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Fire forbids fifty-fifty forest
- Source :
- PLoS ONE, 13(1), PLoS ONE 13 (2018) 1, PLoS ONE, PLoS ONE, Vol 13, Iss 1, p e0191027 (2018)
- Publication Year :
- 2018
- Publisher :
- Public Library of Science (PLoS), 2018.
-
Abstract
- Recent studies have interpreted patterns of remotely sensed tree cover as evidence that forest with intermediate tree cover might be unstable in the tropics, as it will tip into either a closed forest or a more open savanna state. Here we show that across all continents the frequency of wildfires rises sharply as tree cover falls below ~40%. Using a simple empirical model, we hypothesize that the steepness of this pattern causes intermediate tree cover (30–60%) to be unstable for a broad range of assumptions on tree growth and fire-driven mortality. We show that across all continents, observed frequency distributions of tropical tree cover are consistent with this hypothesis. We argue that percolation of fire through an open landscape may explain the remarkably universal rise of fire frequency around a critical tree cover, but we show that simple percolation models cannot predict the actual threshold quantitatively. The fire-driven instability of intermediate states implies that tree cover will not change smoothly with climate or other stressors and shifts between closed forest and a state of low tree cover will likely tend to be relatively sharp and difficult to reverse.
- Subjects :
- 0106 biological sciences
Aquatic Ecology and Water Quality Management
010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences
Range (biology)
lcsh:Medicine
Plant Science
Forests
01 natural sciences
Trees
Wildfires
lcsh:Science
Multidisciplinary
Ecology
Physics
Eukaryota
Classical Mechanics
Agriculture
Plants
PE&RC
Terrestrial Environments
Tree (data structure)
Fire frequency
Grasslands
Physical Sciences
Tree cover
Research Article
Livestock
Fluid Mechanics
Continuum Mechanics
010603 evolutionary biology
Instability
Ecosystems
Fires
Statistical Mechanics
Life Science
Grasses
Plant Communities
0105 earth and related environmental sciences
WIMEK
Percolation (cognitive psychology)
Plant Ecology
lcsh:R
Ecology and Environmental Sciences
Organisms
Biology and Life Sciences
Percolation
Tropics
Fluid Dynamics
Models, Theoretical
Aquatische Ecologie en Waterkwaliteitsbeheer
15. Life on land
Wildlife Ecology and Conservation
Environmental science
lcsh:Q
Physical geography
Frequency distribution
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 19326203
- Volume :
- 13
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- PLOS ONE
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....d1a79649fd3dd3ffc06fce0355f6df99