Fire history in a pine forest in Sierra de Manantlán, Jalisco, Mexico

Abstract

Sierra de Manantlán Biosphere Reserve (RBSM) in Jalisco is the most important reserve in western Mexico, where fires are one of the main forest disturbances. In order to reconstruct historical fire regimes, partial sections of Pinus douglasiana with fire scars were collected. Using dendrochronological techniques, the exact dating of 293 scars from 51 trees allowed the reconstruction of fire frequency for the period 1867-2010. We reconstructed mean fire interval of 5.5 years (MFI: all scars) and 3.6 years for the Weibull mean probability interval (WMPI). The MFI (≥ 25 % scarred) was 8.9 years and WMPI was 6.9 years. The seasonal patterns of fire occurrence showed that most fires (68.3 %) were formed in middle earlywood, 30 % in early earlywood and 1.7 % in late earlywood. Considering the phenology of the species, it was determined that 98.3 % of fires occurred in spring and 1.7 % at the beginning of summer. The fires were recorded in dry years, but the relationship was not statistically significant. A strong relationship between droughts and widespread fires was observed. Likewise, it was determined that climate variability was strongly related to ENSO; fires reconstructed from 1956 to 2010 correspond with both El Niño and La Niña events.