Back to Search
Start Over
Wildfires decrease the local-scale ecosystem spatial variability of Pinus canariensis forests during the first two decades post fire
- Source :
- RIULL. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de La Laguna, Universidad de La Laguna (ULL)
- Publication Year :
- 2019
- Publisher :
- International Association of Wildland Fire, 2019.
-
Abstract
- The spatial variability (i.e. heterogeneity) of environmental variables determines a wide range of ecosystem features and plays a key role in regulating key ecosystem services. Wildfires are among the most significant natural disturbances that forests face, but our knowledge about their effect on ecosystem spatial variability is still limited. We used a 19-year fire chronosequence of natural, unmanaged Pinus canariensis C. Sm. ex DC forests to investigate how wildfires affect overall ecosystem spatial variability, as well as that of key faunal, plant and soil ecosystem attributes. The spatial variability of most soil variables and of the overall ecosystem tended to decrease after the fire and remain lower than the unburned plots even after 19 years. The spatial variability of plant-related variables, except for litter decomposition, as well as that of soil arthropods abundance, decreased more gradually than that of soil variables, reaching the lowest values in the plots burned 19 years before the survey. Our study provides evidence that wildfires are capable of significantly decreasing local-scale forest spatial heterogeneity through changes in the spatial variability of their different components, with likely yet unknown consequences for ecosystem functioning.
- Subjects :
- 040101 forestry
Plant traits
Soil functioning
Ecology
biology
Phosphorus cycling
Chronosequence
Forestry
04 agricultural and veterinary sciences
biology.organism_classification
Fire
Spatial heterogeneity
Ecosystem services
Abundance (ecology)
Pinus canariensis
0401 agriculture, forestry, and fisheries
Environmental science
Ecosystem
Spatial variability
Nitrogen cycle
Nitrogen cycling
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- RIULL. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de La Laguna, Universidad de La Laguna (ULL)
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....0fcf2435849a65675e8a2784bfefe914