Abstract
Patterns of fire occurrence within the Las Bayas Forestry Reserve, Mexico are analyzed in relation to variability in climate, topography, and human land-use. Significantly more fires with shorter fire return intervals occurred from 1900 to 1950 than from 1950 to 2001. However, the frequency of widespread fire years (25% filter) was unchanged over time, as widespread fires were synchronized by climatic extremes. Widespread fire years occurred during dry years that lagged wet years. Widespread fire years lagged the negative El Niño phase (wet winters) of the Southern Oscillation by 1 year, but were not synchronized by the positive, La Niña phase (dry winters) of the Southern Oscillation. The smaller, localized fires that occurred more frequently during the first half of the 20th century were attributed to changes in land tenure with the introduction of the ejido system in the early 1950s. Ejido management strategies lowered fire frequencies by suppressing fires and reducing anthropogenic fires. There were likely more ignitions prior to the arrival of the ejido system as fires were ignited by lightning and indigenous people. As the movement of indigenous peoples across the landscape has been restricted by changes in land tenure, numbers of human-ignited fires subsequently decreased post 1950. After 1950, fires occurred less frequently, were more synchronized, and more restricted to years of extreme climate.
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Acknowledgments
This research was funded by the National Science Foundation (Award BCS 0201807) and the Beverly Sears Student Grants Program of the University of Colorado. For granting permission to conduct this research we thank the Universidad Juarez del Estado de Durango, the Instituto de Silvicultura e Industria de la Madera (ISIMA), and the Facultad de Ciencias Forestales. For information, logistical assistance, and/or research assistance, we thank Jorge Luis Bretado Velázquez, Esteban Pérez Canales, Raúl Solís Moreno, Efrén Unzueta Ávila, Luis Jorge Aviña Berúmen, Jeffrey R. Bacon, Socorro Mora Cabrales, Don José Gallegos, Eduardo Gallegos, Leon Gallegos, Guadalupe Ivonne Benicio, Bibiana Rivas Arzola, Anna Milan, Dave Stahle, Art Douglas, and Martha González-Elizondo. Emily Heyerdahl furnished some of the data used in the La Grulla study site.
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Drury, S.A., Veblen, T.T. Spatial and temporal variability in fire occurrence within the Las Bayas Forestry Reserve, Durango, Mexico. Plant Ecol 197, 299–316 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-007-9379-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-007-9379-5