Prescribed Burning as A Management Tool to Destroy Dry Seeds of Invasive Conifers in Heathland in Denmark | Land Portal
Land Journal Volume 9 Issue 11 cover image

Resource information

Date of publication: 
November 2020
Resource Language: 
ISBN / Resource ID: 
10.3390/land9110432
License of the resource: 
Copyright details: 
© 2020 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article.

Non-indigenous conifers are considered invasive to the coastal dune heathland in Denmark, and massive clearing is carried out in an attempt to recreate and keep the original heathland. Burning is a common method for managing, but its feasibility to control the seed bank of conifers has not been investigated. This project shows that the burning of logged conifer trees will often eliminate seeds of lodgepole pine, mugo pine and Sitka spruce, even when the seeds were placed into a depth of five centimeters in the soil. The effect on seeds depends on the fuel load and the fire conditions (e.g., dryness, wind, and temperature). If the seeds were exposed to a high temperature, the seeds were not able to germinate afterward. The temperature was about 80 °C for all species. If the sum of temperatures based on temperature records every 30 s exceeded between 12,000 and 14,000 °C no seeds were able to germinate. The relationship between the mean temperature of the burns and the germination rate at seeds placed in various soil depths was modelled. Findings should be interpreted cautiously as each depth-species combinations were not replicated in space or time due to practical constraints.

Authors and Publishers

Author(s), editor(s), contributor(s): 

Andreasen, Christian
Rossing, Kasper
Ritz, Christian

Publisher(s): 

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