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Effects of Repeated Prescribed Fires on the Structure, Composition and...
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Effects of Repeated Prescribed Fires on the Structure, Composition and Regeneration of Forests

A special issue of Forests (ISSN 1999-4907). This special issue belongs to the section "Natural Hazards and Risk Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 January 2022) | Viewed by 12845

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Domingo M. Molina-Terrén

E-Mail Website1 Website2
Guest Editor
Department of Crops and Forest Sciences, University of Lleida, Av. Rovira Roure 191, 25198 Lleida, Spain
Interests: prescribed burning; forest management; firefighter safety; fire behavior simulation; forest planning for less vulnerable landscapes; fire ecology; firefighters’ training
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues, 

The aim of this Special Issue of Forests is to highlight, using both original research papers and review articles, the major drivers of prescribed burning. Specifically, we are interested in the repeated use (in the same stand) of planned ignitions by forest managers. It is still uncommon to study the cumulative effects of repeated planned burns. Prescribed burning is spreading across the world as a management tool to minimize the vulnerability to large forest fires in the context of global warming and forest land abandonment. However, we must also look for the effects of these high-temperature treatments on vegetation dynamics. In part, in order to ensure that these effects are longer-lasting by directing the forest succession to structures that are more resilient to medium- and high-intensity forest fires. For this reason, closer attention needs to be directed at the effects of the repeated use of fire (in different seasons and with different intensities) on the structure, composition, and regeneration of forests. Sometimes, two repeated prescribed burns of low or moderate intensity (adjusted to specific benchmarks in the phenology of one of the target species) can lead us more effectively than one single higher-intensity burn to reduce (or increase) the presence of a certain species in a forest community. Additionally, it is certain that repeated burning influences the fire regime since they become modifiers of the fuel structure and forest structure in general. In this way, this new structure affects the behavior of the coming fires with origin other than the ignitions planned by the forest managers, as well as the vulnerability to those fires. Articles on the interplay of repeated prescribed burning and exotic vegetation are also welcome.

Dr. Domingo M. Molina-Terrén
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Forests is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • planned ignitions
  • forest management
  • vulnerability
  • forest succession
  • prescribed burning
  • wildfire hazards
  • climate change
  • abandoned land

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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23 pages, 3694 KiB  
Article
Influence of Prescribed Burning on a Pinus nigra subsp. Laricio Forest: Heat Transfer and Tree Vitality
by Lila Ferrat, Frédéric Morandini and Gauthier Lapa
Forests 2021, 12(7), 915; https://doi.org/10.3390/f12070915 - 14 Jul 2021
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1909
Abstract
Surface fuel removal is crucial to facilitate the mitigation of severe fires in forests. Prescribed burning is often used by forest managers, thanks to its low cost and high efficiency in hard-to-reach areas. The determination of heat transfer between fires and trees has [...] Read more.
Surface fuel removal is crucial to facilitate the mitigation of severe fires in forests. Prescribed burning is often used by forest managers, thanks to its low cost and high efficiency in hard-to-reach areas. The determination of heat transfer between fires and trees has rarely been carried out on living species and consequently, their long-term effects on tree physiology are still not fully understood. In this study, a multidisciplinary approach was conducted to evaluate the impact of a late spring (June) prescribed burning on a Mediterranean pine forest (Pinus nigra subsp. laricio). The surface fuels consisted of a 656 g m−² needle litter, mixed with a few scattered living herbaceous strata. During the fire spread, measurements of the inner and outer trunk temperatures were made at the base of 12 trees with an average bark thickness of 19.4 ± 7.0 mm. The fireline intensity and flame residence time were in the range of 110–160 kW m−1 and 220–468 s, respectively. Despite a maximum heating rate at the cambial area of 4.37 °C min−1, the temperature of these tissues remained below 60 °C, a critical threshold above which thermal damage will occur. In addition, prior- and post-fire physiological monitoring was performed over a long time period (2.5 years) on 24 trees, using sap flow, chlorophyll fluorescence and gas exchange measurements. All parameters remain highly correlated and indicate that the burned trees did not suffer physiological damage. Moreover, drought resistance strategies were not altered by the prescribed burning. The thermal insulation capability of the bark allowed the functional tissues to experience low heat stress that did not affect tree vitality. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Effects of Repeated Prescribed Fires on the Structure, Composition and Regeneration of Forests)
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22 pages, 5016 KiB  
Article
Useful Life of Prescribed Fires in a Southern Mediterranean Basin: An Application to Pinus pinaster Stands in the Sierra Morena Range
by Juan Ramón Molina, Macarena Ortega and Francisco Rodríguez y Silva
Forests 2021, 12(4), 486; https://doi.org/10.3390/f12040486 - 15 Apr 2021
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2245
Abstract
Prescribed fire is a globally relevant fuel treatment for surface fuel management and wildfire hazard reduction. However, Mediterranean ecosystems are adapted to low and moderate fires; hence, the useful life of prescribed fires is limited. Useful life is defined as the effective rotation [...] Read more.
Prescribed fire is a globally relevant fuel treatment for surface fuel management and wildfire hazard reduction. However, Mediterranean ecosystems are adapted to low and moderate fires; hence, the useful life of prescribed fires is limited. Useful life is defined as the effective rotation length of prescribed fires to mitigate fire spread based on critical surface intensity for crown combustion. In this sense, the useful life of a prescribed fire focuses on surface fuel dynamics and its potential fire behavior. In Pinus pinaster stands, the useful life can be established between 0 and 4 years. Canopy base height, time elapsed from the burning, postfire precipitation, and fine fuel moisture content during the burning were identified as the most important variables in postburn fuel dynamics. Other stand characteristics and postfire precipitation can improve the fine fuel and live fuel dynamics models. Our findings support prescribed fires as an effective fuel treatment in the medium term for forest fire prevention, according to stand characteristics and burning implementation conditions. In this sense, forest managers can use the proposed decision tree to identify the useful life of each prescribed fire based on fine fuel moisture content during burning implementation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Effects of Repeated Prescribed Fires on the Structure, Composition and Regeneration of Forests)
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20 pages, 1657 KiB  
Article
How Do Plants Respond Biochemically to Fire? The Role of Photosynthetic Pigments and Secondary Metabolites in the Post-Fire Resprouting Response
by Ana Carolina Santacruz-García, Sandra Bravo, Florencia del Corro, Elisa Mariana García, Domingo M. Molina-Terrén and Mónica Azucena Nazareno
Forests 2021, 12(1), 56; https://doi.org/10.3390/f12010056 - 04 Jan 2021
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 2943
Abstract
Resprouting is one of the main regeneration strategies in woody plants that allows post-fire vegetation recovery. However, the stress produced by fires promotes the biosynthesis of compounds which could affect the post-fire resprouting, and this approach has been poorly evaluated in fire ecology. [...] Read more.
Resprouting is one of the main regeneration strategies in woody plants that allows post-fire vegetation recovery. However, the stress produced by fires promotes the biosynthesis of compounds which could affect the post-fire resprouting, and this approach has been poorly evaluated in fire ecology. In this study, we evaluate the changes in the concentration of chlorophylls, carotenoids, phenolic compounds, and tannins as a result of experimental burns (EB). We asked whether this biochemical response to fire could influence the resprouting responses. For that, we conducted three EB in three successive years in three different experimental units. Specifically, we selected six woody species from the Chaco region, and we analyzed their biochemical responses to EB. We used spectrophotometric methods to quantify the metabolites, and morphological variables to estimate the resprouting responses. Applying a multivariate analysis, we built an index to estimate the biochemical response to fire to EB per each species. Our results demonstrate that photosynthetic pigment concentration did not vary significantly in burnt plants that resprout in response to EB, whereas concentrations of secondary metabolites (phenolic compounds and tannins) increased up to two years after EB. Our main results showed that phenolic compounds could play a significant role in the resprouting responses, while photosynthetic pigments seem to have a minor but significant role. Such results were reaffirmed by the significant correlation between the biochemical response to fire and both resprouting capacity and resprouting growth. However, we observed that the biochemical response effect on resprouting was lower in tree species than in shrubby species. Our study contributes to the understanding of the biochemical responses that are involved in the post-fire vegetation recovery. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Effects of Repeated Prescribed Fires on the Structure, Composition and Regeneration of Forests)
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Review

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25 pages, 934 KiB  
Review
The Effect of Repeated Prescribed Burning on Soil Properties: A Review
by Teresa Fontúrbel, Noela Carrera, José Antonio Vega and Cristina Fernández
Forests 2021, 12(6), 767; https://doi.org/10.3390/f12060767 - 10 Jun 2021
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 4906
Abstract
Prescribed burning is a tool that is frequently used for various land management objectives, mainly related to reduction of hazardous forest fuels, habitat management and ecological restoration. Given the crucial role of soil in forest ecosystem processes and functions, assessing the effects of [...] Read more.
Prescribed burning is a tool that is frequently used for various land management objectives, mainly related to reduction of hazardous forest fuels, habitat management and ecological restoration. Given the crucial role of soil in forest ecosystem processes and functions, assessing the effects of prescribed burning on soil is particularly relevant. This study reviews research on the impacts of repeated prescribed burning on the physical, chemical and biological properties of soil. The available information shows that the effects are highly variable, rather inconsistent and generally minor for most of the soil characteristics studied, while a number of soil properties show contrasting responses. On the other hand, ecosystem characteristics, differences in fire severity, frequency of application and the cumulative effect of treatment repetition over time, have possibly made it more difficult to find a more common response in soil attributes. Our study has also revealed some limitations of previous research that may have contributed to this result, including a limited number of long-term studies, conducted at a few experimental sites, and in a limited number of forest ecosystems. Research issues concerning the effects of prescribed fire on soil are presented. The need to integrate such research into a broader interdisciplinary framework, encompassing the role of the fire regime on ecosystem functions and processes, is also highlighted. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Effects of Repeated Prescribed Fires on the Structure, Composition and Regeneration of Forests)
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