Ecological thresholds at the savanna-forest boundary: how plant traits, resources and fire govern the distribution of tropical biomes.

By W. Hoffmann, E. Geiger, S. Gotsch, Davi Rodrigo Rossatto, Lucas C. R. Silva, O. Lau, M. Haridasan, A. Franco. Ecology Letters, 2012

779 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Subfields: Ecology, Global and Planetary Change, Nature and Landscape Conservation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/7294b60bc88a5f9466954c1e6e1814d4126f2941

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Citations in the corpus

Flammability as an ecological and evolutionary driver (2017, background): “extreme droughts) can favour a light fire in a forest and feed back to increase flammability and causes a switch to a savanna (Hoffmann et al. 2012; Murphy & Bowman 2012; Dantas, Batalha & Pausas 2013; Dantas et al. 2016).”
Dissecting a biodiversity hotspot: The importance of environmentally marginal habitats in the Atlantic Forest Domain of South America (2017, result): “Previous studies give support to grass coverage as a good proxy of fire frequency (Archibald et al., 2013; Hoffmann et al., 2012; Lehmann et al., 2014), although further quantification of fire regime is clearly needed (c.f. Archibald et al., 2013).”
The lanky and the corky: fire‐escape strategies in savanna woody species (2013, background): “The transition from below to above this ‘fire trap’ is a major constriction on tropical savannas (Bond, Cook & Williams 2012; Hoffmann et al. 2012) and is largely dependent on fire regimes (Gill & Ashton 1968; Gignoux, Clobert & Menaut 1997; Bond 2008; Hoffmann et al.”
Interval squeeze: altered fire regimes and demographic responses interact to threaten woody species persistence as climate changes (2015, background): “Grassy woodlands characterized by surface fires (including many tropical and temperate savannas) might be affected more gradually; while mature trees may be slower to respond to changing climate, the probability of favorable conditions for recruitment is likely to decline (Weltzin and McPherson 1999”
Vegetation demographics in Earth System Models: A review of progress and priorities (2018, background): “Second, vertical canopy structure can capture size-structured mortality resulting from fire events and thus represent the dynamics of the “fire-trap” in savanna-type ecosystems (Hoffmann & Solbrig, 2003; Hoffmann et al., 2012).”
Global change effects on humid tropical forests: Evidence for biogeochemical and biodiversity shifts at an ecosystem scale (2016, background): “The transition from forest to savanna generally occurs via effects of fire, which are more frequent with drought [Hoffmann et al., 2012; Malhi et al., 2009; Murphy and Bowman, 2012].”
Origin of the forest steppe and exceptional grassland diversity in Transylvania (central‐eastern Europe) (2015, background): “In addition to environmental factors, disturbance by fire helps to maintain tropical and North American temperate grasslands, and thus landscape openness (Hoffmann et al., 2012).”
Abrupt increases in Amazonian tree mortality due to drought–fire interactions (2014, background): “This result suggests that this transitional forest is more resistant to low-intensity fires than wetter Amazonian forests, where postfire mortality rates under drought and nondrought conditions tend to be considerably higher than the ones observed in this study (27, 28).”
Biome Shifts and Niche Evolution in Plants (2014, background): “Until recently, biomes have mainly been studied by ecologists, climatologists, and vegetation modelers, who have puzzled over their boundaries and the processes that form and maintain them (e.g., Staver et al. 2011, Hoffmann et al. 2012, Lehmann et al. 2014).”
Costs and benefits of relative bark thickness in relation to fire damage: a savanna/forest contrast (2013, background): “The fire resistance properties of trees, particularly their absolute bark thickness at the time of fire, determine species persistence, the capacity for resprouting (Hoffmann et al. 2009, 2012; Lawes & Clarke 2011; Lawes et al. 2011a,b), and even tree community composition (Lawes et al. 2011a).”