Effects of Fire Frequency on Plant Species in Oak Savanna in East-Central Minnesota

1996 ◽  
Vol 123 (4) ◽  
pp. 304 ◽  
Author(s):  
John R. Tester
Keyword(s):  
Plant Species ◽  
Fire Frequency ◽  
Oak Savanna ◽  
East Central

Reversing legacy effects in the understory of an oak-dominated forest

2014 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 350-364 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melissa Thomas-Van Gundy ◽  
James Rentch ◽  
Mary Beth Adams ◽  
Walter Carson
Keyword(s):  
Prescribed Fire ◽  
Acer Rubrum ◽  
Fire Frequency ◽  
Canopy Gaps ◽  
Red Maple ◽  
Yellow Poplar ◽  
East Central ◽  
Single Process ◽  
Process Effects ◽  
Poplar Seedlings

Current forests developed under conditions different from original forests, with higher deer densities, reduced fire frequency, denser canopies, and smaller canopy gaps. These alterations have led to understories dominated by species simultaneously browse tolerant, shade tolerant, and fire sensitive leading to difficulties in the regeneration of oak species (Quercus spp.) in some areas. We evaluated how three key processes — understory fire, canopy gaps, and browsing — influenced tree species in east central West Virginia. We were particularly interested in the response of oak species because they are the dominant overstory species and of maple species (Acer spp.), black birch (Betula lenta L.), and yellow-poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera L.) as these are likely to replace the current forest. Single-process effects were significant and significant interactions among processes were numerous. In general, fire caused significant reductions of seedlings and saplings of red maple (Acer rubrum L.) and striped maple (Acer pensylvanicum L.) and increased the seedlings of black birch and yellow-poplar. Canopy gaps increased the abundance of black birch and yellow-poplar seedlings and saplings. Gaps and fire together caused an increase in the relative abundance of yellow-poplar. Excluding browsers and creating canopy gaps together nearly doubled oak sapling importance values versus either treatment alone; however, oak importance values remained low. Given the significant interactions of browse control with the other two processes, browse control should be considered when planning oak regeneration treatments such as canopy gaps or prescribed fire.

scholarly journals Century-scale wood nitrogen isotope trajectories from an oak savanna with variable fire frequencies

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (18) ◽  
pp. 4509-4522
Author(s):  
Matthew L. Trumper ◽  
Daniel Griffin ◽  
Sarah E. Hobbie ◽  
Ian M. Howard ◽  
David M. Nelson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Prescribed Burning ◽  
Fire Frequency ◽  
Oak Savanna ◽  
N Availability ◽  
Net N Mineralization ◽  
Vegetation Composition ◽  
Prescribed Burn ◽  
Decadal Scale

Abstract. Fire frequency exerts a fundamental control on productivity and nutrient cycling in savanna ecosystems. Individual fires often increase short-term nitrogen (N) availability to plants, but repeated burning causes ecosystem N losses and can ultimately decrease soil organic matter and N availability. However, these effects remain poorly understood due to limited long-term biogeochemical data. Here, we evaluate how fire frequency and changing vegetation composition influenced wood stable N isotopes (δ15N) across space and time at one of the longest running prescribed burn experiments in the world (established in 1964). We developed multiple δ15N records across a burn frequency gradient from precisely dated Quercus macrocarpa tree rings in an oak savanna at Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve, Minnesota, USA. Sixteen trees were sampled across four treatment stands that varied with respect to the temporal onset of burning and burn frequency but were consistent in overstory species representation, soil characteristics, and topography. Burn frequency ranged from an unburned control stand to a high-fire-frequency stand that had burned in 4 of every 5 years during the past 55 years. Because N stocks and net N mineralization rates are currently lowest in frequently burned stands, we hypothesized that wood δ15N trajectories would decline through time in all burned stands, but at a rate proportional to the fire frequency. We found that wood δ15N records within each stand were remarkably coherent in their mean state and trend through time. A gradual decline in wood δ15N occurred in the mid-20th century in the no-, low-, and medium-fire stands, whereas there was no trend in the high-fire stand. The decline in the three stands did not systematically coincide with the onset of prescribed burning. Thus, we found limited evidence for variation in wood δ15N that could be attributed directly to long-term fire frequency in this prescribed burn experiment in temperate oak savanna. Our wood δ15N results may instead reflect decadal-scale changes in vegetation composition and abundance due to early- to mid-20th-century fire suppression.

Deep history of wildfire in Australia

2016 ◽  
Vol 64 (8) ◽  
pp. 557 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert S. Hill ◽  
Gregory J. Jordan
Keyword(s):  
Plant Species ◽  
Late Cretaceous ◽  
Fire Ecology ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Atmospheric Oxygen ◽  
Fire Frequency ◽  
Diverse Range ◽  
Fire Adaptations ◽  
Australian Continent ◽  
History Of

Australian plant species vary markedly in their fire responses, and the evolutionary histories of the diverse range of traits that lead to fire tolerance and fire dependence almost certainly involves both exaptation and traits that evolved directly in response to fire. The hypothesis that very long-term nutrient poverty in Australian soils led to intense fires explains many of the unusual responses to fire by Australian species, as does near global distribution of evidence for fire during the Cretaceous, possibly driven by high atmospheric oxygen concentration. Recent descriptions of leaf fragments from a Late Cretaceous locality in central Australia have provided the first fossil evidence for ancient and possibly ancestral fire ecology in modern fire-dependent Australian clades, as suggested by some phylogenetic studies. The drying of the Australian climate in the Neogene allowed the rise to dominance of taxa that had their origin in the Late Cretaceous, but had not been prominent in the rainforest-dominated Paleogene. The Neogene climatic evolution meant that fire became an important feature of that environment and fire frequency and intensity began to grow to high levels, and many fire adaptations evolved. However, many plant species were already in place to take advantage of this new fire regime, and even though the original drivers for fire may have changed (possibly from high atmospheric oxygen concentrations, to long, hot, dry periods at different times in different parts of the continent), the adaptations that these species had for fire tolerance meant they could become prominent over much of the Australian continent by the time human colonisation began.

scholarly journals Shocks to the system: community assembly of the oak savanna in a 40-year fire frequency experiment

Ecology ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 93 (sp8) ◽  
pp. S52-S69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeannine Cavender-Bares ◽  
Peter B. Reich
Keyword(s):  
Community Assembly ◽  
Fire Frequency ◽  
Oak Savanna

Effects of fire frequency on plant species composition of sandstone communities in the Sydney region: Inter-fire interval and time-since-fire

1995 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 239-247 ◽  
Author(s):  
DAVID A. MORRISON ◽  
GEOFFREY J. CARY ◽  
STUART M. PENGELLY ◽  
DAVID G. ROSS ◽  
BRUCE J. MULLINS ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Species Composition ◽  
Plant Species ◽  
Fire Frequency ◽  
Plant Species Composition ◽  
Time Since Fire
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