The management of burned forests in Israel

1995

In September 1989 a large natural Pinus halepensis Mill. forest on Mt. Carmel, Israel was burned down. The aim of this research was to suggest post-fire management regimes and to assess their influence on the recovery of the forest. Three treatments were applied to the old burned trees:(1) burned trees were left untreated;(2) burned trees were cut down, the trunks were removed but smaller twigs were left in the plots;(3) burned trees were cut down, the trunks and the smaller twigs were cleared.

Land Degradation & Development, 2015

The December 2010 forest fire on Mount Carmelthe largest recorded in Israelburned about 2500 ha of Mediterranean forest. We documented the immediate and short-term changes of the vegetation following this fire. Relative vegetation cover and plant species richness were sampled in five sites in spring 2009 and 2010, prior to the fire, and were re-sampled in 2011 and 2012. The number of recurrent fires (between 0 and 3) and time intervals between fires were documented for each site. We observed a strong decrease in total vegetation cover, associated with reduction of relative cover of woody vegetation. In the second year after the fire, shrubs and dwarf shrubs became dominant at all sites. Time intervals between fires played an important role in determining the extent of regeneration of the vegetation cover and plant species richness. Plant species richness immediately decreased after the fire in sites with a short fire interval, while in sites with a long fire interval, plant species richness increased. Relative plant cover was associated with the time from the last previous fire, and this association differed among different plant groups. These results suggest that vegetation and plant community regeneration after recurrent fires is accelerated when time intervals between fires are longer, whereas high fire frequency may suppress vegetation regeneration. Based on the results, we propose that forest regeneration after recurrent fires depends largely on time from the previous fire, rather than on the number of previous fires.

Forest Ecology and Management, 2014

The increasing number of fires, fire size, and decreasing fire recurrence intervals are major environmental factors in Mediterranean-type ecosystems, and are known to affect Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensis) forests. The fact that in the Mediterranean basin most fires are man-made increases the danger of fires recurring at short intervals. P. halepensis is a lowland Mediterranean species with a disjunct east-Mediterranean population in Israel and Jordan, with the Mount Carmel population as one of the few native pine forests in Israel.

1999

Postfire regeneration in Mediterranean pine forests is secured through resprouting and reseeding. Obligate reseeders include Mediterranean pines, rockroses (several Cistus spp. and other members of the Cistaceae) as well as numerous herbaceous plants (mostly legumes). Seeds are safeguarded by the fire heat in either canopy stores (pines) or long-lived soil banks (rockroses and legumes). Induction of seed germination by fire occurs through: i. pine cone opening (and subsequent dispersal) and ii. seed coat "softening" in the hardseeded plants. Hereafter, seeds are more or less ready to germinate and, consequently, seedling recruitment takes place during the early part of the first postfire wet season. Facultative reseeders (usually species with softcoated seeds) are present as well, in addition to "outsiders" (e.g. several composites) that colonise the burned areas through their anemochorous seeds. Seedling recruitment is also observed during the second postfire ye...

Acta Oecologica-international Journal of Ecology, 2006

Pre-adaptation Spain Species richness Species similarity A B S T R A C T Species of Mediterranean vegetation are known to regenerate directly after fire. The phenomenon of autosuccession (direct regeneration) has been found to be often combined with an increase of species richness during the first years after fire due to the high abundance of short-lived herbaceous plants facilitated by plentiful nutrients and light. The high degree of vegetation resilience, which is expressed in terms of autosuccession, has been explained by the selective pressure of fire in historic times. According to existing palaeoecological data, however, the Pinus halepensis forests in the Ricote Mountains (Province of Murcia, SE Spain) did not experience substantial fire impact before the presence of man nor are they especially fire-prone today. Therefore, we studied post-fire regeneration to find out if direct succession is present or if species from pre-fire vegetation are absent during the post-fire regeneration stages. Patterns of succession were deduced from observations made in sample plots on sites of a known regeneration age as well as in adjacent unburnt areas. The results of the vegetation analyses, including a Detrended Correspondence Analysis, indicate that Pinus halepensis forest regeneration after fire resembles autosuccession. As regards the presence of woody species, there is a high percentage similarity on north (83%) and south (70%) facing slopes during the first year after fire vs. reference areas which is due, for example, to direct regeneration of the resprouting Quercus coccifera or seeders like Pinus halepensis or Fumana laevipes. However, if herbaceous species are included in the comparison, the similarity on north-facing sites decreases (to 53%) with the presence of additional species, mainly ruderals like Anagallis arvensis or Reseda phyteuma, and even woody species on the burnt plots. This effect indicates "enhanced autosuccession", which was not found on south-facing sites where overall species richness was very high irrespective of the impact of fire. Locally we found limited regeneration of some species, for example Pinus halepensis at high altitudes (1000 m), even 22 years after fire. As we assume that historical fires did not play an important role in the area and direct succession is present nevertheless, our results support the theory that autosuccession is not a process restricted to fire-prone areas. Fire has been only one of several selective forces since human settlement that probably led to a set of species pre-adapted against recurrent disturbance. av a i l a bl e a t w w w. s c i e n c e d i r e c t . c o m j o u r n a l h o m ep a g e : w w w. e l s ev i e r. c o m / l o c a t e / a c t o e c

Annals of Silvicultural Research, 2018

Fire is one of the major disturbance factors in Mediterranean-type ecosystems, where since long time man has deeply modified the natural fire regime. To know how woody species recover after fire is of prominent importance for understanding vegetation dynamics, as well as for the management of Mediterranean plantations, especially where broadleaved and coniferous trees coexist. Our research was carried out at Monte Petroso (Sicily), within an historical afforestation intervention in the Mediterranean basin. We assessed the post-fire response of mixed oaks and oak-pine afforestations within six experimental plots (two plots per homogeneous sector) differing in dominant tree species (Quercus ilex or Pinus pinea), time since last wildfire (1954 or 1982), and post-fire management (understory cleaning and removal of dead biomass or no management). Dendrometric surveys and phytosociological releves were carried out to characterize the tree layers, the regeneration by woody species plus Amp...

Factors acting as drivers of low resilience to fire in Pinus halepensis ecosystems are being examined. The commonest factor seems to be fire interval. From the several time windows examined, that of, the shortest one ever reported in this type of communities (3 years only) seemed to be the most crucial. From the plant species previously existing on the site woody and herbaceous obligate seeders are mainly affected by this factor. Other factors, affecting mainly pine regenera-tion, are the abundance of Quercus coccifera individuals in the regenerating community and the high percentage of limestone outcrops. As an example of a landscape approach to the problem of evaluating resilience to fire, the case of Sounion Peninsula National Park is presented.

Remote Sensing of Large Wildfires, 1999

Fire is an integral part of many ecosystems, including the Mediterranean ones. However, in recent decades the general trend in number of fires and surface burnt in European Mediterranean areas has increased spectacularly. This increase is due to: (a) land-use changes (rural depopulation is increasing land abandonment and consequently, fuel accumulation); and, (b) climatic warming (which is reducing fuel humidity and increasing fire risk and fire spread). The main effects of fire on soils are: loss of nutrients during burning and increased risk of erosion after burning. The latter is in fact related to the regeneration traits of the previous vegetation and to the environmental conditions. The principal regeneration traits of plants are: capacity to resprout after fire and fire-stimulation of the establishment of new individuals. These two traits give a possible combination of four functional types from the point of view of regeneration after fire, and different relative proportions of these plant types may determine the post-fire regeneration and erosion risk. Field observations in Spain show better regeneration in limestone bedrock type than in marls, and in northfacing slopes than in south-facing ones. Models of vegetation dynamics can be built from the knowledge of plant traits and may help us in predicting post-fire vegetation and long-term vegetation changes under recurrent fires.

European Journal of Forest Research, 2009

It has been suggested that during the past several decades, the frequency and the intensity of wildfires have markedly increased in the Mediterranean basin. We came to assess this postulation in the forested region of Mount Carmel, Israel. This region is characterized by Quercus spp. and Pistacia spp. maquis and has been intensely afforested with Pinus spp. stands since the 1920s. We compiled a GIS-based database of the fires recorded in the region since 1983, in addition to archiving data beginning from the 1940s. The data were collected from land stewardship agencies’ archives, fire departments and aerial photographs. Prior to the early 1980s, no systematic documentation of the fires was available, rather just sporadic qualitative documentation of the large forest fires that occurred. Between 1944 and 1982, only 6 large fires were documented, while after that 11 large fires occurred. Analysis indicated that the spatial distribution of the fires does not occur at random, and their locations are significantly closer to roadsides compared to an expected random distribution. The annual number of fires and the areas burned during the last two decades were not correlated with annual precipitation in any manner. Accordingly, we suggest that the increased number of large forest fires during the last decades is associated with the maturation and senescence of the planted forest coupled with increased human activities.