FIRE EFFECTS
SPECIES: Ceratodon purpureus | Fire Moss 



IMMEDIATE FIRE EFFECT ON PLANT : 
Fire moss is typically killed by fire [7].


DISCUSSION AND QUALIFICATION OF FIRE EFFECT : 
NO-ENTRY


PLANT RESPONSE TO FIRE : 
Fire moss will colonize burned areas through lightweight, off-site,
wind-dispersed spores [2,7].  High-severity fire, which exposes mineral
soil, provides ideal conditions for the germination of fire moss spores.
Fire moss is often the dominant vegetation for several years following
high-severity fire [26].  It produces few spores late in the first
postfire year and many in the second [7].  If fire takes place in early
spring; gametospores can develop in 4 to 5 months.  If the fire takes
place in the fall, colonization is slower [26].


DISCUSSION AND QUALIFICATION OF PLANT RESPONSE : 
Following a 1976 high-severity summer fire on heathlands of Brittany,
France, fire moss was the most prevalent species in the majority of
sites until fall of 1979 when heavy rain and frost caused high mortality
[4].  Fire moss populations culminated about 15 years after a
high-severity fire in northern Sweden.  After 24 years, populations had
declined considerably [31].  At one site in Michigan, fire moss was
first observed in 1930, 4 years after a high-severity fire.  By 1940,
this moss covered 50 percent of the ground, and by 1950 it had colonized
95 percent.  Other mosses and Cladonia lichens appeared in 1942 and by
1971 had almost replaced fire moss [26].  On a severely burned heathland
in Brittany, France, a moss layer dominated by fire moss developed to a
maximum in the first year then decreased rapidly and disappeared by the
third year.  Forty-three percent of the original fire moss patches were
replaced by patches of the moss Polytrichum piliferum [12].


FIRE MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS : 
NO-ENTRY

Related categories for Species: Ceratodon purpureus | Fire Moss