Summary
Published in Canadian Journal of Forest Research, 46: 822-831.
In the St-Lawrence Lowlands, sugar maple (Acer saccharum Marsh.) is considered the dominant species of old-growth deciduous forests, whereas red maple (Acer rubrum L.) tends to dominate sites recently disturbed by logging and agricultural practices. Considering that the long-term influence of fire is not documented for such stands, we reconstructed the postglacial tree composition (as deduced from charcoal species) and fire history of a sugar maple stand (Ste-Françoise area) and a red maple stand (Villeroy area) located southwest of Québec City, Canada. The sites are 10 km apart and show contrasting soil and landform features. Using botanical identification and 14C dating of soil macro-charcoal, we found that fire struck both maple stands 14–20 times since deglaciation. Most fires occurred in the early Holocene and over the last 2000 years, with the mid Holocene being a period with low fire frequency or no fires. During the last 1600 years, the Villeroy stand shifted from a Tsuga canadensis (L.) Carrière – conifer forest to a mixed forest and, most recently, to a red maple stand as fire became more frequent, possibly due to human activities over the last 400 years. This study confirms the influence of fire on the development of maple forests. Fire should be considered as an important disturbance factor in the dynamics of temperate deciduous and mixed forests.
File
Sector(s):
Forests
Categorie(s):
Scientific Article
Theme(s):
Forest Ecology, Forestry Research
Departmental author(s):
Author(s)
PAYETTE, Serge, Vanessa PILON, Pierre-Luc COUILLARD and Mathieu FRÉGEAU
Year of publication :
2016
Format :
Keywords :
fire, sugar maple, red maple, eastern hemlock, succession
