Abstract
Forest-savanna mosaics are maintained by fire-mediated positive feedbacks; whereby forest is fire suppressive and savanna is fire promoting. Forest-savanna transitions therefore represent the interface of opposing fire regimes. Within the transition there is a threshold point at which tree canopy cover becomes sufficiently dense to shade out grasses and thus suppress fire. Prior to reaching this threshold, changes in fire behaviour may already be occurring within the savanna. Such changes are neither empirically described nor their drivers understood. Fire behaviour is largely driven by fuel flammability. Flammability can vary significantly between grass species and grass species composition can change near forest-savanna transitions. This study measured fire behaviour changes at eighteen forest-savanna transition sites in a vegetation mosaic in Lope National Park in Gabon, central Africa. The extent to which these changes could be attributed to changes in grass flammability was determined using species-specific flammability traits. Results showed simultaneous suppression of fire and grass biomass when tree canopy leaf area index (LAI) reached a value of 3, indicating that a fire suppression threshold existed within the forest-savanna transition. Fires became less intense and less hot prior to reaching this fire suppression threshold. These changes were associated with higher LAI values, which induced a change in the grass community, from one dominated by the highly flammable Anadelphia afzeliana to one dominated by the less flammable Hyparrhenia diplandra. Changes in fire behaviour were not associated with changes in total grass biomass. This study demonstrated not only the presence of a fire suppression threshold but the mechanism of its action. Grass composition mediated fire-behaviour within the savanna prior to reaching the suppression threshold, and grass species composition was mediated by tree canopy cover which was in turn mediated by fire-behaviour. These findings highlight how biotic and abiotic controls interact and amplify each other in this mosaicked landscape to facilitate forest and savanna co-existence.
Highlights
Forest and savanna distribution can largely be predicted by mean annual precipitation (MAP), which is a key determinant of total tree cover (Sankaran et al, 2005)
This study considered a fire suppression threshold to exist at the forest-savanna transition if: (i) fire could be empirically demonstrated to be suppressed and (ii) the point of fire suppression coincided with a threshold level of canopy leaf area index (LAI) [previously estimated to occur at 3 (Hoffmann et al, 2012a) or 1.5 (Charles-Dominique et al, 2018)] at which grass biomass becomes eliminated from the understorey
The point of fire suppression coincided with a threshold in canopy leaf area index (LAI) at which grass biomass became eliminated from the understorey
Summary
Forest and savanna distribution can largely be predicted by mean annual precipitation (MAP), which is a key determinant of total tree cover (Sankaran et al, 2005). Landscapes where MAP is higher are deterministically closed canopy forests, and landscapes where MAP is lower are deterministically open canopy savannas (Staver et al, 2011b) This predictability falls away in locations where MAP is intermediate (1000–2000 mm p.a.). The opposing fire regimes of forest and savanna meet at the forest-savanna transition, with fire behavior able to determine the transition’s location and dynamics (Oliveras and Malhi, 2016) This makes fire a key determinant of vegetation distribution in mesic tropical landscapes (Hirota et al, 2011; Staver et al, 2011b; Hoffmann et al, 2012a; Dantas Vde et al, 2016), and yet changes in fire behavior at the forest-savanna transition and the biotic and abiotic drivers of this are not well understood
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