DOI: 10.1016/j.foreco.2015.11.050
Scopus记录号: 2-s2.0-84949907948
论文题名: Understory fuel load and structure eight to nine years after prescribed burning in Mediterranean pine forests
作者: Casals P. ; Valor T. ; Besalú A. ; Molina-Terrén D.
刊名: Forest Ecology and Management
ISSN: 0378-1127
出版年: 2016
卷: 362 起始页码: 156
结束页码: 168
语种: 英语
英文关键词: Forest management
; Overstory openness
; Overstory-understory relationships
; Plant functional groups
; Understory light
; Wildfire
Scopus关键词: Ecology
; Fires
; Fuels
; Structural design
; Overstory openness
; Overstory-understory relationships
; Plant functional groups
; Understory light
; Wildfire
; Forestry
英文摘要: Prescribed burning is being widely used in fire-prone forests to modify stand structure, reduce risks of severe wildfire, and increase ecosystem resilience to natural disturbances. This study focuses on changes to understory cover, phytovolume, and species richness eight to nine years after underburning, by comparing the understory structure of burned and paired unburned (100m2) plots in eight Mediterranean pine stand locations (Catalonia, Spain). Taking into account the assumptions of the space-for-time substitution in our study design, phytovolume was significantly lower in burned plots compared to the unburned plots. These differences varied, however, across localities, ranging from negligible changes to a reduction of more than 90%. Differences attributable to management were greater in forest plots with higher overstory cover, which was assessed by hemispherical photograph analysis. This result suggests that the lack of light availability may limit the reestablishment of understory in managed dense stands. Crown Fire Initiation and Spread (CFIS) simulations indicated that these changes in understory structure would only decrease the behavior of a potential wildfire when occurring in low or moderate weather conditions. In both burned and unburned plots, woody obligate resprouters represented more than 60% of the total cover, while facultative resprouters or obligate seeders accounted for less than 20%. No differences were detected in the richness of resprouter, seeder, graminoid or legume functional groups between burned and unburned plots. Our results support the application of prescribed fires to reduce surface fuels in the studied forest types, and the hypothesis that fuel load reduction is most effective in a forest with a closed overstory. © 2015 Elsevier B.V. Citation statistics:
资源类型: 期刊论文
标识符: http://119.78.100.158/handle/2HF3EXSE/65098
Appears in Collections: 影响、适应和脆弱性
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作者单位: Forest Sciences Centre of Catalonia, CEMFOR-CTFC, Ctra de St. Llorenç de Morunys, km 2, Solsona, Spain; School of Agrifood and Forestry Science and Engineering, University of Lleida, Avenida Rovira Roure 191, Lleida, Spain
Recommended Citation:
Casals P.,Valor T.,Besalú A.,et al. Understory fuel load and structure eight to nine years after prescribed burning in Mediterranean pine forests[J]. Forest Ecology and Management,2016-01-01,362