Fire Severity and Vegetation Response in the Boreal Swedish Forest
We studied plant survival and colonization over an experimental gradient, from fire lightly scorching the soil to fire consuming most of the organic soil layer, at two forest sites in northern Sweden. The gradient was achieved by adding different amounts of fuel to small plots that were burned in 19...
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crwiley:10.2307/2265541 2024-06-23T07:55:39+00:00 Fire Severity and Vegetation Response in the Boreal Swedish Forest Schimmel, Johnny Granstrom, Anders 1996 http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2265541 https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.2307%2F2265541 https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.2307/2265541 en eng Wiley http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor Ecology volume 77, issue 5, page 1436-1450 ISSN 0012-9658 1939-9170 journal-article 1996 crwiley https://doi.org/10.2307/2265541 2024-06-13T04:22:01Z We studied plant survival and colonization over an experimental gradient, from fire lightly scorching the soil to fire consuming most of the organic soil layer, at two forest sites in northern Sweden. The gradient was achieved by adding different amounts of fuel to small plots that were burned in 1988 and 1989. Temperature was recorded at four soil strata during burning. We analyzed survival of seeds and rhizomes in the soil immediately after fire, and followed vegetation cover and seedling establishment until 1993. During fire, there was a steep decline in maximum temperature with increasing depth below the char, irrespective of the depth of burn in the mor layer, indicating that burn depth can be used as a general indicator of heat impact below ground. Lethal temperature was not recorded deeper than 20—30 mm under the burn boundary. Plant survival was determined both by depth of burn and by depth distribution of regenerative structures in the soil. Three rhizomatous species, the dwarf shrubs Vaccinium myrtillus and Vaccinium vitis—idaea and the grass Deschampsia flexuosa, were dominant in the prefire vegetation. For all three species, the bulk of the soil bud bank was located within the mor layer, but was more superficial for D. flexuosa. Initial mortality in the bud bank was progressively higher with increasing depth of burn, and this determined the regrowth over the following years. After fires that consumed only the moss layer, cover of the Vaccinium species returned to prefire levels within 2—4 yr, and D. flexuosa showed a dramatic increase in cover as well as in fruiting. Fires that burned slightly deeper nearly eliminated D. flexuosa, and the deepest burning fires also eliminated Vaccinium spp. In contrast to regrowth from rhizomes, colonization from seed was better after relatively deep—burning fire, both for species with a soil seed bank and for species dispersing seed onto the burnt soil. However, after fires consuming most of the organic soil layer, seed bank species were also badly affected, whereas ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Northern Sweden Wiley Online Library Ecology 77 5 1436 1450 |
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Wiley Online Library |
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English |
description |
We studied plant survival and colonization over an experimental gradient, from fire lightly scorching the soil to fire consuming most of the organic soil layer, at two forest sites in northern Sweden. The gradient was achieved by adding different amounts of fuel to small plots that were burned in 1988 and 1989. Temperature was recorded at four soil strata during burning. We analyzed survival of seeds and rhizomes in the soil immediately after fire, and followed vegetation cover and seedling establishment until 1993. During fire, there was a steep decline in maximum temperature with increasing depth below the char, irrespective of the depth of burn in the mor layer, indicating that burn depth can be used as a general indicator of heat impact below ground. Lethal temperature was not recorded deeper than 20—30 mm under the burn boundary. Plant survival was determined both by depth of burn and by depth distribution of regenerative structures in the soil. Three rhizomatous species, the dwarf shrubs Vaccinium myrtillus and Vaccinium vitis—idaea and the grass Deschampsia flexuosa, were dominant in the prefire vegetation. For all three species, the bulk of the soil bud bank was located within the mor layer, but was more superficial for D. flexuosa. Initial mortality in the bud bank was progressively higher with increasing depth of burn, and this determined the regrowth over the following years. After fires that consumed only the moss layer, cover of the Vaccinium species returned to prefire levels within 2—4 yr, and D. flexuosa showed a dramatic increase in cover as well as in fruiting. Fires that burned slightly deeper nearly eliminated D. flexuosa, and the deepest burning fires also eliminated Vaccinium spp. In contrast to regrowth from rhizomes, colonization from seed was better after relatively deep—burning fire, both for species with a soil seed bank and for species dispersing seed onto the burnt soil. However, after fires consuming most of the organic soil layer, seed bank species were also badly affected, whereas ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Schimmel, Johnny Granstrom, Anders |
spellingShingle |
Schimmel, Johnny Granstrom, Anders Fire Severity and Vegetation Response in the Boreal Swedish Forest |
author_facet |
Schimmel, Johnny Granstrom, Anders |
author_sort |
Schimmel, Johnny |
title |
Fire Severity and Vegetation Response in the Boreal Swedish Forest |
title_short |
Fire Severity and Vegetation Response in the Boreal Swedish Forest |
title_full |
Fire Severity and Vegetation Response in the Boreal Swedish Forest |
title_fullStr |
Fire Severity and Vegetation Response in the Boreal Swedish Forest |
title_full_unstemmed |
Fire Severity and Vegetation Response in the Boreal Swedish Forest |
title_sort |
fire severity and vegetation response in the boreal swedish forest |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
1996 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2265541 https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.2307%2F2265541 https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.2307/2265541 |
genre |
Northern Sweden |
genre_facet |
Northern Sweden |
op_source |
Ecology volume 77, issue 5, page 1436-1450 ISSN 0012-9658 1939-9170 |
op_rights |
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.2307/2265541 |
container_title |
Ecology |
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77 |
container_issue |
5 |
container_start_page |
1436 |
op_container_end_page |
1450 |
_version_ |
1802648313518882816 |