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Lindenmayer D, Zylstra P. Identifying and managing disturbance-stimulated flammability in woody ecosystems. Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc 2024; 99:699-714. [PMID: 38105616 DOI: 10.1111/brv.13041] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/29/2023] [Revised: 12/07/2023] [Accepted: 12/11/2023] [Indexed: 12/19/2023]
Abstract
Many forest types globally have been subject to an increase in the frequency of, and area burnt by, high-severity wildfire. Here we explore the role that previous disturbance has played in increasing the extent and severity of subsequent forest fires. We summarise evidence documenting and explaining the mechanisms underpinning a pulse of flammability that may follow disturbances such as fire, logging, clearing or windthrow (a process we term disturbance-stimulated flammability). Disturbance sometimes initiates a short initial period of low flammability, but then drives an extended period of increased flammability as vegetation regrows. Our analysis initially focuses on well-documented cases in Australia, but we also discuss where these pattens may apply elsewhere, including in the Northern Hemisphere. We outline the mechanisms by which disturbance drives flammability through disrupting the ecological controls that limit it in undisturbed forests. We then develop and test a conceptual model to aid prediction of woody vegetation communities where such patterns of disturbance-stimulated flammability may occur. We discuss the interaction of ecological controls with climate change, which is driving larger and more severe fires. We also explore the current state of knowledge around the point where disturbed, fire-prone stands are sufficiently widespread in landscapes that they may promote spatial contagion of high-severity wildfire that overwhelms any reduction in fire spread offered by less-flammable stands. We discuss how land managers might deal with the major challenges that changes in landscape cover and altered fire regimes may have created. This is especially pertinent in landscapes now dominated by extensive areas of young forest regenerating after logging, regrowing following broadscale fire including prescribed burning, or regenerating following agricultural land abandonment. Where disturbance is found to stimulate flammability, then key management actions should consider the long-term benefits of: (i) limiting disturbance-based management like logging or burning that creates young forests and triggers understorey development; (ii) protecting young forests from disturbances and assisting them to transition to an older, less-flammable state; and (iii) reinforcing the fire-inhibitory properties of older, less-flammable stands through methods for rapid fire detection and suppression.
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Affiliation(s)
- David Lindenmayer
- Fenner School of Environment and Society, Building 141, Linnaeus Way, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, 2601, Australia
| | - Phil Zylstra
- School of Molecular and Life Sciences, Curtin University, Kent Street, Bentley, Western Australia, 6102, Australia
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Lindenmayer DB, Bowd EJ, Gibbons P. Forest restoration in a time of fire: perspectives from tall, wet eucalypt forests subject to stand-replacing wildfires. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2023; 378:20210082. [PMID: 36373929 PMCID: PMC9661950 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2021.0082] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/27/2021] [Accepted: 09/30/2021] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Wildfires have the potential to add considerably to the already significant challenge of achieving effective forest restoration in the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. While fire can sometimes promote forest restoration (e.g. by creating otherwise rare, early successional habitats), it can thwart it in others (e.g. by depleting key patch types and stand structures). Here we outline key considerations in facilitating restoration of some tall wet temperate forest ecosystems and some boreal forest ecosystems where the typical fire regime is rare high-severity stand-replacing fire. Some of these ecosystems are experiencing altered fire regimes such as increased fire extent, severity and/or frequency. Achieving good restoration outcomes in such ecosystems demands understanding fire regimes and their impacts on vegetation and other elements of biodiversity and then selecting ecosystem-appropriate management interventions. Potential actions range from doing nothing (as the ecosystem already maintains full post-fire regenerative capacity) to interventions prior to a conflagration like prescribed burning to limit the risks of high-severity fire, excluding activities that impair post-fire recovery (e.g. post-fire logging), and artificial seeding where natural regeneration fails. The most ecologically effective actions will be ecosystem-specific and context-specific and informed by knowledge of the ecosystem in question (such as plant life-history attributes) and inter-relationships with attributes like vegetation condition at the time it is burnt (e.g. young versus old forest). This article is part of the theme issue 'Understanding forest landscape restoration: reinforcing scientific foundations for the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration'.
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Affiliation(s)
- David B. Lindenmayer
- Fenner School of Environment and Society, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia
| | - Elle J. Bowd
- Fenner School of Environment and Society, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia
| | - Philip Gibbons
- Fenner School of Environment and Society, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia
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Lindenmayer D, Bowd E. Cultural burning, cultural misappropriation, over‐simplification of land management complexity, and ecological illiteracy. ECOLOGICAL MANAGEMENT & RESTORATION 2022. [DOI: 10.1111/emr.12564] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
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Zylinski S, Swan M, Sitters H. Contrasting responses of native and introduced mammal communities to fire mosaics in a modified landscape. ECOLOGICAL APPLICATIONS : A PUBLICATION OF THE ECOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2022; 32:e2570. [PMID: 35167168 DOI: 10.1002/eap.2570] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/26/2021] [Revised: 11/24/2021] [Accepted: 12/16/2021] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
Planned fire is increasingly recognized as an important tool in conservation, but other factors such as land-use change may hinder the ability of land managers to use fire for the benefit of biodiversity. The mosaic of past fires in native vegetation may interact with the mosaic of other land-cover types in human-modified landscapes, yet the effects of these interactions on mammal communities are unknown. We investigated the responses of ground-dwelling mammal community composition and species richness to interactions between land cover and post-fire vegetation growth-stage mosaics in southern Australia. This fire-prone, human-modified landscape features a fine-scale fire mosaic in native vegetation patches surrounded by pasture, horticulture, and peri-urban environments. We measured the composition of land-cover types and fire mosaics (landscape structure) at multiple scales of up to 1257 ha surrounding 129 study sites, and considered native and introduced species together and separately. Land-cover composition was the primary driver of community composition: native species favored areas with a greater proportion of native heathy woodland, whereas introduced species were associated with landscapes comprising more cleared land. The fire mosaic also influenced community composition and species richness: greater growth-stage diversity was associated with native habitat-specialist communities and fewer introduced species. In areas with more cleared land, native species richness increased when there was a greater proportion of mid-successional vegetation, demonstrating that the effect of fire mosaics on mammal diversity depended on land-cover composition. The positive relationship between introduced species richness and cleared land extent was also stronger in recently burned sites than in other growth stages, suggesting that introduced species are well suited to more modified areas of the landscape. Land managers need to consider the underlying land-cover composition and the potential interactions it may have with fire mosaics and species composition. In this landscape a greater diversity of growth stages may disadvantage introduced species yet an increase in mid-successional vegetation in more modified areas would be likely to benefit native mammal communities. Our study highlights that fire management may need to be tailored depending on the context of land use and the species of interest.
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Affiliation(s)
- Simeon Zylinski
- School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Creswick, Victoria, Australia
| | - Matthew Swan
- School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Creswick, Victoria, Australia
| | - Holly Sitters
- School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Creswick, Victoria, Australia
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Lindenmayer D, MacGregor C, Blanchard W, Foster C. The fire regime response of a reintroduced endangered species. Restor Ecol 2021. [DOI: 10.1111/rec.13607] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- David Lindenmayer
- Threatened Species Recovery Hub, Fenner School of Environment and Society The Australian National University Canberra ACT 2601 Australia
- Fenner School of Environment and Society The Australian National University Canberra ACT 2601 Australia
| | - Christopher MacGregor
- Threatened Species Recovery Hub, Fenner School of Environment and Society The Australian National University Canberra ACT 2601 Australia
- Fenner School of Environment and Society The Australian National University Canberra ACT 2601 Australia
| | - Wade Blanchard
- Fenner School of Environment and Society The Australian National University Canberra ACT 2601 Australia
| | - Claire Foster
- Fenner School of Environment and Society The Australian National University Canberra ACT 2601 Australia
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Liu W, Yuan W, Xu S, Shao C, Hou L, Xu W, Shi H, Pan Q, Li L, Kardol P. Spatiotemporal patterns and drivers of methane uptake across a climate transect in Inner Mongolia Steppe. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2021; 757:143768. [PMID: 33229097 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.143768] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/01/2020] [Revised: 11/10/2020] [Accepted: 11/12/2020] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
Steppe soils are important biological sinks for atmospheric methane (CH4), but the strength of CH4 uptake remains uncertain due to large spatiotemporal variation and the lack of in situ measurements at regional scale. Here, we report the seasonal and spatial patterns of CH4 uptake across a 1200 km transect in arid and semi-arid steppe ecosystems in Inner Mongolia, ranging from meadow steppe in the east plain to typical and desert steppes on the west plateau. In general, seasonal patterns of CH4 uptake were site specific, with unimodal seasonal curves in meadow and typical steppes and a decreasing seasonal trend in desert steppe. Soil moisture was the dominant factor explaining the seasonal patterns of CH4 uptake, and CH4 uptake rate decreased with an increase in soil moisture. Across the transect, CH4 uptake showed a skewed unimodal spatial pattern, with the peak rate observed in the typical steppe sites and with generally higher uptake rates in the west plateau than in the east plain. Soil moisture, together with soil temperature, soil total carbon, and aboveground plant biomass, were the main drivers of the regional patterns of CH4 uptake rate. These findings are important for model development to more precisely estimate the soil CH4 sink capacity in arid and semi-arid regions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wei Liu
- State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
| | - Wenping Yuan
- School of Atmospheric Sciences, Center for Monsoon and Environment Research, Sun Yat-sen University, Zhuhai, Guangdong 519082, China
| | - Sutie Xu
- Department of Biosystems Engineering & Soil Science, The University of Tennessee, 2506 E J Chapman Drive, Knoxville, TN 37996, United States of America
| | - Changliang Shao
- National Hulunber Grassland Ecosystem Observation and Research Station & Institute of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China
| | - Longyu Hou
- State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China
| | - Wenfang Xu
- School of Atmospheric Sciences, Center for Monsoon and Environment Research, Sun Yat-sen University, Zhuhai, Guangdong 519082, China
| | - Huiqiu Shi
- State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China
| | - Qingmin Pan
- State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China.
| | - Linghao Li
- State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China.
| | - Paul Kardol
- Department of Forest Ecology and Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Umeå 901 83, Sweden
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Andersen AN. Faunal responses to fire in Australian tropical savannas: Insights from field experiments and their lessons for conservation management. DIVERS DISTRIB 2020. [DOI: 10.1111/ddi.13198] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/16/2023] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Alan N. Andersen
- Research Institute for the Environment and Livelihoods Charles Darwin University Darwin NT Australia
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Ward M, Tulloch AIT, Radford JQ, Williams BA, Reside AE, Macdonald SL, Mayfield HJ, Maron M, Possingham HP, Vine SJ, O’Connor JL, Massingham EJ, Greenville AC, Woinarski JCZ, Garnett ST, Lintermans M, Scheele BC, Carwardine J, Nimmo DG, Lindenmayer DB, Kooyman RM, Simmonds JS, Sonter LJ, Watson JEM. Impact of 2019–2020 mega-fires on Australian fauna habitat. Nat Ecol Evol 2020; 4:1321-1326. [DOI: 10.1038/s41559-020-1251-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 129] [Impact Index Per Article: 32.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/23/2020] [Accepted: 06/18/2020] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
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Dixon KM, Cary GJ, Renton M, Worboys GL, Gibbons P. More long-unburnt forest will benefit mammals in Australian sub-alpine forests and woodlands. AUSTRAL ECOL 2019. [DOI: 10.1111/aec.12786] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Kelly M. Dixon
- Fenner School of Environment and Society; The Australian National University; Canberra Australian Capital Territory 2600 Australia
| | - Geoffrey J. Cary
- Fenner School of Environment and Society; The Australian National University; Canberra Australian Capital Territory 2600 Australia
| | - Michael Renton
- Schools of Biological Sciences, Agriculture and Environment; The University of Western Australia; Crawley Western Australia 6009 Australia
| | - Graeme L. Worboys
- Fenner School of Environment and Society; The Australian National University; Canberra Australian Capital Territory 2600 Australia
| | - Philip Gibbons
- Fenner School of Environment and Society; The Australian National University; Canberra Australian Capital Territory 2600 Australia
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