Nothofagus alessandrii forests in Chile 233


FIG. 3 Tree survival and tree species seedlings or shoots within N. alessandrii forest stands in the study area in the Maule region of central Chile affected by low-, moderate- and high-severity fires. (a) Diameter at breast height (DBH) distribution of tree species (10 cm refers to the class 5–15 cm, etc.) in the N. alessandrii stands showing surviving, dead and total trees in April 2017 (i.e. 2 months after the anthropogenic Las Máquinas mega-fire). (b) Post-fire recruitment of N. alessandrii and associated tree species from seeds and vegetative shoots monitored in April 2017 and 2019. Note the high invasion of Pinus radiata seedlings. Nale, Nothofagus alessandrii; Ngla, Nothofagus glauca; Prad, Pinus radiata; Other: Cryptocarya alba, Aextoxicon punctatum, Persea lingue and Gevuina avellana.


logging (Donoso & Landaeta, 1983; Donoso & Lara, 1996), and since the 1970s this has occurred because of the conver- sion of the Maulino forests to fast-growing industrial plan- tations of P. radiata associated with a large-scale subsidy programme from the Chilean state through Decree Law 701 (Donoso & Lara, 1996; Lara et al., 1996; San Martín & Donoso, 1996; Bustamante & Castor, 1998; Echeverria et al., 2006; Heilmayr et al., 2016). Currently, the landscape is dominated by an extensive and homogeneous matrix comprising forest plantations and scattered, small frag- ments of N. alessandrii. Pinus radiata is categorized as Endangered in its native habitat in California, with a popu- lation that is severely fragmented. One of the main threats P. radiata faces is competition from other trees in the ab- sence of periodic fires (Farjon, 2013). The Las Máquinas mega-fire burnt 160,000 ha, including


55%(172 ha) of the last forests of N. alessandrii, a threatened species protected by law. Extreme weather conditions char- acterized by heatwaves and strong winds (Bowman et al.,


2018) resulted in .85% of these forests being burnt with moderate or high severity (Valencia et al., 2018). However, the ease of propagation and the severity of the fire were probably amplified by the large proportion of monoculture plantations of highly flammable trees surrounding N. ales- sandrii fragments (.60% of the land use covered by pine plantations). The presence of adult P. radiata within the fragments of N. alessandrii, especially in the smaller frag- ments and at their edges, could also have increased the spread and severity of the fire (Veblen et al., 2011; Cóbar-Carranza et al., 2014; García et al., 2015; Raffaele et al., 2016; Taylor et al., 2016). Stand-replacing fires have shaped N. alessandrii forests


over the past centuries (Donoso, 1996; González et al., 2019, 2022). The 2017 mega-fire that affected these second- growth stands demonstrated the ability of N. alessandrii to cope with and recover after fires. Most trees survived mainly through vegetative reproduction, by re-sprouting from the epicormic buds at the bases of the trunks of the dead


Oryx, 2023, 57(2), 228–238 © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S0030605322000102


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