Abstract
Pinus halepensis forests are among the forest ecosystems in the Mediterranean Basin most affected by fire. Their distribution across lowland areas, in particular along the wildland–urban interface, increases the need to understand their ecology and responses to fire regime for their effective management. Apart from the extremely flammable tree layer, in several stands of these forests there is an increased fuel load attributed to the well-developed understorey of evergreen sclerophyllous shrubs. Taking into consideration that, in contrast with the long period required for full development of post-fire-regenerating pines, these shrubs resprout vigorously within the first post-fire weeks, it is important to explore the temporal trend of fuel accumulation to determine the risk of a second fire across a burned landscape. Two post-fire chronosequences of, in total, 12 P. halepensis stands were considered for sampling in Central Greece. The first chronosequence corresponds to pine stands characterized by the dominance of evergreen sclerophyllous shrubs in the understorey (Type 1) whereas the second chronosequence corresponds to pine stands where the cover of such shrubs was lower (Type 2). This study helps in understanding the fuel dynamics according to the type of P. halepensis forest stand and to anticipate future biomass growth. The proposed equations are simple tools, enabling land managers to estimate understorey total fuel load easily by visually recording the cover and height of the evergreen sclerophyllous shrub component, to justify understorey fuel reduction measures.
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Acknowledgments
This paper is based on data collected for the Ph.D. dissertation of the first author. His work was extended, leading to the current publication, in the framework of the EUFIRELAB research project, funded by the European Commission, DG Research, 5th Framework Programme (Contract EVR1-CT-2002-40028). Mrs Penny Marinou (Litterae®) edited the manuscript.
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Kazanis, D., Xanthopoulos, G. & Arianoutsou, M. Understorey fuel load estimation along two post-fire chronosequences of Pinus halepensis Mill. forests in Central Greece. J For Res 17, 105–109 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10310-011-0250-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10310-011-0250-0