Fire suppression and ecosystem carbon storage
TL;DR: A 35-year controlled burning experiment in Minnesota oak savanna showed that fire frequency had a great impact on ecosystem carbon (C) stores, with most carbon stored in woody biomass.
Abstract: A 35-year controlled burning experiment in Minnesota oak savanna showed that fire frequency had a great impact on ecosystem carbon (C) stores. Specifically, compared to the historical fire regime, fire suppression led to an average of 1.8 Mg·ha−1·yr−1 of C storage, with most carbon stored in woody biomass. Forest floor carbon stores were also significantly impacted by fire frequency, but there were no detectable effects of fire suppression on carbon in soil and fine roots combined, or in woody debris. Total ecosystem C stores averaged ∼110 Mg/ha in stands experiencing presettlement fire frequencies, but ∼220 Mg/ha in stands experiencing fire suppression. If comparable rates of C storage were to occur in other ecosystems in response to the current extent of fire suppression in the United States, fire suppression in the USA might account for 8–20% of missing global carbon.
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TL;DR: The recent literature is reviewed, drawing parallels between fire and herbivores as alternative consumers of vegetation, and pointing to the common questions and some surprisingly different answers that emerge from viewing fire as a globally significant consumer that is analogous to herbivory.
Abstract: It is difficult to find references to fire in general textbooks on ecology, conservation biology or biogeography, in spite of the fact that large parts of the world burn on a regular basis, and that there is a considerable literature on the ecology of fire and its use for managing ecosystems. Fire has been burning ecosystems for hundreds of millions of years, helping to shape global biome distribution and to maintain the structure and function of fire-prone communities. Fire is also a significant evolutionary force, and is one of the first tools that humans used to re-shape their world. Here, we review the recent literature, drawing parallels between fire and herbivores as alternative consumers of vegetation. We point to the common questions, and some surprisingly different answers, that emerge from viewing fire as a globally significant consumer that is analogous to herbivory.
1,942 citations
Cites background from "Fire suppression and ecosystem carb..."
...In these instances, consumer control, rather than resource competition, determines tree cover [ 33 ]....
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TL;DR: Comparison of global 'fire off' simulations with landcover and treecover maps show that vast areas of humid C(4) grasslands and savannas, especially in South America and Africa, have the climate potential to form forests.
Abstract: This paper is the first global study of the extent to which fire determines global vegetation patterns by preventing ecosystems from achieving the potential height, biomass and dominant functional types expected under the ambient climate (climate potential). To determine climate potential, we simulated vegetation without fire using a dynamic global-vegetation model. Model results were tested against fire exclusion studies from different parts of the world. Simulated dominant growth forms and tree cover were compared with satellite-derived land- and tree-cover maps. Simulations were generally consistent with results of fire exclusion studies in southern Africa and elsewhere. Comparison of global 'fire off' simulations with landcover and treecover maps show that vast areas of humid C(4) grasslands and savannas, especially in South America and Africa, have the climate potential to form forests. These are the most frequently burnt ecosystems in the world. Without fire, closed forests would double from 27% to 56% of vegetated grid cells, mostly at the expense of C(4) plants but also of C(3) shrubs and grasses in cooler climates. C(4) grasses began spreading 6-8 Ma, long before human influence on fire regimes. Our results suggest that fire was a major factor in their spread into forested regions, splitting biotas into fire tolerant and intolerant taxa.
1,664 citations
Cites background from "Fire suppression and ecosystem carb..."
...In reality, both sites burnt at intervals of 2–5 yr (San Jose et al., 1998; Tilman et al., 2000)....
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TL;DR: In this article, the importance of land-use history and its legacies in most ecological systems has been recognized as a legitimate and essential subject of environmental science, and recognition of these historical legacies adds explanatory power to our understanding of modern conditions at scales from organisms to the globe and reduces missteps in anticipating or managing for future conditions.
Abstract: Recognition of the importance of land-use history and its legacies in most ecological systems has been a major factor driving the recent focus on human activity as a legitimate and essential subject of environmental science. Ecologists, conservationists, and natural resource policymakers now recognize that the legacies of land-use activities continue to influence ecosystem structure and function for decades or centuries—or even longer—after those activities have ceased. Consequently, recognition of these historical legacies adds explanatory power to our understanding of modern conditions at scales from organisms to the globe and reduces missteps in anticipating or managing for future conditions. As a result, environmental history emerges as an integral part of ecological science and conservation planning. By considering diverse ecological phenomena, ranging from biodiversity and biogeochemical cycles to ecosystem resilience to anthropogenic stress, and by examining terrestrial and aquatic ecosyst...
1,069 citations
TL;DR: A clear negative relationship between precipitation and changes in soil organic carbon and nitrogen content when grasslands were invaded by woody vegetation is found, with drier sites gaining, and wetter sites losing, soilorganic carbon.
Abstract: The invasion of woody vegetation into deserts, grasslands and savannas is generally thought to lead to an increase in the amount of carbon stored in those ecosystems. For this reason, shrub and forest expansion (for example, into grasslands) is also suggested to be a substantial, if uncertain, component of the terrestrial carbon sink1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14. Here we investigate woody plant invasion along a precipitation gradient (200 to 1,100 mm yr-1) by comparing carbon and nitrogen budgets and soil δ13C profiles between six pairs of adjacent grasslands, in which one of each pair was invaded by woody species 30 to 100 years ago. We found a clear negative relationship between precipitation and changes in soil organic carbon and nitrogen content when grasslands were invaded by woody vegetation, with drier sites gaining, and wetter sites losing, soil organic carbon. Losses of soil organic carbon at the wetter sites were substantial enough to offset increases in plant biomass carbon, suggesting that current land-based assessments may overestimate carbon sinks. Assessments relying on carbon stored from woody plant invasions to balance emissions may therefore be incorrect.
952 citations
Cites background from "Fire suppression and ecosystem carb..."
...Many biotic and abiotic factors determine SOC storag...
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TL;DR: In insect communities, insect species richness increased as plant species richness and plant functional group richness increased, and both factors may explain how the loss of plant diversity influences higher trophic levels.
Abstract: We experimentally separated the effects of two components of plant diversity—plant species richness and plant functional group richness—on insect communities. Plant species richness and plant functional group richness had contrasting effects on insect abundances, a result we attributed to three factors. First, lower insect abundances at higher plant functional group richness were explained by a sampling effect, which was caused by the increasing likelihood that one low‐quality group, C4 grasses, would be present and reduce average insect abundances by 25%. Second, plant biomass, which was positively related to plant functional group richness, had a strong, positive effect on insect abundances. Third, a positive effect of plant species richness on insect abundances may have been caused by greater availability of alternate plant resources or greater vegetational structure. In addition, a greater diversity of insect species, whose individual abundances were often unaffected by changes in plant spec...
479 citations
Cites background from "Fire suppression and ecosystem carb..."
...At Cedar Creek, for instance, the diversity of prairies and savannas is determined to a great extent by the diversity of forbs....
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...Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Utah State University, Logan, Utah 84322-5210...
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...In addition, in a review of the history of fire at Cedar Creek, Tilman et al. (2000) found evidence for annual to biennial burn frequency....
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References
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01 Jan 1991
502 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, historical statistics of the United States were used to take advantage of the advantages of reading with limited budget, and they showed that reading is a good alternative to experience and knowledge acquisition.
Abstract: Make more knowledge even in less time every day. You may not always spend your time and money to go abroad and get the experience and knowledge by yourself. Reading is a good alternative to do in getting this desirable knowledge and experience. You may gain many things from experiencing directly, but of course it will spend much money. So here, by reading the historical statistics of the united states, you can take more advantages with limited budget.
377 citations
Book•
12 Nov 2017
TL;DR: The most recent assessment of the forest resource situation as discussed by the authors focused on timber supply, and the data used to support the assessments came from traditional forest inventories designed to provide reliable estimates of timber volume, growth, removals, and mortality.
Abstract: Historically, assessments of the forest resource situation have focused on timber supply, and the data used to support the assessments came from traditional forest inventories designed to provide reliable estimates of timber volume, growth, removals, and mortality (U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service 1982). The most recent assessment included data and analysis of forest resources other than timber, including wildlife, range, water, recreation, and other resources associated with the Nation's forest lands (U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service 1989). Future forest resource assessments will include expanded analyses of environmental issues such as the effects of acid deposition on forest health, the prospective effects of global warming on forests, and the impacts of prospective strategies to mitigate or adapt to changing environmental conditions.
323 citations
TL;DR: Reconstruction of the vegetation of the Big Woods and adjacent areas along the prairie-woodland border in south-central Minnesota found that the vegetation was most strongly correlated with the fire-probability pattern, which was a function of both abiotic and biotic factors.
Abstract: Bearing-tree data from the original land-survey records of 1847-1850 were used to reconstruct the vegetation of the Big Woods and adjacent areas along the prairie-woodland border in south-central Minnesota. The characteristic tree taxa of the Big Woods were elm (Ulmus), basswood (Tilia americana), sugar maple (Acer saccharum), ironwood (Ostrya virginiana), bitternut hickory (Carya cordiformis), butternut (Juglans cinerea), and ash (Fraxinus). The most common tree was elm, which comprised 27% of the bearing trees. A buffer zone of fire-tolerant oaks and aspen generally lay between the Big Woods and prairie. The width of this zone depended on topography and on the presence of additional firebreaks, which in places formed sharp boundaries between the Big Woods and oak-aspen. The prairie-woodland border was characteristically a sharp boundary along firebreaks (water bodies and physiographic breaks). In some places very effective firebreaks formed sharp bound- aries between prairie and the Big Woods, with no intervening oak-aspen zone. The vegetation was most strongly correlated with the fire-probability pattern, which was a function of both abiotic and biotic factors. Soils influenced the probability of fire, but they also were the major factor controlling the vegetation within areas of similar fire probability. Soil drainage was the most important factor controlling vegetation within the units of the overall pattern. Because the locations of firebreaks and the existing pattern of vegetation controlled the fire prob- ability pattern, sites with virtually identical physical characteristics supported qualitatively different types of persistent or stable vegetation.
316 citations
"Fire suppression and ecosystem carb..." refers background in this paper
...A decrease in fire frequency, for instance, was the apparent cause of the creation of the Big Woods, a large area of tallgrass prairie in Minnesota that was converted into hardwood forest (Grimm 1984)....
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...2680 Key words: carbon storage; fire suppression; missing carbon; oak savanna....
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TL;DR: Charcoal is common in the soils of mature rain forests within 75 kilometers of San Carlos de Rio Negro in the north central Amazon Basin and carbon-14 dates indicate that numerous fires have occurred since the mid-Holocene epoch.
Abstract: Charcoal is common in the soils of mature rain forests within 75 kilometers of San Carlos de Rio Negro in the north central Amazon Basin. Carbon-14 dates of soil charcoal from this region indicate that numerous fires have occurred since the mid-Holocene epoch. Charcoal is most common in tierra firme forest Oxisols and Ultisols and less common in caatinga and igapo forest soils. Climatic changes or human activities, or both, have caused rain-forest fires.
310 citations
"Fire suppression and ecosystem carb..." refers background in this paper
...…the 1900s fire frequency has increased in parts of the world, especially the tropics, because of the use of fire as a landclearing mechanism (e.g., Sanford et al. 1985, Andreae 1991, Goldammer 1991), and has decreased in other regions, such as the United States, because of active fire suppression…...
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...2680 Key words: carbon storage; fire suppression; missing carbon; oak savanna....
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