Fire-scarred fossil tree from the Late Triassic shows a pre-fire drought signal

Byers, Bruce A.; DeSoto, Lucía; Chaney, Dan S.; Ash, Sidney R.; Byers, Anya B.; Byers, Jonathan B.; Stoffel, Markus

doi:10.1038/s41598-020-77018-w

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…G. biloba is a typical gymnosperm, and its wood is mainly composed of tracheids [43]. In the present study, the cell length, cell width, and cell wall thickness of the tracheids were measured, and the wall-to-lumen ratio was calculated.…”

Section: Sex-related Differences In Wood Propertiesmentioning

confidence: 95%

Sex-Related Differences of Ginkgo biloba in Growth Traits and Wood Properties

Li,

Su,

Guo

et al. 2023

Forests

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Ginkgo biloba is one of the most widely cultivated dioecious timber trees in China. Understanding sex-related differences and how they affect growth traits and wood properties is crucial for informed management and optimal utilization of ginkgoes. In the present study, we collected 42 ginkgo samples and conducted DNA molecular identification to determine their sex. The result was a 1:1 ratio of male to female specimens. In addition, we measured 16 growth-trait and wood-property indices for these samples using advanced equipment, such as X-ray diffraction (XRD) and the Hitman ST300 standing tree tool. For growth traits, significant differences were observed between male and female ginkgoes in terms of the diameter at breast height (DBH), clear bole height (CBH), height, and volume. Significant differences were identified in wood properties between male and female ginkgoes in terms of the degree of cellulose crystallinity (DCC), cell length, cell wall thickness, and wall-to-lumen ratio. Tracheids from female trees were found to be wider, with thicker cell walls, than those from male trees. Principal component analysis (PCA) showed that there was a slight separation between the sexes in terms of all growth traits, whereas there was no separation in wood properties. The membership function value (MFV) also showed that male ginkgo exhibited a more robust phenotype than female ginkgo. The selection of male ginkgo for breeding and utilization offers distinct advantages for practical production.

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Section: Sex-related Differences In Wood Propertiesmentioning

confidence: 95%

Sex-Related Differences of Ginkgo biloba in Growth Traits and Wood Properties

Li,

Su,

Guo

et al. 2023

Forests

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“…These spatially distributed, multicentury records of fire provide valuable, long-term context for modern fire records derived from satellites and mapped fire atlases that generally span from 1984 to present. Exceptional, multimillennial fire histories have been developed from giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum; Swetnam, 1993) and 200 million-year-old fire scars have even been found in late Triassic petrified wood in Arizona (Byers et al, 2020). Combining tree-ring records of fire with modern records, as well as longer Indigenous oral histories, and charcoal and pollen records from bogs, lakes, soils, or glaciers that span 10,000 years or more, enables analyses of patterns and drivers of fire regimes over the Holocene (e.g., Allen et al, 2008;Fule et al, 2011;Higuera et al, 2010Higuera et al, , 2021Hoffman et al, 2017;Larson et al, 2021;Roos & Guiterman, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The North American tree‐ring fire‐scar network

et al. 2022

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Fire regimes in North American forests are diverse and modern fire records are often too short to capture important patterns, trends, feedbacks, and drivers of variability. Tree‐ring fire scars provide valuable perspectives on fire regimes, including centuries‐long records of fire year, season, frequency, severity, and size. Here, we introduce the newly compiled North American tree‐ring fire‐scar network (NAFSN), which contains 2562 sites, >37,000 fire‐scarred trees, and covers large parts of North America. We investigate the NAFSN in terms of geography, sample depth, vegetation, topography, climate, and human land use. Fire scars are found in most ecoregions, from boreal forests in northern Alaska and Canada to subtropical forests in southern Florida and Mexico. The network includes 91 tree species, but is dominated by gymnosperms in the genus Pinus. Fire scars are found from sea level to >4000‐m elevation and across a range of topographic settings that vary by ecoregion. Multiple regions are densely sampled (e.g., >1000 fire‐scarred trees), enabling new spatial analyses such as reconstructions of area burned. To demonstrate the potential of the network, we compared the climate space of the NAFSN to those of modern fires and forests; the NAFSN spans a climate space largely representative of the forested areas in North America, with notable gaps in warmer tropical climates. Modern fires are burning in similar climate spaces as historical fires, but disproportionately in warmer regions compared to the historical record, possibly related to under‐sampling of warm subtropical forests or supporting observations of changing fire regimes. The historical influence of Indigenous and non‐Indigenous human land use on fire regimes varies in space and time. A 20th century fire deficit associated with human activities is evident in many regions, yet fire regimes characterized by frequent surface fires are still active in some areas (e.g., Mexico and the southeastern United States). These analyses provide a foundation and framework for future studies using the hundreds of thousands of annually‐ to sub‐annually‐resolved tree‐ring records of fire spanning centuries, which will further advance our understanding of the interactions among fire, climate, topography, vegetation, and humans across North America.

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Historical links between climate and fire on species dispersion and trait evolution

Lamont

2022

Plant Ecol

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The interaction effects between climate and fire regime in controlling the type of vegetation and species composition is well established among the Earth’s biomes. Climate and the associated fire regime are never stable for long, and annual temperatures, atmospheric carbon dioxide and oxygen levels, and burn probability have varied radically over the last 350 million years. At the scale of thousands of years, floras have oscillated between spreading and retracting as climate and the dependent fire regime have fluctuated. At the scale of millions of years, distinct traits have evolved along three lines: fire resistance, fire-stimulated dormancy release, and rapid postfire growth, all limited by the type of fire (as controlled by climate) and postfire weather. Eight pairings of fire- and postfire-related traits resulting from the interplay between fire and climate are noted here. Smoke-released seed dormancy is beneficial on two counts: it increases the chance of recruitment under the present fireprone climate and increases the chances of survival should the wet season shift to another time of year where temperatures are higher or lower. Four pathways can be recognized with respect to the fire regimes induced by climate changes: (1) from non-fireprone to fireprone habitats (gains fire-adapted trait, 13 studies covering the last 115 million years (My) described here); (2) from a surface fire to a crown fire-type habitat (gains a different fire-adapted trait, 13 studies); (3) from a crown fire-type to surface fire-type habitat (loss of fire-adapted trait, 12 studies); and (4) from moderately burnt (crown fire) to non-fireprone habitat, such as desert, rainforest, or alpine habitats (loss of fire-adapted trait, 6 studies). Four case studies, at decreasing taxonomic rank, are used to illustrate the intimate relationship between climate change with its associated vegetation and fire regime change as they promote adaptive trait evolution: gain then loss of heat-released seed dormancy in Dipterocarpaceae–Cistaceae–Bixaceae over 90 My, gain then loss of serotiny in Callitroid Cupressaceae over the last 65 My, gain then loss of smoke-released seed dormancy in Proteoid Proteaceae over the last 120 My, and gain then loss of resprouting and serotiny among Hakea species (Grevilleoid Proteaceae) over the last 20 My. Examples of within-species rates of migration and trait change, including a model describing increasing degree of serotiny with intensifying drought, are given. The relevance of this historical approach to current (anthropogenic) climate change and associated fire regime alteration is discussed. Despite major threats expected to species conservation status at both the macro-(biome) and micro-(population) scales, I conclude that insufficient time or opportunities remain for effective migration to less-stressed areas or suitable adaptive responses to climate/fire regime change to evolve.

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Fire-scarred fossil tree from the Late Triassic shows a pre-fire drought signal

Cited by 4 publications

References 52 publications

Sex-Related Differences of Ginkgo biloba in Growth Traits and Wood Properties

Sex-Related Differences of Ginkgo biloba in Growth Traits and Wood Properties

The North American tree‐ring fire‐scar network

Historical links between climate and fire on species dispersion and trait evolution

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