Mangroves as indicators of coastal change

In view of the unique biological characteristics of mangroves, it is interesting to assess the extent to which these ecosystems can be used as indicators of coastal change or sea-level rise. From recent studies of mangrove mortality at several locations (including Guiana, Gambia, Côte d'Ivoire, Kenya, India and Bangladesh), it appears that these coastal ecosystems are so specialized that any minor variation in their hydrological or tidal regimes causes noticeable mortality. Each species of mangrove (but particularly those belonging to the genera Rhizophora, Bruguiera, Sonneratia, Heritiera and Nypa) occurs in ecological conditions that approach its limit of tolerance with regard to salinity of the water and soil, as well as the inundation regime. If the duration of daily immersion were to be modified by tectonic, sedimentological or hydrological events, the species either readjusts to the new conditions or succumbs to unsuitable conditions. Consequently, the use of remote sensing data for mangrove ecosystems offers excellent potential as a tool for monitoring coastal change.     

Historical range of variability in eastern Cascades forests,Washington, USA

The historical range of variability (HRV) has been suggested as a coarse filter approach to maintain ecosystem sustainability and resiliency. The historical range of variability in forest age structure for the central eastern Cascade Range in Washington State, USA was developed from historical fire return intervals and the manner in which fire acted as both cyclic and stochastic processes. The proportions of seven forest structural stages calculated through these processes were applied to the area of each forest series within the central eastern Cascades landscape. Early successional forest stages were more common in high elevation forest than low elevation forest. The historical proportion of old growth and late successional forest varied from 38 to 63 percent of the forested landscape. These process-based estimates are consistent with those developed from forest structural information. HRV is a valuable planning tool for ecosystem conservation purposes, but must be applied to real landscapes with consideration of both temporal and spatial scale. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Some determinants of the spatio-temporal fire cycle in a mediterranean landscape (Corsica,France)

Based on recent needs to accurately understand fire regimes and post-fire vegetation resilience at a supra-level for carbon cycle studies, this article focusses on the coupled history of fire and vegetation pattern for 40 years on a fire-prone area in central Corsica (France). This area has been submitted since the beginning of the 20^th century to land abandonment and the remaining land management has been largely controlled by frequent fires. Our objectives were to rebuild vegetation and fire maps in order to determine the factors which have driven the spatial and temporal distribution of fires on the area, what were the feed backs on the vegetation dynamics, and the long-term consequences of this inter-relationship. The results show a stable but high frequency of small fires, coupled with forest expansion over the study period. The results particularly illustrate the spatial distribution of fires according to topography and vegetation, leading to a strong contrast between areas never burnt and areas which have been burnt up to 7 times. Fires, when occuring, affect on average 9 to 12% of the S, SE and SW facing slopes (compared to only 2 to 5% for the N facing slopes), spread recurrently over ridge tops, affect all the vegetation types but reburn preferentially shrublands and grasslands. As these fire-proning parameters have also been shown to decrease the regeneration capacity of forests, this study highlights the needs in spatial studies (both in terms of fire spread and vegetation dynamic) to accurately apprehend vegetation dynamic and functionning in fire-prone areas.This revised version was published online in May 2005 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

关中西部四灌区旱情规律分析

为给关中西部灌区水资源合理调控提供依据，在简述干旱及其分类的基础上，指出了关中西部各类干旱多源于气象干旱。对该区7个气象站的年降水进行分析表明，各气象站年降水量的变差系数均为0．25，偏态系数均为0．5。以兴平气象站作为代表站对不同历时的旱情进行了分析，结果显示11月到来年2月发生重旱和特旱的概率较大，在30％左右，特别是12月份，概率达54％，且以特旱为主；7、8月份以中旱和重旱为主；夏玉米播前发生特旱的概率较高，达27％，拔节孕穗和抽穗开花期以特旱为主，概率达33％；冬小麦的越冬和麦黄期以特旱为主，发生概率在30％左右。     

黑河流域荒漠地区梭梭人工林地土壤水分动态研究

梭梭林地土壤剖面的含水量与裸沙地含水量显著不同 ,裸沙地土壤含水量随深度增加而增加 ,林地在 30～ 12 0cm范围内有较高的含水量 ;林地 0～ 30cm的上层土壤含水量受降雨及蒸发的剧烈影响 ,30～ 2 0 0cm范围内的林地土壤各测量层平均含水量与其标准差有二次函数的关系 ;降雨对每月的 0～ 2 0 0cm的土壤贮水量没有明显的影响 ,说明降雨多数在当月就被蒸散和深层渗漏所消耗 ;认为梭梭人工林这种脆弱生态系统能够在严酷的环境条件下存在 ,其根系对土壤水和地下水有吸水和释水的再分配功能是重要的因素之一     

Anthropogenic influences on potential fire spread in a pyrogenic ecosystem of Florida, USA

Fire has historically been an important ecological factor maintaining southeastern U.S. vegetation. Humans have altered natural fire regimes by fragmenting fuels, introducing exotic species, and suppressing fires. Little is known about how these alterations specifically affect spatial fire extent and pattern. We applied historic (1920 and 1943) and current (1990) GIS fuels maps and the FARSITE fire spread model to quantify the differences between historic and current fire spread distributions. We held all fire modeling variables (wind speed and direction, cloud cover, precipitation, humidity, air temperature, fuel moistures, ignition source and location) constant with exception of the fuel models representing different time periods. Model simulations suggest that fires during the early 1900's burned freely across the landscape, while current fires are much smaller, restricted by anthropogenic influences. Fire extent declined linearly with patch density, and there was a quadratic relationship between fire extent and percent landscape covered by anthropogenic features. We found that as little as 10 percent anthropogenic landcover caused a 50 percent decline in fire extent. Most landscapes (conservation or non-conservation areas) are now influenced by anthropogenic features which disrupt spatial fire behavior disproportionately to their actual size. These results suggest that land managers using fire to restore or maintain natural ecosystem function in pyrogenic systems will have to compensate for anthropogenic influences in their burn planning. This revised version was published online in May 2005 with corrections to the Cover Date. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Pocono mesic till barrens in retreat: topography,fire and forest contagion effects

The Pocono mesic till barrens (PMTB) are a unique assemblage of fire-maintained shrub communities that support numerous rare species. Historically these barrens covered a large area in the vicinity of Long Pond, Pennsylvania, USA. However, due largely to regional fire suppression instituted in the early 1960s, over 70% of the area covered by barrens succeeded to fire-intolerant forest that does not support the rare species. We investigated the influence of forest proximity on barrens succession across three geomorphic types during periods of high fire frequency and fire suppression, testing the hypothesis that forest processes such as seed rain, shading, and detrital enrichment of soils enhances barrens succession through a contagion effect. Evidence of a forest contagion effect should be shown by increased rates of barrens succession with increasing proximity to the nearest forest edge. In order to detect a forest contagion effect, barrens persistence and barrens succession were modeled in proximity zones of 0-50 m, 50-100 m, 100-200 m, and greater than 200 m from the nearest forest edge. We used existing GIS data layers for fire, geomorphology, and vegetation distribution in 1938, 1963, and 1992. The layers were modified and overlain using ArcView software to determine persistence and succession rates for each unique combination of layers in each proximity zone from 1938 to 1963 (pre-fire suppression) and 1963 to 1992 (post-fire suppression). ANCOVA results indicate that proximity to the nearest forest edge significantly affected barrens persistence rates in both time periods, but succession rates were significantly affected in 1938 to 1963 only. Twenty-eight percent of the 1938 barrens succeeded to forest by 1963; 56% of the 1963 barrens became forest by 1992. Results support previous findings that barrens persistence is enhanced by increased fire frequency, and that barrens persist longer where they overlie flat glacial till than on other geomorphology types.     

Characterizing historical and modern fire regimes in Michigan (USA): A landscape ecosystem approach

We studied the relationships of landscape ecosystems to historical and contemporary fire regimes across 4.3 million hectares in northern lower Michigan (USA). Changes in fire regimes were documented by comparing historical fire rotations in different landscape ecosystems to those occurring between 1985 and 2000. Previously published data and a synthesis of the literature were used to identify six forest-replacement fire regime categories with fire rotations ranging from very short (<100 years) to very long (>1,000 years). We derived spatially-explicit estimates of the susceptibility of landscape ecosystems to fire disturbance using Landtype Association maps as initial units of investigation. Each Landtype Association polygon was assigned to a fire regime category based on associations of ecological factors known to influence fire regimes. Spatial statistics were used to interpolate fire points recorded by the General Land Office. Historical fire rotations were determined by calculating the area burned for each category of fire regime and dividing this area by fifteen (years) to estimate area burned per annum. Modern fire rotations were estimated using data on fire location and size obtained from federal and state agencies. Landtype Associations networked into fire regime categories exhibited differences in both historical and modern fire rotations. Historical rotations varied by 23-fold across all fire rotation categories, and modern forest fire rotations by 13-fold. Modern fire rotations were an order of magnitude longer than historical rotations. The magnitude of these changes has important implications for forest health and understanding of ecological processes in most of the fire rotation categories that we identified.This revised version was published online in May 2005 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Effects of burning on soil macrofauna in a savanna-woodland under different experimental fuel load treatments

In West African savanna-woodland, the use of prescribed burning as a management tool has ecological implications for the soil biota. Yet, the effects of fire on soil inhabiting organisms are poorly understood. The aim of this study was to examine the responses of soil macro-invertebrates to early fires in a Sudanian savanna-woodland on a set of experimental plots subject to different fuel load treatments. The abundance of major macro-invertebrate taxa and functional groups, and taxon richness were quantified in soil cores collected from three different soil layers before and immediately after burning. The results indicated that, overall, there was substantial spatial and temporal variation in the composition of macro-invertebrate assemblages. The immediate effects of fire were to reduce total invertebrate numbers and numbers of many invertebrate groups dramatically. This is probably due to the fact that many of the surface-dwelling macrofauna perished as a result of less favorable microclimate due to fire, diminished resources, or migrate to safer environments. Fuel load treatment did not affect the community taxonomic richness or abundance of the soil-dwelling fauna. Furthermore, annual changes in community composition were more pronounced at the burnt site than in the control. This could be related to the inter-annual difference in precipitation pattern recorded during the two-year study period at our site. Since soil macrofauna population declines in fire-disturbed areas, increasing fire prevalence may jeopardize the long-term conservation of fire sensitive macrofauna groups. Special fire management attention is therefore recommended with due consideration to the type of burning and fuel properties to avoid the detrimental effects of intense fire affecting the resilience of savanna soil macrofauna species.     

Contribution of spray droplet pinning fragmentation to canopy retention

Drop behaviour during impact affects retention. Increasing adhesion is usually seen as an objective when applying crop protection products, while bouncing and shattering are seen as detrimental to spray retention. However, observation of drop impacts on barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) using high speed shadowgraphy shows that bouncing and fragmentation can occur in Cassie–Baxter as well as in Wenzel wetting regimes. In this last regime, a part of the drop may remain stuck on the surface, contributing to retention. Using simultaneous measurements of drop impacts with high speed imaging and of retention with fluorophotometry for spray mixtures on excised barley leaves using a Teejet 11003 nozzle at 0.2 MPa, it was observed that about 50% of the drops that fragmented in the Wenzel state remain on the horizontal leaf. Depending on the spray mixture, these impact outcomes accounted for 28–46% of retention, the higher contribution being correlated with bigger VMD (Volume Median Diameter). This contribution is not negligible and should be considered when modelling spray retention processes.