Supporting data for: Planted conifer seedling survival in a post-wildfire landscape in New Mexico: From experimental planting to predictive probabilistic surfaces

Across the southwestern United States, high-severity wildfire is causing
increasingly large patches of tree mortality, removing the seed sources
required for the natural regeneration of these formerly conifer-dominated
landscapes. Planting tree seedlings can accelerate succession and restore
the ecosystem services that pre-wildfire forests provided, but in the
semi-arid southwestern US, the survival of planted conifer seedlings is
typically low. We present data on a seedling planting experiment within
the footprint of the 2011 Las Conchas Fire in northern New Mexico, using
microclimate variables and site-level topographic indices to determine
which factors influence seedling survival of four conifer tree species. We
then extrapolate these findings to the wider landscape for the most
commonly planted species, producing a spatial projection of probabilistic
seedling survival as a function of both site- and landscape-scale factors,
using readily available topographic data. Both sets of analyses highlight
the importance of landscape heterogeneity, quantifiable using topographic
indices, in shaping microclimatic environments and affecting seedling
survival in a predictable manner. Our results demonstrate that using these
methods to guide future plantings may increase conifer tree seedling
survival in high-severity post-wildfire landscapes.

在美国西南部地区，高烈度野火正导致愈发大面积的树木死亡斑块，清除了此前以针叶林为主的这类景观自然更新所需的种源。人工栽植幼苗可加速群落演替，恢复野火前森林所提供的各类生态系统服务，但在美国西南部半干旱区域，人工栽植的针叶树幼苗成活率通常较低。本研究提供了新墨西哥州北部2011年拉斯孔查斯过火区内的幼苗种植实验数据，通过微气候变量与样地地形指数，分析影响四种针叶树幼苗存活的关键因素。随后针对最常用的栽植树种，将实验结果外推至更广泛的景观尺度，利用易于获取的地形数据，生成以样地和景观尺度因子为变量的幼苗存活概率空间投影。两组分析均凸显了景观异质性的重要性——可通过地形指数量化该异质性——其通过可预测的方式塑造微气候环境并影响幼苗存活。研究结果表明，采用此类方法指导未来的人工栽植工作，可提升高烈度野火后景观中针叶树幼苗的成活率。