RT Journal Article
T1 The legacy of pine plantations on fire severity
A1 Repeto Deudero, Irene
A1 Ojeda, Fernando
A1 Gómez González, Susana
A1 Miranda, Alejandro
A1 Cruz Alonso, Verónica
A1 García Pausas, Juli
AB In Mediterranean ecosystems, afforestation efforts have created landscapes with high fuel loads and continuity that, in combination with warmer and drier conditions, may intensify fire activity. Yet, the relative contribution of afforestation to current fire severity remains little explored. We hypothesized that, under Mediterranean conditions, pine plantations can generate high-intensity fires that increase fire severity and show limited post-fire recovery compared with other vegetation types. We integrated Sentinel-2 imagery with digital terrain models, vegetation maps, and national forest inventories to assess fire severity (dNBR) and one-year post-fire recovery from three large wildfires in Spain. We then used linear models to investigate the patterns of fire severity and early recovery across vegetation types. Change-point models were applied to pine plantations to evaluate whether reducing tree density beyond a specific point can limit fire severity. Pine plantations exhibited significantly higher severity and lower early recovery than other vegetation types, particularly in areas with high tree densities and abundant shrub cover. Moreover, proximity to pine plantations was associated with increased fire severity in adjacent vegetation, whereas reducing tree density below a threshold of 440 trees/ha mitigated fire severity within plantation stands. Policy implications. Our findings provide quantitative evidence that pine plantations can exacerbate fire severity under contemporary climate conditions, and that, once burned, these areas seldom recover. Effective spatial planning and management of tree plantations is therefore essential in order to promote more sustainable fire regimes in Mediterranean ecosystems. Therefore, carbon mitigation strategies should carefully consider the risk of establishing dense and continuous pine plantations when implementing future afforestation programmes.
PB John Wiley & Sons
SN 0021-8901
YR 2025
FD 2025-10-15
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/132878
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/132878
LA eng
NO Repeto-Deudero, I., Ojeda, F., Gómez-González, S., Miranda, A., Cruz-Alonso, V., & Pausas, J. G. (2025). The legacy of pine plantations on fire severity. Journal of Applied Ecology, 62(11), 3156-3168. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.70176
NO I.R.-D., S.G.-G. and F.O. acknowledge financial support by the FORPES project (PID2019-106908RA-I00/AEI/10.13039/501100011033) funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation (MICINN). I.R.-D. was supported by a research contract funded by the University of Cádiz (UCA-REC13VPCT-2020), and acknowledges funding from Plan Propio UCA (2021-2023). S.G.-G. acknowledges the Centre for Climate and Resilience Research (CR)2 (ANID-FONDAP N°1523A0002), Chile. AM acknowledges ANID/Fondecyt Initiation/2024–11240356, ANID-FONDAP N°15110009, and Dirección de Investigación of Universidad de La Frontera. VCA was supported by the Ministry of Universities of Spain and Next Generation-EU, with a “Maria Zambrano” fellowship. This work is included in the framework of the Fire and Biodiversity Across Scales (FocScales) project. Generalitat Valenciana, Prometeo/2021/040.
NO Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (España)
NO Universidad de Cádiz
NO Centro de Ciencias del Clima y la Resiliencia (Chile)
NO Universidad de La Frontera
NO Ministerio de Universidades (España)
NO European Commission
NO Generalitat Valenciana
DS Docta Complutense
RD 22 abr 2026