Understory community shifts in response to repeated fire and fire surrogate treatments in the southern Appalachian Mountains, USA

Oakman, Emily C.; Hagan, Donald L.; Waldrop, Thomas A.; Barrett, Kyle

doi:10.1186/s42408-021-00097-1

Fire Ecology

Table 1 Site specificity, fidelity, relative indicator value (IV_rel; specificity × fidelity), abundance (stems ha⁻¹ or percent cover), and the maximum indicator value (IV_max) results from the indicator species analyses (ISA) on understory tree, shrub, and herbaceous species in our study (2001 to 2016) of plant community change in response to fuel treatments in Green River Game Land, North Carolina, USA. These results, based on 2016 data from the study, indicate species compositions in response to repeated treatments (control = C, burned four times = B, mechanical removal two times of stems <10 cm dbh = M, and combination of M and B = MB). Asterisks represent the degree of significance (* = P < 0.001, = P < 0.01, * = P < 0.05)

From: Understory community shifts in response to repeated fire and fire surrogate treatments in the southern Appalachian Mountains, USA

Life form	Treatment	Species	Specificity	Fidelity	IV_rel	Abundance (stems ha⁻¹)	IV_max
Trees	B	Acer rubrum L.	0.40	1.00	0.40	2376.40	0.63 ***
		Liriodendron tulipifera L.	0.39	0.77	0.30	526.43	0.55 **
		Amelanchier arborea (F. Michx.) Fernald	0.71	0.33	0.23	413.89	0.49 **
	M	Pinus strobus L.	0.64	0.20	0.13	116.67	0.36 *
	MB	Quercus coccinea Muenchh.	0.34	0.97	0.33	1360.43	0.58 ***
		Sassafras albidum (Nutt.) Nees	0.38	1.00	0.38	1173.89	0.62 ***
		Nyssa sylvatica Marshall	0.40	0.90	0.36	966.98	0.60 ***
		Oxydendrum arboreum (L.) DC.	0.49	0.60	0.29	838.89	0.54 **
		Diospyros virginiana L.	0.66	0.30	0.20	261.10	0.44 **
		Quercus montana Willd.	0.37	0.87	0.32	1709.09	0.56 *
		Robinia pseudoacacia L.	0.53	0.30	0.16	245.00	0.40 *
						Abundance (%)
Shrubs	M	Rhododendron maximum L.	0.84	0.37	0.31	287.27	0.55 ***
	M	Kalmia latifolia L.	0.36	0.87	0.31	780.66	0.56 **
	MB	Rhus glabra L.	0.81	0.60	0.49	135.44	0.70 ***
		Ceanothus americanus L.	0.88	0.27	0.24	39.21	0.49 ***
		Lyonia ligustrina (L.) DC.	0.84	0.17	0.14	179.15	0.38 *
		Hypericum hypericoides (L.) Crantz	0.56	0.27	0.15	20.88	0.39 *
						Abundance (%)
Herbaceous vegetation	C	Arundinaria appalachiana Triplett, Weakley & L.G. Clark	0.83	0.23	0.19	111.50	0.44 **
	MB	Rubus argutus Link	0.67	0.70	0.47	122.93	0.69 ***
		Coreopsis major Walter	0.73	0.77	0.56	91.41	0.75 ***
		Carex L. sp.	0.48	0.73	0.35	83.50	0.60 ***
		Dichanthelium (Hitchc. & Chase) Gould spp.	0.46	0.97	0.45	71.57	0.67 ***
		Schizachyrium scoparium (Michx.) Nash	0.68	0.50	0.34	69.86	0.58 ***
		Helianthus divaricatus L.	0.98	0.27	0.26	53.50	0.51 ***
		Potentilla canadensis L.	0.56	0.53	0.30	47.18	0.55 ***
		Lespedeza bicolor Turcz.	1.00	0.20	0.20	37.17	0.45 ***
		Solidago L. sp.	0.60	0.33	0.20	70.08	0.45 **
		Desmodium nudiflorum (L.) DC.	0.64	0.43	0.28	52.79	0.51 **
		Scleria P.J.Bergius sp.	0.55	0.53	0.29	23.50	0.54 **
		Conyza canadensis L.	0.70	0.30	0.21	5.46	0.46 **
		Erechtites hieraciifolius (L.) Raf. ex DC.	0.73	0.27	0.20	3.00	0.44 **
		Piptochaetium avenaceum (L.) Parodi	0.63	0.23	0.14	43.00	0.39 *
		Houstonia purpurea L.	0.62	0.43	0.27	30.50	0.46 *
		Cassia L. sp.	0.90	0.13	0.12	4.50	0.35 *

Back to article page