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De incendios y cipreses (5)

October 11th, 2016 2 comments

Después de una serie de despropósitos sobre el posible uso de cipreses ignífugos [1-4], por fin parece que se encaucen las cosas: Los cipreses que estaban destinados para hacer de barrera cortafuegos en el monte, parece que finalmente se utilizarán en jardinería [5], y esperemos que para jardines urbanos, lejos del monte. En paisajes con incendios recurrentes, plantar cipreses en zonas semi-urbanas (en la interfaz urbano-forestal), no es recomendable, ya que si llega el fuego, o simplemente pavesas, pueden prender de manera intensa y actuar como antorchas. Por ello, los bomberos temen las casas rodeadas de cipreses, y de hecho, está prohibido plantarlos en jardines de diversas zonas de EEUU. Hay evidencias de que los cipreses pueden ejercer de captadores de pavesas (foto). La idea de utilizarlos como cortafuegos estaba fuera de toda lógica [4].

Cipreses-quemadosFoto: Valla de cipreses que prendió durante el incendio de La Granadella (4/Sep/2016, La Marina, Alicante). Nótese que el incendio no llegó directamente a la valla (los pinos y campos de cultivo  de los alrededores no se vieron afectados); es probable que el fuego llegase con una pavesa, como pasó con los distintos focos de este mismo incendio [6].

Referencias

[1] De incendios y cipreses (1), jgpausas.blogs.uv.es 29/9/2012
[2] De incendios y cipreses (2), jgpausas.blogs.uv.es 7/10/2012
[3] De incendios y cipreses (3), jgpausas.blogs.uv.es 22/6/2013
[4] De incendios y cipreses (4), jgpausas.blogs.uv.es 31/8/2015

[5] La investigación española sobre cipreses cortafuegos acabará en plantas de jardín,  eldiario.es

[6] El SEPRONA concluye que todos los focos del incendio de la Granadella fueron provocados por las pavesas (xabiaaldia.com);  Una colilla mal apagada provocó el incendio de Xàbia (eldiario.es); El Seprona cree que una colilla originó el incendio y el viento causó los tres focos (levante-emv.com).

¿Será este el último post sobre el tema? ¿Se habrá ganado una pequeña batalla?
(podéis dejar vuestra opinión en los comentarios)

 

Postfire flowering: Lapiedra martinezii

October 8th, 2016 No comments

Lapiadra martinezzi
Lapiedra martinezzi (Amaryllidaceae) flowering after fire in eastern Spain. This is also an example of an hysteranthous geophyte (flowering before appearing the leaves).

Upper left: From La Granadella (Benitatxell, La Marina Alta, Alicante), one month after a high intensity wildfire that occurred the 5 Sept 2016.
All others: in a Pinus halepensis open woodland that was burned (at low intensity) in April 2016 (for firefighting training) near Valencia; photo taken the 29th Sept 2016. There were many individuals (hundreds to thousands) flowering and some with fruits. We did not find any flower in the surrounding unburned area.

For other species with fire-stimulated flowering, see: jgpausas.blogs.uv.es/tag/postfire-flowering/

 

Fire benefits plants by disrupting antagonistic interactions

October 2nd, 2016 2 comments

There are many plants that benefit from fire. Typical examples are those that despite they may be killed by fire, the germination of their seeds is stimulated by the fire (either by the heat or by the smoke; [1,2]), and thus they recruit very well (high offspring abundance) and often increase there population size postfire. Species with fire-stimulated flowering [3,4] also benefit from fire. In a recent paper [5] we propose that there may be another mechanisms by which fire may benefit plants: fire may remove seed predators, and thus create a window of opportunity for reproduction under a lower predation pressure (predator release hypothesis). This is specially applicable to specialist plant-insect interactions. We documented two cases: in Ulex parviflorus, a plant species with fire-stimulated germination [1,2], fire eliminated there specialist seed predator weevil (Exapion fasciolatum, Apioninae, Brentidae) and thus increased the available seed number for germination. Similarly, in Asphodelus ramosus, a fire-stimulated flowering species [3], fire reduced the specialist herbivore and seed predator (Horistus orientalis, Miridae, Hemiptera) and increased their fruit production. Thus, fire, by disrupting the antagonistic interactions, benefit plants; the temporal window of this predator release is likely to depend on fire size. For more information see reference [5].

Ulex-Exapion

Figure: Proportion of predated fruits of Ulex parviflorus in unburned sites (grey boxes) and at the edge and center of a recently burned area (white boxes), 2 and 3 years postfire. Data from two large wildfires in Valencia (2012) [5]; Edge and Center of the burned area refer to <1 km and >1.5 km from the fire perimeter, respectively. Photo of the seed predator (Exapion) from BioLib.cz.

References

[1] Moreira B., Tormo J., Estrelles E., Pausas J.G. 2010. Disentangling the role of heat and smoke as germination cues in Mediterranean Basin flora. Annals of Botany 105: 627-635. [pdf | doi | blog]

[2] Moreira B and Pausas JG. 2012. Tanned or Burned: the role of fire in shaping physical seed dormancy. PLoS ONE 7:e51523. [doi | plos | pdf]

[3] Postfire blooming of Asphodelous, jgpausas.blogs.uv.es/2014/04/05

[4] Postfire flowering: Narcissus, jgpausas.blogs.uv.es/2015/05/02

[5] García Y., Castellanos M.C. & Pausas J.G. 2016. Fires can benefit plants by disrupting antagonistic interactions. Oecologia 182: 1165–1173. [doi | pdf] <- New!!