Abrupt fire regime change may cause landscape-wide loss of mature obligate seeder forests
Abrupt fire regime change may cause landscape-wide loss of mature obligate seeder forests
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DOI：
10.1111/gcb.12433
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发表时间：
2014-03-01
影响因子：
11.6
通讯作者：
Prior, Lynda D.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Bowman, David M. J. S.;Murphy, Brett P.;Prior, Lynda D.
如果火灾频率突然增加，需要高强度火灾才能再生的专性播种树可能容易受到种群崩溃的影响。我们在澳大利亚阿尔卑斯山用一种长寿的专有实生林木--高山白蜡树(Eucalyptus Delegatensis)测试了这一命题。自2002年以来，阿尔卑斯山85%的生物区被几次非常大的火灾烧毁，跟踪了该地区极端火灾天气更加频繁的趋势。严重的火灾夺去了25%的地上树木生物量，并将燃料阵列从低负荷的草本和凋落物燃料改为高负荷的易燃灌木和幼树，为后续火灾启动再生支架。一次严重的火灾导致成人死亡并引发大规模再生，但快速接连发生的第二次火灾导致97%的再生高山灰木死亡。我们的结果表明，如果没有减少火灾严重程度的干预措施，再生林分的可燃性和极端火灾天气的增加之间的相互作用将使剩余的大部分成熟高山灰树林消失。
Obligate seeder trees requiring high‐severity fires to regenerate may be vulnerable to population collapse if fire frequency increases abruptly. We tested this proposition using a long‐lived obligate seeding forest tree, alpine ash (Eucalyptus delegatensis), in the Australian Alps. Since 2002, 85% of the Alps bioregion has been burnt by several very large fires, tracking the regional trend of more frequent extreme fire weather. High‐severity fires removed 25% of aboveground tree biomass, and switched fuel arrays from low loads of herbaceous and litter fuels to high loads of flammable shrubs and juvenile trees, priming regenerating stands for subsequent fires. Single high‐severity fires caused adult mortality and triggered mass regeneration, but a second fire in quick succession killed 97% of the regenerating alpine ash. Our results indicate that without interventions to reduce fire severity, interactions between flammability of regenerating stands and increased extreme fire weather will eliminate much of the remaining mature alpine ash forest.