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Fire and Forest Ecosystems in the South Eastern USA

Fire and Forest Ecosystems in the South Eastern USA. Jennifer Wright. Photo Richard T. Bryant. People Involved. Student : Jennifer Wright American School of Brasilia University of St. Andrews ( BSc Environmental Biology)

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Fire and Forest Ecosystems in the South Eastern USA

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  1. Fire and Forest Ecosystems in the South Eastern USA Jennifer Wright Photo Richard T. Bryant

  2. People Involved Student : Jennifer Wright American School of Brasilia University 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 MaurizioMencuccini(University of Edinburgh)

  3. Fire in a longleaf pine forest Photo from www.jonesctr.org The ProjectI To determine the interactions between fire behaviour, forest dynamics and carbon sequestration. • Project Components • Fieldwork • Data-model integration • Influence of fire frequency on carbon allocation across a soil moisture gradient • Influence of biodiversity • Predictions of forest response to precipitation changes due to climate change

  4. The longleaf pine-wiregrass system. 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

  5. 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)

  6. Thank you! More information: https://www.geos.ed.ac.uk/homes/s0677701/

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