Post-fire regeneration of cork oak (Quercus suber) in Kiadi forest (Akfadou- Algeria)

Cork oak (Quercus suber), a West Mediterranean species, is known for its ecological, economic and social values. Wildfires are one of the most serious problems threatening Quercus suber, endangering its occurrence in its distribution area. Therefore, the knowledge of species behavior after the fire and the factors influencing their responses are particularly important for forest management. In this study, we assessed the post-fire vegetative recovery in 730 trees affected by wildfires in 2014 in the Kiadi cork oak forest, located on the Western side of Akfadou Mountains in Algeria. Six months after the fire, individual tree mortality was very low (7.26%), and nearly all the trees sampled survived the fire since almost all trees resprouted from the canopy and some showed basal resprouts. Moreover, the crown recovery and the basal resprouting were not correlated with each other. The performed redundancy analyses (RDA) revealed that the cork oak post-fire response was highly correlated with individual characteristics and with the environmental data. The main variables influencing the likelihood of good or poor vegetative recovery were the understory height and cover, soil characteristics, fire severity, tree status (alive/dead trees), tree diameter and tree exploitation. Our results confirmed the fire resistance of cork oak, which is also the only Algerian tree to resprout. Hence, this makes the species a good candidate for reforestation programs in fire-prone ecosystems.