Effects of silviculture treatments on vegetation after fire in Pinus halepensis Mill. woodlands (SE Spain)

Abstract

In August 1994, two great fires occurred in SE Spain burning 44 000 ha of mature Pinus halepensis Mill. forests. Experimental silviculture treatments were carried out on five-year-old P. halepensis seedlings from natural regeneration: thinning to a final density of 1 600 trees/ha, total scrubbing, thinning plus scrubbing, thinning plus pruning to half the total height, scrubbing plus pruning and thinning, scrubbing plus pruning. Treatments were carried out in 45 permanent plots located in two localities with different ombroclimates: semiarid and dry. Two years after treatments were carried out, floristic richness, diversity, life form rates and vegetation cover were measured or estimated for each plot. Results showed a high capability of post-fire colonizing vegetation to rapidly recover the ecological values recorded before carrying out silviculture treatments. Floristic richness and cover values did not vary significantly. Significant differences in the vegetation life form rate were detected after thinning and scrubbing. Therophyte cover showed a significant increase two years after these treatments.