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More About This Title Ecology of Wildfire Residuals in Boreal Forests
English
This book will draw attention to the residuals in pan-boreal forest fires and synthesize the state of knowledge. It will do so by: (a) Examining the concept of fire residuals from different perspectives, (b) Reviewing the growing body of scientific literature on the topic, (c) Conceptualizing the process of residual formation in relation to scale of fire disturbance, (d) Discussing the roles of fire residuals in ecological processes, (e) Describing approaches and methods of studying fire residuals, (f) Compiling and summarizing what is known about fire residual vegetation with respect to their extent, spatial patterns, and temporal changes, (g) Discussing how the knowledge of fire residuals is applied in forest management, including social perspective, and (h) Synthesizing the state of knowledge, identifying its uncertainties and gaps, and proposing research hypotheses. The authors use pan-boreal scientific literature on boreal fire residuals as well as fire behaviour, fire ecology, habitat ecology, and geochemical processes. For readers this book will be a reference for knowledge to date and a meta-analysis of research trends during the past few decades. In addition, the authors judiciously include views constructed from their observations and research experience, from boreal Canada, when they synthesize and conceptualize the knowledge. They also incorporate information extracted from their discussions and interactions with North American and European ecologists, forest managers, and conservationists to provide insight to different views and perspectives on the fire residuals of the boreal forest system. This book will inform researchers and students who study boreal forest ecology, as well as policymakers and forest managers who apply forest ecological knowledge in forest management.
This book provides a review and coalescence of the current knowledge of boreal forest fire residuals, which at present is sporadic and has not been unified or synthesized. Moreover, these are presently viewed myopically and parochially, rather than holistically. The intent of the synthesis is to identify knowledge uncertainties and gaps and propose topics for future research. Most importantly, it brings together fire behaviour, ecological scale, vegetation ecology, and conservation biology to conceptualize forest fire residuals. Although focused on boreal forests, the contents and principles presented are also be pertinent to other large-scale fire driven forest systems, such as dry montane forests in North America and Australian eucalypt forests. This book will add to the current knowledge base by providing a source of significant literature to-date, an in-depth examination of baseline concepts of forest fire residuals, as well as questions and research ideas to address the identified gaps. The timing is ideal because the knowledge base is beginning to expand and the interest in the topic is increasing: such a synthesis would provide an important foundation for future advances in this very relevant topical area. The book is a compact, yet comprehensive, dissertation of remnant vegetation in boreal forest fires with respect to their formation, role in ecological processes, applied importance, and a synthesis of state-of-the-knowledge and future research directions. The scope is boreal forests worldwide, including North America, Europe, and Asia. Brief TOC: Why the interest in boreal fire residuals; what are fire residuals; how are fire residuals formed; what are the ecological roles of the fire residuals; what is the role of residuals in forest management applications; synthesis, knowledge, uncertainties and research needs.English
Ajith H. Perera is a senior research scientist and leads the Forest Landscape Ecology Program at the Ontario Forest Research Institute in Ontario, Canada. He has over twenty-five years of research experience in landscape ecology, much of it focused on understanding patterns and processes of boreal forest fire regimes. He has
authored many scientific publications, including several books.
Lisa J. Buse is a forest biologist who specializes in knowledge transfer at the Ontario Forest Research Institute. She has over twenty years of experience in communicating forestry sciences to practitioners, especially on forest landscape ecology including wildfire disturbances in boreal Ontario. She has also published many scientific publications and co-edited three books.
English
About the companion website xiii
1 Introduction 1
The boreal forest biome 2
Geographical distribution 4
Distinguishing features 6
Boreal wildfires 9
Major characteristics 9
Ecological significance 11
Goals and scope of the book 12
References 14
2 Formation of wildfire residuals 18
Factors that affect the formation of residuals 19
Boreal forest communities 20
Boreal wildfires 31
Residual formation and distribution 40
Spatial heterogeneity in fire behavior 41
Process of residual formation 44
Summary 59
References 61
3 Types of wildfire residuals and their extent 65
Types of wildfire residuals 66
A post-wildfire scene 66
Past descriptions of wildfire residuals 71
Abundance and extent of wildfire residuals 79
Snag residuals 80
Live tree residuals 81
Residual patches 84
Changes in residuals after wildfires 88
Snag residuals 88
Live tree residuals 89
Residual patches 92
Toward improved definitions and assessment 93
Reasons for improvement 93
Definitions of wildfire residuals 95
Improved study approaches 103
Summary 107
References 113
4 Ecological roles of wildfire residuals 119
Ecological processes involving snag residuals 121
Invasion by beetles 121
Colonization by woodpeckers 132
Occupation by other bird species 140
Forest regeneration 142
Roles of the residual patches 148
Providing temporary shelter 149
Supplementing the recovery 151
Creating heterogeneity 161
Ecological significance 161
Wildfire residuals and the carbon cycle 162
Wildfire residuals and nutrient and hydrological cycles 165
Summary 168
References 173
5 Role of wildfire residuals in forest management applications 184
Restoring wildfire residuals 185
Ecological expectations 186
Considerations for application 187
Challenges and uncertainties 190
Emulating wildfire disturbance 191
Background 191
Emulating wildfire residuals by forest harvest 193
Expectations and uncertainties 197
Salvage logging 202
Background 202
Ecological consequences 204
Practical considerations 212
Uncertainties 217
Summary 220
References 222
6 Ecology of boreal wildfire residuals – a summary and synthesis 227
Wildfire residuals and their occurrence 227
Residual vegetation types 228
Spatial patterns of residuals 231
Ecological roles of wildfire residuals 235
Snag residuals 235
Residual patches 236
A conceptual view 237
Knowledge uncertainties 239
Management applications and wildfire residuals 240
Salvage logging 240
Emulating wildfire disturbances 240
Restoring wildfire residuals 242
Suppressing fire 243
Research needs on wildfire residuals 243
Advancing research methods 243
Expanding research topics 244
Conclusion 245
Index 247
