Projections of fire probability and ecosystem vulnerability under 21st century climate across a trans-Andean productivity gradient in Patagonia.

Warming trends are altering fire regimes globally, potentially impacting on the long-term persistence of some ecosystems. However, we still lack clear understanding of how climatic stressors will alter fire regimes along productivity gradients. We trained a Random Forests model of fire probabilities across a 5°lat × 2° long trans-Andean rainfall gradient in northern Patagonia using a 23-year long fire record and biophysical, vegetation, human activity and seasonal fire weather predictors.

Patterns and drivers of recent disturbances across the temperate forest biome.

Increasing evidence indicates that forest disturbances are changing in response to global change, yet local variability in disturbance remains high. We quantified this considerable variability and analyzed whether recent disturbance episodes around the globe were consistently driven by climate, and if human influence modulates patterns of forest disturbance. We combined remote sensing data on recent (2001-2014) disturbances with in-depth local information for 50 protected landscapes and their surroundings across the temperate biome.

How are monospecific stands of invasive trees formed? Spatio-temporal evidence from Douglas fir invasions.

Invasive plant species can produce many impacts on native communities. Impacts can be especially important when the non-natives reach high densities, producing monospecific stands where little grows besides the non-native species. We propose three basic pathways by which monospecific stands of invasive tree species are formed: (i) gradually from the propagule source, (ii) via synchronous establishment and (iii) following several pulses of synchronous establishment.

Southern Annular Mode drives multicentury wildfire activity in southern South America.

The Southern Annular Mode (SAM) is the main driver of climate variability at mid to high latitudes in the Southern Hemisphere, affecting wildfire activity, which in turn pollutes the air and contributes to human health problems and mortality, and potentially provides strong feedback to the climate system through emissions and land cover changes. Here we report the largest Southern Hemisphere network of annually resolved tree ring fire histories, consisting of 1,767 fire-scarred trees from 97 sites (from 22 °S to 54 °S) in southern South America (SAS), to quantify the coupling of SAM and regional wildfire variability using recently created multicentury proxy indices of SAM for the years 1531-2010 AD. We show that at interannual time scales, as well as at multidecadal time scales across 37-54 °S, latitudinal gradient elevated wildfire activity is synchronous with positive phases of the SAM over the years 1665-1995.

The database of the PREDICTS (Projecting Responses of Ecological Diversity In Changing Terrestrial Systems) project.

The PREDICTS project-Projecting Responses of Ecological Diversity In Changing Terrestrial Systems (www.predicts.org.

New host-plant records for the defoliator Ormiscodes amphimone (Fabricius) (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae).

Ormiscodes amphimone (Fabricius) is a phytophagous moth species known to severely defoliate woody species in Chile and Argentina. Here we document new records of O. amphimonehost associations emphasizing the role of Nothofagus pumilio as its primary host in our study area.