Post-fire succession of black pine (<i>Pinus nigra</i>) forest vegetation under different fire regimes

The black pine is a characteristic Mediterranean pine species and extends from Spain eastward to Southern France, Italy, Austria, the Balkans and Türkiye. Black pine is a fire tolerator and has a distinctive natural fire regime differently from the serotinous red pine and Aleppo pine forests in Mediterranean. Black pine forests are one of the ecosystems that are most affected by changing fire regimes. Fires in these forests generally occur as low intensity surface fires. The black pine is a light-demanding species and in pure stands it forms single layer structure with self-pruning. It also has a thick bark. Therefore, heat during surface fires does not have a lethal effect on the trees and crown fires will not be generated due to self-pruning. However, with changing climatic conditions and forest structure based on human use and management, the fires in black pine forests have begun to become crown fires in large areas. Since the black pine does not have any adaptation to crown fires, the trees are killed and no regeneration occurs. This process results in the degradation of black pine forests into other vegetation types such as oak woodlands, rock rose ( Cistus spp.) scrublands or bracken fern ( Pteridium aquilinum L. (Kuhn)) herbaceous vegetation. This holds true for the whole of the distribution of the black pine in the Mediterranean. Therefore, a silvicultural approach ensuring fires occur as surface fires only should be employed in the existing black pine forests and the areas degraded after fires should be restored in an ecological way to re-establish the black pine.