1. Fire and Forest Ecosystems in the South Eastern USA Jennifer Wright Photo Richard T. Bryant

2. People Involved Student : Jennifer Wright American School of Brasilia University of St. Andrews ( BSc Environmental Biology) University of Edinburgh ( MSc Environmental Protection and Management) Supervisors Dr Robert Mitchell (Joseph W. Jones Ecological Research Center ) Dr Gregory Starr (University of Alabama) Dr Mathew Williams (University of Edinburgh ) Dr Maurizio Mencuccini (University of Edinburgh )

3. The Project I To determine the interactions between fire behaviour, forest dynamics and carbon sequestration. Project Components 1)Fieldwork 2)Data-model integration 3)Influence of fire frequency on carbon allocation across a soil moisture gradient 4)Influence of biodiversity 5)Predictions of forest response to precipitation changes due to climate change Fire in a longleaf pine forest Photo from www.jonesctr.org

4. The Project II Longleaf pine ecosystem  Ranges from savanna woodland to forest  Overstory of longleaf pine (Pinus palustris)  Midstory (occasional) of scrub oaks (Quercus spp.)  Understory C4 grass (Aristida stricta)  One of the most diverse ecosystems outside tropics (Peet and Allard, 1993)  Hyper frequent fire (1-2 years) and disturbance prone ecosystem  Fire adapted ecosystem requires frequent fire to maintain plant diversity and current ecosystem structure The longleaf pine-wiregrass system. Photo from www.jonesctr.org

5. Why is my project (going to be) important? Fire releases 2-3 Pg of C annually (Giglio et al., 2006) Most past research of carbon/fire Wildfires, slash & burn Boreal forests, Mediterranean-type ecosystems (incl. Western USA), Tropics Fires predicted to become more frequent (IPCC, 2007) Lack of data in mature forests to test fire models a pressing science need (Bachelet et al., 2003) Do frequent fires reduce ecosystem C sequestration? South East US predicted to become a C source within this century (Bachelet et al., 2004) Fire-maintained longleaf pine ecosystem may offer one of the best C sequestration options in USA (Meldahl and Kush,2006)

6. Thank you! More information: https://www.geos.ed.ac.uk/homes/s0677701/