Keywords:
ecological succession, disturbance, cryptogams, forests, CanariesAbstract
Fires produce habitat destruction and worsen land degradation in ecosystems. Bryophytes are essential elements of Macaronesian laurel forests and because of their sensitivity to environmental changes, they serve as helpful disturbance indicators. In the best-preserved laurel forest from the Canaries (Garajonay National Park), we examined how species richness and composition of bryophytes changed in a fire chronosequence (5-57 years), comparing the results between burnt areas with other adjacent unburnt areas in which sample stands were located. At each plot, epiphyte, terricolous, and saxicolous bryophytes were taken, and the effects of time since fire, environmental factors and forest structural drivers were examined. Our findings suggest that there is no common pattern of post-fire recolonization and that climate and forest structure are the most significant factors. The results deepen our understanding of the compositional trends in communities like mosses and liverworts, which have high dispersal and strong dependence on microclimates
Downloads
References
•Baldwin LK & GE Bradfield. (2007). Bryophyte responses to fragmentation in temperate coastal rainforests: a functional group approach. Biological
Conservation, 136(3), 408-422.
•Bello Rodríguez V, Gómez LA, Fernández López Á, Del Arco Aguilar MJ, Hernández Hernández R, Emerson B, & JM González Mancebo (2019) Short and long term effects of fire in subtropical cloud forests on an oceanic island. Land Degradation & Development, 30(4), 448-458.
•Berdugo MB & M Dovciak (2019) Bryophytes in fir waves: Forest canopy indicator species and functional diversity decline in canopy gaps. Journal of Vegetation Science, 30(2), 235-246.
•Boer MM, De Dios VR, Stefaniak EZ, & RA Bradstock (2021) A hydroclimatic model for the distribution of fire on Earth. Environmental Research Communications, 3(3), 035001.
• Cedrés-Perdomo RD, Hernández-Hernández R, Emerson BC, & JM González-Mancebo (2023) Multiple responses of bryophytes in a chronosequence of burnt areas in non-fire prone subtropical cloud forests. Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics, 58, 125702.
•Del Arco MJ, Wildpret W, Pérez De Paz PL, Rodrí-guez O, Acebes JR, García-Gallo A, Martín VE, Reyes-Betancourt JA, Salas M, Bermejo JA, González R, Cabrera MV, S García (2006). Mapa de Vegetación de Canarias. GRAFCAN, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, p. 550.
• Downing WM, Krawchuk MA, Coop JD, Meigs GW, Haire SL, Walker RB, Whitman E, Chong G, Miller C & C Tortorelli (2020). How do plant communities differ between fire refugia and fire-generated early-seral vegetation? Journal of Vegetation Science, 31 (1), 26–39.
• During HJ (1992). Ecological classifications of bryophytes and lichens. In: Bates JW, AM Farmer (Eds.), Bryophytes and Lichens in a Changing Environment. Clarendon Press, Oxford, pp. 1–31.
•Gosper CR, Pettit MJ, Andersen AN, Yates CJ & SM Prober (2015). Multi-century dynamics of ant communities following fire in Mediterranean-climate woodlands: are changes congruent with vegetation succession? Forest Ecology and Management, 342, 30–38.
Hernández-Hernández R, Castro J, Del Arco Aguilar M, Fernández-López ÁB & JM González-Man cebo (2017). Post-fire salvage logging imposes a new disturbance that retards succession: the case of bryophyte communities in a Macaronesian laurel forest. Forests, 8(7), 252.
•Höllermann P (2000). The impact of fire in Canarian ecosystems 1983–1998. Erdkunde 54, 70–75.
•Nogué S, de Nascimento L, Fernández-Palacios JM, Whittaker R & KJ Willis (2013). The ancient forests of La Gomera, Canary Islands, and their sensitivity to environmental change. Journal of Ecology, 101 (368), 377.
•Pausas JG & JE Keeley (2009). A burning story: the role of fire in the history of life. BioScience, 59 (7), 593–601.
•Pielou, EC (1969). An Introduction to Mathematical Ecology. Wiley Interscience - John Wiley and Sons, New York.
•Resco de Dios, V (2020). Plant-fire interactions. In: Applying Ecophysiology to Wildfire Management, 36. Springer, Cham, Switzerland