Restoration of Longleaf Pine Ecosystems

Brockway, Dale G.; Outcalt, Kenneth W.; Tomczak, Donald J.; Johnson, Everett E.

doi:10.2737/srs-gtr-83

Cited by 86 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…Recent studies of fire regimes in the North American Coastal Plain support an evolutionary feedback-centric model for pine savanna dynamics. Although moisture levels in the region (mean annual precipitation 1040-1750 mm; Brockway et al, 2005) can support closed canopy forests, pine savannas have been present in the southeast prior to human burning practices (Noss et al, 2015). Historically, lightning was a dominant ignition source.…”

Section: Evidence For An Evolutionary Vegetation-fire Feedback Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Updating models for restoration and management of fiery ecosystems

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Platt

Welch

et al. 2015

Forest Ecology and Management

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Scientific models that guide restoration/management protocols should be reviewed periodically as new data become available. We examine ecological concepts used to guide restoration of pine savannas and woodlands, historically prominent but now rare habitats in the southern North American Coastal Plain. For many decades, pine savanna management has been guided predominantly by a biome-centric succession model. Pine savannas have been considered earlysuccessional communities that, in the absence of fire, transition rapidly toward closed-canopy hardwood forests. Recurrent fires have been viewed as exogenous disturbances that maintain savanna ecosystems as a sub-climax, blocking succession to an equilibrium steady state (closedcanopy forests). Over recent decades, a vegetation-fire feedback model has emerged in which pine savannas are conceptualized as persistent, non-equilibrium communities maintained by endogenous, co-evolutionary vegetation-fire feedbacks. Endemic plant species are resistant to fires and specialized for post-fire conditions generated by frequent lightning fires, primarily within a distinct fire season. These species produce pyrogenic fine fuels that are easily ignited.The resulting fire regimes, entrained by these vegetation-fire feedbacks, are predicted to result in persistent pine savannas. Local variation over space and time in evolutionary feedback mechanisms between pyrogenic vegetation and fire regimes produces heterogeneous landscapes.Disturbances of these feedbacks, such as human fire suppression, are postulated to result in rapid transition to communities lacking feedback elements, such as closed-canopy forest and those without pyrogenic species. Succession-based management focuses on reversing the transition to forest, primarily by removing hardwoods and reintroducing fire as a disturbance. However, we advocate restoration and management approaches that target reinstitution of functional vegetation-fire feedbacks. Such approaches should favor native pyrogenic plant species and 3 reinstitute fire regimes that mimic historical, evolutionarily derived fire regimes. Vegetation-fire feedback concepts should be useful in addressing resistance and resilience of fiery ecosystems worldwide to inherent changes in feedback mechanisms, constituting a framework useful in addressing global management challenges.

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Section: Evidence For An Evolutionary Vegetation-fire Feedback Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Updating models for restoration and management of fiery ecosystems

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Platt

Welch

et al. 2015

Forest Ecology and Management

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“…Overstory spatial patterns drive ecological functions such as forest dynamics (Frelich and Reich 1999, Palik et al 2003, Franklin and Mitchell 2007, Boyden and Binkley 2015, fire effects (Mitchell et al 2009, Pimont et al 2011, microclimate conditions (Battaglia et al 2002, Boyden et al 2012, and wildlife habitat (Kalies and Chambers 2010). Thus, restoration guidelines in many fire-prone forests typically include objectives to increase or maintain variability in forest structure, such as increasing horizontal spatial complexity at both fine and coarse scales (Brockway et al 2005, Parker et al 2008, Reynolds 2013, Addington 2018. Restoration treatments often call for creation of a range of canopy gap sizes (i.e., open areas where few or no trees are present) or retention of tree patches that represent a range of clump sizes (i.e., single trees as well as varying numbers of trees with partially overlapping canopies (Churchill et al 2013, LeFevre et al 2020.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus, restoration guidelines in many fire‐prone forests typically include objectives to increase or maintain variability in forest structure, such as increasing horizontal spatial complexity at both fine and coarse scales (Brockway et al. 2005, Parker et al. 2008, Reynolds 2013, Addington 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Low‐ and moderate‐severity fire offers key insights for landscape restoration in ponderosa pine forests

Cannon

Warnick

Elliott

et al. 2021

Ecological Applications

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Restoration goals in fire‐prone conifer forests include mitigating fire hazard while restoring forest structural components linked to disturbance resilience and ecological function. Restoration of overstory spatial pattern in forests often falls short of management objectives due to complexities in implementation, regulation, and available data. When historical data is available, it is often collected at plots too small to inform coarse‐scale metrics like gap size and structure of tree patches (e.g., 1 ha). Principles of ecological forestry typically emphasize overstory removal patterns that emulate those of natural disturbances. So, low‐ and moderate‐severity portions of contemporary wildfires may serve as a guide to restoration treatments where mixed‐severity fires occur. Here, we compare forest spatial pattern and configuration in 15 mechanical restoration treatments and low‐ and moderate‐severity portions of three wildfires in ponderosa pine‐dominated forests to determine how they differ in spatial pattern. We obtained satellite imagery of restoration treatments and wildfires and used supervised classification to differentiate canopy and openings. We assessed elements of landscape structure including canopy and gap cover, gap attributes, and landscape heterogeneity for each disturbance type. We found that both mechanical restoration treatments and low‐ and moderate‐severity portions of wildfires reduced forest cover, increased gap cover, and altered pattern and arrangement of gaps relative to undisturbed areas, though the magnitude of changes were greatest in the burned sites. Low‐ and moderate‐severity wildfire consistently increased landscape heterogeneity, but mechanical treatments did not. This suggests that a greater emphasis on increasing gap and patch spatial structure may make mechanical treatments more congruent with natural disturbances. Outcomes of low‐ and moderate‐severity portions of wildfires may provide important information upon which to base management prescriptions where reference data on landscape patterns is unavailable.

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“…Frequent, low-intensity surface fires help maintain P. palustris dominance and woodland or savanna structures [25,26]. Fires also enhance ground flora cover and diversity [27][28][29][30]. Pinus palustris needles are an important fuel source as the relatively monospecific canopy results in a continuous fuel bed of fine fuels with a high resin content [31].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gap-Scale Disturbance Patterns and Processes in a Montane Pinus palustris Woodland

Mueller

Goode

Hart

2022

Forests

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Gap-scale disturbances drive successional and structural development patterns in most forest ecosystems. Although fire-maintained Pinus palustris woodlands are less light limited than closed canopy forests, gap-scale disturbance processes may still influence successional and developmental pathways. We quantified biophysical characteristics of 50 canopy gaps in a montane Pinus palustris woodland to analyze gap-scale disturbance patterns and processes. We found most gaps (64%) were caused by the death of a single tree. Snag-formed gaps were most common (38%) followed by snapped stems (32%). We hypothesized that insect-induced mortality, perhaps in combination with drought periods, resulted in the high frequency of snag- and snapped stem-formed gaps. We did not find significant differences in gap size or shape based on gap formation or closure mechanisms. Most gaps (74%) were projected to close by lateral crown expansion of gap perimeter trees. We hypothesized most gaps projected to close via subcanopy recruitment would be captured by a P. palustris stem. The majority of gaps were small and gap frequency declined with increased gap size. We found gaps were significantly clustered through the woodland at distances of 8–36 m from gap edge to gap edge but were randomly distributed beyond 36 m.

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Restoration of Longleaf Pine Ecosystems

Cited by 86 publications

References 41 publications

Updating models for restoration and management of fiery ecosystems

Updating models for restoration and management of fiery ecosystems

Low‐ and moderate‐severity fire offers key insights for landscape restoration in ponderosa pine forests

Gap-Scale Disturbance Patterns and Processes in a Montane Pinus palustris Woodland

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