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University of Idaho

Since 1889, the University of Idaho has provided motivated students with a transformative higher education experience that prepares them to solve real-world problems and achieve success in their lives and careers.

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Data from: Boosts in leaf-level photosynthetic capacity aid Pinus ponderosa recovery from wildfire

Forests mitigate climate change by sequestering massive amounts of carbon, but recent increases in wildfire activity are threatening carbon storage. Currently, our understanding of wildfire impacts on forest resilience and the mechanisms controlling post-fire recovery remains unresolved due to a lack of empirical data on mature trees in natural settings. Here, we quantify the physiological mechanisms controlling carbon uptake immediately following wildfire in mature individuals of ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa), a wide-spread and canopy-dominant tree species in fire-prone forests. While photosynthetic capacity was lower in burned than unburned trees due to an overall depletion of resources, we show that within the burned trees, photosynthetic capacity increases with the severity of damage. Our data reveal that boosts in the efficiency of carbon uptake at the leaf-level may compensate for whole-tree damage, including the loss of leaf area and roots. We further show that heightened photosynthetic capacity in remaining needles on burned trees may be linked with reduced water stress and leaf nitrogen content, providing pivotal information about post-fire physiological processes. Our results have implications for Earth system modeling efforts because measurements of species-level physiological parameters are used in models to predict ecosystem and landscape-level carbon trajectories. Finally, current land management practices do not account for physiological resilience and recovery of severely burned trees. Our results suggest premature harvest may remove individuals that may otherwise survive, irrevocably altering forest carbon balance.

Data Use:
License: Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY 4.0)
Recommended Citation: Bryant, K., Kwon, H., Kolden, C., Stenzel, J., Mathias, J., Lynch, L., & Hudiburg, T. (2022). Data from: Boosts in leaf-level photosynthetic capacity aid Pinus ponderosa recovery from wildfire (Version 2.0) [Data set]. University of Idaho. https://doi.org/10.7923/CN15-JW37

FieldValue
Modified
2022-09-15
Release Date
2022-09-15
Publisher
Homepage URL
Identifier
4d083c78-9656-403d-8ce9-c01ccdad69d8
Spatial / Geographical Coverage Area
POINT (-121.967 44.06667)
Spatial / Geographical Coverage Location
Cascade Range in central Oregon USA
Temporal Coverage
Tuesday, September 1, 2020 - 00:00 to Friday, August 20, 2021 - 00:00
Language
English (United States)
License
Granularity
Monthly/seasonal, tree/site-level
Author
Kelsey Bryant, Hyojung Kwon, Crystal Kolden, Jeffrey Stenzel, Justin Mathias, Laurel Lynch and Tara W. Hudiburg
Contact Name
Kelsey Bryant
Contact Email
Public Access Level
Public
DOI
10.7923/cn15-jw37
Data available on:: 
Thursday, September 15, 2022