Abstract
Mexican forest ecosystems are exposed to a great variety of natural disturbances such as fire, which is a key disturbance process influencing tree survival and regeneration. Nevertheless, forest fires are one of the primary causes for which a large portion of the forest in Mexico is lost. Thus, the objectives of this research were to determine (1) the pattern of occurrence of forest fires, and (2) their relationship with precipitation and atmospheric circulation patterns. We reconstructed the historical forest fire regime from fire scars of 22 sample trees in a coniferous forest stand on the mountain Cerro El Potosi in southern Nuevo Leon, Mexico. Frequent surface fires characterized the site. The mean fire return interval for all fires was 11 years and for the more-widespread fires (those that scarred ≥25% of all samples) was longer (15.7 years). The Superposed Epoch Analysis indicated as not statistically significant the role of dry years as well for the subsequent wet conditions for the period from 1881 to 2004.
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