Theory 61/Mountain & Alpine/Post-fire regeneration
Regeneration Needs a Source
The claim
Post-fire regeneration in mountain forest requires a threshold in surviving seed source, so a large severe burn can remain unforested for decades.
01Mechanism
Recovery depends on seed arriving from unburned edges or from serotinous cones; below the threshold, distance dominates.
02Prediction
Regeneration should track source distance.
03Refutation
Regeneration tracking burn severity would remove the source term.