EARLY POSTFIRE REGENERATION OF A PINUS-HALEPENSIS FOREST ON MOUNT-PARNIS, GREECE

The post-fire regeneration of a 45-yr-old Pinus halepensis (Aleppo pin e) forest, burned in July 1989, has been studied on Mount Parnis, Atti ki, Greece. Four experimental plots at various slopes and exposures we re established at altitudes of 400-450 m, and monitored for 3 yr at 3- month intervals. Early regeneration took place abundantly, through bot h resprouting and seed germination of mostly hard-seeded herbs and shr ubs; the floristic richness was high with 80 taxa, Pine seedling emerg ence took place during the winter of the first post-fire year. The mea n pine seedling density by the end of the recruitment period (March 19 90) was 5-6 seedlings/m(2). This density decreased slightly during lat e spring and considerably during summer. During the second post-fire y ear only a relatively slight decline was observed; thereafter the dens ity was stabilized to 1-2 seedlings/m(2). Mortality follows a negative exponential curve that levels off at ca. 20%. Height distributions th roughout the three post-fire years were all positively skewed as a res ult of the presence of few very tall saplings. A considerable fraction (20%) of very short (5-15 cm) saplings were still alive 39 months aft er the fire; these may constitute the sapling bank. Based on the analy sis of height distribution curves, it is concluded that the taller see dlings survived significantly better than the shorter ones.