Post-disturbance plant community dynamics following a rare natural-origin fire in a Tsuga canadensis forest.

ABSTRACT: Opportunities to directly study infrequent forest disturbance events often lead to valuable information about vegetation dynamics. In mesic temperate forests of North America, stand-replacing crown fire occurs infrequently, with a return interval of 2000-3000 years. Rare chance events, however, may have profound impacts on the developmental trajectories of forest ecosystems. For example, it has been postulated that stand-replacing fire may have been an important factor in the establishment of eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) stands in the northern Great Lakes region. Nevertheless, experimental evidence linking hemlock regeneration to non-anthropogenic fire is limited. To clarify this potential relationship, we monitored vegetation dynamics following a rare lightning-origin crown fire in

SUBMITTER: Murray BD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3424231 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature