Recovery of vegetation following a wildfire in a Barrier Island grassland, Padre Island National Seashore, Texas

摘要

Vegetation recovery following a wildfire in vegetated flats and secondary dunes of Padre Island National Seashore, Texas, was studied from January 2000 to January 2002. Species richness, diversity; evenness, abundance, and importance were evaluated. Species richness, diversity, and evenness were restored quickly in vegetated flats (51 days) and secondary dunes (71 days). The burned secondary dune site had the same dominant species as its non-burned Counterpart from the beginning to the end of the study, but it took 106 days for the dominant species to be restored in the burned vegetated flats. No exotic species established in burned sites. Two years post-fire, community similarity was high between burned and non-burned sites in both the vegetated flats and secondary dunes. One year after the fire, cover contributed by live plants was virtually identical on the burned and non-burned secondary dunes. On the vegetated flats, live plant cover on the burned site exceeded live plant cover on the non-burned site. Two years after the fire, the dead plant biomass and standing dead plant cover were still markedly lower on the burned sites in both the vegetated flats and secondary dunes.