Non-forest Vegetation Research Articles

DETER Monitoring on Non-Forest Vegetation in the Brazilian Amazon

In this study, we present the initial results of the pilot project applying the Near Real-Time Deforestation Detection System (DETER), initially designed for monitoring forest ecosystems (DETER Amazon), recently expanded to surveil an area of approximately 280,000 km² of non-forest natural vegetation (NF) in the Brazilian Amazon. The system issues two types of alerts: 1) NF suppression alerts, categorized into three classes (suppression with exposed soil, suppression with cultivated area, and suppression by mining) and 2) burn scars, based on an adapted methodology from DETER Amazon and images with low spatial resolution (64 m) but high temporal resolution (two or three days to assess the entire biome). The pilot project period was from August 2022 to July 2023, with a total area of suppression alerts covering 575.22 km², predominantly composed of the NF suppression class with exposed soil, and 8,036.99 km² of burn scar areas. The majority of NF suppression alerts occurred in the states of Roraima, Mato Grosso, Rondônia, and Pará. Additionally, Amazonas and Amapá stood out among the states with a higher area of burn scar alerts. Savannas were the most affected non-forest physiognomies, with 5,037 km² (6.5%) of their area impacted by suppression and fire. Comparative analysis with other monitoring systems in the Amazon demonstrated the effectiveness of DETER NF in monitoring non-forest areas in the biome.

Unaccounted for nonforest vegetation loss in the Brazilian Amazon

The Brazilian Amazon Satellite Monitoring Program (PRODES Amazonia) tracks forest loss in the Brazilian Amazon but excludes about 6.6% ( ~ 280,000 km²) of non-forest vegetation (NF). Here we developed the PRODES NF system to address this gap by adapting the well-established methodology of PRODES Amazonia. Initial findings from PRODES NF show that the Brazilian Amazon lost 10.46% ( ~ 30,000 km²) of NF area, mainly in the last two decades, with the estates of Mato Grosso, Roraima, and Amapá being primary hotspots of losses. Savannas were the most affected (13.3% of their extent). NF loss strongly correlates (r = 0.87; p < 0.0001) with deforestation, suggesting a continuum of vegetation loss in the biome regardless of the predominant vegetation type. Combining data from PRODES Amazonia and PRODES NF reveals an official estimate of ~798,000 km² in total primary vegetation loss ( ~ 19% of the entire biome) in the Brazilian Amazon by 2022.

A draft bill imperils Brazilian non-forest vegetation amid climate catastrophes.

A draft bill imperils Brazilian non-forest vegetation amid climate catastrophes.

Shaping Baltimore’s urban forests: past insights for present-day ecology

ContextLand use history of urban forests impacts present-day soil structure, vegetation, and ecosystem function, yet is rarely documented in a way accessible to planners and land managers.ObjectivesTo (1) summarize historical land cover of present-day forest patches in Baltimore, MD, USA across land ownership categories and (2) determine whether social-ecological characteristics vary by historical land cover trajectory.MethodsUsing land cover classification derived from 1927 and 1953 aerial imagery, we summarized present-day forest cover by three land cover sequence classes: (1) Persistent forest that has remained forested since 1927, (2) Successional forest previously cleared for non-forest vegetation (including agriculture) that has since reforested, or (3) Converted forest that has regrown on previously developed areas. We then assessed present-day ownership and average canopy height of forest patches by land cover sequence class.ResultsMore than half of Baltimore City’s forest has persisted since at least 1927, 72% since 1953. About 30% has succeeded from non-forest vegetation during the past century, while 15% has reverted from previous development. A large proportion of forest converted from previous development is currently privately owned, whereas persistent and successional forest are more likely municipally-owned. Successional forest occurred on larger average parcels with the fewest number of distinct property owners per patch. Average tree canopy height was significantly greater in patches of persistent forest (mean = 18.1 m) compared to canopy height in successional and converted forest patches (16.6 m and 16.9 m, respectively).ConclusionsHistorical context is often absent from urban landscape ecology but provides information that can inform management approaches and conservation priorities with limited resources for sustaining urban natural resources. Using historical landscape analysis, urban forest patches could be further prioritized for protection by their age class and associated ecosystem characteristics.

Dominant role of the non-forest woody vegetation in the post 2015/16 El Niño tropical carbon recovery.

The extreme dry and hot 2015/16 El Niño episode caused large losses in tropical live aboveground carbon (AGC) stocks. Followed by climatic conditions conducive to high vegetation productivity since 2016, tropical AGC are expected to recover from large losses during the El Niño episode; however, the recovery rate and its spatial distribution remain unknown. Here, we used low-frequency microwave satellite data to track AGC changes, and showed that tropical AGC stocks returned to pre-El Niño levels by the end of 2020, resulting in an AGC sink of Pg C year-1 during 2014-2020. This sink was dominated by strong AGC increases ( Pg C year-1) in non-forest woody vegetation during 2016-2020, compensating the forest AGC losses attributed to the El Niño event, forest loss, and degradation. Our findings highlight that non-forest woody vegetation is an increasingly important contributor to interannual to decadal variability in the global carbon cycle.

Combining Multitemporal Optical and Radar Satellite Data for Mapping the Tatra Mountains Non-Forest Plant Communities

Climate change is significantly affecting mountain plant communities, causing dynamic alterations in species composition as well as spatial distribution. This raises the need for constant monitoring. The Tatra Mountains are the highest range of the Carpathians which are considered biodiversity hotspots in Central Europe. For this purpose, microwave Sentinel-1 and optical multi-temporal Sentinel-2 data, topographic derivatives, and iterative machine learning methods incorporating classifiers random forest (RF), support vector machines (SVMs), and XGBoost (XGB) were used for the identification of thirteen non-forest plant communities (various types of alpine grasslands, shrublands, herbaceous heaths, mountain hay meadows, rocks, and scree communities). Different scenarios were tested to identify the most important variables, retrieval periods, and spectral bands. The overall accuracy results for the individual algorithms reached RF (0.83–0.96), SVM (0.87–0.93), and lower results for XGBoost (0.69–0.82). The best combination, which included a fusion of Sentinel-1, Sentinel-2, and topographic data, achieved F1-scores for classes in the range of 0.73–0.97 (RF) and 0.66–0.95 (SVM). The inclusion of topographic variables resulted in an improvement in F1-scores for Sentinel-2 data by one–four percent points and Sentinel-1 data by 1%–9%. For spectral bands, the Sentinel-2 10 m resolution bands B4, B3, and B2 showed the highest mean decrease accuracy. The final result is the first comprehensive map of non-forest vegetation for the Tatra Mountains area.

Impacts of fire and prospects for recovery in a tropical peat forest ecosystem

Uncontrolled fires place considerable burdens on forest ecosystems, compromising our ability to meet conservation and restoration goals. A poor understanding of the impacts of fire on ecosystems and their biodiversity exacerbates this challenge, particularly in tropical regions where few studies have applied consistent analytical techniques to examine a broad range of ecological impacts over multiyear time frames. We compiled 16 y of data on ecosystem properties (17 variables) and biodiversity (21 variables) from a tropical peatland in Indonesia to assess fire impacts and infer the potential for recovery. Burned forest experienced altered structural and microclimatic conditions, resulting in a proliferation of nonforest vegetation and erosion of forest ecosystem properties and biodiversity. Compared to unburned forest, habitat structure, tree density, and canopy cover deteriorated by 58 to 98%, while declines in species diversity and abundance were most pronounced for trees, damselflies, and butterflies, particularly for forest specialist species. Tracking ecosystem property and biodiversity datasets over time revealed most to be sensitive to recurrent high-intensity fires within the wider landscape. These megafires immediately compromised water quality and tree reproductive phenology, crashing commercially valuable fish populations within 3 mo and driving a gradual decline in threatened vertebrates over 9 mo. Burned forest remained structurally compromised long after a burn event, but vegetation showed some signs of recovery over a 12-y period. Our findings demonstrate that, if left uncontrolled, fire may be a pervasive threat to the ecological functioning of tropical forests, underscoring the importance of fire prevention and long-term restoration efforts, as exemplified in Indonesia.

Disturbance can slow down litter decomposition, depending on severity of disturbance and season: an example from Mount Kilimanjaro

Abstract. Deforestation and land-use change affect ecosystem processes such as carbon cycling. Here, we present results from a litter decomposition experiment in six natural and six disturbed vegetation types along an elevation gradient of 3600 m on the southern slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. We exposed litter bags with a standard material for up to 12 weeks each in two seasons. In the cold wet season we sampled the full elevation gradient and in the warm wet season we repeated the sampling in the lower part of the elevation gradient. Though we found significantly negative effects of disturbance in forest ecosystems, this was only due to differences between natural and burned Podocarpus forests. Disturbance characterized by a more open vegetation structure in many of the studied vegetation types had no general effect when we studied the full elevation gradient; this also included non-forest vegetation types. Land-use intensity had a significant negative effect on decomposition rates but only in the warm wet season, not in the cold wet season. Temperature and humidity were the most important drivers of decomposition overall and for all subsets of vegetation types and seasons. Our study shows that negative effects of disturbance or land-use intensity on decomposition depended on the severity of disturbance and on the season. Nevertheless, climate was generally the most relevant driver of decomposition. Therefore, vegetation types with moderate levels of disturbance can retain high functionality in regards to carbon cycling over short periods of time. More and longer decomposition studies are necessary to better predict consequences of land-use change for carbon cycling in the Afrotropics.

Droughts impede water balance recovery from fires in the Western United States.

A steady rise in fires in the Western United States, coincident with intensifying droughts, imparts substantial modifications to the underlying vegetation, hydrology and overall ecosystem. Drought can compound the ecosystem disturbance caused by fire, although how these compound effects on hydrologic and ecosystem recovery vary among ecosystems is poorly understood. Here we use remote sensing-derived high-resolution evapotranspiration (ET) estimates from before and after 1,514 fires to show that ecoregions dominated by grasslands and shrublands are more susceptible to drought, which amplifies fire-induced ET decline and, subsequently, shifts water flux partitioning. In contrast, severely burned forests recover from fire slowly or incompletely, but are less sensitive to dry extremes. We conclude that moisture limitation caused by droughts influences the dynamics of water balance recovery in post-fire years. This finding explains why moderate to extreme droughts aggravate impacts on the water balance in non-forested vegetation, while moisture accessed by deeper roots in forests helps meet evaporative demands unless severe burns disrupt internal tree structure and deplete fuel load availability. Our results highlight the dominant control of drought on altering the resilience of vegetation to fires, with critical implications for terrestrial ecosystem stability in the face of anthropogenic climate change in the West.

Fire Regimes of Utah: The Past as Prologue

(1) Background: Satellite monitoring of fire effects is widespread, but often satellite-derived values are considered without respect to the characteristic severity of fires in different vegetation types or fire areas. Particularly in regions with discontinuous vegetation or narrowly distributed vegetation types, such as the state of Utah, USA, specific characterization of satellite-derived fire sensitivity by vegetation and fire size may improve both pre-fire and post-fire management activities. (2) Methods: We analyzed the 775 medium-sized (40 ha ≤ area &lt; 400 ha) and 697 large (≥400 ha) wildfires that occurred in Utah from 1984 to 2022 and assessed burn severity for all vegetation types using the differenced Normalized Burn Ratio. (3) Results: Between 1984–2021, Utah annually experienced an average of 38 fires ≥ 40 ha that burned an annual average of 58,242 ha with a median dNBR of 165. Fire was heavily influenced by sagebrush and shrubland vegetation types, as these constituted 50.2% (17% SD) of area burned, a proportion which was relatively consistent (18% to 79% yr−1). Medium-sized fires had higher mean severity than large fires in non-forested vegetation types, but forested vegetation types showed the reverse. Between 1985 and 2021, the total area burned in fires ≥ 40 ha in Utah became more concentrated in a smaller number of large fires. (4) Conclusions: In Utah, characteristic fire severity differs both among vegetation types and fire sizes. Fire activity in the recent past may serve as an informative baseline for future fire, although the long period of fire suppression in the 20th century suggests that future fire may be more active. Fire managers planning prescribed fires &lt; 400 ha in forests may find the data from medium-sized fires more indicative of expected behavior than statewide averages or vegetation type averages, both of which are weighted to large fires.

Tree-Regeneration Decline and Type-Conversion after High-Severity Fires Will Likely Cause Little Western USA Forest Loss from Climate Change

Temperate conifer forests stressed by climate change could be lost through tree regeneration decline in the interior of high-severity fires, resulting in type conversion to non-forest vegetation from seed-dispersal limitation, competition, drought stress, and reburns. However, is fire triggering this global change syndrome at a high rate? To find out, I analyzed a worst-case scenario. I calculated fire rotations (FRs, expected period to burn once across an area) across ~56 million ha of forests (~80% of total forest area) in 11 western USA states from 2000 to 2020 for total high-severity fire area, interior area (&gt;90 m inward), and reburned area. Unexpectedly, there was no trend in area burned at high severity from 2000 to 2020 across the four forest types studied. The vulnerable interior area averaged only 21.9% of total high-severity fire area, as 78.1% of burned area was within 90 m of live seed sources where successful tree regeneration is likely. FRs averaged 453 years overall, 2089 years in interiors, and 19,514 years in reburns. Creation of vulnerable interior area in a particular location is thus, on average, a 2000+ year event, like a very rare natural disaster, and reburns that may favor type conversion to non-forest have almost no effect. This means that, from 2021 to 2050 at most, only 3.0–4.2% of total forest area may become a vulnerable interior area, based on a likely high aridity-based climate projection of future fire and a higher scenario, where rates in the exceptional 2020 fire year have become the norm. These findings show that increased management to reduce high-severity fires is not currently needed, as the risk to forests from this global change syndrome is likely quite low up to 2050. Faster and larger disturbances (e.g., severe droughts) are more likely to cause most tree mortality or forest loss that occurs by 2050.

ReCuSum: A polyvalent method to monitor tropical forest disturbances

Change detection methods based on Earth Observations are increasingly used to monitor rainforest in the intertropical band. Until recently, deforestation monitoring was mainly based on remotely sensed optical images which often face limitations in humid tropical areas due to frequent cloud coverage. This leads to late detections of disturbance events. Since the launch of Sentinel-1 acquiring images with a revisit time of 12 days and a spatial resolution of 5 × 20 m in Brazil, Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images have been increasingly used to monitor deforestation. In this study, we propose a multitemporal version of the change detection method we previously applied to timeseries of Sentinel-1 SAR images, to monitor deforestation/degradation in the Congo rainforest. Our approach is based on a Cumulative Sum (CuSum) method combined with a spatial recombination of Critical Thresholds (CuSum cross-Tc). The newly developed multitemporal CuSum method (ReCuSum) was applied to a time-series of 82 dual polarization (VH, VV) Ground Range Detected (GRD) Sentinel-1 images acquired in the Para State, in the Brazilian Amazonia, from 29/09/2016 to 01/07/2019. The ReCuSum method consists of iteratively applying the CuSum cross-Tc to monitor multiple changes in a time-series by splitting the time-series at each date of detected change and by independently iterating over the time periods resulting from the splits. The number of changes in the time-series was then analysed according to the vegetation type (Forest, non-forest vegetation) determined by visual inspection of optical Sentinel-2 image and PlanetScope monthly mosaic. This showed a difference between non-forest vegetation and forested areas. A threshold based on the number of changes (Tnbc) was then developed to differentiate forest from non-forest disturbances. The ability to monitor non-forest vegetation was analysed: the CuSum cross-Tc detected up to 90% of the total non-forest vegetation area over the study region in the past period. After removing past disturbances and past non-forest vegetation, then removing the pixels covered with non-forest vegetations based on Tnbc, the application of the ReCuSum led to a precision of 81%, a recall of 68%, a kappa coefficient of 0.72 and a F1- score of 0.74 in forest disturbance monitoring. According to these results, ReCuSum applied to Sentinel-1 time-series of images can be used for efficient forest disturbance monitoring and for generating a forest / non-forest map after the application of newly developed post-processing steps. Sentinel-1 imagery can be used for both Forest / Non-forest mapping and for forest disturbance detection. ReCuSum was released as an open-source GIT project available at: https://forgemia.inra.fr/bertrand.ygorra/cusum-deforestation_monitoring.

A bird’s eye view of ecosystem conversion: Examining the resilience of piñon-juniper woodlands and their avian communities in the face of fire regime change

Climate change and land-use legacies have caused a shift in wildfires and post-fire growing conditions. These changes have strong potential to diminish the resilience of many ecosystems, with cascading effects and feedbacks across taxa. Piñon-juniper (PJ) woodlands are a diverse and widespread forest type in the western US and are home to many obligate and semi-obligate bird species. As such, this system is ideal for understanding wildfire resilience, or lack thereof, in terms of both vegetation and wildlife associations. This study evaluated post-fire vegetation structure and associated avian communities following three wildfires; one that burned one year prior to sampling (recent fire), and two that burned approximately 25 years previously (old fires). Vegetation characteristics and the habitat use of PJ-associated bird species were compared across severely burned patches, unburned refugia, and unburned sites outside of the burn perimeter. We expected wildfire to alter vegetation and bird usage for the first few years post-fire, which we observed in our recent burns. However, even 25-years post-fire, little recovery to PJ woodland had occurred and the associated bird communities had not returned, compared to unburned areas. No piñon regeneration was observed in any burned areas and no juniper regeneration in the recent fire. Piñon seedling densities in unburned sites and refugia averaged 80 ha−1 and 151 ha−1, respectively, while juniper seedling densities were 220 ha−1 in both habitat types. Habitat use for thirteen PJ-associated species were modeled, three of which (Woodhouse’s Scrub Jay, Ash-throated Flycatcher, and Virginia’s Warbler) used all habitats. Four species (American Robin, Gray Vireo, Black-throated Gray Warbler, and Gray Flycatcher) were essentially absent from the old burn habitat, reflecting species-specific need for mature piñon or juniper trees and/or greater canopy cover. Conversely, birds that were present in the old burn habitat (including Virginia’s Warbler, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Woodhouse’s Scrub-jay, Ash-throated Flycatcher, and Spotted Towhee) are typically associated with habitat edges, high shrub cover, or cavity nests. Altered vegetation structure and bird habitat use in burned areas 25 years post-fire are evidence for enduring conversion to non-forest vegetation types. However, unburned refugia embedded in burned areas maintain forest attributes and support obligate bird communities, supporting ecological function and biological diversity.

The REBURN model: simulating system-level forest succession and wildfire dynamics

BackgroundHistorically, reburn dynamics from cultural and lightning ignitions were central to the ecology of fire in the western United States (wUS), whereby past fire effects limited future fire growth and severity. Over millennia, reburns created heterogenous patchworks of vegetation and fuels that provided avenues and impediments to the flow of future fires, and feedbacks to future fire event sizes and their severity patterns. These dynamics have been significantly altered after more than a century of settler colonization, fire exclusion, and past forest management, now compounded by rapid climatic warming. Under climate change, the area impacted by large and severe wildfires will likely increase — with further implications for self-regulating properties of affected systems. An in-depth understanding of the ecology of reburns and their influence on system-level dynamics provides a baseline for understanding current and future landscape fire-vegetation interactions.ResultsHere, we present a detailed characterization of REBURN — a geospatial modeling framework designed to simulate reburn dynamics over large areas and long time frames. We interpret fire-vegetation dynamics for a large testbed landscape in eastern Washington State, USA. The landscape is comprised of common temperate forest and nonforest vegetation types distributed along broad topo-edaphic gradients. Each pixel in a vegetation type is represented by a pathway group (PWG), which assigns a specific state-transition model (STM) based on that pixel’s biophysical setting. STMs represent daily simulated and annually summarized vegetation and fuel succession, and wildfire effects on forest and nonforest succession. Wildfire dynamics are driven by annual ignitions, fire weather and topographic conditions, and annual vegetation and fuel successional states of burned and unburned pixels.ConclusionsOur simulation study is the first to evaluate how fire exclusion and forest management altered the active fire regime of this landscape, its surface and canopy fuel patterns, forest and nonforest structural conditions, and the dynamics of forest reburning. The REBURN framework is now being used in related studies to evaluate future climate change scenarios and compare the efficacy of fire and fuel management strategies that either enable the return of active fire regimes or depend on fire suppression and wildfire effects on forest burning.

Non-Forest Woody Vegetation: A Critical Resource for Pollinators in Agricultural Landscapes—A Review

In light of pollinator decline, plant species suitable for the restoration and conservation of pollinators need to be selected. In this systemic review, we concentrated on the importance of NFWV (non-forest woody vegetation, i.e., linear or grouped trees/shrubs) for pollinators across agricultural landscapes. In the temperate climate zone, flowering trees and shrubs provide nectar sugar (energy) and pollen (nutrients) for managed and wild pollinators. They also create nesting niches and serve as host plants that support the full life cycle of wild pollinators. The creation of woodland strips/groups is a cost-effective and time-saving strategy to improve self-repeatable nectar and pollen resources on a landscape scale. The spatial distribution of NFWV can help to create an entire network of pollinator-friendly habitats. NFWV can support the continuity of food resources outside of the crop flowering season, i.e., during seasonal bottlenecks. This concept also offers other environmental benefits (e.g., water and air quality improvement, climate mitigation). However, future work should address the usefulness of trees/shrubs for different crops and regions to develop a network of flower-rich corridors. Likewise, more advanced and detailed studies are necessary to determine the qualitative characteristics of nectar and pollen, which may result in optimization of pollinator nutrition.

Distribution of graminoids in open habitats in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan

Aims: Landscapes of Middle Asia are exposed to human influence due to long-lasting pastoral tradition, and now are largely dominated by non-forest vegetation. Graminoids perform key ecosystem functions, and constitute an important feed source for livestock. We studied the distribution patterns of graminoids cover under climatic and grazing pressure gradients in different open vegetation types. Study area: Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan. Methods: 1,525 vegetation plots representing five open vegetation types (mires, salt marshes, tall-forb communities, pseudosteppes and steppes) were extracted from the Vegetation of Middle Asia Database. We assessed the relative cover of graminoid species in each vegetation type. The importance of mean annual temperature, sum of annual precipitation, aridity and livestock density as drivers of relative cover of graminoids contribution patterns in the five vegetation types were explored with use of polynomial functions and commonality analysis. Results: Open ecosystems of Middle Asia are characterized by different graminoid contributions. The highest relative cover of graminoids was found for steppes, pseudosteppes and mires. Comparison of model fits for relationship between the graminoids cover, climatic parameters and livestock pressure indicated advantage of polynomial models. The best-fitting models for pseudosteppes were for mean annual temperature, Aridity Index and livestock density, for steppes mean annual temperature and Aridity Index, and for salt marshes mean annual temperature. For mires and tall-forb communities, the models showed a poor fit or no effect of the variables studied. Conclusions: Our study shows that climate and livestock pressure have an impact on the contribution of graminoids in open vegetation types, but a general pattern is difficult to describe. Ongoing climate change may influence the share of graminoids in salt marshes, steppes and pseudosteppes. Grazing (with a common effect of climatic factors) is the most important factor influencing graminoids contribution on pseudosteppes, confirming the secondary origin of this vegetation type. Taxonomic reference: The nomenclature of the vascular plants follows Plants of the World Online (POWO 2022) and problematic taxonomic issues were based on The World Flora Online (WFO 2022). Nomenclature of Stipa spp. follows Nobis et al. (2020).

Mega-disturbances cause rapid decline of mature conifer forest habitat in California.

Mature forests provide important wildlife habitat and support critical ecosystem functions globally. Within the dry conifer forests of the western United States, past management and fire exclusion have contributed to forest conditions that are susceptible to increasingly severe wildfire and drought. We evaluated declines in conifer forest cover in the southern Sierra Nevada of California during a decade of record disturbance by using spatially comprehensive forest structure estimates, wildfire perimeter data, and the eDaRT forest disturbance tracking algorithm. Primarily due to the combination of wildfires, drought, and drought-associated beetle epidemics, 30% of the region's conifer forest extent transitioned to nonforest vegetation during 2011-2020. In total, 50% of mature forest habitat and 85% of high density mature forests either transitioned to lower density forest or nonforest vegetation types. California spotted owl protected activity centers (PAC) experienced greater canopy cover decline (49% of 2011 cover) than non-PAC areas (42% decline). Areas with high initial canopy cover and without tall trees were most vulnerable to canopy cover declines, likely explaining the disproportionate declines of mature forest habitat and within PACs. Drought and beetle attack caused greater cumulative declines than areas where drought and wildfire mortality overlapped, and both types of natural disturbance far outpaced declines attributable to mechanical activities. Drought mortality that disproportionately affects large conifers is particularly problematic to mature forest specialist species reliant on large trees. However, patches of degraded forests within wildfire perimeters were larger with greater core area than those outside burned areas, and remnant forest habitats were more fragmented within burned perimeters than those affected by drought and beetle mortality alone. The percentage of mature forest that survived and potentially benefited from lower severity wildfire increased over time as the total extent of mature forest declined. These areas provide some opportunity for improved resilience to future disturbances, but strategic management interventions are likely also necessary to mitigate worsening mega-disturbances. Remaining dry mature forest habitat in California may be susceptible to complete loss in the coming decades without a rapid transition from a conservation paradigm that attempts to maintain static conditions to one that manages for sustainable disturbance dynamics.

The challenges and possibilities in the reconstruction of non-forest woody vegetation: A case study of the hermit beetle microhabitat in the Poodří region, Czechia

Non-forest woody vegetation such as copses, orchards, hedges, alleys, riparian vegetation, and isolated trees is a key-stone ecological, economic, and cultural landscape feature of agricultural landscapes. The analysis of its history is a precondition for the understanding of local management, traditional knowledge and practices, as well as human-nature relations. It is also key for its successful conservation and the conservation of biological species depending on its existence. The reconstruction of its historical development, however, brings a number of challenges arising from a lack of archival sources, its sketchy depictions on historical maps, and limited possibilities for its interpretation on the basis of aerial photographs. Attempts at the reconstruction of non-forest woody vegetation have been therefore few and most have utilized only cartographic sources and aerial photographs. This study shows what we can learn about non-forest woody vegetation history from archival records and how such findings can help to interpret, complement, and correct findings obtained from other sources. Unlike maps and aerial photographs, archival records can also shed light on tree and landscape management practices, motivations, and preferences of local actors. This is especially important for the correct understanding of the historical changes of anthropogenic landscape features such as non-forest woody vegetation. The use of historical methods and archival records would greatly benefit nature conservation and landscape planning.

The dynamics of the perennial grass crops communities on the restoration succession gradient

The trends of the coenoflora structure dynamics of the perennial grass crops communities were characterized on the gradient of restorative succession in the conditions of the steppe and forest-steppe zones of the Southern Urals. Using an agglomerative cluster analysis, four community groups have been identified, which corresponds to the stages of succession and reflecting the age of the communities (from 1 to 16 years or more). It is demonstrated that the succession gradient complicates the species composition, the species richness of the communities increases by almost 2 times. An analysis of the activity index change for the coenoflora core species at each stage has been carried out. It has been revealed that the activity of sown herbs species decreases, while the total activity of well-eaten species as well as the feed value of the whole phytocoenoses increases with the age of communities. A community of each stage of succession is marked by a group of highly active species, the functional composition and coenotic affinity of which changes. The activity of apophyte species increases while the activity of synanthropic ones decreases. There is a natural complication of the phytosociological spectrum from species of affine to classes of synanthropic vegetation Sisymbrietea and Artemisietea to species of classes of natural vegetation meadows (Molinio-Arrhenatheretea) and steppes (Festuco-Brometea). At the same time, the most active substitution of synanthropic species for natural ones occurs after the second stage of succession, i.e. its significant acceleration is observed after the age of 11 years. According to the results of the ordination analysis (DCA-ordination) with an additional assessment of the contribution of environmental variables, the leading in the differentiation of the species composition of communities is the factor of the age of communities, the factor of humidification of habitats makes a smaller contribution. According to the results of the comparison of the studied phytocoenoses with the data of weed, meadow and steppe communities from the database of non-forest vegetation of the Southern Urals (1660 releves), the central position of perennial grass crop communities on the gradient of restorative succession from disturbed arable land vegetation to natural (steppes) (steppes) and quasi-natural (meadows) vegetation types is demonstrated. Thus, a high importance of perennial grass crops for the creation of stable phytocoenoses of high forage value, which can be used for the restoration of biodiversity in the forest-steppe and steppe regions, is revealed.

VESTA – resurvey of natural, non-forest vegetation (Central Europe)

“VESTA - resurvey of natural, non-forest vegetation (Central Europe)” is a thematic, resurvey database focused on documentation of changes in natural, non-forest communities. Currently, the database includes 549 relevés (231 replots for 84 sites) corresponding to the classes Asplenietea trichomanis (incl. Polypodietea), Koelerio-Corynephoretea (rocky grasslands), Loiseleurio-Vaccinietea and Betulo carpaticae-Alnetea viridis. The project is continuous in character. It is based on the phytosociological relevés from own field studies which have been carried out in the Sudetes Mts. and their foothills since 1989. The subject of research have been all types of rocky communities (chasmophytic, grasslands, thickets), mountain and submountain tall-herb communities, subalpine thickets and heathlands. Relevés are collected according to the standard Braun-Blanquet method (species coverage scale: r, +, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5) and on rectangular or square-shaped surfaces with possible adjustment to the shape of the rocky outcrops. Initially (until 2008), the location of plots was marked on maps and field sketches. However, the fact that all relevés were collected by the owners of the database made it easier to revisit all plots and assigned a location compatible with GPS with SiRFstar III chipset. The accuracy of position measurements varies between 2 and 15 meters (on average 10 meters). Aspect is determined using electronic compass linked to GPS. Altitude is obtained from Google Earth and corrected with landmarks from topographical maps if necessary. The shading of the plots has been visually assessed so far. The bedrock type is derived from a Detailed Geological Map of the Sudetes (http://sudety.pgi.gov.pl/). Subsequent resurveys of the plots are conducted during field visits planned specifically for this purpose or during other research carried out in the same area.