Fire regimen and spread of plants naturalized in central Chile

Contreras, Tomás E; Figueroa, Javier; Abarca, Luis Fernando Morales; Castro, Sergio A.

doi:10.4067/s0716-078x2011000300001

Cited by 17 publications

(14 citation statements)

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“…Regarding the wildfire regime, Chile has a long history of manmade burning for land clearance and management (Armesto et al 2009;Contreras et al 2011). Most fires (44%) incinerate due to vehicular transport (e.g., cigarettes thrown out of the driving car), tourism activities (camp fires) (27%), and intentional arson (18%).…”

Section: Study Sitementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Central Chile is characterized by a Mediterranean climate and a transition zone between sclerophyllous and deciduous vegetation. While natural wildfires are not typical for the region, human-induced wildfires have become alarmingly more frequent during the last decades (Armesto et al 2009;Contreras et al 2011). McWethy et al (2018) have identified land-use change as an important driver of wildfire activity in Chile.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Consequences of land-use change and the wildfire disaster of 2017 for the central Chilean biodiversity hotspot

et al. 2021

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Central Chile is an important biodiversity hotspot in Latin America. Biodiversity hotspots are characterised by a high number of endemic species cooccurring with a high level of anthropogenic pressure. In central Chile, the pressure is caused by land-use change, in which near-natural primary and secondary forests are replaced and fragmented by commercial pine and eucalyptus plantations. Large forest fires are another factor that can potentially endanger biodiversity. Usually, environmental hazards, such as wildfires, are part of the regular environmental dynamic and not considered a threat to biodiversity. Nonetheless, this situation may change if land-use change and altered wildfire regimes coerce. Land-use change pressure may destroy landscape integrity in terms of habitat loss and fragmentation, while wildfires may destroy the last remnants of native forests. This study aims to understand the joint effects of land-use change and a catastrophic wildfire on habitat loss and habitat fragmentation of local plant species richness hotspots in central Chile. To achieve this, we apply a combination of ecological fieldwork, remote sensing, and geoprocessing to estimate the spread and spatial patterns of biodiverse habitats under current and past land-use conditions and how these habitats were altered by land-use change and by a single large wildfire event. We show that land-use change has exceeded the wildfire’s impacts on diverse habitats. Despite the fact that the impact of the wildfire was comparably small here, wildfire may coerce with land-use change regarding pressure on biodiversity hotspots. Our findings can be used to develop restoration concepts, targeting on an increase of habitat diversity within currently fire-cleared areas and evaluate their benefits for plant species richness conservation.

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Section: Study Sitementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Consequences of land-use change and the wildfire disaster of 2017 for the central Chilean biodiversity hotspot

et al. 2021

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“…Para la Región de Valparaíso se han reportado en las laderas de solana hasta unas cincuenta especies alóctonas asilvestradas (Contreras et al 2011), muchas relacionadas con la regeneración de ambientes sometidos a incendios forestales; también, se ha señalado que las agrupaciones vegetales más ricas en especies se encuentran en las laderas de umbría (Redon 2003). Ambos resultados son similares a los registrados en este estudio.…”

Section: Familia Especie Fuenteunclassified

Contribución al conocimiento de la flora del Santuario de la Naturaleza Serranía El Ciprés, Región de Valparaíso, Chile

Madrid¹,

Larraín²,

Macaya³

et al. 2018

Gayana Bot.

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vascular. Los resultados indican que en el área existen al menos 297 taxa, pertenecientes a 293 especies, 183 géneros y 74 familias. Las familias mejor representadas son Asteraceae, Fabaceae y Poaceae. La riqueza de especies en relación con la superficie es mayor a la esperada en Chile central (226-272), donde 272 (92,8%) son nativas, de las que 145 (53,3%) son endémicas de Chile y 21 (7,2%), alóctonas asilvestradas. Las formas de vida de Raunkiaer predominantes fueron las hemicriptófitas (26,4%), las terófitas (23,5%) y las caméfitas (17,7%). Se encontraron diez especies clasificadas oficialmente en alguna categoría de conservación, cinco de ellas como "vulnerable", ellas son Citronella mucronata, Eriosyce aurata, Placea ornata, Porlieria chilensis y Prosopis chilensis. Se registran, además, siete especies nuevas para la Región.

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“…Accordingly, the degree of invasibility of an ecosystem can be increased by fire occurrence (Contreras et al . ; Mandle et al . ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Post‐burning germination responses of woody invaders in a fire‐prone ecosystem

et al. 2019

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It has been frequently recognised that there is a positive feedback between plant invasion and fire underlying invasion success in fire-prone ecosystems. Accordingly, the response of woody alien species germination to fire may have direct implications on their invasiveness in those ecosystems, particularly when fruit ripening occurs in the fire season. Here, we experimentally evaluated the germination response of some of the main woody invaders of the Chaco Serrano dry woodlands (Gleditsia triacanthos, Cotoneaster glaucophyllus, Ligustrum lucidum, Pyracantha angustifolia and Melia azedarach), which fruit in the seasons of highest fire frequency. Seeds were subjected to heat-shock treatments that simulated a range of heat intensities, and the species were classified according to their germination response as heat sensitive, tolerant or stimulated. Since Gleditsia triacanthos has indehiscent fruits that fall from the plant and might be exposed to flames, its germination response was also assessed of seeds exposed to fruit burning. Germination responses to heat varied among the invasive species. G. triacanthos seeds experienced increased germination under very low and low heat indexes; it was therefore classified as heat stimulated. The other four species showed no change in germination under very low heat indexes and were therefore considered heat tolerant. However, all species were sensitive to high heat as indicated by their significant decline in germination. G. triacanthos would have limited capacity to recruit from seeds following flaming combustion of its fruits. The prevalence of heat-tolerant rather than heat-stimulated germination responses suggests that the occurrence of frequent and seasonal fires in this subtropical savanna system might delay rather than boost the expansion of these invasive species in the system. Yet, the presence of heat-stimulated germination in one of the studied species warns against generalisation, even within the same ecosystem, and further supports the idiosyncratic nature of invasion success.Abstract in Spanish is available with online material.

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Fire regimen and spread of plants naturalized in central Chile

Cited by 17 publications

References 17 publications

Consequences of land-use change and the wildfire disaster of 2017 for the central Chilean biodiversity hotspot

Consequences of land-use change and the wildfire disaster of 2017 for the central Chilean biodiversity hotspot

Contribución al conocimiento de la flora del Santuario de la Naturaleza Serranía El Ciprés, Región de Valparaíso, Chile

Post‐burning germination responses of woody invaders in a fire‐prone ecosystem

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