Predicting patterns of terrestrial lichen biomass recovery following boreal wildfires. Geneviève Degré-Timmons, Ruth Greuel, Jennifer Baltzer, Jill Johnstone, Eliot McIntire, Nicola Day, Sarah Hart, Philip McLoughlin, Fiona Schmiegelow, Merritt Turetsky, Alexandre Truchon-Savard, Mario van Telgen, & Steven Cumming In May, 2021. ZSCC: NoCitationData[s0]
abstract   bibtex   
Increased fire activity due to climate change will impact the successional dynamics of boreal forests in northwestern Canada, with important consequences for caribou habitat. Early successional forests are expected to support lower quantities of caribou forage lichens, but geographic variation in lichen recovery times has been largely unexplored. In this study, we sampled across a broad latitudinal range extending from Saskatchewan to the Northwest Territories, to compare lichen biomass accumulation in four boreal ecoprovinces. We focused on the most valuable Cladonia species for boreal caribou. We developed new allometric equations to estimate lichen biomass from field measurements of lichen cover and depth; these allometries were consistent across ecoprovinces suggesting generalizability. We then used estimates of lichen abundance to quantify patterns of lichen recovery in different stand types and ecoprovinces. We fit logistic growth models with random effects to account for the hierarchical structure of the data (quadrats within plots) and heterogeneous variances to account for differences in quadrat size among data sources. We found that a measure of lichen recovery (time to 50% asymptotic value) varied from 28 to 73 years, depending on stand type and ecoprovince. These results provide a basis for estimating fire effects on future caribou habitat that encompasses some of the large variation in lichen abundance and vegetation types across the range of boreal woodland caribou in North America.
@inproceedings{genevieve_degre-timmons_predicting_2021,
	title = {Predicting patterns of terrestrial lichen biomass recovery following boreal wildfires},
	abstract = {Increased fire activity due to climate change will impact the successional dynamics of boreal
forests in northwestern Canada, with important consequences for caribou habitat. Early
successional forests are expected to support lower quantities of caribou forage lichens, but
geographic variation in lichen recovery times has been largely unexplored. In this study, we
sampled across a broad latitudinal range extending from Saskatchewan to the Northwest
Territories, to compare lichen biomass accumulation in four boreal ecoprovinces. We focused
on the most valuable Cladonia species for boreal caribou. We developed new allometric
equations to estimate lichen biomass from field measurements of lichen cover and depth; these
allometries were consistent across ecoprovinces suggesting generalizability. We then used
estimates of lichen abundance to quantify patterns of lichen recovery in different stand types
and ecoprovinces. We fit logistic growth models with random effects to account for the
hierarchical structure of the data (quadrats within plots) and heterogeneous variances to
account for differences in quadrat size among data sources. We found that a measure of lichen
recovery (time to 50\% asymptotic value) varied from 28 to 73 years, depending on stand type
and ecoprovince. These results provide a basis for estimating fire effects on future caribou
habitat that encompasses some of the large variation in lichen abundance and vegetation types
across the range of boreal woodland caribou in North America.},
	author = {{Geneviève Degré-Timmons} and {Ruth Greuel} and {Jennifer Baltzer} and {Jill Johnstone} and {Eliot McIntire} and {Nicola Day} and {Sarah Hart} and {Philip McLoughlin} and {Fiona Schmiegelow} and {Merritt Turetsky} and {Alexandre Truchon-Savard} and {Mario van Telgen} and {Steven Cumming}},
	month = may,
	year = {2021},
	note = {ZSCC: NoCitationData[s0]},
}

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