Species Composition and Fire in a Dry Deciduous Forest

Abstract

A century of annual burning of the understory of otherwise fire-free deciduous tropical forest in central India has favored seven tree species that produce sprouts or suckers from root buds (root-sprouters) over 37 species that produce sprouts basally from root crowns (root-crown resprouters). Experiments over two years demonstrated that lowintensity ground fires killed seedlings (Ͻ1 year old), resulting in a 30% decrease in seedling diversity in burned relative to unburned plots. Overall fire-related mortality of seedlings was 74% for 17 root-crown resprouters, compared to 63% for six root-sprouters. Repeatedmeasures ANOVA showed that the number of juvenile (Ͼ1 year old) stems of root-sprouters increased in burned study plots but decreased in plots protected from fire. Annual burning by people favors species that repair damage by root sprouts. Root-sprouting offers a means of occupying new ground with clonal ramets away from the original parental base. Over time, forests may become dominated by clonal root-sprouters, in contrast to historical accounts of forest dominated by root-crown resprouters that do not spread by clonal growth. If this process continues in the Mendha Forest in India, Ͼ80% of its tree diversity could be lost within 100-200 years.

The mammalian communities in coffee plantations around a protected area in the Western Ghats, India

“…; Brandis 1882), may in fact be a legacy of increased burn frequencies (coupled with indiscriminate felling of the more valuable timber species). This is bolstered by recent empirical evidence that fires preferentially select for species that are able to resprout clonally over species that rely solely on regeneration from seed (Saha and Howe 2003). Over repeated burn cycles, forests are depleted of species that can neither resist fires (due to their thin bark) nor tolerate fires (due to their inability to resprout following damage).…”

“…We know, for instance, that tree seedlings are more vulnerable to fire than saplings and trees (Saha and Howe 2003). Couple the greater fire-vulnerability of regenerating vegetation with the shortened time for vegetation recovery between fires, and the result is species' populations that are depauperate in the smaller size classes.…”

Interactions between repeated fire, nutrients, and insect herbivores affect the recovery of diversity in the southern Amazon

“…For example, in the eastern Amazon, recurrent fires reduced the numbers of saplings and lianas while increasing the colonization rates of pioneer species, altering forest structure and composition (Cochrane and Schulze 1999;Barlow and Peres 2008). In addition, fire can reduce species diversity and alter the species composition in favor of root-sprouting species (Saha and Howe 2003). Densities of sapling and adult stems can recover relatively quickly after fire (within 6.5 years in Indonesia), but stand biomass and species evenness are less resilient because of the early dominance of pioneer species (Slik et al 2008).…”

Early recruitment responses to interactions between frequent fires, nutrients, and herbivory in the southern Amazon

“…Four years after the intense el Niño-related fires in Borneo in 1997-1998, sapling species richness did not reach levels measured in unburned forest, and recruiting community composition differed between unburned and burned forest (Cleary and Priadjati 2005). Similar results were found following fire in India (Saha and Howe 2003). Additional data from Borneo show repeated fires with a return interval of 15 years had similar effects to a single fire event; in both cases biomass and community composition had not recovered after 7 years (Slik et al 2008).…”