NHESS Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences NHESS Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci. 1684-9981 Copernicus Publications Göttingen, Germany 10.5194/nhess-10-957-2010 Spatial dynamics of <I>Fabiana imbricata</I> shrublands in northwestern Patagonia in relation to natural fires Oddi F. J. 1 Dudinszky N. 1 Ghermandi L. 1 Lab. Ecotono, INIBIOMA, CONICET-CRUB-UNCo, Quintral 1250, 8400 Bariloche, Argentina 03 05 2010 10 5 957 966 Copyright: © 2010 F. J. Oddi et al. 2010 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This article is available from https://nhess.copernicus.org/articles/10/957/2010/nhess-10-957-2010.html The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://nhess.copernicus.org/articles/10/957/2010/nhess-10-957-2010.pdf

Fire is a critical disturbance in the structuring and functioning of most Mediterranean ecosystems. In northwestern Patagonia, vegetation patterns are strongly influenced by fire and environmental heterogeneity. Dendroecology, together with satellite imagery and GIS, have been demonstrated to be useful tools in studies that relate to fire effects with patches, patterns and species dynamics at landscape scale. Such studies can be approached from landscape ecology, which has evolved in the last years supported by the development of remote sensing and GIS technologies. This study evaluates the spatial dynamic of <I>F. imbricata</I> in response to fire using remote sensing, GIS and dendrochronology techniques, at landscape scale. Two sites were evaluated and one of them was affected by fire in the year 1999. The digital processing images (using the NBR spectral index) and the dendroecological analysis verified this. A fire, occurring in 1978, was also detected by the analysis of <I>F. imbricata</I> growth rings. The relation between <I>F. imbricata</I> shrubland dynamics and spatial configuration with fire, land topography and hydrography was established in the study area.

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