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Forest managers rely on accurate burn severity estimates to evaluate post-fire damage and to establish revegetation policies. Burn severity estimates based on reflective data acquired from sensors onboard satellites are increasingly complementing field-based ones. However, fire not only induces changes in reflected and emitted radiation measured by the sensor, but also on energy balance. Evapotranspiration (ET), land surface temperature (LST) and land surface albedo (LSA) are greatly affected by wildfires. In this study, we examine the usefulness of these elements of energy balance as indicators of burn severity and compare the accuracy of burn severity estimates based on them to the accuracy of widely used approaches based on spectral indexes. We studied a mega-fire (more than 450 km2 burned) in Central Portugal, which occurred from 17 to 24 June 2017. The official burn severity map acted as a ground reference. Variations induced by fire during the first year following the fire event were evaluated through changes in ET, LST and LSA derived from Landsat data and related to burn severity. Fisher’s least significant difference test (ANOVA) revealed that ET and LST images could discriminate three burn severity levels with statistical significance (uni-temporal and multi-temporal approaches). Burn severity was estimated from ET, LST and LSA using thresholding. Accuracy of ET and LST based on burn severity estimates was adequate (κ = 0.63 and 0.57, respectively), similar to the accuracy of the estimate based on dNBR (κ = 0.66). We conclude that Landsat-derived surface energy balance variables, in particular ET and LST, in addition to acting as useful indicators of burn severity for mega-fires in Mediterranean ecosystems, may provide critical information about how energy balance changes due to fire.

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Resilience of Mediterranean terrestrial ecosystems and fire severity in semiarid areas: Responses of Aleppo pine forests in the short, mid and long term

Cited by 108 publications

References 26 publications

Role of serotiny on Pinus pinaster Aiton germination and its relation to mother plant age and fire severity

Role of serotiny on Pinus pinaster Aiton germination and its relation to mother plant age and fire severity

Post-Fire Regeneration and Diversity Response to Burn Severity in Pinus halepensis Mill. Forests

Can Landsat-Derived Variables Related to Energy Balance Improve Understanding of Burn Severity From Current Operational Techniques?

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