Fuel Connectivity, Burn Severity, and Seedbank Survivorship Drive Ecosystem Transformation in a Semiarid Shrubland

Abstract

Fig. 1. One day, we arrived at what was supposed to be the first day of a week of field measurements for a study on long-term fire effects (Mahood & Balch 2019). To our dismay, a huge fire burned almost the entire study area that had just been contained. Photo credit: Adam Mahood. Fig. 2. Our original plan was not going to work. But we had just driven 15 hours to northern Nevada, so we had to do something. We decided to do a seed bank study, where we collected soil cores on either side of the fire perimeter, along a gradient of burn severity. (a) is a soil core, (b) is the greenhouse table where we germinated the seeds. (c) It was very obvious to both see where the edge of the fire was as well as visually assess the burn severity (pictured, C. Nick Whittemore). Photo credit: Adam Mahood. Fig. 3. We went back the following May to measure initial recovery (pictured, Dylan Murphy). Photo credit: Adam Mahood. Fig. 4. Many places had diverse flora in the spring following the fire. Photo credit: Adam Mahood. Fig. 5. We returned 3 years after the fire to measure recovery once the community stabilized. By then, many of the plots were dominated by cheatgrass. Photo credit: Adam Mahood. These photographs illustrate the article “Fuel connectivity, burn severity, and seedbank survivorship drive ecosystem transformation in a semiarid shrubland” by Adam L. Mahood, Michael J. Koontz, and Jennifer K. Balch published in Ecology. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.3968