JOURNAL ARTICLE
RESEARCH SUPPORT, NON-U.S. GOV'T
Add like
Add dislike
Add to saved papers

The independent and interactive effects of tree-tree establishment competition and fire on savanna structure and dynamics.

Savanna ecosystems are widespread and economically important and harbor considerable biodiversity. Despite extensive study, the mechanisms regulating savanna tree populations are not well understood. Recent empirical work suggests that both tree-tree competition and fire are key factors in semiarid to mesic savannas, but the potential for competition to structure savannas, particularly in interaction with fire, has received little theoretical attention. We develop a minimalistic and analytically tractable stochastic cellular automaton to study the individual and combined effects of these two factors on savannas. We find that while competition often substantially depresses tree density, fire generally has little effect but can drive tree extinction in extreme scenarios. When combined, competition and fire interact nonlinearly with strong negative consequences for tree density. This novel result may help explain observed variability among apparently similar savannas in their response to fire. Paradoxically, this interaction could also render the presence of competition more difficult to detect in empirical studies because fire can override the characteristic regular spacing driven by competition and lead instead to clustering.

Full text links

We have located links that may give you full text access.
Can't access the paper?
Try logging in through your university/institutional subscription. For a smoother one-click institutional access experience, please use our mobile app.

For the best experience, use the Read mobile app

Mobile app image

Get seemless 1-tap access through your institution/university

For the best experience, use the Read mobile app

All material on this website is protected by copyright, Copyright © 1994-2024 by WebMD LLC.
This website also contains material copyrighted by 3rd parties.

By using this service, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy.

Your Privacy Choices Toggle icon

You can now claim free CME credits for this literature searchClaim now

Get seemless 1-tap access through your institution/university

For the best experience, use the Read mobile app