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Changes to Cretaceous surface fire behaviour influenced the spread of the early angiosperms
Angiosperms evolved and diversified during the Cretaceous period. Early angiosperms were short‐stature weedy plants thought to have increased fire frequency and mortality in gymnosperm forest, aiding their own expansion. However, no explorations have considered whether the range of novel fuel types...
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
John Wiley and Sons Inc.
2016
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5245107/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28079941 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/nph.14264 |
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author | Belcher, Claire M. Hudspith, Victoria A. |
author_facet | Belcher, Claire M. Hudspith, Victoria A. |
author_sort | Belcher, Claire M. |
collection | PubMed |
description | Angiosperms evolved and diversified during the Cretaceous period. Early angiosperms were short‐stature weedy plants thought to have increased fire frequency and mortality in gymnosperm forest, aiding their own expansion. However, no explorations have considered whether the range of novel fuel types that diversified throughout the Cretaceous also altered fire behaviour, which should link more strongly to mortality than fire frequency alone. We measured ignitability and heat of combustion in analogue Cretaceous understorey fuels (conifer litter, ferns, weedy and shrubby angiosperms) and used these data to model palaeofire behaviour. Variations in ignition, driven by weedy angiosperms alone, were found to have been a less important feedback to changes in Cretaceous fire activity than previously estimated. Our model estimates suggest that fires in shrub and fern understories had significantly greater fireline intensities than those fuelled by conifer litter or weedy angiosperms, and whilst fern understories supported the most rapid fire spread, angiosperm shrubs delivered the largest amount of heat per unit area. The higher fireline intensities predicted by the models led to estimates of enhanced scorch of the gymnosperm canopy and a greater chance of transitioning to crown fires. Therefore, changes in fire behaviour driven by the addition of new Cretaceous fuel groups may have assisted the angiosperm expansion. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-5245107 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2016 |
publisher | John Wiley and Sons Inc. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-52451072017-02-01 Changes to Cretaceous surface fire behaviour influenced the spread of the early angiosperms Belcher, Claire M. Hudspith, Victoria A. New Phytol Research Angiosperms evolved and diversified during the Cretaceous period. Early angiosperms were short‐stature weedy plants thought to have increased fire frequency and mortality in gymnosperm forest, aiding their own expansion. However, no explorations have considered whether the range of novel fuel types that diversified throughout the Cretaceous also altered fire behaviour, which should link more strongly to mortality than fire frequency alone. We measured ignitability and heat of combustion in analogue Cretaceous understorey fuels (conifer litter, ferns, weedy and shrubby angiosperms) and used these data to model palaeofire behaviour. Variations in ignition, driven by weedy angiosperms alone, were found to have been a less important feedback to changes in Cretaceous fire activity than previously estimated. Our model estimates suggest that fires in shrub and fern understories had significantly greater fireline intensities than those fuelled by conifer litter or weedy angiosperms, and whilst fern understories supported the most rapid fire spread, angiosperm shrubs delivered the largest amount of heat per unit area. The higher fireline intensities predicted by the models led to estimates of enhanced scorch of the gymnosperm canopy and a greater chance of transitioning to crown fires. Therefore, changes in fire behaviour driven by the addition of new Cretaceous fuel groups may have assisted the angiosperm expansion. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2016-11-07 2017-02 /pmc/articles/PMC5245107/ /pubmed/28079941 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/nph.14264 Text en © 2016 The Authors. New Phytologist © 2016 New Phytologist Trust This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Research Belcher, Claire M. Hudspith, Victoria A. Changes to Cretaceous surface fire behaviour influenced the spread of the early angiosperms |
title | Changes to Cretaceous surface fire behaviour influenced the spread of the early angiosperms |
title_full | Changes to Cretaceous surface fire behaviour influenced the spread of the early angiosperms |
title_fullStr | Changes to Cretaceous surface fire behaviour influenced the spread of the early angiosperms |
title_full_unstemmed | Changes to Cretaceous surface fire behaviour influenced the spread of the early angiosperms |
title_short | Changes to Cretaceous surface fire behaviour influenced the spread of the early angiosperms |
title_sort | changes to cretaceous surface fire behaviour influenced the spread of the early angiosperms |
topic | Research |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5245107/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28079941 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/nph.14264 |
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