Persistent, viable seedbank buffers serotinous bishop pine over a broad fire return interval

Background In ecosystems where fire has been excluded, pyrosilviculture can restore some processes historically maintained by fire while mitigating risk where fire is inevitable. Pyrosilviculture in crown fire-adapted forests is, however, limited by insight into the temporal window of fire return matching canopy seedbank development. Here, we characterized demographic responses to fire and non-native pine pitch canker infection in a chronosequence of serotinous bishop pine stands burned at high-severity to quantify (1) temporal patterns of seedbank development given seed viability and density, cone production, and tree density, and (2) pine pitch canker incidence across tree ages and sizes to assess how infection might impact stand and seedbank development. We use our findings to elucidate pyrosilvicuture as a means of restoring fire given practical challenges of reintroducing high-severity fire in crown-fire adapted forests embedded within wildland urban interfaces (WUI). Results Bishop pine produces an abundant, viable seedbank within eight years that persists across developmental stages and age classes. Seed abundance and viability are exceptionally high at even the earliest age (median > 600,000 seeds ha − 1 and 97% viability at 6 years) and remain high, with the oldest stands (36 years) maintaining median densities of > 500,000 seeds ha − 1 and viability of 95%. We additionally learned that pine pitch canker infection is most severe during the sapling stage (8–10 years post-fire), likely altering stand development trajectories as well as potentially limiting recruitment, and thus the aerial seedbank, into the canopy. Conclusions In bishop pine and equally-fecund serotinous species, pyrosilviculture appears a viable management tool across a broad fire return window given the early development and persistence of a robust, viable seedbank, allowing managers flexibility in restoring fire to promote forest persistence while simultaneously mitigating wildfire risk. Moreover, pyrosilviculture in pine pitch canker infected stands may also provide disease mitigation. Although the long-term effects of pine pitch canker infection remain unknown, bishop pines’ viable, persistent seedbank suggests that managers can ignite prescribed fire across a broad return interval — as short as eight years and as long as several decades — to promote bishop pine persistence, mitigate disease infection rates, and reduce wildfire risk in WUI-adjacent ecosystems.