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Cited by 63Fire effects on ecosystemsRangeland and Wildlife ManagementEcology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies

Updating models for restoration and management of fiery ecosystems

Open access
Fill, Jennifer M., Platt, William J., Welch, Shane M., Waldron, Jayme L., Mousseau, Timothy A.·2015·Forest Ecology and Management
DOI 10.1016/j.foreco.2015.07.021
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Abstract

Scientific models that guide restoration/management protocols should be reviewed periodically as new data become available. We examine ecological concepts used to guide restoration of pine savannas and woodlands, historically prominent but now rare habitats in the southern North American Coastal Plain. For many decades, pine savanna management has been guided predominantly by a biome-centric succession model. Pine savannas have been considered early-successional communities that, in the absence of fire, transition rapidly toward closed-canopy hardwood forests. Recurrent fires have been viewed as exogenous disturbances that maintain savanna ecosystems as a sub-climax, blocking succession to an equilibrium steady state (closed-canopy forests). Over recent decades, a vegetation-fire feedback model has emerged in which pine savannas are conceptualized as persistent, non-equilibrium communities maintained by endogenous, co-evolutionary vegetation-fire feedbacks. Endemic plant species are resistant to fires and specialized for post-fire conditions generated by frequent lightning fires, primarily within a distinct fire season. These species produce pyrogenic fine fuels that are easily ignited. The resulting fire regimes, entrained by these vegetation-fire feedbacks, are predicted to result in persistent pine savannas. Local variation over space and time in evolutionary feedback mechanisms between pyrogenic vegetation and fire regimes produces heterogeneous landscapes. Disturbances of these feedbacks, such as human fire suppression, are postulated to result in rapid transition to communities lacking feedback elements, such as closed-canopy forest and those without pyrogenic species. Succession-based management focuses on reversing the transition to forest, primarily by removing hardwoods and reintroducing fire as a disturbance. However, we advocate restoration and management approaches that target reinstitution of functional vegetation-fire feedbacks. Such approaches should favor native pyrogenic plant species and reinstitute fire regimes that mimic historical, evolutionarily derived fire regimes. Vegetation-fire feedback concepts should be useful in addressing resistance and resilience of fiery ecosystems worldwide to inherent changes in feedback mechanisms, constituting a framework useful in addressing global management challenges.

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  • Changes in fire regimes resulting from altered plant assemblages have the potential to generate abrupt fire regime shifts and to move ecological systems outside their historical evolutionary arena.

    “Ultimately, changes in fire regimes resulting from altered plant assemblages have the potential to generate abrupt fire regime shifts and to move ecological systems outside their historical evolutionary arena (Fill et al., 2015;Kane, Varner, Metz, & Mantgem, 2017).”

    From Fire as a fundamental ecological process: Research advances and frontiers (2020) · cites this paper as Fill et al., 2015

  • Fire suppression may facilitate invasion by species from non-pyrogenic habitats, ultimately threatening fire-adapted ecosystems.

    “In addition, fire suppression may facilitate invasion by species from non-pyrogenic habitats, ultimately threatening fireadapted ecosystems (e.g.Fill et al., 2015).”

    From Fire as a fundamental ecological process: Research advances and frontiers (2020) · cites this paper as Fill et al., 2015

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Authors
Fill, J. M., Platt, W. J., Welch, S. M., Waldron, J. L., & Mousseau, T. A.
Affiliations
  • University of South Carolina (US)
  • Louisiana State University (US)
  • Marshall University (US)
Corresponding author
Fill, Jennifer M.
ORCID
Venue
Forest Ecology and Management
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2015-11
Volume
356
Pages
54-63
ISSN
0378-1127 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/j.foreco.2015.07.021
OpenAlex
W1116199631
Cited by
63
References
167
Citations by year
2026: 5 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 4 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 1
FWCI
3.00
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Forest Ecology and Management (acceptedVersion)
  • Civil War Book Review (submittedVersion)
Funders
National Science Foundation
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Fire effects on ecosystems
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Rangeland and Wildlife Management
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Nature and Landscape Conservation › Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies
Keywords
pine savanna, pine woodland, fire regimes, fire suppression, savanna restoration, succession models, lightning fires, fire-adapted ecosystems, coastal plain

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