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Background <p>Understanding drivers of early post-fire vegetation recovery is crucial for effective forest management. Moreover, phylogenetic approaches can reveal fire-driven community assembly processes beyond taxonomic changes by capturing patterns of phylogenetic divergence or clustering during early recovery. While most research focuses on arid Mediterranean or North American ecosystems, recovery patterns in Northeast Asian forests remain poorly understood.</p> Method <p>We investigated the study sites at two distinct time points following the fire: (i) 3&#xa0;months and (ii) 2&#xa0;years post-fire. We compared vegetation recovery (shrub cover and resprout density) and phylogenetic metrics (phylogenetic diversity [PD], net relatedness index [NRI], and nearest taxon index [NTI]) between these periods. Furthermore, using the 2-year post-fire dataset, we then applied piecewise structural equation modeling (pSEM) to identify early community assembly mechanisms, factors controlling PD, and the influence of nurse shrub species on the community’s phylogenetic properties and functional characteristics (quantified via community-weighted proportion [CWP] of dormancy and disseminule forms).</p> Results <p>Resprout and shrub coverage exhibited greater recovery at sites experiencing severe fire damage when moisture conditions were favorable. Conversely, the recovery rate was slower at drier sites on ridges characterized by high winds and insolation, resulting in reduced vegetation coverage compared to that observed in the period immediately following forest fires. Piecewise structural equation modeling, which included abiotic (topographic characteristics and fire severity) and biotic factors (stand structure characteristic, CWP, nurse plants, taxonomic diversity), revealed that the drivers influencing PD and phylogenetic community structure differed between forest types. Nurse shrubs affected phylogenetic metrics, but inconsistently across forest types; they interacted closely with the functional properties of biotic communities (as reflected by CWP traits).</p> Conclusions <p>The findings of this study revealed that the factors controlling PD and phylogenetic community structure differed across forest types. This underscores the need for customized management strategies that comprehensively consider forest types, topographic and environmental properties, and fire severity in restoring areas affected by forest fires. This study presents vegetation recovery patterns under various conditions following forest fires, enhances our understanding of regional differences in vegetation recovery following forest fires, and provides a basis for comparing post-fire recovery across different regions.</p>

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Early post-fire vegetation recovery and its biotic and abiotic drivers of phylogenetic characteristic in a Korean forest

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

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  • 发表日期：

    2026年1月27日

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  • Seung-Jae Lee,
  • Yeong-Eun Kim,
  • Ah-Rim Lee,
  • Dong-Bin Shin,
  • Tae-Im Heo,
  • Ju-Hyeon Song,
  • Seong-Bin Kim,
  • Min-Woo Lee,
  • Jong-Cheol Yang,
  • Chang-Seok Jang,
  • Jun-Soo Kim,
  • Jun-Gi Byeon,
  • Joon-Hyung Park,
  • Tae-Chul Hur,
  • Seung-Hwan Oh

摘要

Background

Understanding drivers of early post-fire vegetation recovery is crucial for effective forest management. Moreover, phylogenetic approaches can reveal fire-driven community assembly processes beyond taxonomic changes by capturing patterns of phylogenetic divergence or clustering during early recovery. While most research focuses on arid Mediterranean or North American ecosystems, recovery patterns in Northeast Asian forests remain poorly understood.

Method

We investigated the study sites at two distinct time points following the fire: (i) 3 months and (ii) 2 years post-fire. We compared vegetation recovery (shrub cover and resprout density) and phylogenetic metrics (phylogenetic diversity [PD], net relatedness index [NRI], and nearest taxon index [NTI]) between these periods. Furthermore, using the 2-year post-fire dataset, we then applied piecewise structural equation modeling (pSEM) to identify early community assembly mechanisms, factors controlling PD, and the influence of nurse shrub species on the community’s phylogenetic properties and functional characteristics (quantified via community-weighted proportion [CWP] of dormancy and disseminule forms).

Results

Resprout and shrub coverage exhibited greater recovery at sites experiencing severe fire damage when moisture conditions were favorable. Conversely, the recovery rate was slower at drier sites on ridges characterized by high winds and insolation, resulting in reduced vegetation coverage compared to that observed in the period immediately following forest fires. Piecewise structural equation modeling, which included abiotic (topographic characteristics and fire severity) and biotic factors (stand structure characteristic, CWP, nurse plants, taxonomic diversity), revealed that the drivers influencing PD and phylogenetic community structure differed between forest types. Nurse shrubs affected phylogenetic metrics, but inconsistently across forest types; they interacted closely with the functional properties of biotic communities (as reflected by CWP traits).

Conclusions

The findings of this study revealed that the factors controlling PD and phylogenetic community structure differed across forest types. This underscores the need for customized management strategies that comprehensively consider forest types, topographic and environmental properties, and fire severity in restoring areas affected by forest fires. This study presents vegetation recovery patterns under various conditions following forest fires, enhances our understanding of regional differences in vegetation recovery following forest fires, and provides a basis for comparing post-fire recovery across different regions.