Reconsidering the fire ecology of the iconic American chestnut

Abstract

The iconic American chestnut (Castanea dentata) once spanned a large portion of eastern North America before its functional extinction in the early 20th century due primarily to non-native fungal pathogens. The pronounced loss of this species likely resulted in an abrupt alteration of many ecological processes, including fire. The potential to resurrect this species through resistance breeding or other methods holds promise, but more information on the fire ecology of American chestnut may provide helpful information to assist restoration. Here we summarize the existing direct and indirect research on the fire history and fire ecology within the former range of American chestnut. We found multiple lines of evidence to suggest fire was frequent throughout much of its historical range. A broadscale analysis of historical fire frequency revealed that 88% of the American chestnut range had a mean fire return interval of 20 yr or less, corresponding to finer-scale fire history and forest structure studies. In much of the historical range of American chestnut, the stand structure was much more open, fire scar studies of associated species were very frequent (mean fire return interval ranged between 1.9 and 19.8 yr), and, in many cases, charcoal abundance and American chestnut pollen were positively related. This evidence coupled with American chestnut's suite of traits associated with tolerance of frequent fire, such as highly flammable litter, tall stature, rapid growth, and resprouting ability, reinforce concepts that fire was historically an important component of many woodlands and forests containing American chestnut. While these lines of evidence are strongly suggestive, we provide potential areas of further inquiry to expand and refine our understanding of American chestnut fire ecology.

Litter Flammability of 50 Southeastern North American Tree Species: Evidence for Mesophication Gradients Across Multiple Ecosystems

“…P. rigida, Q. alba, and C. glabra all were in the highly flammable category and are known to have relatively thick bark capable of withstanding frequent low intensity fires (Landers, 1991). American chestnut burned with high flammability as was discovered recently (Kane et al, 2019(Kane et al, , 2020. The overstory tree species that replaced American chestnut varied widely: where flammable oaks replaced chestnut, the effects of its functional FIGURE 5 | Principal components analysis (PCA) for flammability of litter from of trees in bottomland forests of the southeastern United States.…”

“…extinction may have been minor; where mesophytic species replaced chestnut, its functional extinction may have exacerbated changes to community flammability and local fire regimes (Kane et al, 2020). The surprisingly flammable sourwood is noteworthy.…”

Multivariate roles of litter traits on moisture and flammability of temperate northeastern North American tree species

“…American chestnut (Castanea dentata (Marshall) Borkh. ), functionally extinct but formerly dominant across much of the region, burns with high flammability and dries in an intermediate fashion (Kane et al 2019;Kane et al 2020), likely positioning C. dentata with the pines or at the most flammable end of the oaks. The region is diverse, so other common species, e.g., Betula lenta L., Prunus serotina Ehrh., Fagus grandifolia Ehrh., Populus tremuloides Michx., and other Quercus spp.…”

Covid-19 Pandemic And Sustainabilitystudy At Madrasah Ibtidaiyyahpsm Sulursewu, Teguhan, Ngawi, East Java

“…Dampak dari virus ini dirasakan oleh seluruh elemen masyarakat baik kalangan atas, menengah, dan bawah. Juga berdampak pada berbagai bidang seperti, ekonomi, pendidikan, sosial, dan pariwisata (Kane et al, 2020); (Sohrabi et al, 2020 Pandemi Covid-19 memaksa proses pembelajaran berubah dengan sangat cepat (Kang et al, 2020). Anak-anak harus belajar dari rumah (Syah, 2020 (Firman & Rahayu, 2020) (Rahman, 2020) (Herliandry et al, 2020).…”