Post-fire recovery of Abies cephalonica forest communities: the case of Mt Parnitha National Park, Attica, Greece

doi:10.3832/ifor2744-011

Post-fire recovery of Abies cephalonica forest communities: the case of Mt Parnitha National Park, Attica, Greece

Anastasia Christopoulou^(1-2) , Dimitrios Kazanis⁽¹⁾, Nikolaos M Fyllas⁽³⁾, Margarita Arianoutsou⁽¹⁾

iForest - Biogeosciences and Forestry, Volume 11, Issue 6, Pages 757-764 (2018)
doi: https://doi.org/10.3832/ifor2744-011
Published: Nov 15, 2018 - Copyright © 2018 SISEF

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Geo-mapping

Mountain coniferous forests of Southern Europe seem to be increasingly affected by large fires. Endemic Greek fir (Abies cephalonica) forests were among the most affected ecosystems by the 2007 extreme wildfires in Greece. The aim of this study is to investigate the pattern of post-fire regeneration of fir forest plant communities of Mount Parnitha National Park, in Attica (Greece), after a large wildfire. A network of 8 severely burned sites across the mountain ridge was established in order to monitor natural regeneration of A. cephalonica as well as post-fire floristic composition and species richness. Field campaigns took place in two distinct time periods, one close to the fire event and one 8 to 10 years after. Generalized linear models were used to explore the effects of distance and microhabitat variables on the post-fire regeneration of the Greek fir. Distance from the unburned patches, slope and cover of woody species significantly affected A. cephalonica seedling establishment and hence its natural post-fire regeneration. Floristic composition and plant species richness of the recovering fir communities changed through time. During the initial phase, high species richness was recorded, mainly because of the high contribution of herbaceous species. During the second period, species richness was lower and similar to that recorded in the unburned fir communities. It is during this period when the first seedlings of the Greek fir managed to establish, although their density is rather low to ensure full recovery of the forest.

Keywords

Greek Fir, Mountain Forests, Post-fire Regeneration, Vegetation Dynamics, Secondary Succession

Authors’ address

(1)

Department of Ecology and Systematics, Faculty of Biology, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Panepistimiopolis, 15784 Athens (Greece)

(2)

Nicolaus Copernicus University, Institute for the Study, Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage, ul. Sienkiewicza 30/32, 87-100 Torun (Poland)

(3)

Biodiversity Conservation Laboratory, Department of Environment, University of the Aegean, 81100 Mytilene (Greece)

Corresponding author

Anastasia Christopoulou
anchristo@biol.uoa.gr

Citation

Christopoulou A, Kazanis D, Fyllas NM, Arianoutsou M (2018). Post-fire recovery of Abies cephalonica forest communities: the case of Mt Parnitha National Park, Attica, Greece. iForest 11: 757-764. - doi: 10.3832/ifor2744-011

Academic Editor

Davide Ascoli

Paper history

Received: Jan 29, 2018
Accepted: Aug 29, 2018

First online: Nov 15, 2018
Publication Date: Dec 31, 2018
Publication Time: 2.60 months

Open Access

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

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