Diversity and stability in garrigue ecosystems after fire

Trabaud, L.; Lepart, J.

doi:10.1007/bf00121017

Cited by 190 publications

(151 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…They are able to regain their former ground cover, dominant position and height after 4-5 years. The same mechanism has been recorded by many other authors in succession studies on French garrigue (Trabaud and Lepart, 1980), shrub communities in Italy (De Lillis and Testi, 1990), phrygranic ecosystem studies (Arianoutsou-Faraggitaki, 1984), Portuguese Mediterranean maquis (Clemente et al, 1996) and also Israeli maquis (Naveh and Dann, 1974). In general, these resprouter chamaephytes, Erica australis and Chamaespartium tridentatum, can regenerate both from roots and by seed germination followed by vigorous growth.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 77%

Secondary succession after perturbations in a shrubland community

2002

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Shrubland responses to experimental burning, cutting and ploughing treatments were studied over 15 years in two shrubland communities dominated by Erica australis. The treatments represent the most frequent forms of anthropogenic disturbances experienced by these communities throughout their history. The response to burning and cutting treatments is similar, and the succession process is characterised as autosuccession. The highest values for herbaceous annuals and perennials were observed in the third and fourth years. Generally, herbaceous species remain present throughout the study period, while woody taxa ones increase their cover values over time. The quantity of herbaceous species present is in inverse proportion to the quantity of woody taxa. The woody species that appear immediately after treatments are sprouting species, namely Erica australis and Arctostaphylos uva-ursi. The response to ploughing is slower, reflecting the recovery mechanism (seedlings). However, after 15 years, there are no significant differences in regeneration between treatments. The first stages of this post-ploughing succession are dominated by annual species until the fourth or fifth years, after which woody species begin to dominate and herbaceous taxa decrease considerably. Woody species with high germination values are Halimium alyssoides and Halimium umbellatum. These shrubland communities have a very high resilience to such perturbations and start regenerating rapidly, reaching the original state in about 9 years. The appearance of the climax arboreal species of the area, Quercus pyrenaica, when it comes from germination, occurs 15 years after the perturbations.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 77%

Secondary succession after perturbations in a shrubland community

2002

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“…Another aspect worth mentioning is that, in spite of the great abundance of woody species, herb cover as well as diversity (number of species) is significantly higher than in the initial situation, even 10 years after burning. The increase in herbs in the first stages of post-fire recovery has been mentioned by various authors (Naveh, 1974;Trabaud and Lepart, 1980;Bond and van Wilgen, 1996;Luis-Calabuig et al, 2000;Reyes et al, 2000) but is normally restricted to the first two or three years after the fire, decreasing to initial values as the shrub species recover their levels of cover. The results obtained in this study cannot be attributed only to sowing since they are also observed in the control plots.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 88%

Ten years of recovery after experimental fire in a heathland: effects of sowing native species

Fernández-Abascal

Tárrega

Luis‐Calabuig

2004

Forest Ecology and Management

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The effect of revegetation with different combinations of native species in the recovery dynamic of a shrubland dominated by Erica australis subjected to experimental fire was studied. The herbs sown had very low cover throughout the study period. Amongst the species of shrubs, Cytisus spp. develops cover above 50% from the fourth year after sowing in the plots where it was sown and colonisation is observed in the unsown ones from the ninth year. Quercus pyrenaica seedlings have a survival rate of 50%, but their mean height does not reach 40 cm after nine years. The shrub and herbaceous species present in the area before experimental burning are characterised by their great resilience, resprouting vegetatively or recovering from seed. It is therefore not possible to detect significant differences among the plots subjected to the different revegetation treatments and the controls regarding woody, herbaceous or total cover, nor are any significant differences observed in the diversity counted as number of species (richness). The good development of Cytisus spp. points to an important physiognomic change and this, together with the high survival rate, although not growth so far, of Q. pyrenaica may influence the long-term dynamic of the community. # 2004 Published by Elsevier B.V.

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“…In "fire-prone" communities, the post-fire plant communities in particular were studied under the Mediterranean climate, on a time scale of a few years to about ten years [3,4], the knowledge on a more important time scale and on siliceous substrate being scarcer.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The resilience ability of vegetation after different fire recurrences in Provence

Schaffhauser

Curt

Tatoni

2008

WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment

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Literature on relationships between wildfires and vegetation in Mediterranean areas indicates high resilience ability for most ecosystems on calcareous soils, but data are scarce for acidic soils. The resilience ability of a "fire-driven" ecosystem is expected to depend both on the characteristics of the ecosystem and on the fire recurrence.We investigated the vegetation according to fire recurrence in a site with ecological and patrimonial stakes (the Maures massif, Provence, South Eastern France), in order to determine which ecosystems are more resilient and why. We sampled different modalities of fire recurrence (frequency of fires and interval of time between fires), and we investigated vegetation resilience to fire through different components such as composition, richness, diversity and structure. The sites corresponded to five modalities of increasing fire recurrence since 1959: control plots which had not burned since 1959, plots burned by a major and intense wildfire in 1990 (= reference fire), other plots burned twice or thrice before the 1990 fire and plots burned several times then and in 2003.The results confirmed that our Mediterranean ecosystems on acidic soils are mainly auto-successional, as vegetation composition remained rather constant after fire. Significant differences of composition existed between the control plots and the plots lastly affected by the 2003 fire. In contrast, significant differences of functional diversity (i.e. plant traits) existed among the five modalities, in particular an increase of ruderal species and a decrease of competitive taxa with increasing fire recurrence. Moreover, some types of vegetation were identified according to fire recurrence modalities. A variation partitioning procedure (partial CCA) indicated that the environmental data set explained better the plant distribution than the fire recurrence data set.The final objective of the study is to improve the understanding of the interrelationships between fires and the dynamics of vegetation, for a sustainable management of these Mediterranean ecosystems.

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Diversity and stability in garrigue ecosystems after fire

Cited by 190 publications

References 17 publications

Secondary succession after perturbations in a shrubland community

Secondary succession after perturbations in a shrubland community

Ten years of recovery after experimental fire in a heathland: effects of sowing native species

The resilience ability of vegetation after different fire recurrences in Provence

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