Dataset Information

The effect of prescribed burning on plant rarity in a temperate forest.

ABSTRACT: Rare species can play important functional roles, but human-induced changes to disturbance regimes, such as fire, can inadvertently affect these species. We examined the influence of prescribed burns on the recruitment and diversity of plant species within a temperate forest in southeastern Australia, with a focus on species that were rare prior to burning. Floristic composition was compared among plots in landscapes before and after treatment with prescribed burns differing in the extent of area burnt and season of burn (before-after, control-impact design). Floristic surveys were conducted before burns, at the end of a decade of drought, and 3 years postburn. We quantified the effect of prescribed burns on species grouped by their frequency within the landscape before burning (common, less common, and rare) and their life-form attributes (woody perennials, perennial herbs or geophytes, and annual herbs). Burn treatment influenced the response of rare species. In spring-burn plots, the recruitment of rare annual herbs was promoted, differentiating this treatment from both autumn-burn and unburnt plots. In autumn-burn plots, richness of rare species increased across all life-form groups, although composition remained statistically similar to control plots. Richness of rare woody perennials increased in control plots. For all other life-form and frequency groups, the floristic composition of landscapes changed between survey years, but there was no effect of burn treatment, suggesting a likely effect of rainfall on species recruitment. A prescribed burn can increase the occurrence of rare species in a landscape, but burn characteristics can affect the promotion of different life-form groups and thus affect functional diversity. Drought-breaking rain likely had an overarching effect on floristic composition during our study, highlighting that weather can play a greater role in influencing recruitment and diversity in plant communities than a prescribed burn.

SUBMITTER: Patykowski J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5792504 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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The effect of prescribed burning on plant rarity in a temperate forest.

Patykowski John J Holland Greg J GJ Dell Matt M Wevill Tricia T Callister Kate K Bennett Andrew F AF Gibson Maria M

Ecology and evolution 20180108 3

Rare species can play important functional roles, but human-induced changes to disturbance regimes, such as fire, can inadvertently affect these species. We examined the influence of prescribed burns on the recruitment and diversity of plant species within a temperate forest in southeastern Australia, with a focus on species that were rare prior to burning. Floristic composition was compared among plots in landscapes before and after treatment with prescribed burns differing in the extent of are ...[more]

PMID: 29435246

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Project description:Vegetation is a key determinant of wildfire behaviour at field scales as it functions as fuel. Past studies in the laboratory show that plant flammability, the ability of plants to ignite and maintain combustion, is a function of their traits. However, the way the traits of individual plants combine in a vegetation community to affect field flammability has received little attention. This study aims to bridge the gap between the laboratory and field by linking plant traits to metrics of field-scale flammability. Across three prescribed burns, in Eucalyptus-dominated damp and dry forest, we measured pre-burn plant species abundance and post-burn field flammability metrics (percentage area burnt, char and scorch height). For understory species with dominant cover-abundance, we measured nine traits that had been demonstrated to influence flammability in the laboratory. We used fourth-corner ordination to evaluate covariation between the plant traits, species abundance and flammability. We found that several traits covaried at the species level. In some instances, these traits (e.g. specific leaf area and bulk density) could have cumulative effects on the flammability of a species while in other instances (e.g. moisture and specific leaf area) they may have counteractive effects, assuming trait effects on flammability are akin to previous research. At field scales, species with similar traits tended to co-occur, suggesting that the effects of individual traits accumulate within a plant community. Fourth-corner analyses found the trait-field flammability relationship to be statistically significant. Traits significantly associated with increasing field flammability metrics were: bulk density (negatively associated) and hydrocarbon quantity, specific leaf area and surface area to volume ratio (all positively associated). Our study demonstrates that some traits known to influence flammability in the laboratory can be associated with field-scale flammability metrics. Further research is needed to isolate the contributions of individual traits to understand how species composition drives forest flammability.

Project description:Prescribed burns of winter wheat stubble and Kentucky bluegrass fields in northern Idaho and eastern Washington states (U.S.A.) were sampled using ground-, aerostat-, airplane-, and laboratory-based measurement platforms to determine emission factors, compare methods, and provide a current and comprehensive set of emissions data for air quality models, climate models, and emission inventories. Batch measurements of PM2.5, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and polychlorinated dibenzodioxins/dibenzofurans (PCDDs/PCDFs), and continuous measurements of black carbon (BC), particle mass by size, CO, CO2, CH4, and aerosol characteristics were taken at ground level, on an aerostat-lofted instrument package, and from an airplane. Biomass samples gathered from the field were burned in a laboratory combustion facility for comparison with these ground and aerial field measurements. Emission factors for PM2.5, organic carbon (OC), CH4, and CO measured in the field study platforms were typically higher than those measured in the laboratory combustion facility. Field data for Kentucky bluegrass suggest that biomass residue loading is directly proportional to the PM2.5 emission factor; no such relationship was found with the limited wheat data. CO2 and BC emissions were higher in laboratory burn tests than in the field, reflecting greater carbon oxidation and flaming combustion conditions. These distinctions between field and laboratory results can be explained by measurements of the modified combustion efficiency (MCE). Higher MCEs were recorded in the laboratory burns than from the airplane platform. These MCE/emission factor trends are supported by 1-2 min grab samples from the ground and aerostat platforms. Emission factors measured here are similar to other studies measuring comparable fuels, pollutants, and combustion conditions. The size distribution of refractory BC (rBC) was single modal with a log-normal shape, which was consistent among fuel types when normalized by total rBC mass. The field and laboratory measurements of the Angstrom exponent (α) and single scattering albedo (ω) exhibit a strong decreasing trend with increasing MCEs in the range of 0.9-0.99. Field measurements of α and ω were consistently higher than laboratory burns, which is likely due to less complete combustion. When VOC emissions are compared with MCE, the results are consistent for both fuel types: emission factors increase as MCE decreases.

Dataset Information

The effect of prescribed burning on plant rarity in a temperate forest.

Publications

The effect of prescribed burning on plant rarity in a temperate forest.

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