The present book gathers
most of the papers presented at the Third International Workshop on Fire Ecology
held in Banyuls-sur-Mer (France) from the 22 nd to the 26 th of October 2001.
Extremely varied, and covering many domains of fire ecology, the articles can
be classified according to the following topics:
-The response of trees, especially the pines, to fire,
-The response of Mediterranean shrublands to wildfire or to prescribed burning,
-The biological and physiological processes that concern plants at the species
level,
-The biological processes that take place after fire in the edaphic compartment,
-The responses and the recolonisation processes of animals,
-The management and conservation issues.
Pines, either spontaneous or planted, are often dominant in the fire-prone Mediterranean
landscapes. Several papers of this volume complete the synthesis of Ne™eman
and Trabaud (2000) on this genus in this region. Luis-Calabuig et al. study
the postfire regeneration of Pinus pinaster from soil seed bank. After a very
large wildfire, Espelta et al. observe an active regeneration of Pinus halepensis,
but a lack of regeneration in P. nigra and P. sylvestris.Bautista and Vallejo
describe the spatial pattern of postfire vegetation in P. halepensis stands.
Several papers deal with the postfire regeneration of Mediterranean shrublands
after fire. Diaz-Vizcaino et al. compare different scrub communities (Chamaespartium,
Erica,
Cytisus) with regard to the risk of erosion. Postfire vegetation patterns are
described in Erica shrublands, where Fernadez-Abascal et al. compare the photosynthetic
and nonphotosynthetic biomasses, and in Ulex-Erica shrubs, where Pereiras and
Casal compare the regeneration rate of several species. The case of shrubs as
understorey of Quercus forests is studied by Alberdi and Cavero, who consider
several techniques for accelerating the vegetation recovery, and by Cavero,
who compares the floristic changes under different burning regimes. In a garrigue
of the Provence, Bonnet et al. describe floristic and
edaphic spatial gradients related to the distance from unburned limits, a parameter
rarely taken into account so far.
The following papers deal with the biological and physiological responses of
plants to fire. First, the effects of the thermal shock on different species
and different conditions is studied. Baeza et al. measure the germination rate
of Ulex seeds buried at different depths before a controlled burning, while
seeds of maquis species on the one hand, and of tree species on the other, are
submitted to controlled thermal shock by Valbuena et al. and by Reyes and Casal,
respectively. Trabaud and Grandjanny measure the time necessary for different
plant species to flower again after fire. Manes et al. study the physiological
response (gaseous exchanges, photosynthesis) of Phillyrea angustifolia to two
intensities of burning. Saracino et al. describe a poorly known process: the
dripping of resin under the crowns of Pinus halepensis, while Ferrandis et al.
consider a possible competition between the roots of Pinus halepensis and those
of Cistus monspeliensis in recently burned areas.
The impact of fire on the edaphic compartment of the ecosystems is the subject
of a series of precise papers. The impact on mycorrhizae is described by De
Roman and De Miguel, while De Las Heras et al. test different mycorrhization
techniques to increase the Montpellier success of pine regeneration. The effects
of two intensities of burning on the microfungal community are studied by Persiani
et al., while microbiological aspects (diversity, enzymatic activity, respiration,
mineralisation rate) are dealt with by Fioretto et al. and by Rutigliano et
al. A poorly known aspect, the impact of fire on soil-atmosphere gaseous
exchanges (NO2, CH4, CO2) is studied by Castaldi and Aragosa, and by Fierro
et al. The impact of fire on animals is studied, with regard to insects, by
Santalla et al. on ground beetles, and by Puissant and Prodon on grasshoppers.
Haim describes the changes occurring in small mammal communities after a fire
of low intensity. Kiss and Magnin™s precise data on the recolonisation
process by Gasteropods in Provence garrigues concern a group not yet studied
from this point of view.
Many papers of this volume are concerned, at various degrees, with management,
restoration, or conservation issues. This is especially the case with the paper
of Rigolot et al., that analyses the effects of the combined use of burning
and grazing on rangelands. Quintanilla stresses the problem of wildfires in
Chile, a factor specially detrimental to the endemic forest of Fitzroya, in
an area where exotic introduced trees occupy large areas. One may always regret
the lack of articles on certain important topics (e.g., paleoecology of fire,
impact on soil fauna or on large animals, modelisation of postfire vegetation
dynamics, effect of different fire frequencies, etc.). But the present volume
nevertheless provides a fairly complete and up-to-date overview of fire ecology
in the Mediterranean. The fact that about the same number of papers deal with
wildfires and with controlled burnings demonstrate both the attraction of researchers
for experimental conditions, and their involvement in management issues. We
do hope that this book will promote the ecological study of fire Œ€a
domain where so much remains to be investigated€Œ as a science in
itself.
Montpellier, May 2002
Louis Trabaud and Roger Prodon
Contents
Foreword
L. Trabaud and R. Prodon
Impact of large fires on a community of Pinus Pinaster
E. Luis-Calabuig, O. Torres, L. Valbuena, L. Calvo and E. Marcos
Spatial variation of post-fire plant recovery in Aleppo pine forests
S. Bautista and R. Vallejo
Effect of fire on the understory species of a Quercus Ilex L. Subsp. ballota
(Desf.)
samp. forest in Navarra, Spain
L. Alberdi and R.Y. Cavero
Trends in post-fire biomass recovery in an Erica australis heathland
L. Fernández-Abascal, R. Tárrega, E. Luis-Calabuig and E. Marcos
Dynamics of an Ulex shrubland community subjected to prescribed burning
J. Pereiras and M. Casal
Comparative study of the short-term post-fire recovery of some scrub communities
in the Eurosiberian-Mediterranean transition zone of the northwest Iberian penin-
sula
E. Díaz Vizcaíno, O. García Colmenero and A. Iglesia
Rodríguez
Post-fire regeneration strategies and cover dynamics of the understorey flora
in a
Quercus robur forest in Navarra (N Spain)
R. Y. Cavero
Ulex parviflorus germination after experimental burning: effects of temperature
and soil depth
J. Baeza, J. Raventós and A. Escarré
Relationship between thermal shock and germination in five Mediterranean shrubs
L. Valbuena, E. Luis-Calabuig and R. Tárrega
Post-fire reconstitution of the flowering phenology in Mediterranean shrubland
plants
L. Trabaud and M. Grandjanny
Ecophysiological characterisation of Phillyrea angustifolia L. and response
of re-
sprouts to different fire disturbance intensities
F. Manes, F. Capogna, G. Puppi and M. Vitale
Post-fire dynamics of the ectomycorrhizal community in a Quercus Ilex subsp.
bal-
lota forest
M. De Roman and A.M. De Miguel
Soil microbial community as influenced by experimental fires of different intensi-
ties
F.A. Rutigliano, R. D™Ascoli, A. De Marco and A.V. De Santo
Microbial activities in burned and unburned soils in a low shrublands ecosystem
A. Fioretto, S. Papa, M. Aniello, R. Merola and A. Pellegrino
Biodiversity and composition of post-fire soil microfungal communities of a
Mediterranean maquis (southern Italy)
A.M. Persiani, O. Maggi and G. Castelli
Short term effects of burning on soil microbial processes involved in greenhouse
gas fluxes from soil
S. Castaldi and D. Aragosa
Postfire effects of experimental fires on soil-atmosphere exchange of carbon
di-
oxide, methane and nitrous oxide of a Mediterranean shrubland
A. Fierro, G. Vollono and A. Virzo De Santo
The impact of fire on land snail communities in the French Mediterranean region:
preliminary results
L.M. Kiss and F.M. Magnin
Changes in the Carabidae community after a large fire in a Pinus pinastar stand
S. Santalla, J.M. Salgado, L. Calvo and M. Fernández
Impact of controlled burning on grasshoppers (Orthoptera) communities: a Pyre-
nean example
S. Puissant and R. Prodon
Fire size and location in forest restoration: the use of small mammal community
structure for bioindication
A. Haim
Afforestation of burnt forests using mycorrhized Pinus halepensis and P. pinastar
saplings
J. de las Heras, A.I. González-Ochoa and P. Torres
Effect of competition on the root system architecture of Pinus halepensis Mill.
and Cistus monspeliensis L. saplings colonizing a recently burnt area in SE
Spain
P. Ferrandis, J.J. Martínez-Sánchez, J.M. Herranz and L. Trabaud
Experimental field emergence and early survival of six tree species in relation
to
forest fires
O. Reyes and M. Casal
Pattern of resin dripping under Aleppo pines (Pinus halepensis Mill.) of different
crown size
A. Saracino, C.M. D™Alessandro, G. Maiullari and V. Leone
Spatiel gradients of vegetation and soil after fire in the calcareous Provence
(France)
V.H. Bonnet, T. Dutoit and T. Tatoni
Land use changes, natural regeneration patterns, and restoration practices after
a
large wildfire in NE Spain: challenges for fire ecology and landscape restoration
J.M. Espelta, A. Rodrigo, A. Habrouk, N. Meghelli, J.L. Ordoñez and
J. Retana
Management of a mountain rangeland combining periodic prescribed burnings with
grazing: impact on vegetation
E. Rigolot, B. Lambert, P. Pons and R. Prodon
The influence of fire on forests in temperate Chile
V. Quintanilla