Question: How do interactions between rocky landscape features and fire regime influence vegetation dynamics? Location: Continental Eastern USA. Methods: We measured vegetation, disturbance and site characteristics in 40 pairs of rocky and non-rocky plots: 20 in recently burned stands, and 20 in stands with no evidence of recent fire (‘unburned’ stands). Two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was...

Although savanna trees and forest trees are thought to represent distinct functional groups with different effects on ecosystem processes, few empirical studies have examined these effects. In particular, it remains unclear if savanna and forest trees differ in their ability to coexist with understory plants, which comprise the majority of plant diversity in most savannas. We used structural eq...

Grasslands are threatened globally due to the expansion of woody plants. The few remaining headwater streams within tallgrass prairies are becoming more like typical forested streams due to rapid conversion of riparian zones from grassy to wooded. Forestation can alter stream hydrology and biogeochemistry. We estimated the rate of riparian woody plant expansion within a 30 m buffer zone surroun...

Mechanical treatments such as roller-chopping, mowing, chain-sawing, and logging, and herbicide application, are increasingly used to manage fire-maintained Florida ecosystems. Goals include achieving or restoring desired vegetation structure and composition, providing habitat for listed species, and allowing the reintroduction of fire. We review studies evaluating mechanical treatments and her...

Disturbances induce changes on habitat proprieties that may filter organism's functional traits thereby shaping the structure and interactions of many trophic levels. We tested if communities of predators with foraging traits dependent on habitat structure respond to environmental change through cascades affecting the functional traits of plants. We monitored the response of spider and plant co...

Regular prescribed burning to manage the accumulation of flammable live and dead vegetation (fuel) is a strategy for ameliorating wildfire impacts in fire-prone environments. The interval between prescribed fires needs to be sufficient to manage fuel accumulation but it should also be ecologically acceptable. Time to first flowering after fire (juvenile period) is a biological indicator that ca...

Abstract Wildfires are increasing in size and severity fire seasons lengthening, largely driven by climate land-use change. Many plant species from fire-prone ecosystems adapted to specific regimes corresponding historical conditions shifts beyond these bounds may have severe impacts on vegetation recovery long-term persistence. Here, we conduct a meta-analysis of field-based studies across dif...

As industrial facilities, petrochemical plants require prompt investigation, diagnosis, and recovery in the event of fire damage associated with disasters accidents. Due to characteristics plants, which are mostly composed steel structures fire-resistant coating materials, materials first be damaged. Accordingly, this study, were analyzed experimentally, verifying possibility estimating heating...

The recent loss of lives and traffic jams (Figure 1) for tens of miles as hurricanes Rita and Katrina approached the Gulf coast demonstrate the enormous difficulty in evacuating urban areas [6]. Besides hurricanes, evacuation may be necessary due to other potential disasters, e.g., fire, terrorism, and nuclear or chemical plant accidents. Thus, the local emergency management community engages i...