Abstract
Lianas play significant ecological roles in tropical forest ecosystems, so knowledge of the factors that affect them is key to forest management. Nonetheless, there is limited information on how wildfires influence liana communities. This study therefore sought to determine the effects of wildfires on liana community structure and liana–soil associations in the Asenanyo Forest Reserve, Ghana. Thirty plots (20 × 20 m) were established in each of three forest stands (9-month-old burnt, 15-year-old burnt, unburnt) and sampled for lianas (diameter at 1.3 m from the rooting base ≥ 1 cm). Liana diversity, abundance and basal area were significantly lower in the two burnt forest stands. The 15-year-old burnt forest supported significantly higher values for these liana community attributes than the 9-month-old forest. There was a shift in liana species composition towards a more homogenized composition in the burnt forest. Liana–soil associations differed between the unburnt forest on the one hand and the two burnt forests on the other. Thus, in all, fire caused shifts in liana community structure and liana–soil associations in the forests. The findings of the study have implications for liana, fire and forest management.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ebel BA (2012) Wildfire impacts on soil-water retention in the Colorado Front Range, United States. Water Resources Res 48:W12515
Addo-Fordjour P (2014) A comparative study of liana ecology in two forest ecoregions with special reference to Ghana and Malaysia. PhD. Thesis, University Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia
Addo-Fordjour P, Rahmad ZB, Shahrul AMS, Ashyraf M (2016) Impacts of forest management on liana diversity and community structure in a tropical forest in Ghana: implications for conservation. J Forest Res 27:147–153
Addo-Fordjour P, Rahmad ZB, Shahrul AMS (2014) Environmental factors influencing liana community diversity, structure and habitat associations in a tropical hill forest, Malaysia. Pl Ecol Divers 7:485–496
Addo-Fordjour P, Rahmad ZB, Ashyraf M (2013) Impacts of forest management on liana abundance and liana-tree relationships in a tropical forest in Malaysia and implications for conservation. Int J Biodivers Sci Ecosyst Serv Managem 9:13–20
Addo-Fordjour P, Anning AK, Atakora EA, Agyei PS (2008) Diversity and distribution of climbing plants in a semi-deciduous rain forest, KNUST Botanic Garden, Ghana. Int J Bot 4:186–195
Arbonnier M (2004) Trees, shrubs and lianas of West African dry zones. CIRAD, Montpellier
Balch JK, Massad TJ, Brando PM, Nepstad DC, Curran LM (2013) Effects of high-frequency understorey fires on woody plant regeneration in southeastern Amazonian forests. Philos Trans Ser B 368:20120157
Balch JK, Nepstad DC, Curran LM, Brando PM, Portela O, Guilherme P, Reuning-Scherer JD, de Carvalho O (2011) Size, species, and fire behavior predict tree and liana mortality from experimental burns in the Brazilian Amazon. Forest Ecol Managem 261:68–77
Bongers F, Parren MPE, Swaine MD, Traoré D (2005) Introduction. In Bongers F, Parren MPE, Traoré D (eds) Forest climbing plants of West Africa: diversity, ecology and management. CAB International, Wallingford, pp. 5–18
Bongers F, Schnitzer SA, Traore R (2002) The importance of lianas and consequences for forest management in West Africa. Bioterre 59–70
Bråthen KA, Ravolainen VT (2015) Niche construction by growth forms is as strong a predictor of species diversity as environmental gradients. J Ecol 103:701–713
Bray RH, Kurtz LT (1945) Determination of total, organic, and available forms of phosphorus in soils. Soil Sci 59:39–45
Brye KR (2006) Soil physiochemical changes following 12 years of annual burning in a humid-subtropical tallgrass prairie: a hypothesis. Acta Oecol 30:407–413
Burkle LA, Myers JA, Belote RT (2015) Wildfire disturbance and productivity as drivers of plant species diversity across spatial scales. Ecosphere 6:202
Castell C, Terradas J (1994) Effects of water and nutrient availability, water relations, gas exchange and growth rate of mature plants and resprouts of Arbutus unedo L. Ann Bot (Oxford) 73:595–602
Certini G (2005) Effects of fire on properties of forest soils: a review. Oecologia 143:1–10
Chao A, Gotelli NJ, Hsieh TC, Sander EL, Ma KH, Colwell RK, Ellison AM (2014) Rarefaction and extrapolation with Hill numbers: a unified framework for sampling and estimation in biodiversity studies. Ecol Monogr 84:45–67
Chungu D, Ng’andwe P, Mubanga H, Chileshe F (2019) Fire alters the availability of soil nutrients and accelerates growth of Eucalyptus grandis in Zambia. J Forest Res 31:1637–1645
Cochrane MA, Schulze MD (1999) Fire as a recurrent event in tropical forests of the eastern Amazon: effects on forest structure, biomass, and species composition. Biotropica 31:2–16
Collins SL (1992) Fire frequency and community heterogeneity in tallgrass prairie vegetation. Ecology 73:2001–2006
Colwell RK, Chao A, Gotelli NJ, Lin S-Y, Mao CX, Chazdon RL, Longino JT (2012) Models and estimators linking individual-based and sample-based rarefaction, extrapolation, and comparison of assemblages. J Pl Ecol 5:3–21
Dalling JW, Schnitzer SA, Baldeck C, Harms KE, John R, Mangan SA, Lobo E, Yavitt JB, Hubbell SP (2012) Resource-based habitat associations in a neotropical liana community. J Ecol 100:1174–1182
DeWalt SJ, Ickes K, Nilus R, Harms KE, Burslem DFRP (2006) Liana habitat associations and community structure in a Bornean lowland tropical forest. Pl Ecol 186:203–216
Durán SM, Gianoli E (2013) Carbon stocks in tropical forests decrease with liana density. Biol Lett 9:20130301
Erickson HE, White R (2008) Soils under fire: soils research and the joint fire science program. General technical report 759. US Department of Agriculture
Famiglietti J, Rudnicki J, Rodell M (1998) Variability in surface moisture content along a hill slope transect: rattlesnake Hill, Texas. J Hydrol 210:259–281
Gerwing JJ (2001) Testing liana cutting and controlled burning as silvicultural treatments for a logged forest in the eastern Amazon. J Appl Ecol 38:1264–1276
Granged AJP, Zavala LM, Jordán A, Muñoz-Rojas M, Mataix-Solera J (2011) Shortterm effects of experimental fire for a soil under eucalyptus forest (SE Australia). Geoderma 167–168:125–134
Han J, Shen Z, Li Y, Luo C, Xu Q, Yang K, Zhang Z (2018) Beta diversity patterns of post-fire forests in central yunnan plateau, southwest china: disturbances intensify the priority effect in the community assembly. Frontiers Pl Sci 9:1000
Hawthorne WD, Jongkind C (2006) Woody plants of Western African forests: a guide to the forest trees, shrubs and lianes from Senegal to Ghana. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Heydari M, Rostamy A, Najaf, Dey DC (2017) Effect of fire severity on physical and biochemical soil properties in Zagros oak (Quercus brantii Lindl.) forests in Iran. J Forest Res 28:95–104
Homeier J, Englert F, Leuschner C, Weigelt P, Unger M (2010) Factors controlling the abundance of lianas along an altitudinal transect of tropical forests in Ecuador. Forest Ecol Managem 259:1399–1405
Hsieh TC, Ma KH, Chao A (2016) iNEXT: an R package for interpolation and extrapolation of species diversity (Hill numbers). Meth Ecol Evol 7:1451–1456
Ibarra-Manríquez G, Martínez-Ramos M (2002) Landscape variation of liana communities in a Neotropical rain forest. Pl Ecol 160:91–112
Jidere CM, Ene J, Inem US, Uzoh IM (2012) Nutrient elements distribution in cultivated and uncultivated soils and sediments of surrounding streams of Okai AND Kwanta in Abiriba, Abia State, Southeastern Nigeria. AgroScience 11:20–26
Jones JB (1991) Kjeldahl method for nitrogen determination. MicroMacro Publishing, Athens
Jones IL, Peres CA, Benchimol M, Bunnefeld L, Dent DH (2017) Woody lianas increase in dominance and maintain compositional integrity across an Amazonian dam-induced fragmented landscape. PLoS ONE 12:e0185527
Jongkind CC (2005) Checklist of climber species in Upper Guinea. In Bongers F, Parren MPE, Traoré D (eds) Forest climbing plants of West Africa: diversity, ecology and management. CAB International, Wallingford, pp. 231–264
Kennard DK, Gholz HL (2001) Effects of high- and lowintensity fires on soil properties and plant growth in a Bolivian dry forest. Pl & Soil 234:119–129
Kim C, Lee WK, Byun JK, Kim YK, Jeong JH (1999) Short-term effects of fire on soil properties in Pinus densiflora stands. J Forest Res 4:23–25
Laurence WF, Pérez-Salicrup D, Delamônica P, Feamside P, Sammya DA, Jerozolinski A, Pohl L, Lovejoy TE (2001) Rain forest fragmentation and the structure of Amazonian liana communities. Ecology 82:105–116
Lertpanich K, Brockelman WY (2003) Lianas and environmental factors in the Mo Singto biodiversity research plot, Khao Yai National Park, Thailand. Nat Hist J Chulalongkorn Univ 3:7–17
Litton CM, Santelices R (2003) Effect of wildfire on soil physical and chemical properties in a Nothofagus glauca forest, Chile. Revista Chilena Hist Nat 76:529–542
Macía MJ, Ruokolainen K, Tuomisto H, Quisbert J, Cala V (2007) Congruence between floristic patterns of trees and lianas in a southwest Amazonian rain forest. Ecography 30:561–577
Malizia A, Grau HR, Lichstein JW (2010) Soil phosphorus and disturbance influence liana communities in a subtropical montane forest. J Veg Sci 21:551–560
Marshall AR, Platts PJ, Chazdon RL, Seki H, Campbell MJ, Phillips OL, Gereau RE, Marchant R, Liang J, Herbohn J, Malhi Y and Pfeifer M (2020) Conceptualising the global forest response to liana proliferation. Frontiers Forest Global Change 3:35
McCauley A, Jones C, Jacobsen J (2009) Soil pH and organic matter. Nutrient management module No. 8. Montana State University Extension, USA, pp 1–12
McKenzie DA, Tinker DB (2012) Fire-induced shifts in overstory tree species composition and associated understory plant composition in Glacier National Park, Montana. Pl Ecol 213:207–224
McLean ED (1982) Soil pH and lime requirements. In Page AL, Miller RH, Keeney DR (eds) Methods of soil analysis, Part 2: chemical and microbiological properties. Second Edition. American Society of Agronomy, Kentucky, USA, pp. 199–234
Mehlman DW (1992) Effects of Fire on Plant Community Composition of North Florida Second Growth Pineland. Bull Torrey Bot Club 119:376–383
Mostacedo B, Fredericksen TS, Gould K, Toledo M (2001) Responses of community structure and composition to wildfire in dry and subhumid tropical forests in Bolivia. J Trop Forest Sci 13:488–502
Negassa W, Abera T, Friesen DK, Deressa A, Dinsa B (2001) Evaluation of compost for maize production under farmers conditions. Proceedings of the 7th Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Maize Conference, February 11–15, 2001, Nairobi, Kenya, pp 382–386
Nurfazliza K, Nizam MS, Supardi MNN (2012) Association of liana communities with their soil properties in a lowland forest of Negeri Sembilan, Peninsular Malaysia. Sains Malaysiana 41:679–690
Onwuka MI, Ozurumba UV, Nkwocha OS (2016) Changes in soil pH and exchangeable acidity of selected parent materials as influenced by amendments in South East of Nigeria. J Geosci Environm Protect 4:80–88
Parren MPE, Doumbia F (2005) Logging and lianas in West Africa. In Bongers F, Parren MPE, Traoré D (eds) Forest climbing plants of West Africa: diversity, ecology and management. CAB International, Wallingford, Oxfordshire pp 231–264
Phillips OL, Martínez RV, Mendoza AM, Baker TR, Vargas PN (2005) Large lianas as hyperdynamic elements of the tropical forest canopy. Ecology 86:1250–1258
Pinard MA, Putz FE, Licona JC (1999) Tree mortality and vine proliferation following a wildfire in a subhumid tropical forest in eastern Bolivia. Forest Ecol Managem 116:247–252
R Core Team (2020) R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R foundation for statistical computing, Vienna, Austria. https://www.R-project.org/
Rau BM, Blank RR, Chambers JC, Johnson DW (2007) Prescribed fire and time: soil extractable nitrogen and phosphorus dynamics in a Great Basin sagebrush ecosystem. J Arid Environm 71:362–375
Santin C and Doerr SH (2016) Fire effects on soils: the human dimension. Philos Trans Ser B 371:20150171
Schnitzer SA (2005) A mechanistic explanation for global patterns of liana abundance and distribution. Amer Naturalist 166:262–276
Schnitzer SA, Bongers F (2002) The ecology of lianas and their role in forests. Trends Ecol Evol 17:223–230
Schnitzer SA, Dalling J W, Carson W P (2000) The impact of lianas on tree regeneration in tropical forest canopy gaps: evidence for an alternative pathway of gap-phase regeneration published by: British Ecological Society Stable. J Ecol 88:655–666
Silva DM and Batalha MA (2008) Soil–vegetation relationships in cerrados under different fire frequencies. Pl & Soil 311:87–96
Silva DM, Batalha MA, Cianciaruso MV (2013) Influence of fire history and soil properties on plant species richness and functional diversity in a neotropical savanna. Acta Bot Brasil 27:490–497
Swaine MD, Grace J (2007) Lianas may be favoured by low rainfall: evidence from Ghana. Pl Ecol 192:271–276
Tang Y, Kitching RL, Cao M (2012) Lianas as structural parasites: a re-evaluation. Chin Sci Bull 57:307–312
ter Braak CJF, Šmilauer P (2012) Canoco reference manual and user's guide: software for ordination, version 5.0. Microcomputer Power, Ithaca USA
Thuynsma R, Kleinert A, Kossmann J, Valentine AJ, Hills PN (2016) The effects of limiting phosphate on photosynthesis and growth of Lotus japonicus. S African J Bot 104:244–248
Tränkner M, Tavakol E, Jákli B (2018) Functioning of potassium and magnesium in photosynthesis, photosynthate translocation and photoprotection. Physiol Pl 63:414–431
Turner J, Lambert M, Jurskis V, Hi H (2008) Long term accumulation of nitrogen in soils of dry mixed eucalypt forest in the absence of fire. Forest Ecol Managem 256:1133–1142
US Forest Service (1990) Klamath national forest (N.F.). Baldy fire recovery project: environmental impact statement. US Forest Service, Florida, USA
van der Heijden GM, Powers JS, Schnitzer SA (2015) Lianas reduce carbon accumulation and storage in tropical forests. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 112:13267–13271
van der Heijden GMF, Schnitzer SA, Powers JS, Phillips OL (2013) Liana impacts on carbon cycling, storage and sequestration in tropical forests. Biotropica 45:682–692
Verma S, Jayakumar S (2012) Impact of forest fire on physical, chemical and biological properties of soil: a review. Proc Int Acad Ecol Environm Sci 2:168–176
Walkley A, Black IA (1934) An examination of Degtjareff method for determining soil organic matter and a proposed modification of the chromic acid titration method. Soil Sci 37:29–37
Xue L, Qiujing L, Chen H (2014) Effects of a wildfire on selected physical, chemical and biochemical soil properties in a Pinus massoniana forest in South China. Forests 5:2947–2966
Yuan C, Geng Y, Chai Y, Hao J, Wu T (2016) Response of lianas to edge effects in mid-montane moist evergreen broadleaved forests in the Ailao Mountains, SW China. Biodivers Sci 24:40–47
Yusuf AA, Eben-Johnson AF, Chude VO, Amapu IY (2007) Soil characteristics and the performance of sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L) Moench] on tin mine spoils of the Jos Plateau, Nigeria. In Batiano A, Waswa B, Kihara J, Kimetu J (eds) Advances in integrated soil fertility management in sub-Saharan Africa. Springer. Dordrecht, Netherlands
Zavala LM, De Celis R, Jordán A (2014) How wildfires affect soil properties: a brief review. Notebook Geogr Res 40:311–331
Zhang Y, Biswas A (2017) The effects of forest fire on soil organic matter and nutrients in boreal forests of North America: a review. In Rakshit A, Abhilash PC, Singh HB (eds) Adaptive soil management: from theory to practices. Springer, Singapore
Zheng X, Wei X, Zhang S (2017) Tree species diversity and identity effects on soil properties in the Huoditang area of the Qinling Mountains, China. Ecosphere 8:e01732
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Electronic supplementary material
ESM 1
(DOCX 127 kb)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Addo-Fordjour, P., Kadan, F., Rahmad, Z.B. et al. Wildfires cause shifts in liana community structure and liana-soil relationships in a moist semi-deciduous forest in Ghana. Folia Geobot 55, 273–287 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12224-020-09380-6
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12224-020-09380-6