Tree recruitment in relation to climate and fire in northern Mexico

Jed Meunier, Peter M. Brown, William Romme.

Over the past decades, forest structure in mountainous regions have changed due to factors such as anthropogenic disturbance, varying climate, species competition, and changes in the way we use land. This article looks closely at how fire, climate, and tree recruitment* interact with these factors in the Sierra San Luis mountains of northern Mexico. Researchers found that fires are closely related to wet-dry climate cycles where the climate will go through periods of drought and periods of wet conditions. The greatest times of tree recruitment were tied to a mid-century drought and low fire frequency and also in fireless periods with low precipitation levels.

To answer these questions about tree populations in northern Mexico, researchers had to use demographic data because they were describing characteristics of a population, although it was a forest population and trees rather than people were being described and analyzed through tree-coring.

This data was collected by sampling 30 plots among 3 sampling sites in Ponderosa Pine dominant wilderness which included pinyon pines and Chihuahua pines. Plot sizes ranged from .04 hectares to .37 hectares. Data analysis was completed using spatial analysis tools such as GIS.

From reading this study, I think the research was done quite well although there is a wide range of plot sizes. I wonder if the research would have been more consistent if they had sed the same plot measurement for each tested plot, however that does not take into account landscape changes that researchers likely had to deal with.

*recruitment occurs when juvenile organisms survive to be added to the population to a stage where organisms are settled.

MEUNIER, JED, PETER M. BROWN, and WILLIAM H. ROMME. “Tree Recruitment In Relation To Climate And Fire In Northern Mexico.” Ecology 95.1 (2014): 197-209