Factors promoting larch dominance in central Siberia: fire versus growth performance and implications for carbon dynamics at the boundary of evergreen and deciduous conifers

• Published in: Biogeosciences
• Main Authors: Schulze, E.-D., Wirth, C., Mollicone, D., von Lüpke, N., Ziegler, W., Achard, F., Mund, M., Prokushkin, A., Scherbina, S.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2012
• Subjects: Siberia; fire; plant diseases; taiga
• Online Access: http://resolver.sub.uni-goettingen.de/purl?gs-1/9913; https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-9-1405-2012

The relative roles of fire and climate in determining canopy species composition and aboveground carbon stocks were investigated. Measurements were made along a transect extending from the dark taiga zone of Central Siberia, where Picea and Abies dominate the canopy, into the Larix zone of Eastern Siberia. We test the hypotheses that the change in canopy species composition is based (1) on climate-driven performance only, (2) on fire only, or (3) on fire-performance interactions. We show that the evergreen conifers Picea obovata and Abies sibirica are the natural late-successional species both in Central and Eastern Siberia, provided there has been no fire for an extended period of time. There are no changes in the climate-driven performance of the observed species. Fire appears to be the main factor explaining the dominance of Larix. Of lesser influence were longitude, hydrology and active-layer thickness. peerReviewed