Fire and Forest Ecosystems in the South Eastern USA

Jennifer Wright

Photo Richard T. Bryant

People Involved

Student : Jennifer Wright American School of BrasiliaUniversity of St. Andrews (BSc Environmental Biology)University of Edinburgh (MSc Environmental Protection and Management)Supervisors

Dr Robert Mitchell (Joseph W. Jones

Ecological Research Center)

Dr Gregory Starr (University of

Alabama)

Dr Mathew Williams (University of

Edinburgh)

Dr Maurizio Mencuccini (University

of Edinburgh)

The Project ITo determine the interactions between fire behaviour,

forest dynamics and carbon sequestration.Project Components

1) Fieldwork

2) Data-model integration

3) Influence of fire frequency on carbon allocation across a soil moisture gradient

4) Influence of biodiversity

5) Predictions of forest response to precipitation changes due to climate change

Fire in a longleaf pine forest Photo from www.jonesctr.org

The Project II

Longleaf pine ecosystem

Ranges from savanna woodland to forest

Overstory of longleaf pine (Pinus palustris)

Midstory (occasional) of scrub oaks (Quercus spp.)

Understory C4 grass (Aristida stricta)

One of the most diverse ecosystems outside tropics (Peet and Allard, 1993)

Hyper frequent fire (1-2 years) and disturbance prone ecosystem

Fire adapted ecosystem requires frequent fire to maintain plant diversity and current ecosystem structure

The longleaf pine-wiregrass system. Photo from www.jonesctr.org

Why is my project (going to be) important?

• Fire releases 2-3 Pg of C annually (Giglio et al., 2006)

• Most past research of carbon/fire• Wildfires, slash & burn• Boreal forests , Mediterranean-type ecosystems (incl. Western USA), Tropics

• Fires predicted to become more frequent (IPCC, 2007)

• Lack of data in mature forests to test fire models a pressing science need (Bachelet et al., 2003)

• Do frequent fires reduce ecosystem C sequestration?

• South East US predicted to become a C source within this century (Bachelet et al., 2004)

• Fire-maintained longleaf pine ecosystem may offer one of the best C sequestration options in USA (Meldahl and Kush,2006)

Thank you!

More information: https://www.geos.ed.ac.uk/homes/s0677701/