The longleaf pine forest: Long-term monitoring and restoration of a management dependent ecosystem

Holland, Angela M.; Rutledge, Brandon T.; Jack, Steven B.; Stober, Jonathan M.

doi:10.1016/j.jnc.2018.11.006

Cited by 22 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…Periodic individual-tree selection harvests have been conducted to improve habitat and forest health (McIntyre et al, 2008). Mean basal area in upland areas is 13 m 2 ha −1 (Holland et al, 2019). Relative proportion of basal area is 75% longleaf pine, 12% upland oak (e.g., southern red oak and post oak; Table 1), and 9% mesic oak (e.g., live oak, laurel oak, and water oak).…”

Section: Study Sitementioning

confidence: 99%

Overstory Longleaf Pines and Hardwoods Create Diverse Patterns of Energy Release and Fire Effects During Prescribed Fire

Whelan

Bigelow

O’Brien

2021

Front. For. Glob. Change

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Litter from pine trees in open woodlands is an important fuel for surface fires, but litter from hardwood species may quell fire behavior. Lower intensity fires favor hardwood over longleaf pine regeneration, and while overstory hardwoods are important sources of food and shelter for many wildlife species, too many could result in canopy closure and a loss of ground layer diversity. Although some researchers have found synergies in fire effects when leaves of different species are combined, field tests of effects of tree guild diversity on fire behavior are lacking from the literature. We used neighborhood modeling to understand how diverse overstory trees in longleaf pine forests affect fire radiative energy density (FRED), and to determine the effect on top-kill of shrub-form hardwood trees. We measured the effects of three guilds of overstory trees (longleaf pine, upland oaks, and mesic oaks) on FRED, and related FRED to post-fire damage in four guilds of understory hardwoods (sandhill oaks, upland oaks, mesic oaks, and fleshy-fruited hardwoods). We found that FRED increased 33–56% near overstory longleaf pine but decreased 23–37% near overstory mesic oaks. Additive models of FRED performed well and no synergies or antagonisms were present. Seventy percent of stems of understory hardwoods survived fire with energy release typical of dormant-season fires in canopy gaps and near overstory mesic oaks. We also found that among understory trees >2 m tall, upland and sandhill oaks were more likely than mesic oaks or fleshy-fruited hardwoods to avoid top-kill. We conclude that neighborhood models provide a method to predict longleaf pine forest structure and composition that allows for the ecological benefits of overstory hardwoods while maintaining ground-layer diversity. To maintain hardwood control, fire practitioners may need to select fire weather conditions to increase fire behavior especially during dormant-season burns.

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Section: Study Sitementioning

confidence: 99%

Overstory Longleaf Pines and Hardwoods Create Diverse Patterns of Energy Release and Fire Effects During Prescribed Fire

Whelan

Bigelow

O’Brien

2021

Front. For. Glob. Change

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“…The area is within the Gulf Coastal Plain physiographic province. The climate is humid continental, and forest structure is open-canopy woodland, with typical stand basal area of 13 m 2 ha −1 (Holland et al 2019). Most trees were second-growth longleaf pine that recruited to the canopy after timber harvest early in the twentieth century (Pederson et al 2008).…”

Section: Study Sitementioning

confidence: 99%

Longleaf pine proximity effects on air temperatures and hardwood top-kill from prescribed fire

Bigelow

Whelan

2019

fire ecol

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Background: Regulation of the dominance of resprouting understory hardwoods is a common objective for prescribed fire in open-canopy longleaf pine (Pinus palustris Mill.) woodland of the southeastern USA. Nevertheless, little is known about the influence of individual pines on fire and hardwood mortality. We studied growing-season fires in stem-mapped stands in southwest Georgia, USA; the stands displayed large variation in structure due to cutting treatments applied seven years earlier. We measured air temperature and heating duration, and measured post-fire sprouting behavior of four guilds of understory hardwoods: mesic oaks (Quercus spp. L.), upland oaks, xeric oaks, and fleshy-fruited hardwoods. Mean air temperature (i.e., of flames, buoyant plume, and smoldering combustion) and heating duration (time over 60°C) were analyzed with respect to fuel-bed conditions and neighboring tree density. Hardwood top-kill was analyzed with respect to neighboring tree density and hardwood height. Results: The basal area of nearby pines strongly affected heating duration (time over 60°C), which increased linearly from a mean of 87 s to a mean of 234 s across a gradient of pine basal area from 0 to 30 m 2 ha −1. Mean air temperature during prescribed fire was unaffected by pine density but increased linearly from a mean of 114°C to a mean of 148°C across a gradient of wiregrass (Aristida stricta Michx.) cover from 0 to 100%, respectively. Neighborhood models showed that time over 60°C during the burns was longest at the base of pines and decreased by two thirds at 3.3 m distance. Pines affected hardwood top-kill probability at a similar scale, the effect at 4.4 m decreasing by two thirds compared to at the base of the pine. The four hardwood guilds were readily top-killed when ≤1 m tall, but at 2 m height, upland and xeric oaks had become more resistant to top-kill than mesic oaks or fleshy-fruited hardwoods. Conclusions: The influence of individual pine trees on heating duration and top-kill power of prescribed fire drops by two thirds of maximum within 3 to 4 m of a tree, compared to a maximum at the base of the tree. Neighborhood models provide a method to estimate tree effects on prescribed fire heating duration and top-kill probability, and thus a way of predicting stand structures that provide ecological benefits of openings while remaining below thresholds that trigger vigorous hardwood response.

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“…Identifying which potential regulating processes structure communities is challenging because longleaf pine dynamics are conditional on the interactions of fuel beds, local biology, and environmental gradients (e.g., light availability) [21]. Hence, understanding the culmination of these effects on longleaf pine is essential to effective management and conservation [22,23].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Life Stage and Neighborhood-Dependent Survival of Longleaf Pine after Prescribed Fire

Magee

Pandit

Flory

et al. 2022

Forests

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Determining mechanisms of plant establishment in ecological communities can be particularly difficult in disturbance-dominated ecosystems. Longleaf pine (Pinus palustris Mill.) and its associated plant community exemplify systems that evolved with disturbances, where frequent, widespread fires alter the population dynamics of longleaf pine within distinct life stages. We identified the primary biotic and environmental conditions that influence the survival of longleaf pine in this disturbance-dominated ecosystem. We combined data from recruitment surveys, tree censuses, dense lidar point clouds, and a forest-wide prescribed fire to examine the response of longleaf pine individuals to fire and biotic neighborhoods. We found that fire temperatures increased with increasing longleaf pine neighborhood basal area and decreased with higher oak densities. There was considerable variation in longleaf pine survival across life stages, with lowest survival probabilities occurring during the bolt stage and not in the earlier, more fire-resistant grass stage. Survival of grass-stage, bolt-stage, and sapling longleaf pines was negatively associated with basal area of neighboring longleaf pine and positively related to neighboring heterospecific tree density, primarily oaks (Quercus spp.). Our findings highlight the vulnerability of longleaf pine across life stages, which suggests optimal fire management strategies for controlling longleaf pine density, and—more broadly—emphasize the importance of fire in mediating species interactions.

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The longleaf pine forest: Long-term monitoring and restoration of a management dependent ecosystem

Cited by 22 publications

References 31 publications

Overstory Longleaf Pines and Hardwoods Create Diverse Patterns of Energy Release and Fire Effects During Prescribed Fire

Overstory Longleaf Pines and Hardwoods Create Diverse Patterns of Energy Release and Fire Effects During Prescribed Fire

Longleaf pine proximity effects on air temperatures and hardwood top-kill from prescribed fire

Life Stage and Neighborhood-Dependent Survival of Longleaf Pine after Prescribed Fire

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