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Background <p>Fire is considered a disturbance with significant impacts on ecosystems, shaping their structure, diversity, and stability. Understanding natural regeneration processes after fires is essential for predicting post-fire successional trajectories and applying effective restoration strategies in degraded areas. In the dry forests of southern Mendoza, Argentina, we evaluated post-fire vegetation and soil recovery to characterize potential post-fire trajectories across sites with contrasting fire histories.</p> Methods <p>To achieve this, we constructed a chronosequence representing seven fire histories: unburned sites, sites more than 19&#xa0;years post-fire, 13-year post-fire sites, 6-year post-fire sites, 3-year post-fire sites, as well as areas burned twice and three to four times. Vegetation was assessed through phytosociological surveys, total vegetation cover, cover by vegetation strata, and percentage of bare soil were estimated, and the Shannon diversity index and species richness were calculated. Soil samples were collected under tree canopies and in adjacent open areas to evaluate microsite-related variations in soil properties.</p> Results <p>Recently burned sites or with high fire recurrence showed lower shrub and tree cover and higher bare soil and herbaceous cover. Species richness and diversity did not differ significantly among fire histories. However, the Detrended Correspondence Analysis showed changes in species composition from unburned sites to those with shorter post-fire recovery times and higher recurrence. Multivariate analyses detected significant but subtle differences in soil composition among fire histories and between microsites, although most individual soil variables did not differ significantly. Soil characteristics in older post-fire sites were more similar to those of unburned sites.</p> Conclusions <p>Our findings suggest that post-fire recovery in Monte dry forests is driven more by changes in vegetation structure and species composition than by shifts in species richness, diversity, or soil properties. The persistence of compositional differences across fire histories suggests that fire influences community assembly through species replacement, and recurrent fires may promote herbaceous-dominated communities, with important implications for ecosystem functioning. Understanding natural regeneration pathways and post-fire recovery times is essential for designing effective restoration and management strategies for fire-affected dry forests, particularly landscapes experiencing increasing fire frequency under climate change scenarios.</p>

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Post-fire vegetation and soil recovery in dry forests of Central Monte desert: insights into natural regeneration

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

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  • 发表日期：

    2026年7月9日

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  • María Emilia Fernández,
  • Erica Cesca,
  • Leandro Mastrantonio,
  • Juan Agustín Alvarez,
  • Pablo Eugenio Villagra

摘要

Background

Fire is considered a disturbance with significant impacts on ecosystems, shaping their structure, diversity, and stability. Understanding natural regeneration processes after fires is essential for predicting post-fire successional trajectories and applying effective restoration strategies in degraded areas. In the dry forests of southern Mendoza, Argentina, we evaluated post-fire vegetation and soil recovery to characterize potential post-fire trajectories across sites with contrasting fire histories.

Methods

To achieve this, we constructed a chronosequence representing seven fire histories: unburned sites, sites more than 19 years post-fire, 13-year post-fire sites, 6-year post-fire sites, 3-year post-fire sites, as well as areas burned twice and three to four times. Vegetation was assessed through phytosociological surveys, total vegetation cover, cover by vegetation strata, and percentage of bare soil were estimated, and the Shannon diversity index and species richness were calculated. Soil samples were collected under tree canopies and in adjacent open areas to evaluate microsite-related variations in soil properties.

Results

Recently burned sites or with high fire recurrence showed lower shrub and tree cover and higher bare soil and herbaceous cover. Species richness and diversity did not differ significantly among fire histories. However, the Detrended Correspondence Analysis showed changes in species composition from unburned sites to those with shorter post-fire recovery times and higher recurrence. Multivariate analyses detected significant but subtle differences in soil composition among fire histories and between microsites, although most individual soil variables did not differ significantly. Soil characteristics in older post-fire sites were more similar to those of unburned sites.

Conclusions

Our findings suggest that post-fire recovery in Monte dry forests is driven more by changes in vegetation structure and species composition than by shifts in species richness, diversity, or soil properties. The persistence of compositional differences across fire histories suggests that fire influences community assembly through species replacement, and recurrent fires may promote herbaceous-dominated communities, with important implications for ecosystem functioning. Understanding natural regeneration pathways and post-fire recovery times is essential for designing effective restoration and management strategies for fire-affected dry forests, particularly landscapes experiencing increasing fire frequency under climate change scenarios.