Data from: Fuel accumulation shapes post-fire fuel decomposition through soil heating effects on plants, fungi, and soil chemistry
Data files
Jan 16, 2025 version files 8.53 MB
-
fungal-community_data.csv
6.74 MB
-
fungal-taxonomy_data.csv
1.65 MB
-
plant-community_data.csv
34.49 KB
-
README.md
8.49 KB
-
sem_data.csv
27.69 KB
-
soil-fire-decomp-diversity_data.csv
67.30 KB
Abstract
Forty percent of terrestrial ecosystems require recurrent fires driven by feedbacks between fire and plant fuels. The accumulation of fine fuels in these ecosystems play a key role in fire intensity, which alters soil nutrients and shapes soil microbial and plant community responses to fire. Changes to post-fire plant fuel production are well known to feed back to future fires, but post-fire decomposition of new fuels is poorly understood. Our study sought to quantify how pre-fire fuel loading influenced post-fire fuel decomposition through soil abiotic properties, as well as plant and soil fungal communities. Prior to spring prescribed burns, we manipulated fine fuel loads in plots, both near (<10 m) and away (>10 m) from overstory pines, to modify soil heating in an old-growth longleaf pine savanna. We then assessed how fuel load and soil heating influenced post-fire plant fuel decomposition through changes to soil chemistry, vegetation, and fungi. Burning larger fuel loads made fires hotter, burn longer, and more completely combusted fuels. In these plots, decomposition of newly deposited fine fuels was slower in the eight months following fire. Decomposition changes from greater soil heating were mediated by greater shifts to postfire plant (2 and 4 months postfire) and fungal communities (4 and 6 months postfire). Soil properties (C:N ratios, soil pH, and P) controlled postfire decomposition throughout the year, but weakly responded to soil heating differences from fuels. Since the mechanisms for fuel effects on decomposition change over time, fire timing may be a future target for understanding fire feedbacks to fuel decomposition. Integrating these feedbacks with fuel production responses across fire-dependent ecosystems can help managers better set prescribed fire intervals and predict responses to reintroducing burning in fire-suppressed ecosystems.
README: Data from: Fuel accumulation shapes post-fire fuel decomposition through soil heating effects on plants, fungi, and soil chemistry
https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.sn02v6xfw
Description of the data and file structure
Data from: Fuel accumulation shapes post-fire fuel decomposition through soil heating effects on plants, fungi, and soil chemistry
Science of the Total Environment
Dr. Jacob. R. Hopkins, Dr. Tatiana A. Semenova-Nelsen, Dr. Jean M. Huffman, Neil J. Jones, Dr. Kevin M. Robertson,
Dr. William J. Platt, and Dr. Benjamin A. Sikes
soil-fire-decomp-diversity_data.csv contains soil, fire characteristic, decomposition, and biotic diversity data from the experiment.
plant-community_data.csv contains post-fire plant community composition data from experimental plots.
fungal-community_data.csv contains fungal community composition data from pre and post 2017 prescribed fires.
fungal-taxonomy_data.csv contains the corresponding fungal taxonomy information for ASVs in fungal-community_data.csv.
sem_data.csv contains the collated data used for the structural equation modeling analyses in the experiment.
- soil-fire-decomp-diversity_data.csv: soil and fire characteristic data from experiment.
plotno: plot ID
treatment: fuel manipulation treatment (from low to high intensity: unburned = no fire, Removal = fine fuels removed from plot, reference = average fuel load for Wade Tract, Switch = proportion of grass and pine needle fuels swapped between near/away plots, Add1X = amount of pine needle fuels doubled in plot, Add2X = amount of pine needle fuels quadrupled in plot)
sev.tre: numerical coding for fuel manipulation treatment (from low to high intensity: 0 = unburned, 1 = Removal, 2 = reference, 3 = Switch, 4 = Add1X, and 5 = Add2X)
pine: proximity to overstory longleaf pine trees (away = >10m from overstory pines, near = <10m from overstory pines)
pine.code: numerical coding for pine proximity treatment (0 = away, 1 = near)
prepost: time samples were collected (pre = prior to 2017 prescribed fires, post = after 2017 prescribed fires)
soillitter: fungal community type (litter = litter fungal community sample, soil = soil fungal community sample)
mon2_loss: mass loss from decomposition bag (g) at month 2 collection time
mon2_per: percent mass loss from decomposition bag (%) at month 2 collection time
mon4_loss: mass loss from decomposition bag (g) at month 4 collection time
mon4_per: percent mass loss from decomposition bag (%) at month 4 collection time
mon6_loss: mass loss from decomposition bag (g) at month 6 collection time
mon6_per: percent mass loss from decomposition bag (%) at month 6 collection time
mon8_loss: mass loss from decomposition bag (g) at month 8 collection time
mon8_per: percent mass loss from decomposition bag (%) at month 8 collection time
totp: total inorganic phosphorus extracted using Mehlich's 3 method (ppm)
nh4: soil ammonium levels (ppm)
no3: soil nitrate levels (ppm)
totn: total soil nitrogen (%)
totc: total soil carbon (%)
cn: soil carbon to nitrogen ratio
pH: soil pH
combustion: percent mass loss of fuels to 2017 prescribed fire (%)
SurfPeak: maximum instantaneous change in surface temperature during 2017 prescribed fires (degrees C)
SurfDurSec: surface temperature durations >60C (seconds)
SoilPeak: maximum instantaneous change in soil temperature during 2017 prescribed fires (degrees C)
pca1: fungal community PCA axis 1 value
pca2: fungal community PCA axis 2 value
comp.invsimp: inverse Simpson diversity metric for fungal community composition
comp.shannon: Shannon's diversity metric for fungal community composition
plant.shannon: Shannon's diveristy metric for plant community composition
plant.rich: plant species richness (# of species present in plot)
plant.pcoa1: plant community PCoA axis 1 value
plant.pcoa2: plant community PCoA axis 2 value
note that "null" values represent missing data points or data not collected prior to 2017 prescribed fires
- plant-community_data.csv: 2017 post-fire plant community composition data from experimental plots
plot: plot ID
treatment: fuel manipulation treatment (U = no fire, Rem = fuel removal, Ref = average fuel load for Wade Tract, Swap = proportion of grass and pine needle fuels swapped between near/away plots, 1X = amount of pine needle fuels doubled in plot, 2X = amount of pine needle fuels quadrupled in plot)
pines: proximity to overstory longleaf pine trees (away = >10m from overstory pines, near = <10m from overstory pines)
side: fire management unit (E = Eastern unit, W = Western unit)
patch: experimental patch number
remaining columsn: plant species presence/absence for each plot
- fungal-community_data.csv: 2017 pre- and post-fire fungal community composition data from experimental plots
sample: sample ID; ID contains plot number, fuel manipulation treatment, pine proximity, community type, and collection time information
remaining columns: fungal amplicon sequence variance counts for each experimental plot
- fungal-taxonomy_data.csv: taxonomy information for fungal community samples
Feature ID: amplicon sequence variant ID
kingdon: kingdom level classification for ASV
phylum: phylum level classification for ASV
class: class level classification for ASV
order: order level classification for ASV
family: family level classification for ASV
genus: genus level classification for ASV
species: species level classification for ASV
note that "null" imply classification information is not availabe at that level for ASV
- sem_data.csv: collated experimental data for structural equation modeling analyses
plotno: plot ID
treatment: fuel manipulation treatment (from low to high intensity: unburned = no fire, Removal = fine fuels removed from plot, reference = average fuel load for Wade Tract, Switch = proportion of grass and pine needle fuels swapped between near/away plots, Add1X = amount of pine needle fuels doubled in plot, Add2X = amount of pine needle fuels quadrupled in plot)
sev.tre: numerical coding for fuel manipulation treatment (from low to high intensity: 0 = unburned, 1 = Removal, 2 = reference, 3 = Switch, 4 = Add1X, and 5 = Add2X)
pine: proximity to overstory longleaf pine trees (away = >10m from overstory pines, near = <10m from overstory pines)
pine.code: numerical coding for pine proximity treatment (0 = away, 1 = near)
mon2_loss: mass loss from decomposition bag (g) at month 2 collection time
mon2_per: percent mass loss from decomposition bag (%) at month 2 collection time
mon4_loss: mass loss from decomposition bag (g) at month 4 collection time
mon4_per: percent mass loss from decomposition bag (%) at month 4 collection time
mon6_loss: mass loss from decomposition bag (g) at month 6 collection time
mon6_per: percent mass loss from decomposition bag (%) at month 6 collection time
mon8_loss: mass loss from decomposition bag (g) at month 8 collection time
mon8_per: percent mass loss from decomposition bag (%) at month 8 collection time
totp: total inorganic phosphorus extracted using Mehlich's 3 method (ppm)
nh4: soil ammonium levels (ppm)
no3: soil nitrate levels (ppm)
totn: total soil nitrogen (%)
totc: total soil carbon (%)
cn: soil carbon to nitrogen ratio
pH: soil pH
combustion: percent mass loss of fuels to 2017 prescribed fire (%)
SurfPeak: maximum instantaneous change in surface temperature during 2017 prescribed fires (degrees C)
SurfDurSec: surface temperature durations >60C (seconds)
SoilPeak: maximum instantaneous change in soil temperature during 2017 prescribed fires (degrees C)
soil_pca1: soil fungal community PCA axis 1 value
soil_pca2: soil fungal community PCA axis 2 value
soil_comp.invsimp: inverse Simpson diversity metric for soil fungal community composition
litt_pca1: litter fungal community PCA axis 1 value
litt_pca2: litter fungal community PCA axis 2 value
litt_comp.invsimp: inverse Simpson diversity metric for litter fungal community composition
plant.rich: plant species richness (# of species present in plot)
plant.pcoa1: plant community PCoA axis 1 value
plant.pcoa2: plant community PCoA axis 2 value
krate2: 2 month decomposition rate (k) for decomposition bag samples
krate4: 4 month decomposition rate (k) for decomposition bag samples
krate6: 6 month decomposition rate (k) for decomposition bag samples
krate8: 8 month decomposition rate (k) for decomposition bag samples