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Intensifying postfire weather and biological invasion drive species loss in a Mediterranean-type biodiversity hotspot

Overview of attention for article published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, April 2017
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About this Attention Score

  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (95th percentile)
  • Good Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (73rd percentile)

Mentioned by

news
4 news outlets
blogs
1 blog
twitter
36 X users
facebook
1 Facebook page

Citations

dimensions_citation
63 Dimensions

Readers on

mendeley
182 Mendeley
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Title
Intensifying postfire weather and biological invasion drive species loss in a Mediterranean-type biodiversity hotspot
Published in
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, April 2017
DOI 10.1073/pnas.1619014114
Pubmed ID
Authors

Jasper A. Slingsby, Cory Merow, Matthew Aiello-Lammens, Nicky Allsopp, Stuart Hall, Hayley Kilroy Mollmann, Ross Turner, Adam M. Wilson, John A. Silander

Abstract

Prolonged periods of extreme heat or drought in the first year after fire affect the resilience and diversity of fire-dependent ecosystems by inhibiting seed germination or increasing mortality of seedlings and resprouting individuals. This interaction between weather and fire is of growing concern as climate changes, particularly in systems subject to stand-replacing crown fires, such as most Mediterranean-type ecosystems. We examined the longest running set of permanent vegetation plots in the Fynbos of South Africa (44 y), finding a significant decline in the diversity of plots driven by increasingly severe postfire summer weather events (number of consecutive days with high temperatures and no rain) and legacy effects of historical woody alien plant densities 30 y after clearing. Species that resprout after fire and/or have graminoid or herb growth forms were particularly affected by postfire weather, whereas all species were sensitive to invasive plants. Observed differences in the response of functional types to extreme postfire weather could drive major shifts in ecosystem structure and function such as altered fire behavior, hydrology, and carbon storage. An estimated 0.5 °C increase in maximum temperature tolerance of the species sets unique to each survey further suggests selection for species adapted to hotter conditions. Taken together, our results show climate change impacts on biodiversity in the hyperdiverse Cape Floristic Region and demonstrate an important interaction between extreme weather and disturbance by fire that may make flammable ecosystems particularly sensitive to climate change.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 36 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 182 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
United States 1 <1%
Argentina 1 <1%
South Africa 1 <1%
Unknown 179 98%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Researcher 40 22%
Student > Ph. D. Student 33 18%
Student > Master 19 10%
Student > Postgraduate 18 10%
Student > Bachelor 14 8%
Other 27 15%
Unknown 31 17%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 72 40%
Environmental Science 38 21%
Earth and Planetary Sciences 7 4%
Social Sciences 4 2%
Engineering 4 2%
Other 15 8%
Unknown 42 23%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 60. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 24 March 2021.
All research outputs
#690,564
of 24,858,211 outputs
Outputs from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
#11,668
of 101,897 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#14,421
of 315,442 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
#241
of 910 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 24,858,211 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 97th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 101,897 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 38.9. This one has done well, scoring higher than 88% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 315,442 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 95% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 910 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 73% of its contemporaries.