Effects of Climate on Historical Fire Regimes (1451–2013) in Pinus Hartwegii Forests of Cofre De Perote National Park, Veracruz, Mexico
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Dendrochronologia 65 (2021) 125784 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Dendrochronologia journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/dendro Original Article Effects of climate on historical fire regimes (1451–2013) in Pinus hartwegii forests of Cofre de Perote National Park, Veracruz, Mexico Julian´ Cerano-Paredes a, Jose M. Iniguez b,*, Jos´e Villanueva-Díaz a, Lorenzo Vazquez-Selem´ c, Rosalinda Cervantes-Martínez a, Gerardo Esquivel-Arriaga a, Osvaldo Franco-Ramos c, Dante A. Rodríguez-Trejo d a Centro Nacional de Investigacion´ Disciplinaría en Relacion´ Agua-Suelo-Planta-Atmosfera´ del Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Forestales Agrícolas y Pecuarias, Km. 6.5 Margen Derecha del Canal Sacramento, CP 35140, Gomez´ Palacio, Durango, Mexico b USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, 2500 S. Pine Knoll Drive, Flagstaff, AZ 86001, United States c Instituto de Geografía, Universidad Nacional Autonoma´ de M´exico, Ciudad Universitaria, Coyoacan,´ 04510, Ciudad de M´exico, Mexico d Divicion´ de Ciencias Forestales, Universidad Autonoma´ Chapingo, Texcoco, Edo. de M´exico, 56320, Mexico ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Keywords: Cofre de Perote National Park (CPNP) in Veracruz, Mexico is part of the Transmexican Volcanic Belt, and its Pinus Fire history hartwegii forests reflecta balance between the various natural factors that represent the region’s climatology and ~ El Nino Southern Oscillation hydrology. Like many other areas in this region, the historical fireregimes of these forests and their relationship Pacific Decadal Oscillation with climate are unknown, but are needed for sustainable management plans. The main objectives of this study Pinus hartwegii were to reconstruct the historical fire regime in a Pinus hartwegii forest and decipher the influenced of climate. Cofre de Perote Dendrochronology Our investigation focused in two study areas, Valle la Teta (VT) and Barranca Honda (BH). The VT study area was Mexico divided into three sites based on humidity and elevation: 1) Humid (VTH), 2) Dry Low (VTDL) and 3) Dry High Tropical forests (VTDH). The approximated area for each site was 30, 30, 35 and 50 ha, for VTH, VTDL, VTDH and BH, respectively. We collected 162 fire scarred samples to reconstruct the fire history for the last 550 years (1461 2013). The fire scarred samples contained 1240 fire scars, with most fires occurring in spring (95 %) or summer (5%). Prior to 1973, these sites were characterized by a frequent surface fireregime. In all four sites, the mean fire intervals ranged from 5 to 6 years (for fires that scarred ≥ 10 % of the samples) and 13–23 years (for fires that scarred ≥ 25 % of the samples). Extensive fires (≥ 10 %) coincided with significantly dry conditions based on the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), influenced by El Nino~ Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation Index (PDO). We also found a significant relationship between fire occurrence and ENSO, both in its warm phase, El Nino~ (21 fires ≥ 10 %) and in its cold phase, La Nina~ (32 fires ≥ 10 %). Synchronization of the cold phase of ENSO (La Nina)~ with the cold phase of the PDO (negative), facilitated severe drought conditions, resulting in fireswith the greatest spatial extent. Since 1973, extensive fireshave been absent from the study area most likely due to anthropogenic activities including active fire suppression. These results show a strong climate-fire relationship in these high elevation forests. The lack of fire in the last four decades is concerning and could potentially lead to unnatural stand-replacing fires, unless the historical fire regime is restored to maintain natural processes and increase forest resilience. 1. Introduction to climate change given their adaptation to low temperatures (Hernandez´ et al., 2005). In recent decades, increases in fire activity Mexico’s high-elevation Pinus hartwegii Lindl. forests are very have also been attributed to global climate change (Westerling et al., important because they include endemic species and occupy only 1% of 2006). Given the strong link between fireand climate, it is imperative to land area. As temperatures rise, these species are particularly susceptible understand both the historical fire regime as well as the relationship * Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (J. Cerano-Paredes), [email protected] (J.M. Iniguez), [email protected] (J. Villanueva-Díaz), [email protected] (L. Vazquez-Selem),´ [email protected] (R. Cervantes-Martínez), [email protected] (G. Esquivel-Arriaga), [email protected] (O. Franco-Ramos), [email protected] (D.A. Rodríguez-Trejo). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dendro.2020.125784 Received 3 March 2020; Received in revised form 14 September 2020; Accepted 29 October 2020 Available online 9 November 2020 1125-7865/Published by Elsevier GmbH. J. Cerano-Paredes et al. Dendrochronologia 65 (2021) 125784 between climate and fire within these forests. Understanding the ENSO) coincide in their cold phase (constructive phase). Although both disturbance patterns these forests evolved with is critical to making climate patterns influencedrought conditions in Mexico, the role of the science based management decisions and maintaining healthy func PDO in relation to historical fire regimes in central Mexico remains tioning ecosystems (Heyerdahl and Alvarado, 2003; Fule´ et al., 2005; unclear. Allen et al., 2002). 1.2. Changes in fire regimes 1.1. Climate-fire relationship In the last several decades, it has become increasing clear that Although fire has been recognized as an important disturbance in frequent fires play a critical role in maintaining certain forest structure high-elevation tropical forests, research on this topic has been limited patterns (Agee, 1993; Allen et al., 2002). Therefore understanding if and (Smith and Young, 1987; Rodríguez, 2001). Fire history information in how historical fire regimes have changed, particularly with an ever P. hartwegii forests in central Mexico is relatively unknown, mainly due increasing human footprint (Villarreal et al., 2019), is important in order to the lack of a dendrochronology network that could be used to to assess forest health, the potential impact of future fires and restora reconstruct historical fire regimes (Rodríguez, 2001). Fire history tion needs. In the western United States, for example, the exclusion of studies in high-elevation tropical forests and tropical forests in general historically frequent fires has resulted in increased tree densities and are scarce (Martin and Fahey, 2006). In recent years two studies were fuel accumulation, leading to larger and more severe recent fires conducted in P. hartwegii forests of central Mexico, one in Pico de Ori (Swetnam et al., 1999; Singleton et al., 2019). In these forests, frequent zaba, Veracruz (Yocom and Fule,´ 2012) and another in the northern fires historically sustained healthy forests by maintaining low tree sierra of Puebla (Cerano et al., 2016). These two dendrochronology densities and relatively open conditions (Iniguez et al., 2019). The based studies have enhanced our understanding regarding the rela exclusion of frequent surface fires results in increased tree recruitment tionship between fire and climate, though it remain unclear how this and the creation of ladder fuels that allow fire to reach into the tree relationship changes across different regions in Mexico. That is, the in canopies facilitating stand replacing crown fires to which these forests fluence of climate on historical fire patterns changes spatially across are not adapted (Rodríguez and Ful´e, 2003; Brown and Wu, 2005; continents (Heyerdahl and Alvarado, 2003; Brown, 2006; Brown et al., Skinner et al., 2008; Iniguez et al., 2016). Fire regime changes from 2008; Yocom et al., 2010; Falk et al., 2011; Cerano-Paredes et al., 2019), frequent low severity firesto infrequent firescan result in a loss of soils, and therefore it is important to develop a network of sites to better forest land, wildlife habitat and alter ecosystem services including water understand and predict this spatial variability. and recreation (Westerling et al., 2006; Singleton et al., 2019). Rainfall patterns in Mexico are highly influenced by El Nino~ South Although fire suppression was widespread in western U.S. forests ern Oscillation (ENSO) and its counterpart La Nina,~ which are a function after 1900, fire regime changes within Mexican forests vary greatly in of winter sea surface temperature in the equatorial region of the Pacific space and time (Yocom Kent et al., 2017). Tree-ring based fire history Ocean. In general, during El Nino~ winters, precipitation increases in studies conducted in Mexico have mainly focused in the northern part of northwestern Mexico and decreases in the central and southern region of the country (Ful´e and Covington, 1999; Heyerdahl and Alvarado, 2003; the country. On the other hand, during La Nina~ winters, precipitation Ful´e et al., 2005; Yocom et al., 2010; Cerano et al., 2010; Ful´e et al., decreases in northwestern Mexico and increases in the central and 2011). These studies have documented un-interrupted frequent low southern Mexico (Magana~ et al., 2003). The influence of ENSO on fire severity fireregimes in half of the sampled sites within Mexico (Cerano occurrence has been well documented in northern Mexico (Heyerdahl et al., 2010; Ful´e et al., 2011). At other locations historical fireregimes and Alvarado, 2003; Ful´e et al., 2005;