NDLI: Impacts of Wildfire on the Composition and Structure of Riparian Forests in Southern California

Content Provider	Springer Nature Link
Author	Bendix, Jacob Cowell, C. Mark
Copyright Year	2009
Abstract	In southern California, wildfire is a ubiquitous agent shaping plant communities. Although fire impacts have been widely studied in chaparral-covered uplands, few data are available regarding fire and riparian vegetation. This study provides an example of the impact of a severe fire on riparian habitat. Plant species found in southern California gallery forests are typically adapted to maintaining populations following flood disturbances; we seek to determine whether structural and compositional changes following fire here demonstrate a similar quasi-equilibrium response. We sampled 65 quadrats on 11 transects along two streams in the Los Padres National Forest to characterize tree species size–class distributions before and after the 2002 Wolf Fire. We tested whether species exhibited differential patterns of survivorship and regeneration following the fire, and also tested for spatial variability in mortality within the floodplain. Alnus rhombifolia dominated the pre-fire forest, but experienced severe mortality in the fire and showed very limited resprouting after 3 years. Other prominent taxa (Populus, Salix, Quercus spp.) also lost considerable standing basal area, but had substantially greater rates of resprouting, resulting in a dramatically altered post-fire vegetation composition and structure. Fire impacts did not vary with landform position, leading to a distinctive homogenizing disturbance that contrasts with the spatially zoned and relatively stabilizing compositional influence that flood events have in this same riparian setting.
Starting Page	99
Ending Page	107
Page Count	9
File Format	PDF
ISSN	14329840
Journal	Ecosystems
Volume Number	13
Issue Number	1
e-ISSN	14350629
Language	English
Publisher	Springer-Verlag
Publisher Date	2009-11-21
Publisher Place	New York
Access Restriction	One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)
Subject Keyword	riparian vegetation riparian habitat fire disturbance Alnus Populus Salix California Nature Conservation Geoecology/Natural Processes Environmental Management Zoology Plant Sciences Ecology
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Ecology Environmental Chemistry Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics

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