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Forest fire is a vital ecological process capable of inducing complex fluvial response, but the integration of these effects across entire watersheds remains poorly understood. We collected downstream cross-sectional and geomorphic data, acquired geographic information on land cover and forest fire, and performed spatially explicit statistical analyses to examine fire-related impacts in catchments burned to varying degrees. Generalized least squares (GLS) regression models suggested that channels with a greater percentage of burned drainage area were associated with markedly higher cross-sectional stream power, relatively smaller width/depth ratios, and lower bank failure rates 12 to 13 years after the fires. These results implied that streams became more powerful in the aftermath of forest fire and that net incision had been the primary response in second- to fourth-order channels since the 1988 Yellowstone fires. The extensive geographic coverage of our data, spanning multiple basins with measurements spaced every 100 m, allowed us to hypothesize a process-response model based on these results. We suggest that a wave of fire-related sediment propagates through burned catchments. High runoff events or even moderate flows provide sufficient energy to evacuate the finer-grained material delivered from burned hillslopes to the channel network over a period of 5-10 years. The combination of elevated post-fire discharges and decreased sediment supply then induces an episode of incision. Site-specific channel changes are highly variable because streams can accommodate post-fire increases in energy and sediment supply through multiple modes of adjustment. Characterizing the spatial distribution of stream power would provide a valuable management tool because this variable is strongly associated with percent-burned drainage area and integrates several elements of complex fluvial response. Future research focused on the channel substrate and its evolution through time is needed, but our results indicate a fundamental linkage between fire and fluvial processes. --Abstract.
This book provides a unique exploration of the inter-relationships between the science of plant environmental responses and the understanding and management of forest fires. It bridges the gap between plant ecologists, interested in the functional and evolutionary consequences of fire in ecosystems, with foresters and fire managers, interested in effectively reducing fire hazard and damage. This innovation in this study lies in its focus on the physiological responses of plants that are of relevance for predicting forest fire risk, behaviour and management. It covers the evolutionary trade-offs in the resistance of plants to fire and drought, and its implications for predicting fuel moisture and fire risk; the importance of floristics and plant traits, in interaction with landform and atmospheric conditions, to successfully predict fire behaviour, and provides recommendations for pre- and post- fire management, in relation with the functional composition of the community. The book will be particularly focused on examples from Mediterranean environments, but the underlying principles will be of broader utility.
Multiple Stressors in River Ecosystems: Status, Impacts and Prospects for the Future provides a comprehensive and current overview on the topic as written by leading river scientists who discuss the relevance of co-occurring stressors for river ecosystems. River ecosystems are subject to multiple stressors that threaten their ecological status and the ecosystem services they provide. This book updates the reader’s knowledge on the response and management of river ecosystems to multi-stress situations occurring under global change. Detailing the risk for biodiversity and functioning in a case-study approach, it provides insight into methodological issues, also including the socioeconomic implications. Presents a case study approach and geographic description on the relevance of multiple stressors on river ecosystems in different biomes Gives a uniquely integrated perspective on different stressors, including their interactions and joint effects, as opposed to the traditional one-by-one approach Compiles state-of-the-art methods and technologies in monitoring, modeling and analyzing river ecosystems under multiple stress conditions
A comprehensive exploration of the effects of fires--in forests and other environments--on soils, watersheds, vegetation, air and cultural resources.
Although fire severity has been shown to be a key disturbance to stream-riparian ecosystems in temperate zones, the effects of fire-severity on stream-riparian structure and function in Mediterranean-type systems remains less well resolved. Mediterranean ecosystems of California are characterized by high interannual variability in precipitation and susceptibility to frequent high-intensity wildfires. From 2011 to 2014, I utilized a variety of experimental designs to investigate the influence of wildfire across 70 study reaches on stream-riparian ecosystems in Yosemite National Park (YNP), located in the central Sierra Nevada, California, USA. At 12 stream reaches paired by fire-severity, I measured riparian community composition and structure, stream geomorphology, density and community composition of benthic macroinvertebrates, and density, trophic position, mercury (Hg) body loading, and reliance on aquatically-derived energy of/by spiders of the family Tetragnathidae, a common riparian spider that relies heavily on emergent aquatic insect prey. In addition, along a gradient of drainage area in two rivers, I measured the relative effects of ecosystem size, flood magnitude, productivity, and wildfire on trophic position and reliance on aquatically-derived energy of/by benthic insect predators and tetragnathid spiders. Aquatic birds like the American dipper (Cinclus mexicanus) are considered landscape integrators and are constrained by different ecological processes than aquatic organisms, therefore assessment of the trophic dynamics of aquatic-obigate birds may illuminate divergent patterns related to both fire and food-web dynamics. I estimated reliance on aquatically-derived energy and trophic position of dippers in 27 mountain streams and estimated the relative explanatory power of ecosystem size, precipitation, and wildfire as predictors of dipper trophic dynamics. Taken together, the results of my study, combined with the long period of time since fire at some study reaches, indicate support for interactions between wildfire and climate across complex spatial and temporal scales as drivers of stream-riparian ecosystem responses to wildfire.
Fire ecology is a scientific discipline concerned with natural processes involving fire in an ecosystem and the ecological effects, the interactions between fire and the abiotic and biotic components of an ecosystem, and the role of fire as an ecosystem process.