Contributions to the Flora of Spitsbergen,especially of Red bay,from the Collections of W. S. Bruce,F.R.S.G.S., Naturalist to the Prince of Monaco's Expeditions of 1898 and 1899

Background: Prescribed burning in peatlands is controversial due to concerns over damage to their ecological functioning, particularly regarding their key genus Sphagnum. However, empirical evidence is scarce.

Aims: The aim of the article is to quantify Sphagnum recovery following prescribed burns.

Methods: We completed nine fires at a raised bog in Scotland, achieving a range of fire severities by simulating drought in some plots. We measured Sphagnum cover and chlorophyll fluorescence F_v/F_m ratio (an estimate of photosynthetic capacity) up to 36 months post-fire.

Results: Cover of dominant Sphagnum capillifolium was similar in unburnt and burnt plots, likely due to its high moisture content which prevented combustion. Burning decreased S. capillifolium F_v/F_m 5 months after fire from 0.67 in unburnt plots to 0.44 in low fire severity plots and 0.24 in higher fire severity (drought) plots. After 22 months, F_v/F_m in burnt plots showed a healthy photosynthetic capacity of 0.76 and no differences between severity treatments. Other Sphagnum species showed similar post-fire recovery though their low overall abundance precluded formal statistical analysis.

Conclusions: S. capillifolium is resilient to low–moderate fire severities and the same may be true for a number of other species. This suggests that carefully applied managed burning can be compatible with the conservation of peatland ecosystem function.     

Mitigating impacts of weeds and kangaroo grazing following prescribed fire in a Banksia woodland

Banksia woodlands are renowned for their flammability and prescribed fire is increasingly employed to reduce the risk of wildfire and to protect life and property, particularly where these woodlands occur on the urban interface. Prescribed fire is also employed as a tool for protecting biodiversity assets but can have adverse impacts on native plant communities. We investigated changes in species richness and cover in native and introduced flora following autumn prescribed fire in a 700‐hectare Banksia/Tuart (Eucalyptus gomphocephala) woodland that had not burnt for more than 30 years. Effectiveness of management techniques at reducing weed cover and the impacts of grazing by Western Grey Kangaroo (Macropus fuliginosus) postfire were also investigated. Thirty plots were established across a designated burn boundary immediately before a prescribed fire in May 2011, and species richness and cover were measured 3 years after the fire, in spring of 2013. Fencing treatments were established immediately following the fire, and weed management treatments were applied annually in winter over the subsequent 3 years. Our results indicate that autumn prescribed fire can facilitate increases in weed cover, but management techniques can limit the establishment of targeted weeds postfire. Postfire grazing was found to have significant adverse impacts on native species cover and vegetation structure, but it also limited establishment of some serious weeds including Pigface (Carpobrotus edulis). Manipulating herbivores in time and space following prescribed fire could be an important and cost‐effective way of maintaining biodiversity values.     

火烧及微地貌对高原湿草甸优势种华扁穗草地上部灰分含量及热值的影响

为探讨火烧干扰以及微地貌差异对高原湿草甸植被的影响,以高原湿草甸优势种华扁穗草( Blysmus sinocompressus Tang et F. T. Wang)为研究对象,分别在经历火烧干扰和未烧的湿地中选择平地和地垄作为样地,研究了不同生长期以及不同年份华扁穗草地上部的灰分含量和热值(包括干质量热值和去灰分热值)变化。结果表明：在火烧平地、火烧地垄、未烧平地和未烧地垄4类样地中,不同生长期以及不同年份间华扁穗草地上部的灰分含量和热值均有一定差异。在火烧平地、火烧地垄和未烧平地3类样地中,与生长初期相比,生长旺盛期华扁穗草地上部的灰分含量均降低,其干质量热值和去灰分热值均升高;而在未烧地垄样地中,与生长初期相比,生长旺盛期华扁穗草地上部的灰分含量显著升高,其干质量热值和去灰分热值则均略降低。从样地类型看,在生长旺盛期,平地样地中华扁穗草地上部的灰分含量均低于地垄样地,其干质量热值和去灰分热值均高于地垄样地,其中,其灰分含量在火烧平地样地中最低、在未烧地垄样地中最高;其干质量热值和去灰分热值在火烧地垄样地中均最低、在未烧平地样地中均最高,但总体无显著差异。随时间推移,火烧样地特别是火烧平地样地中华扁穗草地上部的灰分含量增加,而其干质量热值和去灰分热值则有所降低但总体上与未烧样地间无显著差异。总体上看,在火烧样地中,华扁穗草地上部的干质量热值和去灰分热值低于未烧样地;而在平地样地中,其干质量热值和去灰分热值高于地垄样地。研究结果显示：火烧干扰和微地貌差异对华扁穗草地上部的灰分含量和热值均有一定的影响,据此,建议将植物地上部的灰分含量和热值作为高原湿草甸植被优势种响应环境扰动的参考指标。     

Fire as a key driver of Earth's biodiversity

Many terrestrial ecosystems are fire prone, such that their composition and structure are largely due to their fire regime. Regions subject to regular fire have exceptionally high levels of species richness and endemism, and fire has been proposed as a major driver of their diversity, within the context of climate, resource availability and environmental heterogeneity. However, current fire‐management practices rarely take into account the ecological and evolutionary roles of fire in maintaining biodiversity. Here, we focus on the mechanisms that enable fire to act as a major ecological and evolutionary force that promotes and maintains biodiversity over numerous spatiotemporal scales. From an ecological perspective, the vegetation, topography and local weather conditions during a fire generate a landscape with spatial and temporal variation in fire‐related patches (pyrodiversity), and these produce the biotic and environmental heterogeneity that drives biodiversity across local and regional scales. There have been few empirical tests of the proposition that ‘pyrodiversity begets biodiversity’ but we show that biodiversity should peak at moderately high levels of pyrodiversity. Overall species richness is greatest immediately after fire and declines monotonically over time, with postfire successional pathways dictated by animal habitat preferences and varying lifespans among resident plants. Theory and data support the ‘intermediate disturbance hypothesis’ when mean patch species diversity is correlated with mean fire intervals. Postfire persistence, recruitment and immigration allow species with different life histories to coexist. From an evolutionary perspective, fire drives population turnover and diversification by promoting a wide range of adaptive responses to particular fire regimes. Among 39 comparisons, the number of species in 26 fire‐prone lineages is much higher than that in their non‐fire‐prone sister lineages. Fire and its byproducts may have direct mutagenic effects, producing novel genotypes that can lead to trait innovation and even speciation. A paradigm shift aimed at restoring biodiversity‐maintaining fire regimes across broad landscapes is required among the fire research and management communities. This will require ecologists and other professionals to spread the burgeoning fire‐science knowledge beyond scientific publications to the broader public, politicians and media.     

The influence of different aspects of grouse moorland management on nontarget bird assemblages

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Rapid cooling triggers forisome dispersion just before phloem transport stops

Phloem transport stops transiently within dicot stems that are cooled rapidly, but the cause remains unknown. Now it is known that (1) rapid cooling depolarizes cell membranes giving a transient increase in cytoplasmic Ca²⁺, and (2) a rise of free calcium triggers dispersion of forisomes, which then occlude sieve elements (SEs) of fabacean plants. Therefore, we compared the effects of rapid chilling on SE electrophysiology, phloem transport and forisomes in Vicia faba. Forisomes dispersed after rapid cooling with a delay that was longer for slower cooling rates. Phloem transport stopped about 20 s after forisome dispersion, and then transport resumed and forisomes re‐condensed within similar time frames. Transport interruption and forisome dispersion showed parallel behaviour – a cooling rate‐dependent response, transience and desensitization. Chilling induced both a fast and a slow depolarization of SE membranes, the electrical signature suggesting strongly that the cause of forisome dispersion was the transient promotion of SE free calcium. This apparent block of SEs by dispersed forisomes may be assisted by other Ca²⁺‐dependent sealing proteins that are present in all dicots.     

Responses of plant and bird communities to prescribed burning in tallgrass prairies

Historic losses and fragmentation of tallgrass prairie habitat to agriculture and urban development have led to declines in diversity and abundance of plants and birds associated with such habitat. Prescribed burning is a management strategy that has potential for restoring and rejuvenating prairies in fragmented landscapes, and through such restoration, might create habitat for birds dependent upon prairies. To provide improved data for management decision-making regarding the use of prescribed fire in tallgrass prairies, we compared responses of plant and bird communities on five burned and five unburned tallgrass prairie fragments at the DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge, Iowa, USA, from 1995 to 1997. Overall species richness and diversity were unaffected by burning, but individual species of plants and birds were affected by year-treatment interactions, including northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) and ring-necked pheasant (Phasianus colchicus), which showed time-delayed increases in density on burned sites. Analyses of species/area relationships indicated that, collectively, many small sites did make significant contributions to plant biodiversity at landscape levels, supporting the overall conservation value of prairie fragments. In contrast, most birds species were present on larger sites. Thus, higher biodiversity in bird communities which contain area-sensitive species might require larger sites able to support larger, more stable populations, greater habitat heterogeneity, and greater opportunity for niche separation.     

Common and Uncommon Understory Species Differentially Respond to Restoration Treatments in Ponderosa Pine/Douglas-Fir Forests, Montana

Restoration treatments have been widely advocated to address declining conditions in Pinus ponderosa forests throughout the western United States. However, few studies have examined treatment effects on individual plant species or whether responses differ for common species and uncommon species (those with low abundance in the community)—information that may be critical in managing for long‐term biodiversity. We investigated understory species responses to restoration treatments in ponderosa pine/Douglas‐fir forests using a randomized block experimental design with three blocks and four treatments (control, burn‐only, thin‐only, and thin‐burn). Understory vegetation was sampled before treatment and for three consecutive years after treatment. We used richness and an index of uniqueness to compare responses of common and uncommon native understory species among treatments, and indicator species analysis to identify individual species that responded to each treatment. Treatments that included thinning had significantly more unique species assemblages than the control. The thin‐only treatment increased common native species richness, whereas all active treatments significantly increased uncommon native species richness over the control, especially the thin‐burn. Generally, life‐forms did not explain the responses of individual species, though in the final sampling year several graminoids were exclusively indicative of treatments that included thinning. Very few species had reduced abundance in the thinning and burning treatments by the final sample year, whereas many uncommon and short‐lived species benefited from active treatments, especially the combined thin‐burn treatment. Active restoration treatments in these forests may foster plant diversity by minimally impacting common species while significantly benefiting disturbance‐dependent native species.