Historical fire ecology and its effect on vegetation dynamics of the Lagunas de Montebello National Park, Chiapas, México

Abstract

Historical information on wildfires and dendrochronological studies offer meaningful clues about fire and climate regimes, factors that affect forest structure and dynamics. This study aimed to determine the effect of fire history on vegetation dynamics and successional pathways of areas under different fire management policies in the Lagunas de Montebello National Park (LMNP), Chiapas, México. The selected study sites were El Parque area under fire exclusion policies since 1961; Tziscao-inhabited area under fire prohibition since 1984; and Antelá area with a traditional agricultural fire management history. A Pinus oocarpa ring-width chronology was used as a proxy for climate variability to which wildfire occurrence was mapped and to determine the establishment patterns of this dominant species. Current vegetation composition and structure and fuel loads were determined to characterise the study sites. Large wildfires, like those occurring in 1984 and 1998, were associated with periods of high humidity followed by intense droughts; they were linked to strong El Niño events and severely impacted the LMNP. Vegetation dynamics indicated simplification of mesophyll forest (climax) to pine-oaksweetgum forests, with Pinus dominating the overstorey in all sampling sites. Pine, oak and sweetgum species were the dominant juvenile trees in Antelá, El Parque and Tziscao, respectively. Late-successional seedlings (i.e., Prunus)were present in Antelá and El Parque, while were absent from Tziscao where several wildfires had occurred. Fuel accumulation in sites within protected areas subject to fire exclusion policies was very high (40-68 t ha -1 ); in contrast, it was the lowest in rural Antelá (24 t ha -1 ). Considering vegetation vulnerability to wildfires associated with extreme humid-dry climate events, increased fire hazard due to fuel accumulation, and the socio-ecological impacts of these events, we recommend revising the fire exclusion policies currently implemented in the LMNP and applying an integrated fire management approach that incorporates local socio-ecological conditions.

Caracterización del bosque de referencia para la restauración ecológica del Parque Nacional Barranca del Cupatitzio, Uruapan, Michoacán

“…El estudio de la variación de estos atributos comunitarios, y su resiliencia a lo largo de gradientes ambientales ocasionados por factores topográficos, edáficos y regímenes de disturbio ocasionados por la incidencia de plagas e incendios permitiría su mejor entendimiento. En los bosques templados distribuidos en Durango, Tamaulipas y Nuevo León, por mencionar algunos, y en ciertas porciones de nuestro planeta, se cuenta con información que muestra la relación entre los factores mencionados anteriormente con los rasgos comunitarios en los bosques templados (e.g., Diaz-Toribio et al 2020, Maringer et al 2020, Ponce-Calderon et al 2021, Andrus et al 2022. Sin embargo, es importante que sean evaluadas estas relaciones adoptando un enfoque funcional de comunidades (Pausas et al 2017, Keeley & Pausas 2022.…”

Towards integrated fire management in Mexico’s Megalopolis region: a diagnosis

“…In addition, legal and regulatory instruments should respect the right of rural communities and indigenous peoples to use fire in a way that is based on their cultural knowledge (Ponce-Calderón et al 2021). Legal instruments that consider fire management should be developed in an integral and intercultural manner, based on social science and ecology, and should support practices that maintain the role of fire in socioecosystems.…”

“…In surface fires, which are the most common, with low fuel loads, flat ground and no wind, fires advance at less than 1 m/min, with flame lengths less than 0.5 m. In contrast, with high loads of light fuels such as tall grass and on steep slopes with fast updrafts, fires can advance at 200-400 m/min, with flame lengths of 8 m. During crown fires, flame lengths can exceed 15 m.Ecological models for successional trajectories in each vegetation type show a higher frequency of fire in early successional stages, followed by a progressive reduction of fire occurrence. Cloud forests, for example, may start as grassland, then include pine forest and oak forest, then incorporate liquidambar, before becoming a true mountain mesophyll(Rodríguez-Trejo, 2014, Ponce- Calderón et al 2021…”

Fire management in pyrobiocultural landscapes, Chiapas, Mexico

“…Cultural fire management represents a promising approach for the region by reducing the risks of and impacts from wildfire (Ponce-Calderón et al 2021). The following practices are common in the study region, and could be complemented and cross-culturally enriched into an integrated regional strategy.…”