Moderate wildfire severity favors seed removal by granivores in a Mexican pine forest

doi:10.3832/ifor4741-018

Moderate wildfire severity favors seed removal by granivores in a Mexican pine forest

Daniel A Cadena-Zamudio⁽¹⁾ , Jorge Cadena-Iñiguez⁽²⁾, Juan F Aguirre-Medina⁽³⁾, Jorge D Cadena-Zamudio⁽⁴⁾, José L Arispe-Vázquez⁽⁵⁾, Luis A Barrera-Guzmán⁽⁶⁾, Sergio Ayvar-Serna⁽⁷⁾, José F Díaz-Nájera⁽⁷⁾

iForest - Biogeosciences and Forestry, Volume 18, Issue 3, Pages 121-127 (2025)
doi: https://doi.org/10.3832/ifor4741-018
Published: May 24, 2025 - Copyright © 2025 SISEF

Research Articles

PDF Version

Full Text

Citation

Geo-mapping

Wildfires are critical to the ecological dynamics of communities in temperate forests. However, their frequency and severity have increased significantly in recent decades due to human activities, negatively affecting flora, fauna, and ecosystem processes. Among the primary interactions for the natural regeneration of forests is seed removal, which promotes secondary seed dispersal and predation. This study evaluated artificial seed removal under different wildfire severities in a pine forest on the eastern edge of the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt. An experiment of differential exclusion of vertebrates and invertebrates was carried out, considering two treatments: totally exposed seeds and seeds with exclusion of vertebrates in the unburnt forest, moderate and high severity fire. Our results showed a higher seed removal by vertebrates (birds and rodents) in the wildfire moderate severity treatment and in the time elapsed since wildfire occurrence; however, excluding vertebrates decreased the seed removal rate after the fire. Therefore, moderate-severity sites are an important factor in the communities of granivores that influence seed removal patterns in the temperate forest of Veracruz, Mexico. The findings underscore the importance of considering fire severity gradients in forest management strategies, particularly in fire-adapted ecosystems. As climate change alters fire regimes worldwide, understanding how different fire severities affect ecological interactions such as granivory is essential for promoting forest resilience and biodiversity.

Keywords

Artificial Seeds, Exclusion Experiments, Granivores, Natural Regeneration, Pine Forests, Predation

Authors’ address

(1)

0000-0002-6972-7414
Department of Forest Ecology, Interdisciplinary Research Group at Sechium edule in México (GISeM), Agustín Melgar 10, Texcoco, 56160, México (Mexico)

(2)

0000-0002-6427-0646
Department of Botany, Colegio de Postgraduados, Iturbide 73, 78622, San Luis Potosí (Mexico)

(3)

0000-0002-8269-7854
Department of Plant Phisiology, Universidad Autónoma de Chiapas, Entronque Carretera Costera y Pueblo de Huehuetán, 30660, Chiapas (Mexico)

(4)

0000-0002-2855-4561
Department of Forestry Genetic Resources, Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Forestales, Agrícolas y Pecuarias, Boulevard de La Biodiversidad 400, 47600, Jalisco (Mexico)

(5)

0000-0003-1357-2238
Department of Forestry Management and Agroecology, Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Forestales, Agrícolas y Pecuarias, Carretera Iguala-Tuxpan, 40000, Guerrero (Mexico)

(6)

0000-0001-8057-2583
Department of Sustainable Ecosystems, Universidad Autónoma Chapingo, Carretera Federal Huatusco-Xalapa Km. 6.5, 94100, Veracruz (Mexico)

(7)

0000-0002-9974-5752
0000-0001-7181-9425
Department of Forestry Management, Colegio Superior Agropecuario del Estado de Guerrero, 40000, Guerrero (Mexico)

Corresponding author

Daniel A Cadena-Zamudio
cadenazamudio@gmail.com

Citation

Cadena-Zamudio DA, Cadena-Iñiguez J, Aguirre-Medina JF, Cadena-Zamudio JD, Arispe-Vázquez JL, Barrera-Guzmán LA, Ayvar-Serna S, Díaz-Nájera JF (2025). Moderate wildfire severity favors seed removal by granivores in a Mexican pine forest. iForest 18: 121-127. - doi: 10.3832/ifor4741-018

Academic Editor

Marco Borghetti

Paper history

Received: Oct 06, 2024
Accepted: Feb 06, 2025

First online: May 24, 2025
Publication Date: Jun 30, 2025
Publication Time: 3.57 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.

Breakdown by View Type

(Waiting for server response...)

Article Usage

Total Article Views: 259
(from publication date up to now)

Breakdown by View Type
HTML Page Views: 62
Abstract Page Views: 98
PDF Downloads: 83
Citation/Reference Downloads: 0
XML Downloads: 16

Web Metrics
Days since publication: 9
Overall contacts: 259
Avg. contacts per week: 201.44

Article Citations

Article citations are based on data periodically collected from the Clarivate Web of Science web site
(last update: Mar 2025)

(No citations were found up to date. Please come back later)

(no Plumx Metrics available for this paper)

Publication Metrics

by Dimensions ^©

Articles citing this article

List of the papers citing this article based on CrossRef Cited-by.

(1)

Angotti MA, Rabello A, Santiago G, Ribas C (2018)
Seed removal by ants in Brazilian savanna: optimizing fieldwork. Sociobiology 65 (2) 155-161.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(2)

Attri V, Dhiman R, Sarvade S (2020)
A review on status, implications and recent trends of forest fire management. Journal of Ecology 5 (4): 592-602.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(3)

Banks SC, Dujardin M, McBurney L, Blair D, Barker M, Lindenmayer DB (2011)
Starting points for small mammal population recovery after wildfire: recolonisation or residual populations? Oikos 120: 26-37.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(4)

Bates D, Mächler M, Bolker B, Walker S (2015)
Fitting linear mixed-effects models using lme4. Journal of Statistics Software 67 (1): 1-48.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(5)

Cazetta TC, Vieira EM (2021)
Fire occurrence mediates small-mammal seed removal of native tree species in a Neotropical Savanna. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 946.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(6)

Chia EK, Bassett M, Leonard SW, Holland GJ, Ritchie EG, Clarke MF, Bennett AF (2016)
Effects of the fire regime on mammal occurrence after wildfire: site effects vs. landscape context in fire-prone forests. Forest Ecology and Management 363: 130-139.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(7)

Jardel PEJ, Alvarado E, Morfín JER, Castillo FN, Flores JGG (2009)
Regímenes de fuego en ecosistemas forestales de México. impacto ambiental de incendios forestales [Fire regimes in forest ecosystems of Mexico. Environmental impact of forest fires]. Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Forestales Agrícolas y Pecuarias, Colegio de Postgraduados, México, pp. 731 [in Spanish]
Gscholar

(8)

Côté M, Ferron J, Gagnon R (2003)
Impact of seed and seedling predation by small rodents on early regeneration establishment of black spruce. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 33 (12): 2362-2371.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(9)

Cracknell AP (2007)
Introduction to remote sensing (2nd edn). CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, USA, pp. 352.
Online | Gscholar

(10)

Davies HF, Visintin C, Murphy BP, Ritchie EG, Banks SC, Davies ID, Bowman DM (2023)
Pyrodiversity trade-offs: a simulation study of the effects of fire size and dispersal ability on native mammal populations in northern Australian savannas. Biological Conservation 282: 110077.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(11)

Donato DC, Fontaine JB, Campbell JL, Robinson WD, Kauffman JB, Law BE (2009)
Conifer regeneration in stand-replacement portions of a large mixed-severity wildfire in the Klamath-Siskiyou Mountains. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 39 (4): 823-838.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(12)

Enríquez-De-Salamanca A (2023)
Dynamics of Mediterranean pine forests reforested after fires. Journal of Forest Research 34 (2): 345-354.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(13)

Flores-Peredo R (2005)
Efecto de la vegetación sobre la abundancia y diversidad de depredadores de semillas de Pinus teocote Schl. et Cham. en hábitats contrastantes del estado de Veracruz, México [Effect of vegetation on the abundance and diversity of seed predators of Pinus teocote Schl. et Cham. in contrasting habitats in the state of Veracruz, Mexico]. Msc Thesis, Universidad Veracruzana, Veracruz, México, pp. 64 [in Spanish]
Gscholar

(14)

Flores-Peredo R, Sánchez-Velásquez LR, Bolívar-Cimé BDS (2016a)
Pine seed removal in fragments of three temperate plant communities. Botanical Sciences 94 (4): 737-744.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(15)

Flores-Peredo R, Vázquez-Domínguez G (2016b)
Influence of vegetation type and season on rodent assemblage in a Mexican temperate forest mosaic. Therya 7 (3): 357-369.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(16)

GEV/CEMA (2002)
Programa de Manejo de San Juan del Monte [San Juan del Monte Management Program]. Gobierno del Estado de Veracruz - GEV, Coordinación Estatal de Medio Ambiente - CEMA, México DF, pp. 190 [in Spanish]
Gscholar

(17)

Harvey BJ, Enright NJ (2022)
Climate change and altered fire regimes: impacts on plant populations, species, and ecosystems in both hemispheres. Plant Ecology 223: 699-709.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(18)

Hothorn T, Bretz F, Westfall P (2008)
Simultaneous inference in general parametric models. Biometrical Journal 50 (3): 346-363.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(19)

Hulme PE, Benkman CW (2002)
Granivory. In: “Plant-Animal Interactions: An Evolutionary Approach” (Herrera CM, Pellmyr O eds). Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 132-156.
Gscholar

(20)

Keeley JE (2009)
Fire intensity, fire severity and burn severity: a brief review and suggested usage. International Journal of Wildland Fire 18: 116-126.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(21)

Kleinman JS (2021)
A review and case study of multiple interacting disturbances in forest ecosystems. PhD Thesis, Forest Ecology, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, USA, pp. 137.
Online | Gscholar

(22)

Liu B, Liang Y, He HS, Liu Z, Ma T, Wu MM (2022)
Wildfire affects boreal forest resilience through post-fire recruitment in Northeastern China. Ecology Indicators 145: 109705.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(23)

Luna P, Dáttilo W (2018)
A new protocol using artificial seeds to evaluate dietary preferences of harvester ants in semi-arid environments. Sociobiology 65 (2): 149-154.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(24)

Luna P, García-Chávez JH, Izzo T, Sosa VJ, Del-Claro K, Dáttilo W (2021)
Neutral and niche-based factors simultaneously drive seed and invertebrate removal by red harvester ants. Ecological Entomology 46: 816-826.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(25)

Novoa FJ, Altamirano TA, Bonacic C, Martin K, Ibarra JT (2021)
Fire regimes shape biodiversity: responses of avian guilds to burned forests in Andean temperate ecosystems of southern Chile. Avian Conservation and Ecology 16 (2): 22.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(26)

Palmer HD, Denham AJ, Ooi MK (2018)
Fire severity drives variation in post-fire recruitment and residual seed bank size of Acacia species. Plant Ecology 219 (5): 527-537.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(27)

Perea R, Venturas M, Gil L (2014)
Seed predation on the ground or in the tree? Size-related differences in behavior and ecology of granivorous birds. Acta Ornithologica 49 (1): 119-130.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(28)

Price MV, Longland WS (1989)
Use of artificial seed patches by heteromyid rodents. Journal of Mammal 70 (2): 316-322.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(29)

R Core Team (2023)
R: a language and environment for statistical computing. Vienna, Austria.
Online | Gscholar

(30)

Rabello AM, Queiroz AC, Lasmar CJ, Cuissi RG, Canedo-Júnior EO, Schmidt FA, Ribas CR (2015)
When is the best period to sample ants in tropical areas impacted by mining and in rehabilitation process? Insectes Sociaux 62: 227-236.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(31)

Ramírez-Sánchez D (2020)
Evaluación de un incendio forestal en un bosque de coníferas del centro de Veracruz: análisis de la sucesión temprana usando percepción remota y métodos a nivel de campo [Evaluation of a forest fire in a coniferous forest in central Veracruz: early succession analysis using remote sensing and field level methods]. Ms Thesis, Instituto de Ecología AC, México, pp. 90 [in Spanish]
Gscholar

(32)

Rehling F, Jongejans E, Farwig N, Schabo DG (2024)
Quantifying the mutualism-antagonism continuum for seed removal by a granivorous disperser. Basic Applied Ecology 76: 35-40.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(33)

Román JG (2012)
Evaluation of seed removal by rodents and ants in Mediterranean pine forests affected by forest fires. Doctoral dissertation, Department of Experimental Sciences and Sustainability, University of Girona, Spain, pp. 119.
Gscholar

(34)

Souza FC, Viana-Junior AB, Mittelman PU, De Azevedo FCC (2023)
Tree density-dependence effects on seed dispersal of a large-seeded tropical tree. Journal of Tropical Ecology 39: e17.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(35)

Stewart JA, Van Mantgem PJ, Young DJ, Shive KL, Preisler HK, Das AJ, Thorne JH (2021)
Effects of postfire climate and seed availability on postfire conifer regeneration. Journal of Ecology 31(3): e02280.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(36)

Tasker EM, Denham AJ, Taylor JE, Strevens TC (2011)
Post-fire seed predation: does distance to unburnt vegetation matter? Austral Ecology 36 (7): 755-766.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(37)

Tejeda-Landero VM, Sánchez-Velásquez LR, Viveros-Viveros H, Aparicio-Rentería A, Flores-Peredo R (2019)
Seed bank formation and removal of Pinus hartwegii (Pinaceae) seeds along an altitudinal gradient in the Cofre de Perote National Park, Veracruz, Mexico. Botanical Sciences 97 (4): 623-629.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(38)

Vander Wall SB (2023)
Seed dispersal in pines (Pinus). Botanical Reviews 89 (3): 275-307.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(39)

Vargas MF, Escobar MS, De la Maza ER, Del Pont LRM (2002)
Areas naturales protegidas de México con decretos estatales [Protected natural areas in Mexico with state decrees]. Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales, Instituto Nacional de Ecología y Comisión Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas, México DF, Vol 2, pp. 1022. [in Spanish]
Gscholar

(40)

Vázquez-Reyes LD, Paz-Hernández H, Godínez-Alvarez HO, Del Coro Arizmendi M, Navarro-Sigüenza AG (2022)
Trait shifts in bird communities from primary forest to human settlements in Mexican seasonal forests. Are there ruderal birds? Perspectives in Ecology and Conservation 20 (2): 117-125.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(41)

Zuleta KO, Bravo SJ (2019)
Recruitment of woody species in tropical forests exposed to wildland fires: an overview. Ecosistemas 28 (1): 106-117.
CrossRef | Gscholar

iForest - Biogeosciences and Forestry

Contents

Search

Journal Info

Journal Subjects and Fields

For Authors

For Reviewers

For Readers

SISEF Publishing

Search iForest Contents