Preliminary vegetational changes in frequently burned and unburned upland pine-hardwood forests at Cook’s Branch Conservancy in Montgomery County, Texas, U.S.A.
DOI :
https://doi.org/10.17348/jbrit.v17.i1.1300Résumé
Vegetational changes over a 6-year period (2012 to 2017) were recorded in upland pine – hardwood forests on Cook’s Branch Conservancy (CBC) in Montgomery County, Texas, using permanent vegetation monitoring plots as a basis for following future vegetational changes. Cook’s Branch Conservancy is a 2,160-hectare preserve purchased by George and Cynthia Mitchell in 1964 and is now part of a conservation program operated by the Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation. Plots sampled for this study include eight Fire Monitoring Handbook vegetation plots located in upland forests over sandy soils including four plots located in frequently burned stands (11 times since 2002) and four plots located in stands that have not been burned in decades (20+ years). Data collected confirm significant changes to vegetational structure in frequently burned forests compared to similar habitats that are unburned. Prior to initiation of prescribed burning in 2001, habitat conditions and species composition was similar in stands surrounding all eight plots sampled. The overstory tree structure of all eight plots sampled is similar in basal area, canopy cover, and in species composition. The number of midstory trees is less in frequently burned plots, however, frequently burned plots possess a much greater number of seedlings. At the shrub level, Callicarpa americana and Ilex vomitoria represented 97.7% of total stems in the frequently burned plots, with Callicarpa americana stems count increasing in frequently burned plots, suggesting the species is pyrophytic. Additionally, diversity of herbaceous species was higher in frequently burned plots vs unburned plots. Visually, the frequently burned forest is open in the understory, while the unburned forest is dense with woody understory vegetation making it difficult to traverse on foot.
Références
BRIDGES, E.L. & S.L ORZELL. 1989. Longleaf pine communities of the West Gulf Coastal Plain. Nat. Areas J. 9:246-263.
BUREAU OF ECONOMIC GEOLOGY. 1992. Geologic map of Texas: University of Texas at Austin, U.S.A. Virgil E. Barnes, project supervisor, Hartmann, B.M. and Scranton, D.F., cartography, scale 1:500,000.
CORRELL, D.S. & M.C. JOHNSTON. 1970. Manual of the vascular plants of Texas. Texas Research Foundation, Renner, Texas, U.S.A.
DE CÁCERES, M. & P. LEGENDRE. 2009. Associations between species and groups of sites: Indices and statistical inference. Ecology 90:3566–3574.
DE CÁCERES, M., D. SOL, O. LAPIEDRA, & P. LEGENDRE. 2011. A framework for estimating niche metrics using the resemblance between qualitative resources. Oikos 120:1341–1350.
DIAMOND, D. D., D. H. RISKIND, & S.L. ORZELL. 1987. A framework for plant community classification in Texas. Texas J. Sci. 39:203–222.
DIGGS, G.M., B.L. LIPSCOMB, M.D. REED, & R.J. O’KENNON. 2006. Illustrated flora of East Texas, Vol 1: Introduction, Pteridophytes, Gymnosperms, and Monocotyledons. Sida Bot. Misc. 26.
DIGGS, G.M. & B.L. LIPSCOMB. 2014. The ferns and lycophytes of Texas. Botanical Research Institute of Texas Press, Fort Worth, U.S.A.
ELLEDGE, J. & B. BARLOW. 2012. Basal area: A measure made for management. Available at http://www.aces.edu/pubs/docs/A/ANR-1371/ANR-1371.pdf. Alabama Cooperative Extension System, ANR-1371. Accessed February 2018.
GANEY, J.L. & W.M. BLOCK. 1994. A comparison of two techniques for measuring canopy closure. W. J. Appl. Forest. 9:21–23.
FFI. 2009. Online manual. FEAT/Firemon Integrated (FFI) Ecological Monitoring Utilities. Available at http:// frames.nbii.gov/documents/ffi/docs/FFI_UG_April2009.pdf. Accessed February 2018.
FNA EDITORIAL COMMITTEE. 1993+. Flora of North America North of Mexico. 20+ vols. New York, U.S.A. and Oxford, UK.
FOSTER, W.C. 1995. Spanish Expeditions into Texas, 1689–1768. University of Texas Press. Austin, TX, U.S.A.
FOSTER, W.C. 1998. The LaSalle Expedition to Texas: The Journal of Henri Joutel 1684–1687. Texas State Historical Association. Austin, TX, U.S.A.
FROST, C.C. 1998. Presettlement fire frequency regimes of the United States: A first approximation. Proc. Annual Tall Timbers Fire Ecol. Conf. 20:70–81.
GOTELLI, N.J. & R.K. COLWELL. 2001. Quantifying biodiversity: Procedures and pitfalls in the measurement and comparison of species richness. Ecol. Lett. 4:379–391.
HOLLON, W.E. & R.L. BUTLER. 1956. William Bollaert’s Texas. University of Oklahoma Press. Norman, OK, U.S.A.
KARTESZ, J.T. 2015. Biota of North America Program (BONAP). North American Plant Atlas. <http://bonap.net/napa> Chapel Hill, North Carolina. [maps generated from J.T. Kartesz, 2015. Floristic Synthesis of North America. Version 1.0. Biota of North America Program (BONAP). (In press)].
MCCLINTOCK, W.R., JR., T.L. GALLOWAY, B.R. STRINGER, & L.E. ANDREW. 1972. Soil survey of Montgomery County, Texas. Soil Conservation Service and Forest Service, United States Department of Agriculture, in Cooperation with the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, U.S.A.
NATURESERVE. 2018. NatureServe Explorer: An online encyclopedia of life. Version 7.1. NatureServe, Arlington, Virginia. Available at http://www.natureserve.org/explorer. Accessed February 2018.
NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL SATELLITE, DATA, AND INFORMATION SERVICE (NESDIS). 2018. http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/ncdc.html NOAA National Climatic Data Center, US Department of Commerce. Accessed February 2018.
STAMBAUGH, M.C., R.P. GUYETTE, & J.M. MARSCHALL. 2011. Longleaf pine (Pinus palustris Mill.) fire scars reveal new details of a frequent fire regime. J. Veg. Sci. 22:1094–1104. doi: 10.1111/j.1654--1103.2011.01322.x
STAMBAUGH, M.C., J.C. SPARKS, & E.R. ABADIR. 2014. Historical pyrogeography of Texas, USA. Fire Ecol. 10:72–89. doi: 10.4996/fireecology.1003072
STEVENS, P.F. 2019. Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. Version 14, July 2017. http://www.mobot.org/MOBOT/research/APweb/
STROTHER, J.L. 2006. Vernonia: In: Flora of North America Editorial Committee, eds. 1993+ Flora of North America North of Mexico. 20+ vols. New York, U.S.A. and Oxford, UK. 19:206–213.
TEXAS NATURAL HERITAGE PROGRAM. 1993. Plant communities of Texas (Series Level). Unpublished document.
TEXAS PARKS AND WILDLIFE DEPARTMENT. (TPWD). 2010. Standards and protocols for baseline vegetation studies on Texas state parks. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Natural Resources, Wildland Fire Management Program, unpublished document, U.S.A.
TURNER, B.L., H. NICHOLS, G. DENNY, & O. DORON. 2003. Atlas of the vascular plants of Texas. Vol. I–Dicots; Vol. II– Ferns, Gymnosperms, Monocots. Sida, Bot. Misc. 24(1–2).
URA, A. & L. FLANNERY. “Suburban Population Continues to Surge.” The Texas Tribune. March 24, 2016. Available at: https://www.texastribune.org/2016/03/24/suburban-population-counties-surge-texas/. Accessed March 2018.
URA, A. & A. DANIEL. “Suburbs of Houston and Dallas top list of fastest-growing cities in U.S.” The Texas Tribune. May 25, 2017. Available at: https://www.texastribune.org/2017/05/25/texas-suburbs-are-once-again-among-fastest-growing-cities/. Accessed March 2018.
USDI. 2003. Fire monitoring handbook. U.S. Dept. of the Interior, National Park Service, Fire Management Program Center, National Inter-agency Fire Center, Boise, Idaho, U.S.A.. Available at https://www.nps.gov/orgs/1965/upload/fire-effects-monitoring-handbook.pdf. Accessed February 2018.
USNVC [UNITED STATES NATIONAL VEGETATION CLASSIFICATION]. 2019. United States National Vegetation Classification Database, V2.03. Federal Geographic Data Committee, Vegetation Subcommittee, Washington DC, U.S.A. [usnvc.org] (accessed [10] [Feb] [2020])
WIPFF, J.K. 2003. Schizachyrium: In: Flora of North America Editorial Committee, eds. 1993+. Flora of North America North of Mexico. 20+ vols. New York, U.S.A. and Oxford, UK. Vol. 25:666–677.
Téléchargements
Publié-e
Comment citer
Numéro
Rubrique
Licence
(c) Tous droits réservés Botanical Research Institute of Texas 2023
![Licence Creative Commons](http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-nd/4.0/88x31.png)
Cette œuvre est sous licence Creative Commons Attribution - Pas d'Utilisation Commerciale - Pas de Modification 4.0 International.