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Effects of post-fire management practices and slope-aspect on medium-term Spanish black pine regeneration: implications of using a direct seeding strategy in burnt areas

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Abstract

The natural regeneration of non-serotinous Spanish black pine (Pinus nigra Arn. ssp. salzmannii) is known to be null or limited after severe wildfires. However, it remains challenging to define efficient management strategies within the burnt area, which can help to increase the post-fire resilience of this species. We conducted a direct seeding experiment during 2011–2015 to assess the effect of different post-fire management treatments (control, soil rip**, woodchips, and soil rip** + woodchips) performed in opposite slope-aspects (north- and south-facing) on pine emergence, seed predation, survival, growth, and biomass allocation during the early stages of seedling development (1–5 years) after a severe wildfire. Our results showed that the slope-aspect did not have an important effect in both the seedling emergence and seed predation rates. In contrast, the influence of slope-aspect was significant as both survival and growth of pine seedlings were reduced at the south-facing slope-aspect compared to the north-facing slope-aspect due to harsher environmental conditions. A variable and reduced impact on seedling emergence and seed predation rates was induced by both soil rip** and woodchips treatments. Overall, post-fire management treatments helped to enhance survival rates during early growth stages, although this effect was short-lasting. This knowledge can be used to define post-fire seeding management strategies oriented to enhance the resilience of severely burnt pine forest stands; therefore, while both the soil rip** and woodchips treatments might not be practices leading to increase their post-fire regeneration, direct seeding at north-facing slope-aspects could be a more appropriate management strategy.

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Acknowledgements

This work was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness with co-funding from the European Development Regional Fund (MINECO/FEDER, UE) (Project AGL2014-55658-R, FORESTRENGTH), and by the Education, Culture and Sports Department of the Castilla-La Mancha Regional Council with co-funding from the European Development Regional Fund (FEDER) (Project PEIC-2014-002-P, ECOFLUX III; Project POII-2014-007-P, ECAMFOR). The authors thank the Forestry Service of Castilla-La Mancha Regional Council for providing the study area and field support. We thank Tarek Dadi for his valuable assistance with the field and laboratory measurements. Eduardo Martínez-García would like to acknowledge the financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Education according to the FPU programme (FPU grant, AP2009-0055). We thank the Associate Editor and two Reviewers, who helped improve the manuscript.

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  1. Eduardo Martínez-García and Heli Miettinen have contributed equally to this work and should be considered co-first authors.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Science and Agroforestry Technology and Genetics, Higher Technical School of Agricultural and Forestry Engineering, University of Castilla-La Mancha, Campus Universitario s/n, CP 02071, Albacete, Spain

    Eduardo Martínez-García, Heli Miettinen, Francisco Antonio García-Morote, Manuela Andrés-Abellán & Francisco Ramón López-Serrano

  2. Department of Applied Physics, School of Industrial Engineering, University of Castilla-La Mancha, Campus Universitario s/n, CP 02071, Albacete, Spain

    Eva Rubio

  3. Environment Section, Renewable Energy Research Institute, University of Castilla-La Mancha, Campus Universitario s/n, CP 02071, Albacete, Spain

    Eduardo Martínez-García, Heli Miettinen, Eva Rubio, Francisco Antonio García-Morote, Manuela Andrés-Abellán & Francisco Ramón López-Serrano

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  1. Eduardo Martínez-García
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Martínez-García, E., Miettinen, H., Rubio, E. et al. Effects of post-fire management practices and slope-aspect on medium-term Spanish black pine regeneration: implications of using a direct seeding strategy in burnt areas. Eur J Forest Res 137, 527–540 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10342-018-1121-4

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