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Shifts in Ecological Legacies Support Hysteresis of Stand Type Conversions in Boreal Forests

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Abstract

Many disturbances are shifting in severity, frequency, and extent due to changing climate and human activities. Altered disturbance regimes can trigger shifts in ecosystem state where recovery to the pre-disturbance ecosystem is uncertain. In the western North American boreal forest, the intensification of wildfire can cause canopy dominance to switch from black spruce (Picea mariana) to deciduous trees such as Alaska paper birch (Betula neoalaskana) and trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides). Understanding the key mechanisms that determine the resilience and stability of these alternative community types is required for the prediction of future forest dynamics. Here, we assess patterns of post-fire tree recovery across a pre-fire gradient of spruce- to deciduous-dominated forests in Interior Alaska and quantify compositional and environmental thresholds that support the resilience of alternative canopy types. We found post-fire organic soil depth of stands on a recovery trajectory to deciduous dominance (7.3 ± 5.5 cm) were similar regardless of pre-fire composition and significantly shallower than spruce (14.9 ± 9.0 cm) or mixed trajectories (10.4 ± 5.9 cm). Deciduous-dominated stands were highly resilient to fire, as 100% remained deciduous-dominated post-fire. Even when deciduous trees only accounted for a small proportion (12%) of the pre-fire stand, deciduous trees often became dominant after wildfire. We conclude that the establishment of deciduous bud banks and seed sources creates a strong hysteresis in stand recovery that reinforces the resilience of deciduous-dominated boreal forests to wildfire. Accounting for the resilience of this alternative stable state to wildfire suggests that shifts from spruce to deciduous dominance caused by shifting wildfire will have long-term effects on future structure and function of boreal forests and vegetation feedbacks to climate change.

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Data Availability

All data used in this manuscript are archived with the Environmental Data Initiative (EDI) via the Bonanza Creek Long-term Ecological Research Program.http://dx.doi.org/10.6073/pasta/b78161335e3edbd2393378b197735d85.

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Acknowledgements

This project was supported by funding from the Department of Defense’s Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP) under projects RC-2109 (MCM and JFJ) and RC18-1183 (SJG and MCM), NASA grant NNX15AT71A (MCM), Canada’s NSERC Discovery Grant program (JFJ), the US Joint Fire Sciences Program (05-1-2-06) (JFJ), and by the Bonanza Creek Long-term Ecological Research Program, which is supported by the US NSF (DEB-1636476) and the USDA Forest Service (RJVA-PNW-01-JV-11261952-231) (MCM and JFJ).

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Author notes

  1. Author contributions: XJW, MCM, JFJ were involved in conceptualization. XJW, JFJ contributed to data curation. XJW was involved in formal analysis. MCM, JFJ, SJG contributed to funding acquisition. XJW, JFJ, KO were involved in investigation. XJW, MCM, JFJ, KO, RM, SJG were involved in methodology. MCM contributed to project administration and resources. RM, XJW contributed to software. MCM, JFJ, SG contributed to supervisions. XJW, MCM, JFJ, KO, RM, LTB, SJG contributed to validation. XJW, LB contributed to visualization. XJW contributed to writing—original draft. XJW, MCM, JFJ, LTB, SJG contributed to writing—review & editing.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Sciences,Center for Ecosystem Science and Society, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona, 86011, USA

    X. J. Walker, K. Okano & M. C. Mack

  2. School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona, 86011, USA

    X. J. Walker, L. T. Berner, R. Massey & S. J. Goetz

  3. Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, Alaska, 99775, USA

    J. F. Johnstone

  4. YukonU Research Centre, Yukon University, Whitehorse, Yukon, Y1A 5K4, Canada

    J. F. Johnstone

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  1. X. J. Walker
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Walker, X.J., Okano, K., Berner, L.T. et al. Shifts in Ecological Legacies Support Hysteresis of Stand Type Conversions in Boreal Forests. Ecosystems 26, 1796–1805 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-023-00866-w

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