Long-term fire history of maple (Acer) forest sites in the central St. Lawrence Lowland, Quebec

Abstract

In the St-Lawrence lowlands, sugar maple (Acer saccharum Marsh.) is considered the dominant species of old-growth deciduous forests, whereas red maple (Acer rubrum L.) tends to dominate sites recently disturbed by logging and agricultural practices. Considering that the long-term influence of fire is not documented for such stands, we reconstructed the postglacial tree composition (as deduced from charcoal species) and fire history of a sugar maple stand (Ste-Françoise area) and a red maple stand (Villeroy area) located southwest of Québec City, Canada. The sites are 10 km apart and show contrasting soil and landform features. Using botanical identification and 14C dating of soil macrocharcoal, we found that fire struck both maple stands 14–20 times since deglaciation. Most fires occurred in the early Holocene and during the last 2000 years, with the mid Holocene being a period with low fire frequency or no fires. During the last 1600 years, the Villeroy stand shifted from a Tsuga canadensis (L.) Carrière – conifer forest to a mixed forest and, most recently, to a red maple stand as fire became more frequent, possibly due to human activities of the last 400 years. This study confirms the influence of fire on the development of maple forests. Fire should be considered as an important disturbance factor in the dynamics of temperate deciduous and mixed forests.

Fire History of Appalachian Forests of the Lower St-Lawrence Region (Southern Quebec)

“…According to recently published reports and this study, fires were frequent in the early Holocene in the current maple sites distributed across southern Quebec according both to macrocharcoal [23,27,30] (Figure 4) and micro-and mesocharcoal [25] data. The mid-Holocene was a period less-prone to fire occurrence both in the study area and the areas close to our Appalachian sites in the Saguenay [23] and the Quebec City [30] areas.…”

“…The mid-Holocene was a period less-prone to fire occurrence both in the study area and the areas close to our Appalachian sites in the Saguenay [23] and the Quebec City [30] areas. In southernmost Quebec, Elkadi [25] suggested declining fire occurrence at that time-as deduced from microcharcoal and pollen of Mégantic lake sediments-to be the result of the arrival and expansion of sugar maple forests which are thought to reduce fire propagation.…”

“…In contrast, the Duchénier sugar maple forest has been impacted by several fires over the last centuries and clear cutting in the 20th century. [30]; RIÉ, [23].…”

“…Given that macrocharcoal of sugar maple and other hardwood species as well as conifer species can be identified at the genus if not the species level, Figure 1. Location of SNR (Nicolas-Riou Seigneury) and RFD (Duchénier Faunal Reserve) sugar maple sites (red dots), and the other Rivière-Éternité (RIÉ) [23], Villeroy (VIL) and Ste-Françoise (STF) [30] sugar maple sites (red squares). Table 1.…”

Sugar maple (Acer saccharum) at its northeastern range limit: a fire-resilient tree species

“…The same paleofire tendencies characterize the Bas-StLaurent region, situated west of the Gaspé Peninsula, and is highlighted by peaks in microcharcoal abundance in several lakes at the beginning of the Holocene (Richard et al 1992). The same fire frequency is again observable in macrocharcoal datings from the beginning of the Holocene in the region situated in the countryside around Rimouski, in the Saguenay, as well as in the greater Quebec City region (Talon et al 2005;Pilon and Payette 2015;Payette et al 2016;2017). The Mont-St-Pierre sugar maple site, also located in the northern part of the Gaspé Peninsula, shows a fire history resembling that of Forillon during the last millennium, where 6-8 fires occurred at an interval of 120-150 years (Pilon and Payette 2015).…”