Fire characteristics and environmental conditions shape plant communities via regeneration strategy
© 2020 The Authors. Ecography published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Nordic Society Oikos Climate change is altering disturbance regimes outside historical norms, which can impact biodiversity by selecting for plants with particular traits. The relative impact of disturbance characteris...
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ftvictoriauwfig:oai:figshare.com:article/14330714 2023-05-15T17:46:47+02:00 Fire characteristics and environmental conditions shape plant communities via regeneration strategy Nicola Day AL White JF Johnstone G Degré-Timmons SG Cumming MC Mack MR Turetsky XJ Walker JL Baltzer 2020-10-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.26686/wgtn.14330714.v2 https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/Fire_characteristics_and_environmental_conditions_shape_plant_communities_via_regeneration_strategy/14330714 unknown doi:10.26686/wgtn.14330714.v2 https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/Fire_characteristics_and_environmental_conditions_shape_plant_communities_via_regeneration_strategy/14330714 CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 CC-BY-NC-ND Ecology plant functional traits RLQ and fourth corner analysis soil drainage taiga plains taiga shield vegetation change Ecological Applications Environmental Science and Management Text Journal contribution 2020 ftvictoriauwfig https://doi.org/10.26686/wgtn.14330714.v2 2021-06-29T18:52:33Z © 2020 The Authors. Ecography published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Nordic Society Oikos Climate change is altering disturbance regimes outside historical norms, which can impact biodiversity by selecting for plants with particular traits. The relative impact of disturbance characteristics on plant traits and community structure may be mediated by environmental gradients. We aimed to understand how wildfire impacted understory plant communities and plant regeneration strategies along gradients of environmental conditions and wildfire characteristics in boreal forests. We established 207 plots (60 m2) in recently burned stands and 133 plots in mature stands with no recent fire history in comparable gradients of stand type, site moisture (drainage) and soil organic layer (SOL) depth in two ecozones in Canada's Northwest Territories. At each plot, we recorded all vascular plant taxa in the understory and measured the regeneration strategy (seeder, resprouter, survivor) in burned plots, along with seedbed conditions (mineral soil and bryophyte cover). Dispersal, longevity and growth form traits were determined for each taxon. Fire characteristics measured included proportion of pre-fire SOL combusted (fire severity), date of burn (fire seasonality) and pre-fire stand age (time following fire). Results showed understory community composition was altered by fire. However, burned and mature stands had similar plant communities in wet sites with deep SOL. In the burned plots, regeneration strategies were determined by fire severity, drainage and pre- and post-fire SOL depth. Resprouters were more common in wet sites with deeper SOL and lower fire severity, while seeders were associated with drier sites with thinner SOL and greater fire severity. This led to drier burned stands being compositionally different from their mature counterparts and seedbed conditions were important. Our study highlights the importance of environment–wildfire interactions in shaping plant regeneration strategies and patterns of ... Other Non-Article Part of Journal/Newspaper Northwest Territories taiga Taiga plains Taiga shield Open Access Victoria University of Wellington / Te Herenga Waka Northwest Territories |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Open Access Victoria University of Wellington / Te Herenga Waka |
op_collection_id |
ftvictoriauwfig |
language |
unknown |
topic |
Ecology plant functional traits RLQ and fourth corner analysis soil drainage taiga plains taiga shield vegetation change Ecological Applications Environmental Science and Management |
spellingShingle |
Ecology plant functional traits RLQ and fourth corner analysis soil drainage taiga plains taiga shield vegetation change Ecological Applications Environmental Science and Management Nicola Day AL White JF Johnstone G Degré-Timmons SG Cumming MC Mack MR Turetsky XJ Walker JL Baltzer Fire characteristics and environmental conditions shape plant communities via regeneration strategy |
topic_facet |
Ecology plant functional traits RLQ and fourth corner analysis soil drainage taiga plains taiga shield vegetation change Ecological Applications Environmental Science and Management |
description |
© 2020 The Authors. Ecography published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Nordic Society Oikos Climate change is altering disturbance regimes outside historical norms, which can impact biodiversity by selecting for plants with particular traits. The relative impact of disturbance characteristics on plant traits and community structure may be mediated by environmental gradients. We aimed to understand how wildfire impacted understory plant communities and plant regeneration strategies along gradients of environmental conditions and wildfire characteristics in boreal forests. We established 207 plots (60 m2) in recently burned stands and 133 plots in mature stands with no recent fire history in comparable gradients of stand type, site moisture (drainage) and soil organic layer (SOL) depth in two ecozones in Canada's Northwest Territories. At each plot, we recorded all vascular plant taxa in the understory and measured the regeneration strategy (seeder, resprouter, survivor) in burned plots, along with seedbed conditions (mineral soil and bryophyte cover). Dispersal, longevity and growth form traits were determined for each taxon. Fire characteristics measured included proportion of pre-fire SOL combusted (fire severity), date of burn (fire seasonality) and pre-fire stand age (time following fire). Results showed understory community composition was altered by fire. However, burned and mature stands had similar plant communities in wet sites with deep SOL. In the burned plots, regeneration strategies were determined by fire severity, drainage and pre- and post-fire SOL depth. Resprouters were more common in wet sites with deeper SOL and lower fire severity, while seeders were associated with drier sites with thinner SOL and greater fire severity. This led to drier burned stands being compositionally different from their mature counterparts and seedbed conditions were important. Our study highlights the importance of environment–wildfire interactions in shaping plant regeneration strategies and patterns of ... |
format |
Other Non-Article Part of Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Nicola Day AL White JF Johnstone G Degré-Timmons SG Cumming MC Mack MR Turetsky XJ Walker JL Baltzer |
author_facet |
Nicola Day AL White JF Johnstone G Degré-Timmons SG Cumming MC Mack MR Turetsky XJ Walker JL Baltzer |
author_sort |
Nicola Day |
title |
Fire characteristics and environmental conditions shape plant communities via regeneration strategy |
title_short |
Fire characteristics and environmental conditions shape plant communities via regeneration strategy |
title_full |
Fire characteristics and environmental conditions shape plant communities via regeneration strategy |
title_fullStr |
Fire characteristics and environmental conditions shape plant communities via regeneration strategy |
title_full_unstemmed |
Fire characteristics and environmental conditions shape plant communities via regeneration strategy |
title_sort |
fire characteristics and environmental conditions shape plant communities via regeneration strategy |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.26686/wgtn.14330714.v2 https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/Fire_characteristics_and_environmental_conditions_shape_plant_communities_via_regeneration_strategy/14330714 |
geographic |
Northwest Territories |
geographic_facet |
Northwest Territories |
genre |
Northwest Territories taiga Taiga plains Taiga shield |
genre_facet |
Northwest Territories taiga Taiga plains Taiga shield |
op_relation |
doi:10.26686/wgtn.14330714.v2 https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/Fire_characteristics_and_environmental_conditions_shape_plant_communities_via_regeneration_strategy/14330714 |
op_rights |
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY-NC-ND |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.26686/wgtn.14330714.v2 |
_version_ |
1766150634883514368 |