Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
vegetation quality for grazing and wildlife habitat (Rigolot et al. 1998 ). In
Portugal, fuel-reduction burning is being used in productive Pinus pinaster stands
(Rego et al. 1987 ; Fernandes et al. 1999 ), and in Turkey, understory burns have
been tested for reducing competition and improving seed beds for regeneration of
target tree species ( Cedrus libani ; Boydak et al. 1998 ).
Modeling is a useful tool for testing alternative fire management options.
Simulations applied to the Iberian peninsula suggest that fire exclusion scenarios
slightly enhance large fires, whereas prescribed fire scenarios reduce them; how-
ever, the total area burned did not vary with the two scenarios (Pin˜ ol et al. 2005 ).
Furthermore, even without changes in the total area burned, different fire man-
agement scenarios produce different spatial distribution of local fire regimes, and
thus they have different consequences on the persistence of the different plant
types (Pausas 1999 ; Pausas & Lloret 2007 ).
A prominent effort is now focused on using remote sensing information and
GIS tools to assess fire management issues that involve prefire, during fire and
postfire assessments (Chuvieco 1999 , 2009 ). This includes fuel mapping (Rian˜ o
et al. 2002 ), assessment of fire risk by calibrating satellite data with fuel moisture
and then providing fire risk maps (Garcı ´ a et al. 2008 ), forecasting fire danger from
meteorological data plus GIS information (topography, vegetation, fire history,
etc.) (Chuvieco et al. 2004 ), detecting fires and following their growth using real-
time satellite data (Martin et al. 1999 ), estimating and mapping burned areas and
burned severity using spectral signatures (Mitri & Gitas 2008 ; De Santis et al.
2009 ), and monitoring postfire regeneration from vegetation indices (Dı´ az-
Delgado et al. 2002 ; Abdel Malak & Pausas 2006 ). Although all these tools are
currently quite well developed, they are seldom routinely used for land manage-
ment by forest administrations.
Because many mediterranean landscapes have been continuously modified for a
long time (terracing, plantations, etc.), recurrent high-intensity fires may lead to
soil losses and degradation problems (for a review on erosion in the region, see
Pausas et al. 2008 ). In addition, there is a cultural framework where dense forests
are the target for many landscapes in the region. The traditional approach was to
create extensive plantations in burn areas, mainly with conifers, sometimes with
non-native species (Pausas et al. 2004a , 2008 ). The objective was mainly watershed
protection, and sometimes wood production. With the new social demands for
conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services, restoration actions are
increasingly focused on: (1) soil and water conservation, (2) improving resistance
and resilience of ecosystems, (3) increasing mature woody formation, both shrub-
lands and forests, and (4) promoting biodiversity (Vallejo et al. 2006 ). The tech-
niques are mostly based on rapid mulching and/or seeding after fire as well as
plantations of resprouting shrubs and trees. Although there is now sufficient
knowledge for applying these restoration methods, there is still a need for better
understanding of microsite preferences for species and for long-term monitoring
to evaluate effectiveness.
Search WWH ::




Custom Search