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Fire-related features of wood anatomy in a sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa) coppice in southern Switzerland

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Abstract

Explorative wood anatomical analysis was conducted on a Castanea sativa stand in southern Switzerland, where a moderate-intensity surface fire burned in April 1997. Cross-sections were sampled at multiple heights from 20 scarred shoots, 20 apparently intact shoots, along with cores taken from 20 reference trees outside the fire area. Thin sections were prepared from uphill and downhill locations on the circumference for up to 5 years preceding and following the event year. The thin sections were visually observed in order to identify a response to the known fire event preserved in the wood anatomical structure. Anatomical features were observed at the uphill and downhill locations on both scarred and intact (unscarred) cross-sections, and they occurred in a subset of the observed samples. The features observed in both scarred and intact cross-sections were an apparent increase in vessel density and a decrease in lumen area of the second row of earlywood vessels, along with tyloses formation in the first row of earlywood vessels. Furthermore, the scarred region exhibited a zone of delayed cambial death following the fire, and the onset of woundwood was often initiated later in the season or the following year. Using the type of features and their location around the circumference, we inferred that the observed features may have formed in response to local heating of the cambium, and likely formed in response to canopy damage.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge the field and laboratory assistance of several individuals: Patrick Fonti, Franco Fibbioli, Roger Koechli, Fritz Schweingruber, Anne Verstege. Beat Kaiser is the local forester who allowed for the study to be conducted. Valerie Trouet assisted by independently dating the fire scars. We thank an anonymous reviewer for helpful comments with the manuscript. This research was supported by a fellowship from the Swiss Government/Fulbright Commission.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, University of Arizona, 105 W. Stadium, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA

    Erica Bigio

  2. Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Zürcherstrasse 111, 8903, Birmensdorf, Switzerland

    Holger Gärtner

  3. Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Via Belsoggiorno 22, 6500, Bellinzona, Switzerland

    Marco Conedera

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  1. Erica Bigio
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  2. Holger Gärtner
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  3. Marco Conedera
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Correspondence to Erica Bigio.

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Communicated by M. Zwieniecki.

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Bigio, E., Gärtner, H. & Conedera, M. Fire-related features of wood anatomy in a sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa) coppice in southern Switzerland. Trees 24, 643–655 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00468-010-0434-9

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