Land-use and fire history effects on post-fire vegetation dynamics in eastern Spain

Uppsala

Opullus Press

2008

S. 97-108

7 Abb., 3 Tab., 50 Lit. Ang.

Artikel aus einer ZeitschriftUnselbständiges Werk

200146148

Journal of Vegetation Science 2008, 19(1), S. 97-108

After mapping the land-use and fire history of the study site using photo-interpretation, we sampled vegetation structure on a set of plots representing the most frequent land-use and fire history combinations on an area burned six years before sampling. We studied the effects of land-use history, comparing the one-fire land-use trajectories. We analysed the effects of fire history; comparing one- and two-fire plots for both previously cropped and uncropped areas. Results: Most variables were not significantly different between the earliest abandoned plots (abandoned at least 38 years before the fire) and the uncropped plots. On the most recently abandoned plots (abandoned between one and four years before the fire), the therophyte richness and the ratio of seeder:resprouter richness were significantly greatest. Different fire recurrences did not determine different post-fire vegetation on either the uncropped or the early abandoned plots (all dominated by fire-recruited seeder shrubs). The most recently abandoned plots had a lower resilience to fire.