Impacts of pre-fire conifer density and wildfire severity on ecosystem structure and function at the forest-tundra ecotone.

ABSTRACT: Wildfire frequency and extent is increasing throughout the boreal forest-tundra ecotone as climate warms. Understanding the impacts of wildfire throughout this ecotone is required to make predictions of the rate and magnitude of changes in boreal-tundra landcover, its future flammability, and associated feedbacks to the global carbon (C) cycle and climate. We studied 48 sites spanning a gradient from tundra to low-density spruce stands that were burned in an extensive 2013 wildfire on the north slope of the Alaska Range in Denali National Park and Preserve, central Alaska. We assessed wildfire severity and C emissions, and determined the impacts of severity on understory vegetation composition, conifer tree recruitment, and active layer thickness (ALT). We also assessed conifer seed rain a

SUBMITTER: Walker XJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8553150 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature