Leaf dry matter content (LDMC) is an important determinant of plant flammability. Investigating global patterns of LDMC could provide insights into worldwide plant flammability patterns, informing wildfire management. We characterised global patterns of LDMC across 4074 species from 216 families, revealing that phylogenetic and environmental constraints influence LDMC. LDMC varied across growth forms and taxonomic groups, displaying phylogenetic niche conservatism. Temperature, precipitation, aridity index, soil total nitrogen content and wildfire activity affected LDMC, and the effect of wildfire activity was stronger than other environmental factors across species with postfire regeneration abilities. Such species had higher LDMC, and their LDMC was less phylogenetically conserved and more strongly associated with fire activity. Our results suggest that, although LDMC shows phylogenetic niche conservatism, LDMC is determined by environmental factors, especially wildfire activity. Wildfire has likely acted as a selective pressure towards high LDMC across species that persist through fire using postfire regeneration.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ele.70056 | DOI Listing |
Ecol Lett
January 2025
National Forestry and Grassland Administration Engineering Research Centre for Southwest Forest and Grassland Fire Ecological Prevention, College of Forestry, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, China.
Leaf dry matter content (LDMC) is an important determinant of plant flammability. Investigating global patterns of LDMC could provide insights into worldwide plant flammability patterns, informing wildfire management. We characterised global patterns of LDMC across 4074 species from 216 families, revealing that phylogenetic and environmental constraints influence LDMC.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSci Rep
December 2024
School of Geological Engineering and Geomatics, Chang'an University, Xi'an, 710054, China.
The array of wildfire activities instigated by human endeavors has emerged as a significant source of atmospheric pollution, posing considerable risks to both public health and property safety. This study harnesses Sentinel-2 satellite data, employing a variety of methods including spectral index methods, thresholding, and the Random Forest (RF) model for active fire spot detection. The research encompasses a wide range of land cover types across various Chinese regions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Hazard Mater
December 2024
Post-graduation program in Ecology and Biodiversity Conservation, Federal University of Mato Grosso (UFMT), Mato Grosso, MT 78060-900, Brazil; Post-graduation program in Ecology. Department of Ecology and Zoology, Laboratory of Freshwater Biodiversity, Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), Florianópolis, SC 88040-900, Brazil.
The frequency and intensity of wildfires have been increasing in many parts of the world, which may result in biodiversity loss. Wildfires can devastate plant communities, generating toxic ash that pollutes watercourses through runoff. However, our understanding of the effects of ash exposure on aquatic biodiversity is still limited.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnviron Sci Technol
December 2024
Doerr School of Sustainability, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, United States.
Growing wildfire smoke represents a substantial threat to air quality and human health. However, the impact of wildfire smoke on human health remains imprecisely understood due to uncertainties in both the measurement of exposure of population to wildfire smoke and dose-response functions linking exposure to health. Here, we compare daily wildfire smoke-related surface fine particulate matter (PM) concentrations estimated using three approaches, including two chemical transport models (CTMs): GEOS-Chem and the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) and one machine learning (ML) model over the contiguous US in 2020, a historically active fire year.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnviron Sci Technol Lett
December 2024
Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06511, United States.
Fine-mode particulate matter (PM) is a highly detrimental air pollutant, regulated without regard for chemical composition and a chief component of wildfire smoke. As wildfire activity increases with climate change, its growing continental influence necessitates multidisciplinary research to examine smoke's evolving chemical composition far downwind and connect chemical composition-based source apportionment to potential health effects. Leveraging advanced real-time speciated PM measurements, including an aerosol chemical speciation monitor in conjunction with source apportionment and health risk assessments, we quantified the stark pollution enhancements during peak Canadian wildfire smoke transport to New York City over June 6-9, 2023.
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