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Species Composition and Fire: Non-Additive Mixture Effects on Ground Fuel Flammability

Diversity effects on many aspects of ecosystem function have been well documented. However, fire is an exception: fire experiments have mainly included single species, bulk litter, or vegetation, and, as such, the role of diversity as a determinant of flammability, a crucial aspect of ecosystem func...

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Autores principales: van Altena, Cassandra, van Logtestijn, Richard S. P., Cornwell, William K., Cornelissen, Johannes H. C.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Research Foundation 2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3355679/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22639656
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2012.00063
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author van Altena, Cassandra
van Logtestijn, Richard S. P.
Cornwell, William K.
Cornelissen, Johannes H. C.
author_facet van Altena, Cassandra
van Logtestijn, Richard S. P.
Cornwell, William K.
Cornelissen, Johannes H. C.
author_sort van Altena, Cassandra
collection PubMed
description Diversity effects on many aspects of ecosystem function have been well documented. However, fire is an exception: fire experiments have mainly included single species, bulk litter, or vegetation, and, as such, the role of diversity as a determinant of flammability, a crucial aspect of ecosystem function, is poorly understood. This study is the first to experimentally test whether flammability characteristics of two-species mixtures are non-additive, i.e., differ from expected flammability based on the component species in monospecific fuel. In standardized fire experiments on ground fuels, including monospecific fuels and mixtures of five contrasting subarctic plant fuel types in a controlled laboratory environment, we measured flame speed, flame duration, and maximum temperature. Broadly half of the mixture combinations showed non-additive effects for these flammability indicators; these were mainly enhanced dominance effects for temporal dynamics – fire speed and duration. Fuel types with the more flammable value for a characteristic determined the rate of fire speed and duration of the whole mixture; in contrast, maximum temperature of the fire was determined by the biomass-weighted mean of the mixture. These results suggest that ecological invasions by highly flammable species may have effects on ground-fire dynamics well out of proportion to their biomass.
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spelling pubmed-33556792012-05-25 Species Composition and Fire: Non-Additive Mixture Effects on Ground Fuel Flammability van Altena, Cassandra van Logtestijn, Richard S. P. Cornwell, William K. Cornelissen, Johannes H. C. Front Plant Sci Plant Science Diversity effects on many aspects of ecosystem function have been well documented. However, fire is an exception: fire experiments have mainly included single species, bulk litter, or vegetation, and, as such, the role of diversity as a determinant of flammability, a crucial aspect of ecosystem function, is poorly understood. This study is the first to experimentally test whether flammability characteristics of two-species mixtures are non-additive, i.e., differ from expected flammability based on the component species in monospecific fuel. In standardized fire experiments on ground fuels, including monospecific fuels and mixtures of five contrasting subarctic plant fuel types in a controlled laboratory environment, we measured flame speed, flame duration, and maximum temperature. Broadly half of the mixture combinations showed non-additive effects for these flammability indicators; these were mainly enhanced dominance effects for temporal dynamics – fire speed and duration. Fuel types with the more flammable value for a characteristic determined the rate of fire speed and duration of the whole mixture; in contrast, maximum temperature of the fire was determined by the biomass-weighted mean of the mixture. These results suggest that ecological invasions by highly flammable species may have effects on ground-fire dynamics well out of proportion to their biomass. Frontiers Research Foundation 2012-04-09 /pmc/articles/PMC3355679/ /pubmed/22639656 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2012.00063 Text en Copyright © 2012 van Altena, van Logtestijn, Cornwell and Cornelissen. http://www.frontiersin.org/licenseagreement This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial License, which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in other forums, provided the original authors and source are credited.
spellingShingle Plant Science
van Altena, Cassandra
van Logtestijn, Richard S. P.
Cornwell, William K.
Cornelissen, Johannes H. C.
Species Composition and Fire: Non-Additive Mixture Effects on Ground Fuel Flammability
title Species Composition and Fire: Non-Additive Mixture Effects on Ground Fuel Flammability
title_full Species Composition and Fire: Non-Additive Mixture Effects on Ground Fuel Flammability
title_fullStr Species Composition and Fire: Non-Additive Mixture Effects on Ground Fuel Flammability
title_full_unstemmed Species Composition and Fire: Non-Additive Mixture Effects on Ground Fuel Flammability
title_short Species Composition and Fire: Non-Additive Mixture Effects on Ground Fuel Flammability
title_sort species composition and fire: non-additive mixture effects on ground fuel flammability
topic Plant Science
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3355679/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22639656
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2012.00063
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