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Call for Papers for the semi-thematic N° 67: (Re)defining rural territories, between the global South and North: actors, processes, scales.
Full papers are invited to be submitted via the journal's official platform by 15 March 2024.
For more information, please check this link
Influence of forest fires on the ecological equilibrium of the mediterranean vegetation of Chile: study cases.
Abstract
The effect of forestry wildfires on scrub and sclerophyllous forest in the mediterranean climate zone of Chile is studied, evaluating both the impact and the recovering capacity. The principal study was carried out in the coastal valley near Valparaiso and Viña del Mar cities. In the control area a phytogeographical study was carried out, with land survey and aenal photographic analysis,
covering 30 years. The recovery of community structures was progresive, starting from the lower strata. Then was developed a more complex trend to revert towards a structure similar to the adult unbumed stages. In the control area, a floristic study with intercepted line method was used. In the burnt area, the sequency of recovery size, covering (canopy) and volume of the principal species
were studied during two consecutive years. After four or three years the sprouting, dead and new individuals were controled. Three communities with differents strategies of resistance to fire are detected: Lithrea-Cryptocaria, with vegetative sprout and long youthful phase, previous to ripenig; Puya - Baccharis with sprouting and ripenig, and community of Jubaea, which is not affected by
the fire. The plant regeneration rate in shrub and herbaceous stratum was lower than expected and serious erosion processous were detected. Jubaea chilensis is in this moment in dangerous regeneration by the severe slope ravines. Some effects are shown, arising from forest fires in mountain humide woods and also in the southern side of the mediterranean zone.
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