Sensitivity of woody carbon stocks to bark investment strategy in Neotropical savannas and forests
Abstract
Fire frequencies are changing in Neotropical savannas andforests as a result of forest fragmentation and increasing drought. Suchchanges in fire regime and climate are hypothesized to destabilize tropicalcarbon storage, but there has been little consideration of the widespreadvariability in tree fire tolerance strategies. To test how abovegroundcarbon stocks change with fire frequency and composition of plants withdifferent fire tolerance strategies, we update the Ecosystem Demographymodel 2 (ED2) with (i) a fire survivorship module based on tree barkthickness (a key fire-tolerance trait across woody plants in savannas andforests), and (ii) plant functional types representative of trees in theregion. With these updates, the model is better able to predict how firefrequency affects population demography and aboveground woody carbon.Simulations illustrate that the high survival rate of thick-barked, largetrees reduces carbon losses with increasing fire frequency, with highinvestment in bark being particularly important in reducing losses in thewettest sites. Additionally, in landscapes that frequently burn, barkinvestment can broaden the range of climate and fire conditions under whichsavannas occur by reducing the range of conditions leading to eithercomplete tree loss or complete grass loss. These results highlight thattropical vegetation dynamics depend not only on rainfall and changing firefrequencies but also on tree fire survival strategy. Further, ourmore »
- Authors:
-
[1];
[2];
- Princeton Univ., NJ (United States); Univ. of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT (United States)
- Univ. of Notre Dame, IN (United States)
- North Carolina State Univ., Raleigh, NC (United States)
- Stanford Univ., CA (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Univ. of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1503246
- Grant/Contract Number:
- SC0014363
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Biogeosciences (Online)
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Name: Biogeosciences (Online); Journal Volume: 15; Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 1726-4189
- Publisher:
- European Geosciences Union
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
Citation Formats
Trugman, Anna T., Medvigy, David, Hoffmann, William A., and Pellegrini, Adam F. A. Sensitivity of woody carbon stocks to bark investment strategy in Neotropical savannas and forests. United States: N. p., 2018.
Web. doi:10.5194/bg-15-233-2018.
Trugman, Anna T., Medvigy, David, Hoffmann, William A., & Pellegrini, Adam F. A. Sensitivity of woody carbon stocks to bark investment strategy in Neotropical savannas and forests. United States. https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-15-233-2018
Trugman, Anna T., Medvigy, David, Hoffmann, William A., and Pellegrini, Adam F. A. Thu .
"Sensitivity of woody carbon stocks to bark investment strategy in Neotropical savannas and forests". United States. https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-15-233-2018. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1503246.
@article{osti_1503246,
title = {Sensitivity of woody carbon stocks to bark investment strategy in Neotropical savannas and forests},
author = {Trugman, Anna T. and Medvigy, David and Hoffmann, William A. and Pellegrini, Adam F. A.},
abstractNote = {Fire frequencies are changing in Neotropical savannas andforests as a result of forest fragmentation and increasing drought. Suchchanges in fire regime and climate are hypothesized to destabilize tropicalcarbon storage, but there has been little consideration of the widespreadvariability in tree fire tolerance strategies. To test how abovegroundcarbon stocks change with fire frequency and composition of plants withdifferent fire tolerance strategies, we update the Ecosystem Demographymodel 2 (ED2) with (i) a fire survivorship module based on tree barkthickness (a key fire-tolerance trait across woody plants in savannas andforests), and (ii) plant functional types representative of trees in theregion. With these updates, the model is better able to predict how firefrequency affects population demography and aboveground woody carbon.Simulations illustrate that the high survival rate of thick-barked, largetrees reduces carbon losses with increasing fire frequency, with highinvestment in bark being particularly important in reducing losses in thewettest sites. Additionally, in landscapes that frequently burn, barkinvestment can broaden the range of climate and fire conditions under whichsavannas occur by reducing the range of conditions leading to eithercomplete tree loss or complete grass loss. These results highlight thattropical vegetation dynamics depend not only on rainfall and changing firefrequencies but also on tree fire survival strategy. Further, our resultsindicate that fire survival strategy is fundamentally important inregulating tree size demography in ecosystems exposed to fire, whichincreases the preservation of aboveground carbon stocks and the coexistenceof different plant functional groups.},
doi = {10.5194/bg-15-233-2018},
journal = {Biogeosciences (Online)},
number = 1,
volume = 15,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Jan 11 00:00:00 EST 2018},
month = {Thu Jan 11 00:00:00 EST 2018}
}
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record
Other availability
Search WorldCat to find libraries that may hold this journal
Cited by: 7 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science
Web of Science
Figures / Tables:
Table 1: Model evaluations at IBGE Ecological Reserve.
All figures and tables
(6 total)
Save to My Library
You must Sign In or Create an Account in order to save documents to your library.
Works referenced in this record:
Trade-offs between savanna woody plant diversity and carbon storage in the Brazilian Cerrado
journal, April 2016
- Pellegrini, Adam F. A.; Socolar, Jacob B.; Elsen, Paul R.
- Global Change Biology, Vol. 22, Issue 10
Do Fires in Savannas Consume Woody Biomass? A Comment on Approaches to Modeling Savanna Dynamics
journal, June 2008
- Hanan, Niall P.; Sea, William B.; Dangelmayr, Gerhard
- The American Naturalist, Vol. 171, Issue 6
Costs and benefits of relative bark thickness in relation to fire damage: a savanna/forest contrast
journal, December 2012
- Lawes, Michael J.; Midgley, Jeremy J.; Clarke, Peter J.
- Journal of Ecology, Vol. 101, Issue 2
Variation in tropical forest growth rates: combined effects of functional group composition and resource availability
journal, January 2003
- Baker, Timothy R.; Swaine, Michael D.; Burslem, David F. R. P.
- Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics, Vol. 6, Issue 1-2
Recent reversal in loss of global terrestrial biomass
journal, March 2015
- Liu, Yi Y.; van Dijk, Albert I. J. M.; de Jeu, Richard A. M.
- Nature Climate Change, Vol. 5, Issue 5
Diversity in plant hydraulic traits explains seasonal and inter-annual variations of vegetation dynamics in seasonally dry tropical forests
journal, May 2016
- Xu, Xiangtao; Medvigy, David; Powers, Jennifer S.
- New Phytologist, Vol. 212, Issue 1
Convergence of bark investment according to fire and climate structures ecosystem vulnerability to future change
journal, January 2017
- Pellegrini, Adam F. A.; Anderegg, William R. L.; Paine, C. E. Timothy
- Ecology Letters, Vol. 20, Issue 3
SEIB–DGVM: A new Dynamic Global Vegetation Model using a spatially explicit individual-based approach
journal, January 2007
- Sato, Hisashi; Itoh, Akihiko; Kohyama, Takashi
- Ecological Modelling, Vol. 200, Issue 3-4
Fire-induced tree mortality in a neotropical forest: the roles of bark traits, tree size, wood density and fire behavior
journal, September 2011
- Brando, Paulo M.; Nepstad, Daniel C.; Balch, Jennifer K.
- Global Change Biology, Vol. 18, Issue 2
Forests, savannas, and grasslands: bridging the knowledge gap between ecology and Dynamic Global Vegetation Models
journal, January 2015
- Baudena, M.; Dekker, S. C.; van Bodegom, P. M.
- Biogeosciences, Vol. 12, Issue 6
Terrestrial biosphere carbon storage under alternative climate projections
journal, January 2006
- Schaphoff, Sibyll; Lucht, Wolfgang; Gerten, Dieter
- Climatic Change, Vol. 74, Issue 1-3
Abrupt increases in Amazonian tree mortality due to drought-fire interactions
journal, April 2014
- Brando, P. M.; Balch, J. K.; Nepstad, D. C.
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 111, Issue 17
Terrestrial Gross Carbon Dioxide Uptake: Global Distribution and Covariation with Climate
journal, July 2010
- Beer, C.; Reichstein, M.; Tomelleri, E.
- Science, Vol. 329, Issue 5993
The effect of fire on tree–grass coexistence in savannas: a simulation study
journal, January 2016
- Lehsten, Veiko; Arneth, Almut; Spessa, Allan
- International Journal of Wildland Fire, Vol. 25, Issue 2
Fuels or microclimate? Understanding the drivers of fire feedbacks at savanna-forest boundaries: FLAMMABILITY OF SAVANNA-FOREST BOUNDARY
journal, November 2011
- Hoffmann, William A.; Jaconis, Susan Y.; Mckinley, Kristen L.
- Austral Ecology, Vol. 37, Issue 6
A Large and Persistent Carbon Sink in the World's Forests
journal, July 2011
- Pan, Y.; Birdsey, R. A.; Fang, J.
- Science, Vol. 333, Issue 6045
Fire frequency filters species by bark traits in a savanna-forest mosaic
journal, April 2017
- Charles-Dominique, Tristan; Midgley, Guy F.; Bond, William J.
- Journal of Vegetation Science, Vol. 28, Issue 4
Global fire emissions and the contribution of deforestation, savanna, forest, agricultural, and peat fires (1997–2009)
journal, January 2010
- van der Werf, G. R.; Randerson, J. T.; Giglio, L.
- Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, Vol. 10, Issue 23
The influence of vegetation, fire spread and fire behaviour on biomass burning and trace gas emissions: results from a process-based model
journal, January 2010
- Thonicke, K.; Spessa, A.; Prentice, I. C.
- Biogeosciences, Vol. 7, Issue 6
Implementing plant hydraulic architecture within the LPJ Dynamic Global Vegetation Model
journal, November 2006
- Hickler, Thomas; Prentice, I. Colin; Smith, Benjamin
- Global Ecology and Biogeography, Vol. 15, Issue 6
Shifts in functional traits elevate risk of fire-driven tree dieback in tropical savanna and forest biomes
journal, January 2016
- Pellegrini, Adam F. A.; Franco, Augusto C.; Hoffmann, William A.
- Global Change Biology, Vol. 22, Issue 3
Ecological thresholds at the savanna-forest boundary: how plant traits, resources and fire govern the distribution of tropical biomes
journal, May 2012
- Hoffmann, William A.; Geiger, Erika L.; Gotsch, Sybil G.
- Ecology Letters, Vol. 15, Issue 7
Predicting ecosystem dynamics at regional scales: an evaluation of a terrestrial biosphere model for the forests of northeastern North America
journal, January 2012
- Medvigy, David; Moorcroft, Paul R.
- Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, Vol. 367, Issue 1586
What limits fire? An examination of drivers of burnt area in Southern Africa
journal, March 2009
- Archibald, Sally; Roy, David P.; van WILGEN, Brian W.
- Global Change Biology, Vol. 15, Issue 3
The global distribution of ecosystems in a world without fire
journal, November 2004
- Bond, W. J.; Woodward, F. I.; Midgley, G. F.
- New Phytologist, Vol. 165, Issue 2
Differences in growth patterns between co-occurring forest and savanna trees affect the forest-savanna boundary
journal, April 2009
- Rossatto, Davi Rodrigo; Hoffmann, William Arthur; Franco, Augusto César
- Functional Ecology, Vol. 23, Issue 4
Woody plant biomass and carbon exchange depend on elephant-fire interactions across a productivity gradient in African savanna
journal, November 2016
- Pellegrini, Adam F. A.; Pringle, Robert M.; Govender, Navashni
- Journal of Ecology, Vol. 105, Issue 1
Large trees drive forest aboveground biomass variation in moist lowland forests across the tropics: Large trees and tropical forest biomass
journal, July 2013
- Slik, J. W. Ferry; Paoli, Gary; McGuire, Krista
- Global Ecology and Biogeography, Vol. 22, Issue 12
Climate, soil organic layer, and nitrogen jointly drive forest development after fire in the North American boreal zone: CLIMATE AND SOIL DRIVE BOREAL CARBON
journal, August 2016
- Trugman, A. T.; Fenton, N. J.; Bergeron, Y.
- Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, Vol. 8, Issue 3
The dominant role of semi-arid ecosystems in the trend and variability of the land CO2 sink
journal, May 2015
- Ahlstrom, A.; Raupach, M. R.; Schurgers, G.
- Science, Vol. 348, Issue 6237
Bark thickness across the angiosperms: more than just fire
journal, February 2016
- Rosell, Julieta A.
- New Phytologist, Vol. 211, Issue 1
A stand‐alone tree demography and landscape structure module for Earth system models
journal, October 2013
- Haverd, Vanessa; Smith, Benjamin; Cook, Garry D.
- Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 40, Issue 19
Mechanistic scaling of ecosystem function and dynamics in space and time: Ecosystem Demography model version 2
journal, January 2009
- Medvigy, D.; Wofsy, S. C.; Munger, J. W.
- Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 114, Issue G1
Tree cover in sub-Saharan Africa: Rainfall and fire constrain forest and savanna as alternative stable states
journal, May 2011
- Staver, A. Carla; Archibald, Sally; Levin, Simon
- Ecology, Vol. 92, Issue 5
CO2 emissions from forest loss
journal, November 2009
- van der Werf, G. R.; Morton, D. C.; DeFries, R. S.
- Nature Geoscience, Vol. 2, Issue 11
Global response of terrestrial ecosystem structure and function to CO 2 and climate change: results from six dynamic global vegetation models
journal, April 2001
- Cramer, Wolfgang; Bondeau, Alberte; Woodward, F. Ian
- Global Change Biology, Vol. 7, Issue 4
Fire, resprouting and variability: a recipe for grass-tree coexistence in savanna
journal, April 2000
- Higgins, Steven I.; Bond, William J.; Trollope, Winston S. W.
- Journal of Ecology, Vol. 88, Issue 2
Bark thickness and fire regime
journal, November 2014
- Pausas, Juli G.
- Functional Ecology, Vol. 29, Issue 3
Impacts of climate change on the vegetation of Africa: an adaptive dynamic vegetation modelling approach
journal, September 2009
- Scheiter, Simon; Higgins, Steven I.
- Global Change Biology, Vol. 15, Issue 9
Sensitivity of African biomes to changes in the precipitation regime
journal, May 2006
- Hély, Christelle; Bremond, Laurent; Alleaume, Samuel
- Global Ecology and Biogeography, Vol. 15, Issue 3
Climate Change, Deforestation, and the Fate of the Amazon
journal, January 2008
- Malhi, Y.; Roberts, J. T.; Betts, R. A.
- Science, Vol. 319, Issue 5860
The Global Extent and Determinants of Savanna and Forest as Alternative Biome States
journal, October 2011
- Staver, A. C.; Archibald, S.; Levin, S. A.
- Science, Vol. 334, Issue 6053
Effects of four Decades of fire Manipulation on Woody Vegetation Structure in Savanna
journal, May 2007
- Higgins, Steven I.; Bond, William J.; February, Edmund C.
- Ecology, Vol. 88, Issue 5
Tree topkill, not mortality, governs the dynamics of savanna–forest boundaries under frequent fire in central Brazil
journal, May 2009
- Hoffmann, William A.; Adasme, Ryan; Haridasan, M.
- Ecology, Vol. 90, Issue 5
Fire drives functional thresholds on the savanna–forest transition
journal, November 2013
- de L. Dantas, Vinícius; Batalha, Marco A.; Pausas, Juli G.
- Ecology, Vol. 94, Issue 11
Carbon accumulation and nitrogen pool recovery during transitions from savanna to forest in central Brazil
journal, February 2014
- Pellegrini, Adam F. A.; Hoffmann, William A.; Franco, Augusto C.
- Ecology, Vol. 95, Issue 2
Tree cover in sub-Saharan Africa: Rainfall and fire constrain forest and savanna as alternative stable states
journal, May 2011
- Staver, A. Carla; Archibald, Sally; Levin, Simon
- Ecology, Vol. 92, Issue 5
Deforestation, Fire Susceptibility, and Potential Tree Responses to Fire in the Eastern Amazon
journal, April 1990
- Uhl, Christopher; Kauffman, J. Boone
- Ecology, Vol. 71, Issue 2
Forests, savannas and grasslands: bridging the knowledge gap between ecology and Dynamic Global Vegetation Models
journal, January 2014
- Baudena, M.; Dekker, S. C.; van Bodegom, P. M.
- Biogeosciences Discussions, Vol. 11, Issue 6
Predicting ecosystem dynamics at regional scales: an evaluation of a terrestrial biosphere model for the forests of northeastern North America
journal, January 2012
- Medvigy, David; Moorcroft, Paul R.
- Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, Vol. 367, Issue 1586
Bark thickness and fire regime
journal, November 2014
- Pausas, Juli G.
- Functional Ecology, Vol. 29, Issue 3
Convergence of bark investment according to fire and climate structures ecosystem vulnerability to future change
journal, January 2017
- Pellegrini, Adam F. A.; Anderegg, William R. L.; Paine, C. E. Timothy
- Ecology Letters, Vol. 20, Issue 3
Sensitivity of African biomes to changes in the precipitation regime
journal, May 2006
- Hely, Christelle; Bremond, Laurent; Alleaume, Samuel
- Global Ecology and Biogeography, Vol. 15, Issue 3
Implementing plant hydraulic architecture within the LPJ Dynamic Global Vegetation Model
journal, August 2006
- Hickler, Thomas; Prentice, I. Colin; Smith, Benjamin
- Global Ecology and Biogeography, Vol. 0, Issue 0
Terrestrial Gross Carbon Dioxide Uptake: Global Distribution and Covariation with Climate
journal, July 2010
- Beer, C.; Reichstein, M.; Tomelleri, E.
- Science, Vol. 329, Issue 5993
A Large and Persistent Carbon Sink in the World's Forests
journal, July 2011
- Pan, Y.; Birdsey, R. A.; Fang, J.
- Science, Vol. 333, Issue 6045
The Global Extent and Determinants of Savanna and Forest as Alternative Biome States
journal, October 2011
- Staver, A. C.; Archibald, S.; Levin, S. A.
- Science, Vol. 334, Issue 6053
Tree cover in sub-Saharan Africa: Rainfall and fire constrain forest and savanna as alternative stable states
journal, May 2011
- Staver, A. Carla; Archibald, Sally; Levin, Simon
- Ecology, Vol. 92, Issue 5
Fire drives functional thresholds on the savanna–forest transition
journal, November 2013
- de L. Dantas, Vinícius; Batalha, Marco A.; Pausas, Juli G.
- Ecology, Vol. 94, Issue 11
Forests, savannas and grasslands: bridging the knowledge gap between ecology and Dynamic Global Vegetation Models
journal, January 2014
- Baudena, M.; Dekker, S. C.; van Bodegom, P. M.
- Biogeosciences Discussions, Vol. 11, Issue 6
Works referencing / citing this record:
Linking tree physiological constraints with predictions of carbon and water fluxes at an old‐growth coniferous forest
journal, April 2019
- Jiang, Yueyang; Kim, John B.; Trugman, Anna T.
- Ecosphere, Vol. 10, Issue 4
The biophysics, ecology, and biogeochemistry of functionally diverse, vertically and horizontally heterogeneous ecosystems: the Ecosystem Demography model, version 2.2 – Part 1: Model description
journal, January 2019
- Longo, Marcos; Knox, Ryan G.; Medvigy, David M.
- Geoscientific Model Development, Vol. 12, Issue 10
The biophysics, ecology, and biogeochemistry of functionally diverse, vertically and horizontally heterogeneous ecosystems: the Ecosystem Demography model, version 2.2 – Part 2: Model evaluation for tropical South America
journal, January 2019
- Longo, Marcos; Knox, Ryan G.; Levine, Naomi M.
- Geoscientific Model Development, Vol. 12, Issue 10
Figures / Tables found in this record:
Figures/Tables have been extracted from DOE-funded journal article accepted manuscripts.