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Fire Ecology

Table 3 Relative cover of the 10 most dominant plant species in control and aqueous smoke treated field plots 15 mo after treatment, compared to the relative density of the 10 most abundant species in 0 cm to 5 cm soil seed bank samples in ponderosa pine forests, northern Arizona.

From: Smoke-Cued Emergence in Plant Species of Ponderosa Pine Forests: Contrasting Greenhouse and Field Results

 

Field

Seed bank

 

Control

Smoke

Control

Smoke

Speciesa

Relative cover (%)b

Relative density (%)c

Carex geophila

18

19

4

5

Elymus elymoides

14

18

0

0

Festuca arizonica

7

4

0

0

Verbascum thapsus*

10

1

12

11

Erigeron formosissimus

5

5

0

0

Poa fendleriana

4

5

2

2

Muhlenbergia montana

2

3

0

1

Packera multilobata

1

4

0

0

Poa pratensis*

1

3

2

2

Erigeron divergens

2

1

5

7

Pinus ponderosa

1

2

0

2

Taraxacum officinale*

2

1

2

0

Chenopodium graveolens

<1

2

4

4

Chamaesyce serpyllifolia

<1

<1

9

9

Cyperus fendlerianus

<1

<1

4

1

Erigeron flagellaris

<1

<1

11

12

Muhlenbergia minutissima

<1

<1

4

2

Pseudognaphalium macounii

<1

<1

7

4

Arenaria lanuginosa

0

0

4

2

Agrostis scabra

0

0

12

5

Other speciesd

32

31

18

31

  1. a Species arranged in order of decreasing field relative cover. Asterisks denote exotic species (NRCS 2007).
  2. b Calculated as the percent of cover that each individual species contributed to the total cover of all species for each plot.
  3. c Calculated by expressing the emergent density of each species as a percentage of the density of all species from a sample.
  4. d Including the species listed in the table, the total numbers of species recorded were as follows: control field plots = 71, smoke-treated field plots = 73, control seed bank samples = 21, and smoke-treated seed bank samples = 30.
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