Patterns of fuel types and crown fire potential in Pinus halepensis forests in the Western Mediterranean Basin

Álvarez, Aureli; Gracia, Marc; Vayreda, Jordi; Retana, Javier

doi:10.1016/j.foreco.2011.01.039

Cited by 40 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 62 publications

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“…Most of these forested areas are pioneer ecosystems that should be managed to increase their ecological value and their resistance to fire and pests (Scarascia-Mugnozza et al 2000). In the Mediterranean, silvicultural treatments have been postulated as a way to increase tree species richness (Torras and Saura 2008), to augment water yields (Molina and Del Campo 2012) or to reduce fire intensity (Alvarez et al 2012). In this scenario, it is important to take into account how these practices influence ecosystem stability and functioning to ensure sustainable forest management.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Litterfall, litter decomposition and associated nutrient fluxes in Pinus halepensis: influence of tree removal intensity in a Mediterranean forest

Lado-Monserrat

Lidón

2015

Eur J Forest Res

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Litterfall, litter decomposition and associated nutrient fluxes in Pinus halepensis: influence of tree removal intensity in a Mediterranean forest

Lado-Monserrat

Lidón

2015

Eur J Forest Res

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“…Understanding the drivers of burn severity can provide critical insights into managing fire-resilient forests and minimizing the adverse effects of forest fires on forest ecosystems. Previous studies have reported that burn severity is a function of various factors such as microclimate, topography, fuel characteristics, and pre-fire forest structure [19,21,26,28,29,34].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…According to the literature, the degree of burn severity is largely determined by various environmental factors, including meteorological conditions [20][21][22], pre-fire forest vegetation type [19,23,24], fuel moisture [25,26], tree stand density [27,28], composition and configuration of pre-fire forest [19,[29][30][31][32][33], tree characteristics [34], and topography [19][20][21][22][23][24]28,30,33], as well as the interactions among relevant variables [22,24]. Considering that meteorological conditions and topological characteristics are not manageable factors, controlling susceptible fuels might be the only practical tool for lowering burn severity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Examining Spatial Variation in the Effects of Japanese Red Pine (Pinus densiflora) on Burn Severity Using Geographically Weighted Regression

2017

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Abstract:Burn severity has profound impacts on the response of post-fire forest ecosystems to fire events. Numerous previous studies have reported that burn severity is determined by variables such as meteorological conditions, pre-fire forest structure, and fuel characteristics. An underlying assumption of these studies was the constant effects of environmental variables on burn severity over space, and these analyses therefore did not consider the spatial dimension. This study examined spatial variation in the effects of Japanese red pine (Pinus densiflora) on burn severity. Specifically, this study investigated the presence of spatially varying relationships between Japanese red pine and burn severity due to changes in slope and elevation. We estimated conventional ordinary least squares (OLS) and geographically weighted regression (GWR) models and compared them using three criteria; the coefficients of determination (R 2 ), Akaike information criterion for small samples (AICc), and Moran's I-value. The GWR model performed considerably better than the OLS model in explaining variation in burn severity. The results provided strong evidence that the effect of Japanese red pine on burn severity was not constant but varied spatially. Elevation was a significant factor in the variation in the effects of Japanese red pine on burn severity. The influence of red pine on burn severity was considerably higher in low-elevation areas but became less important than the other variables in high-elevation areas. The results of this study can be applied to location-specific strategies for forest managers and can be adopted to improve fire simulation models to more realistically mimic the nature of fire behavior.

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“…Fires occur because of a combination of predisposing weather, fuel conditions and ignition agents, resulting this last one from human activities or natural events (Lavorel et al 2007). The behaviour of a wildfire can be predicted by the stand forest characteristics collected on NFIs and have been explored by several authors (Lentile et al 2006;Fernandes 2009;Alvarez et al 2012;Fernández-Alonso et al 2013).…”

Section: The Role Of Nfi On Fire Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of the occurrence of wildfires in the Iberian Peninsula based on harmonised data from national forest inventories

Nunes

González

Alberdi³

et al. 2019

Annals of Forest Science

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& Key message Every year, about 280,000 ha of forest area burn in the Iberian Peninsula. Both countries national forest inventories were harmonised to provide consistent results of the influence of forest stand structure on fire probability. Results show that basal area and vertical structure variables are associated with fire probability; however, that association varies with forest composition. Deciduous oaks and pine forests showed opposite tendencies. Forest management could be oriented considering these results. & Context Fuel variables, in particular the ones that characterise stand vertical structure, are extremely important to determine the occurrence and severity of fire. However, documentation on fire occurrences and stand characteristics is still scarce in southern Europe. & Aims In this study, we analyse the stand and structure variables from National Forest Inventories (NFIs) in order to identify the important ones that are associated with the presence/absence of wildfires in the Iberian Peninsula. & Methods A harmonised database including a characterization of the vertical structure of the stand and its species composition was obtained by combining data from NFIs from Spain and Portugal and data from burned areas that occurred between 2005 and 2015. & Results Stand characteristics results show that the plots that were later burned have lower average stand basal area. For deciduous oaks, more canopy cover has less probability to burn, and for all the other oaks, in different degrees, more understory cover has higher probability to burn. Regarding pine species, more canopy cover has lower probability to burn. & Conclusion The results indicate important associations between stand variables and the presence/absence of wildfires that could support the forest management with the objective of reducing the probability of forest fires.

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Patterns of fuel types and crown fire potential in Pinus halepensis forests in the Western Mediterranean Basin

Cited by 40 publications

References 62 publications

Litterfall, litter decomposition and associated nutrient fluxes in Pinus halepensis: influence of tree removal intensity in a Mediterranean forest

Litterfall, litter decomposition and associated nutrient fluxes in Pinus halepensis: influence of tree removal intensity in a Mediterranean forest

Examining Spatial Variation in the Effects of Japanese Red Pine (Pinus densiflora) on Burn Severity Using Geographically Weighted Regression

Analysis of the occurrence of wildfires in the Iberian Peninsula based on harmonised data from national forest inventories

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