Disturbance: Introduction, with a terrestrial bias Peter White, Biology/Ecology 255, September 9, 2005 Outline

Some recent (mostly 2000+, mostly TREE, Science, Nature) papers

Obstacles to generality and organizing the cases
Discussion: Topics if you haven’t yet found one
Reading:
Look over for background and future reference (long, dense paper!):

White, P. S., and A. Jentsch. 2001. The search for generality in studies of disturbance and ecosystem dynamics.  Progress in Botany 62:399-450. 

More background

White, P. S.  1979.  Pattern, process, and natural disturbance in vegetation. Botanical Review 45:229 299.

White, P.S., and S.T.A. Pickett. 1985. Introduction in S.T.A. Pickett and P. S. White (eds.) 1985.  The ecology of natural disturbance and patch dynamics. Academic Press, New York.

White, P. S., and A. Jentsch (in press).  Developing multipatch environmental ethics: the paradigm of flux and the challenge of a patch dynamic world.  Silva Carelica. [Preprint]

Legacy matters (including new structures created by disturbance)

Foster, D.R., Knight, D.H. & Franklin, J.F. 1998. Landscape patterns and legacies resulting from large, infrequent forest disturbances. Ecosystems 1: 497-510.

Magnitude matters

Schimmel J, Granstrom A (1994) Fire severity and vegetation response in the boreal Swedish forest. Ecology 77:1436-1450

Empirical detail and fundamental mechanisms help!

Ryan, K. C. 2002. Dynamic interactions between forest structure and fire behavior in boreal ecosystems. Silva Fennica 36: 13-39.

Leach, M.K., and T.J. Givnish. 1996. Ecological determinants of species loss in remnant prairies. Science 273:1555-1558.

Johnson, E. A., and S. L. Gutsell. 1993. Heat budget and fire behavior associated with the opening of serotinous cones in two Pinus species: J. Veget. Sci. 4 745–750.

Richter, B.D., J.V. Baumgartner, J. Powell, and D.P. Braun. 1996. A method for assessing hydrologic alteration within ecosystems. Conservation Biology 10:1163-1174.

Flematti, G.R., E.L. Ghisalberti, K.W. Dixon, R.D. Tengrove. 2004. A compound from smoke that promotes seed germination. Science 305: 977.

Increase in gap size through successional time limits the effectiveness of competition

Disturbance effects on succession depend on pre-disturbance structure, composition and disturbance specificity to species, sizes, and ages
Patch—Multi-Event Scale

History matters: disturbances interact

Foster, D. R. 1988. Species and stand response to catastrophic wind in central New England, U.S.A. Journal of Ecology 76:135-151.

Clark, J.S. 1990. Fire and climate change during the last 750 years in northwestern Minnesota, Ecological Monographs, 60:135-159 .

Patch size matters

Turner, M. G., W. H. Romme, R. H. Gardner, and W. W. Hargrove. 1997. Effects of fire size and pattern on early succession in Yellowstone National Park. Ecological Monographs 67: 411-433.

Patch pattern matters

Moloney KA, Levin SA (1996) The effects of disturbance architecture on landscape level population dynamics. Ecology 77:375-394
Multi-Patch—Multi-Event Scale

Quantitative and qualitative equilibrium; resilience

Stability and variance

Turner, G.M., Romme, W.H., Gardner, R.H., O‘Neill, R.V. & Kratz, T.K. 1993. A revised concept of landscape equilibrium: disturbance and stability on scaled landscapes. Landscape Ecol 8: 213-227.

Historic (Natural) range of Variation (Variability)

Succession and homogenization of composition and structure

Landres, P.B., Morgan, P. & Swanson, F. J. 1999. Overview of the use of natural variability concepts in managing ecological systems. Ecological Applications 9: 1179–1188.

Characteristic oldest age patch and the definition of old-growth

Johnson EA, Miyanshi K, Weir JMH (1995) Old-growth, disturbance, and ecosystem management. Can J Bot 73:918-926
Species and Community Response

IDH (see 2000+)

Wilson, J. Bastow. 1994. The ‘intermediate disturbance hypothesis’ of species coexistence is based on patch dynamics. New Zealand J. of Ecology 18:176-181.

Neutrality and the niche; niche partitioning (see 2000+)

Climate variability and regional synchronicity

Swetnam, T. W. 1993. Fire history and climate change in giant Sequoia groves. Science 262:885-889

Swetnam, T. W., and J. L. Betancourt. 1990. Fire-southern oscillation relations in the southwestern United States. Science 249:1017-1020

Site (topography and soil; and site x climate)

Rollins, M.G., P. Morgan, and T. Swetnam. 2002. Landscape-scale controls over 20^th Century fire occurrence in two large Rocky Mountain (USA) wilderness areas. Landscape Ecology 17:539-557.

Landscape pattern

Bergeron, Y. 1991. The influence of island and mainland lakeshore landscapes on boreal forest fire regimes. Ecology 72: 1980-1992. (Also: Bergeron, Y., and Brisson, J. 1990. Ecology 71: 1352-1364; Bergeron, Leduc, & Li 1997, J. Vegetation Science 8:37-44, Flannigan & Bergeron 1998; J. Vegetation Science 9:477-482.)

Fire compartment size in the North Carolina longleaf pine ecosystem

Successional age; community composition and structure; Top-down versus bottom-up control of fire regime (see 2000+)

Species matter: exotic invasions and disturbance regime

Brooks, M.L., C. M. D’Antonio, D.M. Richardson, J.B. Grace, J.E. Keeley, J.M. DiTomaso, R.J. Hobbs, M. Pellant, and D. Pyke. 2004. Effect of invasive alien plants on fire regimes. BioScience 54:677-688.

Billings, W. D. 1990. Bromus tectorum, a biotic cause of ecosystem impoverishment in the Great Basin. In: G. M. Woodwell (ed.), The earth in transition. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, p301-322

Bodle, M. J., A. P. Ferriter, and D. D. Thayer. 1994. The biology, distribution, and ecological consequences of Melaleuca quinquenervia in the Everglades. In: S. Davis and J. Ogden (eds.), Everglades: the ecosystem and its restoration. St. Lucia Press, pp 341-355

Brokaw, N., and R.T. Busing. 2000. Niche versus chance and tree diversity in forest gaps. TREE 15:183-188. (See also commentary in later issue.)

Rees, M., R. Condit, M. Crawley, S. Pacala, and D. Tilman. 2001. Long-term studies of vegetation dynamics. Science 293:650-655.

Shell, D., and D. F. R. P. Burselm. 2003. Disturbing hypotheses in tropical forests. TREE 18:18-26.

Silvertown, J. 2004. Plant co-existence and the niche. TREE 19:605-611.
IDH

Buckling, A., R. Kassen, G. Bell, and P. B. Rainey. 2000. Disturbance and diversity in experimental microcosms. Nature 408:961-964.

Mackey, R. L., and D. J. Currie. 2001. The diversity-disturbance relationship: is it generally strong and peaked? Ecology 82:3479-3492.

Mollino, J.-F., and D. Sabatier. 2001. Tree diversity in tropical rain forests: a validation of the intermediate disturbance hypothesis. Science 294:1702-1704.

Shell, D., and D. F. R. P. Burselm. 2003. Disturbing hypotheses in tropical forests. TREE 18:18-26.
Patch dynamic equilibrium—Quantitative and Qualitative equilibrium, minimum dynamic area, resilience, and criticality

Holdenreider, O., M. Pautasso, P.J. Weisberg, and D. Lonsdale. 2004. Tree diseases and landscape processes: the challenge of landscape pathology. TREE 19:446-452.

Kiessling, W. 2005. Long-term relationships between ecological stability and biodiversity in Phanerozoic reefs. Nature 433:410-412.

Nystrom, M., C. Folke, and F. Moberg. 2000. Coral reef disturbance and resilience in a human-dominated environment. TREE 15:413-417.

Pascual, M., and F. Guichard. 2005. Criticality and disturbance in spatial ecological systems. TREE 20:88-95.

Peterson, G. D. 2002. Contagious disturbance, ecological memory, and the emergence of landscape pattern. Ecosystems 5:329-338.

Agee, J. K. 2003. Historic range of variability in eastern Cascade forests, Washington, USA. Landscape Ecology 18:725-740.

Tinker, D.B., W. H. Romme, and D. G. Despain. 2003. Historic range of variability in landscape structure in subalpine forests of the Greater Yellowstone Area, USA. Landscape Ecology 18:427-439.
Pattern creates process AND Process creates pattern: Top-down and Bottom-up control of fire regime—the suppression hypothesis, fire risk, and the Healthy Forest Initiative

Bridges, S.R.J., K. Miyanishi, and E.A. Johnson. 2005. A critical examination of fire suppression effects in the boreal forest of Ontario. Forest Science 51:41-50.

Johnson, E.A., K. Miyanishi, and S.R.J. Bridge. 2001. Wildfire regime in the boreal forest and the idea of suppression and fuel buildup. Conservation Biology 15:1554-1557.

Keeley, J.E., and C.J. Fotheringham. 2001. Historic fire regime in southern California shrublands. Conservation Biology 15:1536-1548.

Kitzberger, T. T.W. Swetnam, and T. Veblen. 2001. Inter-hemispheric synchrony of forest fires and the El Nino-Southern Oscillation. Global Ecology and Biogeography 10:315-326.

Moritz, M.A., J.E. Keeley, E.A. Johnson, and A.A. Shafner. 2004. Testing a basic assumption of shrubland fire management: how important is fuel age? Frontiers in Ecology 2(2):67-72.

Shoennagel, T., T. Veblen, and W. H. Romme. 2004. The interaction of fire, fuels, and climate across Rocky Mountain Forests. BioScience 54:661-676.
Other interesting recent papers
Fire

Bond, W. J., and J. E. Keeley. 2005. Fire as a global ‘herbivore’: the ecology and evolution of flammable ecosystems. TREE 20:387-394.

Lockwood, J.L., M.S. Ross, and J.P. Sah. 2004. Smoke on the water: interplay of fire and water flow on Everglades restoration. Frontiers in Ecology 1:462-468.

Rood, S.B., G.M. Samuelson, J.H. Braatne, C.R. Gourley, F.M.R. Hughes, and J.M. Mahoney. 2005. Managing river flows to restore floodplain forests. Frontiers in Ecology 4:193-201.
Disturbance and ecosystem resources in a long-term perspective

Wardle, D. A., L. R. Walker, and R. D. Bardgett. 2004. Ecosystem properties and forest decline in contrasting long-term chronosequences. Science 305:509-513 (See also Birks & Birks 2004, Science 305:484-485 for a short commentary).