The Ecological Role of Prescribed Burns in the Pine-Oak Forests of Southern New Jersey

Ecology ◽  
1949 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 223-233 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Little ◽  
E. B. Moore
Keyword(s):  
New Jersey ◽  
Oak Forests ◽  
Ecological Role ◽  
Prescribed Burns

Changes in ectomycorrhizal communities and nutrient availability following prescribed burns in two upland pine–oak forests in the New Jersey pine barrens

2004 ◽  
Vol 34 (8) ◽  
pp. 1755-1765 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy R Tuininga ◽  
John Dighton
Keyword(s):  
New Jersey ◽  
Nutrient Uptake ◽  
Nutrient Availability ◽  
Prescribed Burning ◽  
Field Studies ◽  
Morphological Characters ◽  
Oak Forests ◽  
Pine Barrens ◽  
Prescribed Burns ◽  
Ectomycorrhizal Diversity

Forests in the New Jersey pine barrens are frequently prescribed burned to reduce fuel loads and risk of wildfire. To acquire baseline data for effects of prescribed burns on ectomycorrhizal diversity and nutrient uptake, field studies were undertaken in two upland pine–oak forests in the New Jersey pine barrens subjected to different burn regimes. Ectomycorrhizal diversity was assessed by extraction of roots from soil cores and separation according to morphological characters. Nutrient availability to plant roots was measured using root bioassays. Relative to unburned plots, plots exposed to a fire at Greenwood, where burning was more frequent, had decreased total abundance of ectomycorrhizal tips, richness of ectomycorrhizal types, and Simpson's diversity in the L and F horizons, but increased Simpson's diversity in the deeper A horizon. At Lebanon, under a less frequent burn regime, richness was lower in whole cores and in the A horizon of burned versus unburned plots. Nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium uptake by root bioassays indicated higher field availability of nutrients to roots in burned plots than roots in unburned plots, indicating a fertilization effect of the fire. Prescribed burning primarily impacted ectomycorrhizal community structure in the L and F horizons at these sites. Changes in function of ectomycorrhizae (nutrient uptake) in response to the burns was associated with decreased ectomycorrhizal diversity.

Ecological Role of Exopolysaccharides of Bacillariophyta: A Review

2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. I. Shnyukova ◽  
E. K. Zolotareva
Keyword(s):  
Ecological Role

An inter-dependence of flood and drought: disentangling amphibian beta diversity in seasonal floodplains

2017 ◽  
Vol 68 (11) ◽  
pp. 2115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leonardo F. B. Moreira ◽  
Tainá F. Dorado-Rodrigues ◽  
Vanda L. Ferreira ◽  
Christine Strüssmann
Keyword(s):  
Community Structure ◽  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Quantitative Data ◽  
Explanatory Variable ◽  
Biotic Interactions ◽  
Ecological Role ◽  
Β Diversity ◽  
Amphibian Community ◽  
Dry Seasons

Species composition in floodplains is often affected by different structuring factors. Although floods play a key ecological role, habitat selection in the dry periods may blur patterns of biodiversity distribution. Here, we employed a partitioning framework to investigate the contribution of turnover and nestedness to β-diversity patterns in non-arboreal amphibians from southern Pantanal ecoregion. We investigated whether components of β-diversity change by spatial and environmental factors. We sampled grasslands and dense arboreal savannas distributed in 12 sampling sites across rainy and dry seasons, and analysed species dissimilarities using quantitative data. In the savannas, both turnover and nestedness contributed similarly to β diversity. However, we found that β diversity is driven essentially by turnover, in the grasslands. In the rainy season, balanced variation in abundance was more related to altitude and factors that induce spatial patterns, whereas dissimilarities were not related to any explanatory variable during dry season. In the Pantanal ecoregion, amphibian assemblages are influenced by a variety of seasonal constraints on terrestrial movements and biotic interactions. Our findings highlighted the role of guild-specific patterns and indicated that mass effects are important mechanisms creating amphibian community structure in the Pantanal.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document