Estimating heat tolerance of buds in southeastern US trees in fire-prone forests
Abstract
Traits of mature trees, such as bark thickness and texture, have been documented to promote resistance or resilience to heating in fire-prone forests. These traits often assist managers as they plan and promote prescribed fire management to accomplish specific land management objectives. Species are often grouped together as pyrophobes or pyrophytes as a result of these features. Nonetheless, little is known about species-specific traits of other structures, such as bud diameter, length, mass, moisture content, and surface area, that might be related to heat tolerance. Many prescribed fires are utilized in the eastern United States to control regeneration of less desired species, which could apply a more mechanistic understanding of energy doses that result in topkilling mid-story stems. In this study, we investigated potential relationships between terminal bud mortality from lateral branches of midstory stems and species-specific bud features of six eastern US deciduous trees. Characterized at maturity as either pyrophytes or pyrophobes, each was exposed to different heat dosages in a laboratory setting.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Dec 19, 2022
- Source ID
- 10.1186/s42408-022-00160-5
Entities
People
- Adam B. Mcclure
- Chad M. Hoffman
- J. Kevin Hiers
- John R. Seiler
- Joseph J. O'Brien
- T. Adam Coates
Organizations
- Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program