Serotiny

[erin.c...@gmail.com]

Hello LANDIS Users Group,

 

I am wondering if any users have a good suggestion for coding completely serotinous species. 

 

According to an email thread started in 2013 by Dominic Cyr and continued by Jan Boulanger in 2015, “serotiny” in LANDIS:

 

- allows for establishment in non-disturbance years,

- gives establishment priority to serotinous species at a local site for establishment after a fire. 

 

As Jan pointed out, establishment in the absence of a fire is not representative of a completely fire-serotinous species. Completely serotinous species have no (or almost no) establishment in non-disturbance years and establish rigorously after a fire due to their built-up seedbank.  

 

In our case, we are trying to model obligate seeding shrubs (hereafter, OS) using NECN succession. We are looking for a creative way to do this given existing LANDIS functionality. Does anyone have experience modeling OS or completely serotinous species?

We can also think of modifications to the functionality of existing succession extensions that would accomplish much of OS life history.  Specifically, has anyone created a species-specific multiplier of establishment for disturbance years?  

Or, better yet, has anyone created a long-term seedbank?

Cheers,
Erin

[Thomas Estabrook]

Hi Erin,

This is definitely a rough idea for a workaround, but I was going through the Base Harvest documentation and saw that Harvest protocols can be defined to take place after a disturbance (salvage logging), and can incorporate planting. Maybe you could kludge together a treatment that occurs immediately after a fire, removes no cohorts and plants a cohort of the serotinous shrub? The Stand Qualifications keywords might also make it possible to approximately restrict it to areas where there is likely to be a seedbank.