Fire management in species‐rich Cape fynbos shrublands

Wilgen, Brian W. van

doi:10.1890/120137

Cited by 65 publications

(48 citation statements)

References 50 publications

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“…In the community under study, dominated by an obligate-seeder species, it seems that a severe fire that substantially reduces the soil organic layer can be necessary for a successful regeneration. A similar response was documented in some South-African fynbos species (van Wilgen, 2013). Consequently, mechanical treatments seemed to be less appropriated for the management of these communities.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 56%

Effect of fuel treatments and backfiring on the recovery of an obligate seeder-dominated heathland

Fernández

Hidalgo

2016

For. syst.

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Aim of the study: To evaluate how a plant community responded to a backfire that occurred four years after application of different types of fuel-reduction treatments.Area of study: Erica umbellata Loefl. (L.)-dominated heathland in Galicia (NW Spain). Main results: Shrub total cover recovered quickly after the backfire in both the treated and untreated areas, and the pre-treatment values were reached four years after the fire. Post-wildfire resprouting species cover recovery was not affected by fuel treatments. As a contrast, Erica umbellata cover reached levels similar to those in the untreated plots only in the areas treated by prescribed burning. After the wildfire, grasses cover recovery was greater in the treated than in the untreated areas and the effect lasted until the end of the study.Research highlights: Prescribed fire and backfire was favourable for Erica umbellata regeneration compared to clearing and mastication.Keywords: prescribed burning; clearing; mechanical shredding; Erica; wildfire. Citation: Fernández, C., Vega, J.A. (2016). Effect of fuel treatments and backfiring on the recovery of an obligate seederdominated heathland. Forest Systems, Volume 25, Issue 3, eSC12. http://dx

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 56%

Effect of fuel treatments and backfiring on the recovery of an obligate seeder-dominated heathland

Fernández

Hidalgo

2016

For. syst.

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“…Fire frequency analysis indicated a weak effect of time since fire on burn probability, with median fire return intervals of 10 to 21 years. The influence of PB on overall fire frequency was judged irrelevant [7,59].…”

Section: Landscape-to Regional-scale Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…PB often is the preferred fuel treatment due to economic and effectiveness considerations. By increasing frequency of application and reflecting distinct constraints and challenges, PB is practiced in a wide diversity of vegetation types in Europe [6], South Africa [7], North America [8] and Australia [3,9,10]. The success of a PB programme is conditional on the existence of a knowledgeable, experienced and flexible staff, institutional compliance with adaptive management and engagement with society [3].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Empirical Support for the Use of Prescribed Burning as a Fuel Treatment

Fernandes

2015

Curr Forestry Rep

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Prescribed burning as a fuel treatment seeks to moderate wildfire impacts and decreases the areal extent of wildfires by increasing the effectiveness of fire suppression. Assessment of prescribed burning effectiveness is frequently anecdotal or based on simulation. This paper examines recent observational evidence of prescribed fire effectiveness. The spread rate and intensity of experimental fires in distinct fuel types have been shown to increase with time since treatment (fuel age) following fuel structure recovery. Prescribed fire constrains the size and especially the severity of individual fires, even under extremely severe weather conditions. At larger spatial and temporal scales of analysis, the effect of fuel age on unplanned fire severity is also evident, whether it comes from wildfires entering treated areas or from wildfires in fuel-reduced areas resulting from earlier wildfire occurrences. The persistence of these effects is variable, depending on vegetation type and productivity. The long-term reduction in wildfire area brought about by prescribed fire can be difficult to ascertain. Substantial effort (annual treatment rates >5 % of the landscape) has been shown to effectively control the extent of wildfires in forests, with 3-4 units of prescribed burning needed to reduce wildfire by one unit. Future studies should consider the decrease in area burned by high-severity fire as a more meaningful and objective measure of prescribed fire effectiveness than the decrease in wildfire area and should strive to document fire behaviour in treated versus untreated areas during wildfires.

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“…Tal medida propiciaria o retorno do ecossistema a uma dinâmica consistente com a necessidade de conservação da fisionomia campestre (Alves e Silva, 2011; Ribei- ro e Figueira, 2011). Isso evidencia o grande dilema dos impactos provocados pelo fogo: por um lado, a exclusão completa do fogo coloca em risco a vegetação campestre como um todo, em detrimento das espécies com porte arbóreo (Moreira, 2000;Veldman et al, 2015;Durigan e Ratter, 2016;Honda e Durigan, 2016), por outro lado, um aumento na frequência de incêndios poderá afetar de maneira relevante mesmo as populações de vegetações primariamente campestres (Arkle e Pilliod, 2010;Neves et al, 2011;van Wilgen, 2013;Aximoff et al, 2016;Figueira et al, 2016).…”

Section: Discussionunclassified

“…Devido a essa dualidade de beneficiar e prejudicar, mais estudos são necessários para compreensão dos efeitos do fogo em diferentes tipos de vegetação e do manejo adequado para cada situação (Bradshaw et al, 2011), considerando-se o fato de que em determinadas áreas, a prescrição de fogo controlado deve ser adotada de forma a manter o equilíbrio ecológico do ecossistema (Arkle e Pilliod, 2010;van Wilgen, 2013;Durigan e Ratter, 2016). Nesse contexto, o presente estudo teve como objetivo a avaliação da resiliência ao fogo em Coccoloba cereifera Schwacke (Polygonaceae), uma espécie arbustiva ameaçada de extinção (Guimarães et al, 2014) e endêmica dos campos rupestres (Melo, 2009).…”

Section: Introductionunclassified

Post-fire resprout in an endangered and narrow endemic shrub from rupestrian grasslands, Serra do Cipó, southeastern Brazil

Furst

Silva

Fernandes

et al. 2017

Neotropical Biology and Conservation

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This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0), which permits reproduction, adaptation, and distribution provided the original author and source are credited. ResumoEmbora existam evidências de que a vegetação dos campos rupestres seja resiliente à passagem do fogo, são incipientes as investigações sobre os efeitos da crescente frequência de incêndios de origem antrópica em plantas raras e endêmicas desse ecossistema. Neste estudo, monitoramos o rebrotamento pós-fogo da espécie Coccoloba cereifera Schwacke (Polygonaceae), um arbusto ameaçado e endêmico dos campos rupestres do sudeste do Brasil. Cinco meses após o incêndio, rebrotaram 100% dos indivíduos monitorados. Entretanto, um ano após o incêndio, as plantas queimadas ainda apresentaram comprimento da rameta 24% inferior e número de folhas 53,5% inferior em relação ao porte das plantas não queimadas. As plantas queimadas apresentaram taxa de crescimento relativo em número de folhas muito superior e investimento reprodutivo muito inferior em comparação com as plantas não queimadas. Embora a espécie estudada demonstre alta capacidade de rebrotamento pós-fogo, o padrão de crescimento vegetativo e investimento reprodutivo apresentado pelas plantas rebrotadas indica que a crescente frequência de incêndios antrópicos represente uma séria ameaça para C. cereifera. Palavras-chave:Cadeia do Espinhaço, conservação, Coccoloba cereifera, crescimento de plantas, fenologia reprodutiva. AbstractAlthough there is evidence that the vegetation from rupestrian grasslands is resilient to fire, investigations about the effects of increasing frequency of anthropogenic fires in the rare and endemic plants from this ecosystem are still incipient. In this study, we monitored the post-fire resprouting of the endemic and endangered shrub species Coccoloba cereifera Schwacke (Polygonaceae) from rupestrian grasslands, southeastern Brazil. Five months after the fire 100% of the monitored individuals resprouted. However, one year after the fire, the burned plants had the ramet length 24% lower and number of leaves 53.5% smaller in relation to unburned plants. Burned plants showed a much higher relative growth rate in number of leaves and much lower reproductive investment compared to unburned plants. Although the studied species showed a high ability to resprout after fire, the pattern of vegetative growth and reproductive investment showed by the burned plants suggested that the increasing frequency of anthropogenic fires represents a serious threat to C. cereifera.

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Fire management in species‐rich Cape fynbos shrublands

Abstract: Fire management in fynbos shrublands BW van Wilgen e36 www.frontiersinecology.org

Cited by 65 publications

References 50 publications

Effect of fuel treatments and backfiring on the recovery of an obligate seeder-dominated heathland

Effect of fuel treatments and backfiring on the recovery of an obligate seeder-dominated heathland

Empirical Support for the Use of Prescribed Burning as a Fuel Treatment

Post-fire resprout in an endangered and narrow endemic shrub from rupestrian grasslands, Serra do Cipó, southeastern Brazil

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