Fire disturbance promotes biodiversity of plants, lichens and birds in the Siberian subarctic tundra

Heim, Ramona J.; Heim, Wieland; Bültmann, Helga; Kamp, Johannes; Rieker, Daniel; Yurtaev, Andrey; Hölzel, Norbert

doi:10.1111/gcb.15963

Cited by 10 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 90 publications

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“…Studies in Siberia are infrequent but indicate massive fires in the forest areas of mixed genesis, citing anthropogenic impacts (Moskovchenko et al., 2020). Fires can increase ecosystem productivity in tundra ecosystems, and may promote biodiversity (Heim et al., 2022) and active recruitment of shrub species (Myers‐Smith et al., 2011) that can partly offset the fire depletion of biomass. However, fires also lead to the loss of slowly growing, energy‐rich lichen—the preferred, if not dominant, winter nutritional element of reindeer (Turunen et al., 2009), highlighting specifically the vulnerability of winter reindeer pastures.…”

Section: Convergence Science Threadsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Convergence Science Approach to Understanding the Changing Arctic

Ivanov,

Ungar,

Ziker

et al. 2024

Earth's Future

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Science, engineering, and society increasingly require integrative thinking about emerging problems in complex systems, a notion referred to as convergence science. Due to the concurrent pressures of two main stressors—rapid climate change and industrialization, Arctic research demands such a paradigm of scientific inquiry. This perspective represents a synthesis of a vision for its application in Arctic system studies, developed by a group of disciplinary experts consisting of social and earth system scientists, ecologists, and engineers. Our objective is to demonstrate how convergence research questions can be developed via a holistic view of system interactions that are then parsed into material links and concrete inquiries of disciplinary and interdisciplinary nature. We illustrate the application of the convergence science paradigm to several forms of Arctic stressors using the Yamal Peninsula of the Russian Arctic as a representative natural laboratory with a biogeographic gradient from the forest‐tundra ecotone to the high Arctic.

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Section: Convergence Science Threadsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Convergence Science Approach to Understanding the Changing Arctic

Ivanov,

Ungar,

Ziker

et al. 2024

Earth's Future

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“…The effects of fire on biodiversity are complex, and our current understanding is built from studies on one to a few taxa, usually across limited spatial extents (but see He et al, 2019; Heim et al, 2022). Many species in fire‐prone environments have traits that can promote population persistence, allowing some individuals to withstand or avoid fires, stimulate regeneration of a new cohort, and/or move away from the fire and then return (Thurman et al, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Variation in elements of the fire regime will also differentially affect species, either directly or indirectly through subsequent shifts in vegetation communities (e.g., Fontaine & Kennedy, 2012; Le Breton et al, 2022; Mason et al, 2021; Ooi et al, 2014). As such, species responses will vary subject to different fire regime elements, and multi‐taxon comparisons of post‐fire responses are necessary to understand overall effects on biodiversity (e.g., Heim et al, 2022).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This shift is exemplified by fires in 2019-2020 in Australia, Californian, and the Arctic Circle (Abram et al, 2021;Descals et al, 2022;Pickrell & Pennisi, 2020), as well as recent fires throughout the Mediterranean and North America (Canosa, 2023;Sullivan & Tondo, 2023). As fire regimes change, we must be able to monitor and manage the consequences for biodiversity (He et al, 2019;Heim et al, 2022;Nimmo et al, 2021), from the individual and species level to populations and communities.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Multi‐taxon biodiversity responses to the 2019–2020 Australian megafires

Gorta,

Callaghan,

Samonte

et al. 2023

Global Change Biology

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Conditions conducive to fires are becoming increasingly common and widespread under climate change. Recent fire events across the globe have occurred over unprecedented scales, affecting a diverse array of species and habitats. Understanding biodiversity responses to such fires is critical for conservation. Quantifying post‐fire recovery is problematic across taxa, from insects to plants to vertebrates, especially at large geographic scales. Novel datasets can address this challenge. We use presence‐only citizen science data from iNaturalist, collected before and after the 2019–2020 megafires in burnt and unburnt regions of eastern Australia, to quantify the effect of post‐fire diversity responses, up to 18 months post‐fire. The geographic, temporal, and taxonomic sampling of this dataset was large, but sampling effort and species discoverability were unevenly spread. We used rarefaction and prediction (iNEXT) with which we controlled sampling completeness among treatments, to estimate diversity indices (Hill numbers: q = 0–2) among nine broad taxon groupings and seven habitats, including 3885 species. We estimated an increase in species diversity up to 18 months after the 2019–2020 Australian megafires in regions which were burnt, compared to before the fires in burnt and unburnt regions. Diversity estimates in dry sclerophyll forest matched and likely drove this overall increase post‐fire, while no taxon groupings showed clear increases inconsistent with both control treatments post‐fire. Compared to unburnt regions, overall diversity across all taxon groupings and habitats greatly decreased in areas exposed to extreme fire severity. Post‐fire life histories are complex and species detectability is an important consideration in all post‐fire sampling. We demonstrate how fire characteristics, distinct taxa, and habitat influence biodiversity, as seen in local‐scale datasets. Further integration of large‐scale datasets with small‐scale studies will lead to a more robust understanding of fire recovery.

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“…In this scenario, human population density is often used as an important surrogate for anthropogenic disturbance. However, the relationship between anthropogenic disturbance and diversity may also be positive (Shuai et al, 2021 ), as disturbance can take many forms and some types of disturbance may even promote diversity (Heim et al, 2022 ; Tocco et al, 2020 ). For example, cultivation may promote habitat diversity by turning some forests into crop fields, and fields themselves also provide important food resources for many species.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecological drivers of avian diversity in a subtropical landscape: Effects of habitat diversity, primary productivity and anthropogenic disturbance

Shuai

Xiao²,

Xie

et al. 2022

Ecology and Evolution

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Understanding the roles of ecological drivers in shaping biodiversity is fundamental for conservation practice. In this study, we explored the effects of elevation, conservation status, primary productivity, habitat diversity and anthropogenic disturbance (represented by human population density and birding history) on taxonomic, phylogenetic and functional avian diversity in a subtropical landscape in southeastern China. We conducted bird surveys using 1‐km transects across a total of 30 sites, of which 10 sites were located within a natural reserve. Metrics of functional diversity were calculated based on six functional traits (body mass, clutch size, dispersal ratio, sociality, diet and foraging stratum). We built simultaneous autoregression models to assess the association between the ecological factors and diversity of the local avian communities. Local avian diversity generally increased with increasing habitat diversity, human population density and primary productivity. We also detected phylogenetic and functional clustering in these communities, suggesting that the avian assemblages were structured mainly by environmental filtering, rather than interspecific competition. Compared with sites outside the natural reserve, sites within the natural reserve had relatively lower avian diversity but a higher level of phylogenetic heterogeneity.

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Fire disturbance promotes biodiversity of plants, lichens and birds in the Siberian subarctic tundra

Cited by 10 publications

References 90 publications

A Convergence Science Approach to Understanding the Changing Arctic

A Convergence Science Approach to Understanding the Changing Arctic

Multi‐taxon biodiversity responses to the 2019–2020 Australian megafires

Ecological drivers of avian diversity in a subtropical landscape: Effects of habitat diversity, primary productivity and anthropogenic disturbance

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