"Neighbours consistently influence tree growth and survival in a frequently burned open oak landscape" #rxfire #oak #lter @cedarcreekesr @oakfirescience

"Neighbours consistently influence tree growth and survival in a frequently burned open oak landscape"

This open-access article was published May 18, 2022 in Journal of Ecology.  Access the article through the permanent web address (DOI)  (https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.13906)

Abstract

Successful management of fire-prone woody ecosystems is challenging and requires knowledge of the spatial arrangement of the trees and how the tree distribution patterns influence the nature and consequences of subsequent fires.

In open tree landscapes, trees are often aggregated, and the ability of trees within the clumps to survive fires plays a significant role in determining subsequent landscape dynamics. If positive interactions exist among neighbouring trees, this will help maintain the patterns of clumped trees. However, the tree-aggregated landscape will continue to exist only if the positive neighbour interactions persist consistently over time. In cases where disturbances are episodic, detecting these interactions is only possible through long-term studies.

Data reported here are from a 25-year study involving the annual tree censusing of a large grid-plot in a frequently burned open oak landscape dominated by Quercus macrocarpa and Quercus ellipsoidallis. The results showed that while having neighbours reduced tree growth, neighbours consistently facilitated survival, irrespective as to whether the neighbours were conspecifics or heterospecifics. Trees of all sizes in close proximity to neighbours were considerably more likely to survive fire throughout the study. This neighbour facilitation is likely the result of a reduction of both herbaceous and woody fuel within clumps.

Synthesis.

This is the first study to document consistent neighbour facilitation among trees experiencing repeated stressors over an extended time period. Our findings support the literature documenting positive neighbour effects among plants in stressful and highly disturbed environments, in accordance with the stress-gradient hypothesis. While aggregated tree regeneration is typically viewed as the primary cause for the development of tree clumps in fire-prone ecosystems, our study showed that aggregated tree survival, by itself, can also be an important driver of post-fire tree clumping. Our results support the growing literature emphasizing the importance of landscape heterogeneity as a driver of resilience in fire-prone tree ecosystems, and the value of maintaining or creating this heterogeneity during forest management.

Citation

Davis, M. A., & Condit, R. (2022). Neighbours consistently influence tree growth and survival in a frequently burned open oak landscape. Journal of Ecology, 110, 1802– 1812.

“Delayed Tree Mortality After Prescribed Fires in Mixed Oak Forests in Northwestern Ohio” #rxfire #savanna #oak @oakopenings @mymetroparks @foresters

“Delayed Tree Mortality After Prescribed Fires in Mixed Oak Forests in Northwestern Ohio”

This open access article was published July 5, 2021 in the journal Forest Science. Access the article through the permanent web address (DOI) (https://doi.org/10.1093/forsci/fxab022)

Abstract

Delayed tree mortality can contribute to variability in fire effects in forests, but its prevalence is not well understood in eastern North American oak forests where a management goal is using prescribed fire to shape forest density and composition. To assess potential delayed mortality after prescribed fires, we tracked the fates of 690 trees of four species in burned and 542 trees in unburned oak forests in northwestern Ohio, USA, and modeled survival using tree diameter and bole char.

Delayed mortality, occurring 3–4 growing seasons after fire and in addition to initial mortality (1–2 growing seasons after fire), varied with species and tree diameter. Compared to initial mortality, delayed mortality resulted in eleven times more small-diameter (1–13 cm) red maple (Acer rubrum) dying after fire. White oak (Quercus alba), 1–25 cm in diameter, also incurred delayed mortality (five-times increase in dead trees). Neither sassafras (Sassafras albidum) nor black oak (Quercus velutina) displayed delayed mortality. Background tree mortality in unburned sites was minimal (0.4% per year across species). Logistic regression to model canopy survival selected only stem diameter for burned red maple trees, whereas both diameter and bole char related to survival in other species.

Results suggest that (1) monitoring postfire tree mortality in oak forests should extend for at least four growing seasons to detect delayed mortality in some species, and that (2) single surface fires may eventually reduce encroaching red maple in oak forests more than initial postfire years indicate.

Keywords: Acer rubrum; burns; hardwoods; Sassafras albidum; Quercus alba; Quercus velutina; survival models

Citation

Abella, Scott R., LaRae A. Sprow, and Timothy A. Schetter. "Delayed Tree Mortality After Prescribed Fires in Mixed Oak Forests in Northwestern Ohio." Forest Science 67, no. 4 (2021): 412-418.

A Brief Update and Overview of the New Science Blog #FireEcology #RxFire

The "New Science Blog" exists to increase the rate at which relevant science is shared with practitioners and researchers in the Upper Midwest.

Curating the blog:

The blog is curated to meet our major goal of sharing applied science with practitioners.

Papers shared via the blog are selected for their potential relevance to fire practitioners, land managers, ecologists, researchers, and policy makers in the region.

Your feedback about whether we were too narrow or too broad with our first selections will help us modify how we determine which papers to share.

How we find new publications:

The primary way we find new publications is through Google Scholar. Google Scholar alerts notify us when new fire science publications have been published for the tallgrass prairie and oak savanna ecosystems; for example, Google Scholar alerts notify us of papers that include both the phrase "tallgrass prairie" and "fire."

You can easily create your own advanced searches and get updates in your inbox using the "Create alert" icon at the bottom of the left-hand menu on Google Scholar (scholar.google.com).

Other common ways we hear about new publications are through pre-publication presentations at conferences, updates on Twitter, and directly from authors.

The types of publications we tend to share:

Readers can expect to see an emphasis on papers that compare restoration and management techniques that incorporate prescribed fire (for example, research published in Restoration Ecology, Ecological Restoration, Fire Ecology, Conservation Biology, Ecosphere). Studies of fire effects on taxa and other natural history papers also provide valuable information to land stewards and wildlife biologists (journals such as American Midland Naturalist [RIP], Natural Areas Journal, and Biodiversity Conservation).

We will also share papers that provide examples of fire ecology research methods that can be applied to management challenges in the TPOS region even if the study was not conducted here.

Some or our readers have interest in papers that share interesting perspectives on fire ecology, wildfire, and prescribed fire, whether or not the information can be directly applied. You can expect to see about 5-10 percent of posts here sharing new peer-reviewed papers that address national policy, issues that affect public opinion about prescribed fire (like smoke), and fire science that is otherwise nationally or internationally notable.

There are multiple options to follow the New Science Blog:

There are a couple of ways to access the New Science Blog.

The blog is linked to the "Just New Papers" Twitter account (@strictlyfiresci), which posts automatically as this blog is updated. [If you're reading this, chances are you came here via Twitter.]

As information technology scholars have long noted, one weakness of Twitter is that  "not every user may have something worthwhile to tweet" (Information Systems: A Manager’s Guide to Harnessing Technology, 2010). While the future of Twitter has become more precarious at approximately the same time this blog has been ramping up, there are other ways recieve updates from the New Science blog.

An alternative way is to subscribe via RSS, a tool familiar to Gen X and Elder Millennials. Believe it or not, there are still some ways to do this, but it's now a niche technology. IYKYK - http://www.tposfirescience.org/new-science/rss.xml

The third way, and the simplest for those who aren't interested in Twitter, is to watch for research round ups in the TPOS newsletter (join here).

References

"Twitter and the Rise of Microblogging," in Information Systems: A Manager’s Guide to Harnessing Technology, 2011, https://open.lib.umn.edu/informationsystems/chapter/7-5-twitter-and-the-rise-of-microblogging/. Accessed Nov. 8, 2022.

“Community assembly history alters relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem functions during restoration” #grasslands @catano_chris @lars_brudvig @DrAnnaFunk

“Community assembly history alters relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem functions during restoration”

This open access article was published online on October 31, 2022 in the journal Ecology. Access the article through the permanent web address (DOI) (https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.3910)

Abstract

Relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning depend on the processes structuring community assembly. However, predicting biodiversity-ecosystem functioning relationships based on community assembly remains challenging because assembly outcomes are often contingent on history and the consequences of history for ecosystem functions are poorly understood. In a grassland restoration experiment, we isolated the role of history for the relationships between plant biodiversity and multiple ecosystem functions by initiating assembly in three different years, while controlling for all other aspects of community assembly.

We found that two aspects of assembly history — establishment year and succession — altered species and trait community trajectories, which in turn altered net primary productivity, decomposition rates, and floral resources. Moreover, history altered biodiversity-ecosystem functioning relationships (which ranged from positive to negative), both within and across functions, by modifying the causal pathways linking species identity, traits, diversity, and ecosystem functions. Our results show that the interplay of deterministic succession and environmental stochasticity during establishment mediate historical contingencies that cause variation in biodiversity and ecosystem functions, even under otherwise identical assembly conditions.

An explicit attention to history is needed to understand why biodiversity-ecosystem function relationships vary in natural ecosystems: a critical question at the intersection of fundamental theory and applications to environmental change biology and ecosystem restoration.

Keywords: alternative states; colonization; decomposition; floral resources; functional traits; historical contingency; primary productivity; seed dispersal; stochasticity; succession; tallgrass prairie; year effects

Citation

Catano, Christopher P., Anna M. Groves, and Lars A. Brudvig. "Community assembly history alters relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem functions during restoration." Ecology: e3910.

"Fire and Insect Interactions in North American Forests" - #pollinators #rxfire #savanna #woodland @usfs_psw @usfs_srs @usfs_rmrs

"Fire and Insect Interactions in North American Forests"

This review article was published Aug. 19, 2022, in Current Forestry Reports. Access the article for free from the USDA Forest Service’s Treesearch database (https://www.fs.usda.gov/research/treesearch/64856)

Abstract

Purpose of Review
Fire and insects are major disturbances in North American forests. We reviewed literature on the effects of fire on bark beetles, defoliators, and pollinators, as well as on the effects of bark beetle and defoliator epidemics on fuels and wildfires.

Recent Findings
Fire has direct and indirect effects on insects, but our understanding of these effects is confounded by several factors identified in this review. Direct effects are expressed through insect mortality due to exposure to fire, with few studies published on this topic. Indirect effects are expressed through changes in insect hosts and forest conditions, with bark beetle responses to fire-injured trees following prescribed fires and low-severity wildfires being the most studied. Although fire effects on pollinators are an emerging field of research, it is clear that fire can benefit pollinators by creating more open forest conditions, which, in turn, enhance floral resource availability. Bark beetle and defoliator epidemics can exert large effects on fuels, but their effects on wildfires are mixed. Differences in the severity, extent, and timing of epidemics, fire regimes, fire weather, topography, and the metrics and models used to assess wildfires, among other factors, confound our understanding of the effects of bark beetle and defoliator epidemics on wildfires.

Summary
Fire has both positive and negative effects on insects. Bark beetle and defoliator epidemics have positive and negative effects on wildfires. Additional study of these relationships is warranted given the effects of climate change on forests and forest disturbances, recent declines in some pollinator species in North America, and interests in restoring fire-adapted forest ecosystems.

Keywords: Bark beetles; Defoliators; Pollinators; Prescribed fire; Tree mortality; Wildfire;

Citation

Fettig, Christopher J., Justin B. Runyon, Crystal S. Homicz, Patrick James, and Michael D. Ulyshen. "Fire and Insect Interactions in North American Forests." Current Forestry Reports (2022): 1-16.

“Within-Year Effects of Prescribed Fire on Bumble Bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae) and Floral Resources” #rxfire #bees #grassland @grattonlab

“Within-Year Effects of Prescribed Fire on Bumble Bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae) and Floral Resources”

This open access article was published in January 2022 in the Journal of Insect Science.
Access the article through the permanent web address (DOI) (https://doi.org/10.1093/jisesa/ieab107)

Abstract

Despite the importance of bumble bees (genus Bombus Latreille) for their services to natural and agricultural environments, we know little about the relationship between grassland management practices and bumble bee conservation. Prescribed fire is a common grassland maintenance tool, including in areas where endangered and threatened bumble bees are present. Thus, knowledge of the effects of prescribed fire on bumble bees is essential for designing management schemes that protect and bolster their populations.

Using nonlethal surveys to record bumble bee species richness, abundance, and community composition, we evaluated the effects of spring controlled burns on summer bumble bee gynes and workers across five sites in southern Wisconsin. In addition, we explored the effects of fire on floral resources by measuring floral genus richness, abundance, ground cover, and proportion of transects containing blooming flowers in adjacent burned and unburned parcels.

Prescribed fire had no measurable effects on bumble bee gyne or worker community composition, species richness, or abundance. However, consistent with previous studies prescribed fire increased floral genus richness and ground cover. The disconnect between bumble bee and floral responses to fire highlights some opportunities for improving our understanding of fire’s effects on bumble bee diapause, nest site choice, and foraging.

Keywords: bumble bees; fire; tallgrass prairie; grassland

Citation

Tai, T. M., A. Kaldor, D. Urbina, and C. Gratton. "Within-Year Effects of Prescribed Fire on Bumble Bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae) and Floral Resources." Journal of Insect Science 22, no. 1 (2022): 7.

“Variation in prescribed fire and bison grazing supports multiple bee nesting groups in tallgrass prairie” #rxfire #grazing #pollinators #bees @beepunstings @larval_yeti @zachportman

“Variation in prescribed fire and bison grazing supports multiple bee nesting groups in tallgrass prairie”

This article was published July 30, 2021 in the journal Restoration Ecology.

Access the article through the permanent web address (DOI) (https://doi.org/10.1111/rec.13507)

Abstract

Fire and grazing are historic ecosystem drivers of tallgrass prairie and both are used for restoration management today. The effects of these drivers on animal taxa are still incompletely resolved, especially for wild bees, a growing conservation and restoration priority. Fire and grazing could affect wild bee communities through structural changes to nest site availability via changes to soil conditions, vegetative cover, and availability of plant stems.

Here, we sought to determine how different bee nesting groups are affected by the combination of fire and bison grazing management strategies. We grouped bee species by nesting substrate (ground, stem/hole, large cavity) because we expect the availability of these substrates to vary with the application of prescribed fire and grazing. We collected bees in restored and remnant high-quality tallgrass prairie and analyzed whether the proportion of each nesting group within the total bee community was predicted by fire and/or grazing.

Ground-nesting bees reached their greatest proportion in bee communities immediately after prescribed fire, but declined proportionally over time since the last burn. Stem-/hole-nesting bees reached their highest proportion in the bee community with infrequent fire (6-year interval) and differed in their response to fire depending on the presence/absence of bison. Sampling year affected bee nesting groups and we found that nesting groups did not change in concert (i.e. different nesting groups had different good and bad years from each other).

Our results show that spatiotemporal variation of prescribed fire and bison grazing is essential for conservation of multiple bee nesting groups.

Keywords: bees; bison; functional traits; nesting; pollinator; restoration; tallgrass prairie

Citation

Bruninga‐Socolar, Bethanne, Sean R. Griffin, Zachary M. Portman, and Jason Gibbs. "Variation in prescribed fire and bison grazing supports multiple bee nesting groups in tallgrass prairie." Restoration Ecology 30, no. 3 (2022): e13507.

Can restoration of fire‐dependent ecosystems reduce ticks and tick‐borne disease prevalence in the eastern United States? @USFS_NRS @NorthAtlFireSci #rxfire

"Can restoration of fire‐dependent ecosystems reduce ticks and tick‐borne disease prevalence in the eastern United States?"

This review article was published April 14, 2022, in the journal Ecological Applications.
Access the article through the permanent web address (DOI) (https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.2637). This article can also be accessed for free through the USDA Treesearch database - https://www.fs.usda.gov/research/treesearch/65343

Abstract

Over the past century, fire suppression has facilitated broad ecological changes in the composition, structure, and function of fire-dependent landscapes throughout the eastern US, which are in decline. These changes have likely contributed mechanistically to the enhancement of habitat conditions that favor pathogencarrying tick species, key wildlife hosts of ticks, and interactions that have fostered pathogen transmission among them and to humans.

While the long running paradigm for limiting human exposure to tick-borne diseases focuses responsibility on individual prevention, the continued expansion of medically important tick populations, increased incidence of tick-borne disease in humans, and emergence of novel tick-borne diseases highlights the need for additional approaches to stem this public health challenge.

Another approach that has the potential to be a cost-effective and widely applied but that remains largely overlooked is the use of prescribed fire to ecologically restore degraded landscapes that favor ticks and pathogen transmission. We examine the ecological role of fire and its effects on ticks within the eastern United States, especially examining the life cycles of forest-dwelling ticks, shifts in regional-scale fire use over the past century, and the concept that frequent fire may have helped moderate tick populations and pathogen transmission prior to the so-called fire-suppression era that has characterized the past century.

We explore mechanisms of how fire and ecological restoration can reduce ticks, the potential for incorporating the mechanisms into the broader strategy for managing ticks, and the challenges, limitations, and research needs of prescribed burning for tick reduction.

Keywords: disturbances; forest structure; mesophication; microclimate; prescribed fire; ticks

Citation

Gallagher, Michael R., Jesse K. Kreye, Erika T. Machtinger, Alexis Everland, Nathaniel Schmidt, and Nicholas S. Skowronski. "Can restoration of fire‐dependent ecosystems reduce ticks and tick‐borne disease prevalence in the eastern United States? " Ecological Applications (2022): e2637.

Restoring the fire–grazing interaction promotes tree–grass coexistence by controlling woody encroachment #rxfire #grasslands #grazing

“Restoring the fire–grazing interaction promotes tree–grass coexistence by controlling woody encroachment”

This open access article was published online February 2020 in the journal Ecosphere. Access the article through the permanent web address (DOI) https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.2993

Abstract

Woody encroachment can convert grasslands and savannas to shrublands and woodlands, so understanding the processes which regulate woody encroachment is necessary to conserve or restore these ecosystems. We hypothesized that recreating the fire–grazing interaction would limit woody encroachment because focal grazing increases fuel accumulation on unburned areas and increases browsing on emergent woody plants in burned areas. This study was conducted in the Grand River Grasslands of Iowa and Missouri (USA) on 11 sites (15.4–35.0 ha). Each site was assigned to one treatment: patch-burn-graze (n = 4), with spatially discrete prescribed fires and free access by cattle (the fire–grazing interaction); graze-and-burn (n = 4), with free access by cattle and one burn of the entire site every 3 yr; or burn-only (n = 3), with one site-wide burn every 3–5 yr and no grazing. The burn-only treatment increased woody encroachment fourfold compared to the graze-and-burn and patch-burn-graze treatments (130.2, standard error [SE] = 16.0; 20.9, SE = 12.0; and 46.3, SE = 10.8; plants/200 m2). The patch-burn-graze treatment had 2–3 cm more accumulated fuel and woody plants which were 12% shorter, on average, than the other treatments (comparing eight common species). The movement of large herbivores also appeared to decrease the frequency of woody species which spread vegetatively. Our work illustrates how the fire–grazing interaction may control woody encroachment and shows that cattle substitute, at least partially, for endemic large herbivores.

Keywords: cattle; environmental filtering; fire–grazing interaction; fire-trap; herbivory; patch-burn grazing; taxon substitution; tree–grass coexistence; woody encroachment

Citation

Capozzelli, Jane F., James R. Miller, Diane M. Debinski, and Walter H. Schacht. "Restoring the fire–grazing interaction promotes tree–grass coexistence by controlling woody encroachment." Ecosphere 11, no. 2 (2020): e02993.

Managing invasive plants on Great Plains grasslands: A discussion of current challenges #capacity #rxfire

“Managing invasive plants on Great Plains grasslands: A discussion of current challenges”

This article was originally published in the 2021 issue of Rangeland Ecology and Management.

Access the article through the permanent web address (DOI) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rama.2020.04.003

Abstract

The Great Plains of North America encompass approximately 1,300,000 km2 of land from Texas to Saskatchewan. The integrity of these lands is under continual assault by long-established and newly-arrived invasive plant species, which can threaten native species and diminish land values and ecological goods and services by degrading desired grassland resources. The Great Plains are a mixture of privately and publicly owned lands, which leads to a patchwork of varying management goals and strategies for controlling invasive plants. Continually updated knowledge is required for efficient and effective management of threats posed by changing environments and invasive plants. Here we discuss current challenges, contemporary management strategies, and management tools and their integration, in hopes of presenting a knowledge resource for new and experienced land managers and others involved in making decisions regarding invasive plant management in the Great Plains.

Keywords: invasive species; prescribed fire; wildfire; integrated weed management; herbicide; grazing

Citation

Gaskin, John F., Erin Espeland, Casey D. Johnson, Diane L. Larson, Jane M. Mangold, Rachel A. McGee, Chuck Milner, Amy Symstad, et al. "Managing invasive plants on Great Plains grasslands: A discussion of current challenges." Rangeland Ecology & Management 78 (2021): 235-249.