Abstract
We asked whether prescribed fire could be a useful management tool to reduce invasion by non-native plants in an ecosystem where native plants are supposed to be adapted to fires. Specifically, we compare the post-fire resprouting response of native and non-native woody species in Chaco Serrano forest of central Argentina. The measurements were carried out in five burnt areas where we selected ten native and seven non-native species. Our response variables were (1) post-fire survival, (2) types of resprouts, and (3) the growth of the resprouts. Our main results show that one year after the fire, survivals of native and non-native species were 0.84 and 0.89, respectively, with variances in survival seven times smaller in the native species group. Type of resprout was also less variable in native species, while growth of the resprouts was similar in native and non-native groups. We interpret that in most cases, the burning a forest with mixed native and non-native plants through prescribed fires will not differentially stop the invasion by non-native woody species even in ecosystems which are presumed to be relatively resistant to fires such as our study area.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alinari J, von Müller A, Renison D (2015) The contribution of fire damage to restricting high mountain Polylepis australis forests to ravines: insights from an un-replicated comparison. Ecol Austral 25:11–18
Aráoz E, Grau HR (2010) Fire-mediated forest encroachment in response to climatic and land-use change in Subtropical Andean treelines. Ecosystems 13:992–1005
Batcher MS (2000) Element stewardship abstract for Ligustrum spp., privet. http://www.invasive.org/weedcd/pdfs/tncweeds/ligu_sp.pdf.1606. Accessed 9 Dec 2014
Bellingham PJ, Sparrow AD (2000) Resprouting as a life history strategy in woody plant communities. Oikos 89:409–416
Bond WJ, Midgley JJ (2001) Ecology of sprouting in woody plants: the persistence niche. Trends Ecol Evol 16:45–51
Bravo S, Kunst C, Leiva M, Ledesma R (2014) Response of hardwood tree regeneration to surface fires, western Chaco region, Argentina. For Ecol Manage 326:36–45
Brooks ML (2008) Effects of fire suppression and post-fire management activities on plant invasions. In: Kristin Zouhar, Smith JK, Sutherland S, Brooks ML (eds) Wildland fire Ecosystems: fire and nonnative invasive plants, 6th edn. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, pp 33–45
Brooks ML, D’Antonio CM, Richardson DM, Grace JB, Keeley JE, DiTomaso JM, Hobbs RJ, Pellant M, Pyke D (2004) Effects of invasive alien plants on fire regimes. Bioscience 54:677–688
Brown JK, Smith JK, Kapler J (2000) Wildland fire in ecosystems: Effects of fire on flora. 2nd and. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station
Cabrera AL (1994) Enciclopedia Argentina de agricultura y jardinería.Tomo 2. Fasciculo 1. Regiones Fitogeográficas Argentinas. Buenos Aires, Argentina
Capitanelli RG (1979) Clima. In: Vázquez JB, Miatello RA, Roque E (eds) Geografía Física de la Provincia de Córdoba, Boldt. Buenos Aires, Argentina, pp 45–138
Cingolani AM, Vaieretti MV, Giorgis MA, La Torre N, Whitworth-Hulse JI, Renison D (2013) Can livestock and fires convert the sub-tropical mountain rangelands of central Argentina into a rocky desert? Rangel J 35:285–297
Clarke PJ, Lawes MJ, Midgley JJ, Lamont BB, Ojeda F, Burrows GE, Enright NJ, Knox KJE (2013) Resprouting as a key functional trait: how buds, protection and resources drive persistence after fire. New Phytol 197:19–35
Cruz A, Pérez B, Moreno JM (2003) Resprouting of the Mediterranean-type shrub Erica australis with modified lignotuber carbohydrate content. J Ecol 91:348–356
DiTomaso JM, Brooks ML, Allen EB, Minnich R, Rice PM, Kyser GB (2006) Control of invasive weeds with prescribed burning. Weed Technol 20:535–548
Gavier GI, Bucher EH (2004) Deforestación de las sierras chicas de Córdoba (Argentina) en el período 1970-1997. Córdoba, Argentina
Giorgis MA, Tecco PA (2014) Árboles y arbustos invasores de la Provincia de Córdoba (Argentina): una contribución a la sistematización de bases de datos globales. Boletín de la Sociedad Argentina de Botánica 49:581–603
Giorgis MA, Tecco PA, Cingolani AM, Renison D, Marcora P, Paiaro V (2010) Factors associated with woody alien species distribution in a newly invaded mountain system of central Argentina. Biol Invasions 13:1423–1434
Grau HR, Veblen TT (2000) Rainfall variability, fire and vegetation dynamics in neotropical montane ecosystems in Argentina. J Biogeogr 27:1107–1121
Gurvich DE, Enrico L, Cingolani AM (2005) Linking plant functional traits with post fire sprouting vigour in woody species in central Argentina. Austral Ecol 30:789–796
Hodgkinson KC (1998) Sprouting success of shrubs after fire: height-dependent relationships for different strategies. Oecologia 115:64–72
Hoyos LE, Gavier-Pizarro GI, Kuemmerle T, Bucher EH, Radeloff VC, Tecco PA (2010) Invasion of glossy privet (Ligustrum lucidum) and native forest loss in the Sierras Chicas of Córdoba, Argentina. Biol Invasions 12:3261–3275
Jaureguiberry P, Díaz S (2015) Post-burning regeneration of the Chaco seasonally dry forest: germination response of dominant species to experimental heat shock. Oecologia 177:689–699
Keeley JE (2006) Fire management impacts on invasive plants in the western United States. Conserv Biol 20:375–384
Keeley JE, Brennan TJ (2012) Fire-driven alien invasion in a fire-adapted ecosystem. Oecologia 169:1043–1052
Klinger R, Underwood EC, Moore PE (2000) The role of environmental gradients in non-native plant invasion into burnt areas of Yosemite National Park, California. Divers Distrib 12:139–156
Krawchuk MA, Moritz MA, Parisien MA, Van Dorn J, Hayhoe K (2009) Global pyrogeography: the current and future distribution of wildfire. PLoS One 4:e5102
Kunst C, Bravo S, Moscovich F, Herrera J, Godoy J, Vélez S (2003) Fecha de aplicación de fuego y diversidad de herbáceas en una sabana de Elionorus muticus (Spreng) O. Kuntze. Rev Chil de Hist Nat 76:105–115
Lamont BB, Downes KS (2011) Fire-stimulated flowering among resprouters and geophytes in Australia and South Africa. Plant Ecol 212:2111–2125
Lawes MJ, Clarke PJ (2011) Ecology of plant resprouting: populations to community responses in fire-prone ecosystems. Plant Ecol 212:1937–1943
Mack RN, Simberloff D, Mark Lonsdale W, Evans H, Clout M, Bazzaz FA (2000) Biotic invasions: causes, epidemiology, global consequences, and control. Ecol Appl 10:689–710
Mandle L, Bufford JL, Schmidt IB, Daehler CC (2011) Woody exotic plant invasions and fire: reciprocal impacts and consequences. Biol Invasions 13:1815–1827
Miglietta S (1994) Patrón de ocurrencia de fuegos y su efecto sobre vegetación en el bosque Serrano de Córdoba. Tesis de Maestría, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Córdoba, Argentina
Moreira F, Catry F, Duarte I, Vanda A, Joaquim SS (2009) A conceptual model of sprouting responses in relation to fire damage: an example with cork oak (Quercus suber L.) trees in Southern Portugal. Plant Ecol 201:77–85
Myers RL (2006) Convivir con el fuego. The Nature Conservancy, Tallahassee
Peláez EJJ (2010) Planificación del manejo del fuego. Universidad de Guadalajara-Centro Universitario de la Costa Sur Fundación Manantlán para la Biodiversidad de Occidente A.C. Consejo Civil Mexicano para la Silvicultura Sostenible A.C. Fondo Mexicano para la Conservación de la Naturaleza A.C
Pyke DA, Brooks ML, D’Antonio C (2010) Fire as a restoration tool: a decision framework for predicting the control or enhancement of plants using fire. Restor Ecol 18:274–284
R Core Team (2014) R: a language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria.
Renison D, Cingolani AM, Suarez R (2002) Efectos del fuego sobre un bosquecillo de Polylepis australis (Rosaceae) en las montañas de Córdoba, Argentina. Rev Chil de Hist Nat 75:719–727
Renison D, Hensen I, Suarez R (2011) Landscape structural complexity of high-mountain Polylepis australis forests: a new aspect of restoration goals. Restor Ecol 19:390–398
Sarry S, Abedini W (2001) Selección de callos organogéneticos tolerantes a baja temperatura y regeneración de plantas de Melia azedarach L. Revista Fitotecnia Mexicana 24:95–102
Schutz AEN, Bond WJ, Cramer MD (2011) Defoliation depletes the carbohydrate reserves of resprouting Acacia saplings in an African savanna. Plant Ecol 212:2047–2055
Seastedt TR (2014) Biological control of invasive plant species: a reassessment for the Anthropocene. New Phytol 205:490–502
Stone KR (2009) Fire effects information system [Online]. U.S. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). In: Morus alba. http://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/
Tecco PA, Diaz S, Gurvich DE, Perez Harguindeguy N, Cabido M, Bertone GA (2006) Positive interaction between invasive plants: the influence of Pyracantha angustifolia on the recruitment of native and exotic woody species. Aust Ecol 31:293–300
Tecco PA, Díaz S, Cabido M, Urcelay C (2010) Functional traits of alien plants across contrasting climatic and land-use regimes: do aliens join the locals or try harder than them? J Ecol 98:17–27
Torres RC, Giorgis MA, Trillo C, Volkmann L, Demaio P, Heredia J, Renison D (2014) Post-fire recovery occurs overwhelmingly by resprouting in the Chaco Serrano forest of Central Argentina. Aust Ecol 39:346–354
Vallejo VR, Arianoutsou M, Moreira F (2012) Post-fire management and restoration of Southern European forests. In: Moreira F, Arianoutsou M, Corona P, De Las Heras J (eds) Fire ecology and post-fire restoration approaches in southern european forest types. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 93–119
Verzino G, Joseau J, Dorado M, Gellert E, Rodríguez Reartes S, Nóbile R (2005) Impacto de los incendios sobre la diversidad vegetal, Sierras de Córdoba, Argentina. Ecol Aplicada 4:25–34
Waggy M (2009) Melia azedarach. In: Fire Eff. Inf. Syst. U.S. Dep. Agric. For. Serv. Rocky Mt. Res. Station. Fire Sci. Lab. http://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/ [2009, November 16]. Accessed 26 Apr 2014
Watson PJ, Bradstock RA, Morris EC (2009) Fire frequency influences composition and structure of the shrub layer in an Australian subcoastal temperate grassy woodland. Aust Ecol 34:218–232
Wells PV (1969) The relation between mode of reproduction and extent of speciation in woody genera of the California chaparral. Evolution 23:264–267
Zak M, Cabido M, Hodgson JG (2004) Do subtropical seasonal forests in the Gran Chaco, Argentina, have a future? Biol Conserv 120:589–598
Zeballos SR, Giorgis MA, Cingolani AM, Cabido M, Whitworth-Hulse JI, Gurvich DE (2014) Do alien and native tree species from Central Argentina differ in their water transport strategy? Aust Ecol 39:984–991
Zouhar K, Smith JK, Sutherland S, Brooks ML (2008) Wildland fire in ecosystems: Fire and nonnative invasive plants. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Ogden 6:355
Acknowledgments
We are grateful to Verga E, Petrochelli D, and Fioretti N for helping in the field. We also thank Mestre L, Pollice J, Lett I, Capó E, Chartier M, and Ibarra I for the ideas, discussions, and advice on an earlier version of the manuscript. Nori J assisted in the preparation of the map. We also acknowledge the associate editor and two anonymous reviewers, who made important suggestions that have improved the manuscript. Our work was supported by Rufford Small Grants and CONICET (PIP#11220120100164CO). DR is researcher of CONICET.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Herrero, M.L., Torres, R.C. & Renison, D. Do Wildfires Promote Woody Species Invasion in a Fire-Adapted Ecosystem? Post-fire Resprouting of Native and Non-native Woody Plants in Central Argentina. Environmental Management 57, 308–317 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-015-0616-8
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-015-0616-8