Decades-scale vegetation change in burned and unburned alpine coniferous heath
Decades-scale vegetation change in burned and unburned alpine coniferous heath
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DOI：
10.1071/bt10138
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发表时间：
2010-01-01
影响因子：
1.1
通讯作者：
Dickinson, K. J. M.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Kirkpatrick, J. B.;Bridle, K. L.;Dickinson, K. J. M.
火灾似乎是一个罕见的事件在高山植被，这表明其影响可能比大多数低地植被类型更持久。然而，有人认为，澳大利亚高山生物群对罕见的大火有很强的适应力。本文介绍了几十年的规模植被和土壤变化后，火在塔斯马尼亚高山针叶石楠林火灾边界的配对图。火对土壤的影响持续了几十年。按照全球标准，植被的恢复极为缓慢，以前占优势的物种推迟重新入侵。火灾后43至69年，对火灾最敏感的物种覆盖率很低，许多裸露的地面仍然很明显，重新植被的速度随着时间的推移而下降。裸子植物灌木增加的代价，被子植物在同一时期的未烧毁的地块和隐花植物减少在烧毁和未烧毁的地块。这些结果表明，塔斯马尼亚高山植物群的特点是不能适应罕见的大火，虽然大多数物种生存的发病率。针叶石南恢复到燃烧前的状态似乎需要几个世纪，这表明闪电和纵火者引起的火灾是保护植被类型的主要问题。
Fire appears to be a rare event in alpine vegetation, suggesting that its effects might be more persistent than in most lowland vegetation types. However, it has been suggested that the Australian alpine biota is resilient to infrequent large fires. This paper describes decades-scale vegetation and soil change after fire in paired plots over fire boundaries in Tasmanian alpine coniferous heath. The effect of fire on soils persisted for decades. Recovery of vegetation was extremely slow by global standards, with delayed reinvasion of previously dominant species. There was low cover of the most fire-sensitive species 43-69 years after fire and much bare ground still evident, with the rate of revegetation declining through time. Gymnosperm shrubs increased at the expense of angiosperms in the unburned plots in the same period and cryptogams declined in both burned and unburned plots. These results suggest that the Tasmanian alpine flora cannot be characterised as resilient to infrequent large fire, although most species survive its incidence. The many centuries that it appears are necessary for coniferous heath to recover to its pre-burn state suggest that fires caused by increased ignitions from lightning and arsonists are the major issue for conservation of the vegetation type.