Testing the Amazon savannization hypothesis: Fire effects on invasion of a neotropical forest by native cerrado and exotic pasture grasses

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

Volumn 368, Issue 1619, 2013, Pages

  Silvério, Divino V ^a,b   Brando, Paulo M ^b,c,d   Balch, Jennifer K ^e   Putz, Francis E ^f   Nepstad, Daniel C ^b   Oliveira Santos, Claudinei ^b   Bustamante, Mercedes M C ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF BRASILIA   (Brazil)

^b INSTITUTO DE PESQUISA AMBIENTAL DA AMAZÔNIA   (Brazil)

^c WOODS HOLE RESEARCH CENTER   (United States)

^d GEOPHYSICAL LABORATORY   (United States)

^e PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^f UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA   (United States)

Author keywords

Amazon; Grass invasion; Grass fire cycle; Non native grasses; Savannah forest boundaries; Tropical

Indexed keywords

BIOLOGICAL INVASION; C4 PLANT; CANOPY ARCHITECTURE; CERRADO; FIRE BEHAVIOR; FOREST EDGE; GRASS; HYPOTHESIS TESTING; INVASIVE SPECIES; LAND USE CHANGE; LEAF AREA INDEX; NATIVE SPECIES; NEOTROPICAL REGION; PASTURE; SAVANNA; TROPICAL REGION;

AMAZONAS [BRAZIL]; BRAZIL;

ARTICLE; BRACHIARIA; BRAZIL; ECOSYSTEM; ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION; FIRE; GROWTH, DEVELOPMENT AND AGING; INTRODUCED SPECIES; LIGHT; METHODOLOGY; PLANT SEED; STATISTICAL MODEL; TREE; TROPIC CLIMATE; PROCEDURES;

BRACHIARIA; BRAZIL; CONSERVATION OF NATURAL RESOURCES; ECOSYSTEM; FIRES; INTRODUCED SPECIES; LIGHT; LOGISTIC MODELS; SEEDS; TREES; TROPICAL CLIMATE;

EID: 84891383908     PISSN: 09628436     EISSN: 14712970     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2012.0427     Document Type: Article

References (50)

1. Staver AC, Archibald S, Levin SA. 2011 The global extent and determinants of savanna and forest as alternative biome states. Science 334, 230-232. (doi:10.1126/science.1210465)
2. Sankaran M, et al. 2005 Determinants of woody cover in African savannas. Nature 438, 846-849. (doi:10.1038/nature04070)
3. Hutyra LR, Munger JW, Nobre CA, Saleska SR, Vieira SA, Wofsy SC. 2005 Climatic variability and vegetation vulnerability in Amazônia. Geophys. Res. Lett. 32, 2-5. (doi:10.1029/ 2005GL024981)
4. Coe MT, et al. 2013 Deforestation and climate feedbacks threaten the ecological integrity of south-southeastern Amazonia. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 368, 20120155. (doi:10.1098/rstb.2012.0155)
5. Nepstad DC, Stickler CM, Soares-filho B, Merry F, Nin E. 2008 Interactions among Amazon land use, forests and climate: prospects for a near-term forest tipping point. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 363, 1737-1746. (doi:10.1098/rstb.2007.0036)
6. Veldman JW, Mostacedo B, Peña-Claros M, Putz FE. 2009 Selective logging and fire as drivers of alien grass invasion in a Bolivian tropical dry forest. Forest Ecol. Manage. 258, 1643-1649. (doi:10.1016/j. foreco.2009.07.024)
7. Cox PM, Betts RA, Collins M, Harris PP, Huntingford C, Jones CD. 2004 Amazonian forest dieback under climate-carbon cycle projections for the 21st century. Theor. Appl. Climatol. 78, 157-175. (doi:10.1007/s00704-004-0050-y)
8. Huntingford C, Harris PP, Gedney N, Cox PM, Betts RA, Marengo JA. 2004 Using a GCM analogue model to investigate the potential for Amazonian forest dieback. Theor. Appl. Climatol. 78, 177-185. (doi:10.1007/s00704-004-0051-x)
9. D'Antonio CM, Vitousek PM. 1992 Biological invasions by exotic grasses, the grass-fire cycle, and global change. Annu. Rev. Ecol. Syst. 23, 63-87. (doi:10.1146/annurev.es.23.110192.000431)
10. Balch JK, Nepstad DC, Curran LM. 2009 Pattern and process: fire-initiated grass invasion at Amazon transitional forest edges. In Tropical fire ecology (ed. M Cochrane), pp. 481-502. Chichester, UK: Springer.
11. Veldman JW, Putz FE. 2011 Grass-dominated vegetation, not species-diverse natural savanna, replaces degraded tropical forests on the southern edge of the Amazon Basin. Biol. Conserv. 144, 1419-1429. (doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2011.01.011)
12. Hoffmann WA, Lucatelli VMPC, Silva FJ, Azeuedo INC, Marinho MDS, Albuquerque AMS, Lopes ADO, Moreira SP. 2004 Impact of the invasive alien grass Melinis minutiflora at the savanna-forest ecotone in the Brazilian Cerrado. Divers. Distrib. 10, 99-103. (doi:10.1111/j.1366-9516.2004.00063.x)
13. Setterfield SA, Rossiter-Rachor NA, Hutley LB, Douglas MM, Williams RJ. 2010 Biodiversity research: turning up the heat: the impacts of Andropogon gayanus (gamba grass) invasion on fire behaviour in northern Australian savannas. Divers. Distrib. 16, 854-861. (doi:10.1111/j.1472-4642. 2010.00688.x)
14. Rossiter NA, Setterfield SA, Douglas MM, Hutley LB. 2003 Testing the grass-fire cycle: alien grass invasion in the tropical savannas of northern Australia. Divers. Distrib. 9, 169-176. (doi:10.1046/ j.1472-4642.2003.00020.x)
15. Zarin DJ, et al. 2005 Legacy of fire slows carbon accumulation in Amazonian forest regrowth. Front. Ecol. Environ. 3, 365-369. (doi:10.1890/1540-9295(2005)003[0365:LOFSCA]2.0.CO;2)
16. Hirota M, Holmgren M, Van Nes EH, Scheffer M. 2011 Global resilience of tropical forest and savanna to critical transitions. Science 334, 232-235. (doi:10.1126/science.1210657)
17. Macedo MN, DeFries RS, Morton DC, Stickler CM, Galford GL, Shimabukuro YE. 2012 Decoupling of deforestation and soy production in the southern Amazon during the late 2000s. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 109, 1341-1346. (doi:10.1073/pnas.111137 4109)
18. Nepstad DC, et al. 1999 Large-scale impoverishment of Amazonian forests by logging and fire. Nature 1405, 505-508. (doi:10.1038/19066)
19. Balch JK, Nepstad DC, Curran LM, Brando P, Portela O, Guilherme P, Reuning-Scherer JD, De Carvalho Jr O. 2011 Size, species, and fire behavior predict tree and liana mortality from experimental burns in the Brazilian Amazon. Forest Ecol. Manage. 261, 68-77. (doi:10.1016/j.foreco.2010.09.029)
20. Laurance WF, et al. 2002 Ecosystem decay of Amazonian forest fragments: a 22-year investigation. Conserv. Biol. 16, 605-618. (doi:10. 1046/j.1523-1739.2002.01025.x)
21. Morton DC, Le Page Y, DeFries R, Collatz GJ, Hurtt GC. 2013 Undestorey fire frequency and the fate of burned forests in southern Amazonia. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 368, 20120163. (doi:10.1098/rstb. 2012.0163)
22. Veldman JW, Putz FE. 2010 Long-distance dispersal of invasive grasses by logging vehicles in a tropical dry forest. Biotropica 42, 697-703. (doi:10.1111/j. 1744-7429.2010.00647.x)
23. Cochrane M, Alencar A, Schulze M, Souza C, Nepstad DC, Lefebvre P, Davidson EA. 1999 Positive feedbacks in the fire dynamic of closed canopy tropical forests. Science 284, 1832-1835. (doi:10. 1126/science.284.5421.1832)
24. Balch JK, Nepstad DC, Brando P, Curran LM, Portella O, de Carvalho JRO, Lefebvre P. 2008 Negative fire feedback in a transitional forest of southeastern Amazonia. Glob. Change Biol. 14, 2276-2287. (doi:10.1111/j.1365-2486.2008.01655.x)
25. Rasmussen PW, Heisey DM, Nordheim EV, Frost TM. 2001 Time-series intervention analysis: unreplicated large-scale experiments. In Design and analysis of ecological experiments (eds SM Scheiner, JG Gurrevitch), pp. 138-158. New York, NY: Chapman & Hall.
26. Carpenter SR. 1998 The need for large-scale experiments to assess and predict the response of ecosystems to perturbation. In Successes limitations and frontiers in ecosystem science (eds ML Pace, PM Groffman), pp. 287-312. Berlin, Germany: Springer.
27. Brando P, Nepstad DC, Balch JK, Bolker B, Christman MC, Coe MT, Putz FE. 2012 Fire-induced tree mortality in a neotropical forest: the roles of bark traits, tree size, wood density, and fire behavior. Glob. Change Biol. 18, 630-641. (doi:10.1111/j. 1365-2486.2011.02533.x)
28. Pebesma EJ. 2004 Multivariable geostatistics in S: the gstat package. Comput. Geosci. 30, 683-691. (doi:10.1016/j.cageo.2004.03.012)
29. LI-COR. 1992 LAI-2000 plant canopy analyzer. Lincoln, NE: LI-COR Inc.
30. Longhi-Warner H. 1999 O gênero Aristida (Poaceae) no Brasil. Bol. Inst. Bot. 12, 113-179.
31. Zuur AF, Ieno EN, Walker NJ, Saveliev AA, Smith GM. 2009 Mixed effects models and extensions in ecology with R. Berlin, Germany: Springer.
32. Sprent P, Smeeton NC. 2001 Applied nonparametric statistical methods, 3rd edn. London, UK: Chapman and Hall.
33. Brando PM, et al. Submitted. Abrupt Amazon forest dieback due to drought-fire interactions.
34. Ehleringer JR, Monson RK. 2009 Evolutionary and ecological aspects of photosynthetic pathway variation. Annu. Rev. Ecol. Syst. 24, 411-439. (doi:10.1146/annurev.es.24.110193.002211)
35. Gibson DJ. 2009 Grasses and grassland ecology. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
36. Cerros-Tlatilpa R, Columbus JT. 2009 C3 photosynthesis in Aristida longifolia: implication for photosynthetic diversification in Aristidoideae (Poaceae). Am. J. Bot. 96, 1379-1387. (doi:10. 3732/ajb.0800265)
37. Valerio JR, Lapointe SL, Kelemu S, Fernandes CD, Morales FJ. 1996 Pests and diseases of Brachiaria species. In Brachiaria: biology, agronomy, and improvement (eds JW Miles, JS Maas, CB Valle), pp. 86-105. Cali, Colombia: Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical.
38. Santos-Filho LE. 1996 Seed production: perspective from the Brasilian private sector. In Brachiaria: biology, agronomy, and improvement (eds JW Miles, JS Maass, CB Valle), pp. 141-147. Cali, Colombia: Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical.
39. Hughes RF, Kauffman JB, Cummings DL. 2000 Fire in the Brazilian Amazon 3. Dynamics of biomass, C, and nutrient pools in regenerating forests. Oecologia 124, 574-588. (doi:10.1007/S004420000416)
40. Uhl C, Buschbacher R, Serrao EAS. 1988 Abandoned pastures in eastern Amazonia. I. Patterns of plant succession. J. Ecol. 76, 663-681. (doi:10.2307/ 2260566)
41. Uhl C, Clark H, Clark K, Maquirino P. 1982 Successional patterns associated with slashand-burn agriculture in the upper Rio Negro region of the Amazon Basin. Biotropica 14, 249-254. (doi:10.2307/2388082)
42. Kauffman JB. 1991 Survival by sprouting following fire in tropical forests of the Eastern Amazon. Biotropica 23, 219-224. (doi:10.2307/2388198)
43. Barlow J, Peres CA. 2008 Fire-mediated dieback and compositional cascade in an Amazonian forest. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 363 1787-1794. (doi:10.1098/rstb. 2007.0013)
44. Cochrane M, Laurance WF. 2002 Fire as a large-scale edge effect in Amazonian forests. J. Trop. Ecol. 1, 311-325. (doi:10.1017/S0266467402002237)
45. Carvalho KS, Balch J, Moutinho P. 2012 Influências de Atta spp (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) na recuperação da vegetação pós fogo em floresta de transição amazônica. Acta Amaz. 42, 81-88. (doi:10.1590/S0044-59672012000100010)
46. Massad TJ, et al. 2012 Interactions between repeated fire, nutrients, and insect herbivores affect the recovery of diversity in the southern Amazon. Oecologia (doi:10.1007/s00442-012-2482-x)
47. Balch JK, Massad TJ, Brando PM, Nepstad DC, Curran LM. 2013 Effects of high-frequency understorey fires on woody plant regeneration in southeastern Amazonian forests. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 368, 20120157. (doi:10.1098/rstb. 2012.0157)
48. Costa MH, Foley JA. 1997 Water balance of the Amazon Basin: dependence on vegetation cover and canopy conductance. J. Geophys. Res. 102, 23 973-23 989. (doi:10.1029/97JD01865)
49. Spracklen DV, Arnold SR, Taylor CM. 2012 Observations of increased tropical rainfall preceded by air passage over forests. Nature 489, 282-285. (doi:10.1038/nature11390)
50. Soares-Filho B, et al. 2012 Forest fragmentation, climate change and understory fire regimes on the Amazonian landscapes of the Xingu headwaters. Landscape Ecol. 27, 585-598. (doi:10.1007/s10980-012-9723-6)