Drivers of persistent post-fire recruitment in European beech forests
| Autor: | Thomas Wohlgemuth, Janet Maringer, Davide Ascoli, Roberta Berretti, Andrew Hacket-Pain, Marco Conedera |
|---|---|
| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2020 |
| Předmět: |
Canopy
Forest regeneration Environmental Engineering 010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences Fagus sylvatica Climate Change Climate change 010501 environmental sciences Forests Seeder Disturbance regime 01 natural sciences Fires Fagus Environmental Chemistry Mast (botany) Waste Management and Disposal Beech 0105 earth and related environmental sciences Burn severity biology Obligate Ecology fungi biology.organism_classification Pollution Mast years European Alps Environmental Monitoring |
| Zdroj: | SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT |
| Popis: | Climate change is expected to alter disturbance regimes including fires in European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) forests. Regarding the resilience of beech forests to fire it is questionable whether seeds of this non-serotinous obligate masting seeder find advantageous conditions in a post-fire environment. The probability of recruitment success has been shown to increase when fire coincides with a mast year. However, the fire-induced recruitment window is poorly defined, and it is unclear how other interacting factors influence its duration. We used a space-for-time approach to model the relationships between post-fire beech recruitment, timing of seed mast events, and interacting environmental conditions using a zero-inflated model. Our results show that recruitment peaks 5–12 years after a fire, and continues throughout three decades post-fire. Beech recruitment in the post-fire period is driven by mast intensity interacting with (i) canopy opening as a consequence of progressive post-fire tree mortality and (ii) coverages of competing ground vegetation. Spring-summer moisture showed a weak positive effect on beech recruitment. We conclude that fires increase light availability, which in coincidence with a mast event results in pulses of beech recruitment. The delayed post-fire mortality of beech creates a recruitment window lasting for up to three decades, resulting in a higher-than-expected resilience of beech to individual fire disturbances. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
| Externí odkaz: |
|