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Do biological invasions by Eupatorium adenophorum increase forest fire severity?

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Abstract

The invasive species Eupatorium adenophorum is known to influence stand structure and wildfire the hazard in forests. In the current work, we quantitatively examined fire effects in invaded and uninvaded plots in southwestern Sichuan Province, China, with five different forest sites that had different types of dominant species: Pinus yunnanensis, P. yunnanensis–Quercus spp., Keteleeria fortunei, K. fortunei–Quercus spp., and Eucalyptus robusta. We compared the fuel chemistry (moisture, ash, heat value, and ignition point) and fire severity (flame length, fire intensity) under three burning conditions between the invaded and uninvaded plots in each forest sites, and then analyzed the results using multivariate response permutation procedures (MRPP). The burning conditions included: low (fine fuel moisture of 15 % and 5 km/h windspeed), moderate (fine fuel moisture of 10 % and 15 km/h windspeed), and extreme (fine fuel moisture of 5 % and 30 km/h windspeed). With all five sites, the fire severity and fuel loads were clearly significantly higher at the invaded sites. Fire severity was also intensified in the invaded coniferous sites compared to their mixed forest sites. These results indicate that biological invasions may increase the surface fire severity, perhaps through an increase in the heat value, and fuel loads, while reducing the moisture, ash, and ignition point of the understory herbaceous.

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Acknowledgments

This study is part of Special Research Program for Public-welfare Forestry: Responses of forests to climate change and adaptive strategy of forestry in China, Grant No. 200804001; Thanks are due to the Headquarters of Forest Fire Prevention, Sichuan Province for useful fire data on statistical analysis. We would also like to thank the Command College of Armed Police Forces, Beijing, P. R. China for experiment.

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  1. College of Forestry, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, 100083, China

    San Wang & Shukui Niu

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  1. San Wang
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Correspondence to Shukui Niu.

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The manuscript has not been previously published, is not currently submitted for review to any other journal, and will not be submitted elsewhere before a decision is made by this journal. In addition, a justification for the publication in Journal of Power Sources is enclosed.

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Wang, S., Niu, S. Do biological invasions by Eupatorium adenophorum increase forest fire severity?. Biol Invasions 18, 717–729 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-015-1043-8

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