scholarly journals Forest Structure, Composition, and Regeneration after High-Severity and Rapidly Repeated Wildfires in the Central Cascade Range

2000 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastian Busby
Keyword(s):  
Forest Structure ◽  
Cascade Range ◽  
High Severity

Is the END (emulation of natural disturbance) a new beginning? A critical analysis of the use of fire regimes as the basis of forest ecosystem management with examples from the Canadian western Cordillera

2016 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 233-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Stockdale ◽  
Mike Flannigan ◽  
Ellen Macdonald
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Ecosystem Management ◽  
Forest Structure ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Natural Disturbance ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Disturbance Regime ◽  
Ecological Processes ◽  
High Severity ◽  
Management Actions

As our view of disturbances such as wildfire has shifted from prevention to recognizing their ecological necessity, so too forest management has evolved from timber-focused even-aged management to more holistic paradigms like ecosystem-based management. Emulation of natural disturbance (END) is a variant of ecosystem management that recognizes the importance of disturbance for maintaining ecological integrity. For END to be a successful model for forest management we need to describe disturbance regimes and implement management actions that emulate them, in turn achieving our objectives for forest structure and function. We review the different components of fire regimes (cause, frequency, extent, timing, and magnitude), we describe low-, mixed-, and high-severity fire regimes, and we discuss key issues related to describing these regimes. When characterizing fire regimes, different methods and spatial and temporal extents result in wide variation of estimates for different fire regime components. Comparing studies is difficult as few measure the same components; some methods are based on the assumption of a high-severity fire regime and are not suited to detecting mixed- or low-severity regimes, which are critical to END management, as this would affect retention in harvested areas. We outline some difficulties with using fire regimes as coarse filters for forest management, including (i) not fully understanding the interactions between fire and other disturbance agents, (ii) assuming that fire is strictly an exogenous disturbance agent that exerts top-down control of forest structure while ignoring numerous endogenous and bottom-up feedbacks on fire effects, and (iii) assuming by only replicating natural disturbance patterns we preserve ecological processes and vital ecosystem components. Even with a good understanding of a fire regime, we would still be challenged with choosing the temporal and spatial scope for the disturbance regime we are trying to emulate. We cannot yet define forest conditions that will arise from variations in disturbance regime; this then limits our ability to implement management actions that will achieve those conditions. We end by highlighting some important knowledge gaps about fire regimes and how the END model could be strengthened to achieve a more sustainable form of forest management.

scholarly journals High‐severity and short‐interval wildfires limit forest recovery in the Central Cascade Range

Ecosphere ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastian U. Busby ◽  
Kevan B. Moffett ◽  
Andrés Holz
Keyword(s):  
Short Interval ◽  
Cascade Range ◽  
Forest Recovery ◽  
High Severity

Fuel treatments change forest structure and spatial patterns of fire severity, Arizona, U.S.A.

2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (11) ◽  
pp. 1357-1370
Author(s):  
Morris C. Johnson ◽  
Maureen C. Kennedy ◽  
Sarah Harrison
Keyword(s):  
Forest Structure ◽  
Fire Severity ◽  
Fire Effects ◽  
Wildlife Habitat ◽  
Fuel Treatments ◽  
Treatment Unit ◽  
Fuel Treatment ◽  
Treated Area ◽  
High Severity ◽  
Management Objectives

Fuel reduction treatments are often designed to achieve multiple resource management objectives in addition to reducing potential fire hazard. In the White Mountains of Arizona State (U.S.A.), the 2014 San Juan Fire burned through several thinning prescriptions designed to achieve wildlife habitat objectives. Many studies have documented reduced fire severity for a standard set of fuel treatments, but the range of variability in fuel treatment effectiveness for alternative treatment designs is poorly understood. We used nonlinear mixed-effects modeling to estimate the distance into the treated area at which fire severity decreases and randomization tests to compare forest structure. High-severity fire effects were estimated to be reduced between 114 m and 345 m into the treated area. The range of variability in observed-distance high-severity fire effects persist into the treated area and, in conjunction with estimated relationships between posttreatment forest structure and severity, can inform the design of alternative fuel treatment prescriptions with various target prescriptions. We found that as cover was maintained in a treatment unit for wildlife habitat, the size of the fuel treatment necessary to observe a reduction in severity needs to be larger. Our study will inform decision makers on the size of treatments required to accomplish management objectives.

High severity fire promotes a more flammable eucalypt forest structure

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
James W. Barker ◽  
Owen F. Price ◽  
Meaghan E. Jenkins
Keyword(s):  
Forest Structure ◽  
High Severity ◽  
Eucalypt Forest

High-severity fire reduces early successional boreal larch forest aboveground productivity by shifting stand density in north-eastern China

2016 ◽  
Vol 25 (8) ◽  
pp. 861 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wen H. Cai ◽  
Jian Yang
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Storage ◽  
Forest Structure ◽  
Forest Regeneration ◽  
Fire Severity ◽  
Eastern China ◽  
Larch Forest ◽  
Understorey Vegetation ◽  
High Severity ◽  
Sapling Density ◽  
Tree Sapling

Climate warming is predicted to increase fire activity across the Eurasian boreal larch forest in the 21st century, which could have serious consequences on carbon storage. Quantifying the effects of fire disturbance on forest structure and aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP) could aid in our ability to predict future carbon storage on a regional and biome level. In this study, we examined the spatial heterogeneity of forest structure and ANPP on sites of varying fire severity and topographic position in a recently burned landscape in the Great Xing’an Mountains, China. Results indicated that after 11 years of vegetation regrowth, fire severity significantly affected forest regeneration ANPP. Spatial heterogeneities in forest regeneration ANPP were explained by both tree sapling density and understorey vegetation abundance. Although understorey vegetation productivity on average contributed 50% of total ANPP after fire, the increase in understorey productivity with fire severity could not offset the decrease in tree productivity in severely burned stands where tree sapling density was limited. Our results suggest that high-severity fire can decrease forest regeneration ANPP by altering forest structure in the early post-fire successional stage and that this shift in forest structure may influence future forest productivity trajectories over an extended period.

scholarly journals Fire History and Forest Structure along an Elevational Gradient in the Southern Cascade Range, Oregon, USA

Fire Ecology ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alison B. Forrestel ◽  
Robert A. Andrus ◽  
Danny L. Fry ◽  
Scott L. Stephens
Keyword(s):  
Forest Structure ◽  
Fire History ◽  
Elevational Gradient ◽  
Cascade Range

scholarly journals Variable Forest Structure and Fire Reconstructed Across Historical Ponderosa Pine and Mixed Conifer Landscapes of the San Juan Mountains, Colorado

Land ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
William L. Baker
Keyword(s):  
Forest Structure ◽  
Ponderosa Pine ◽  
Tree Density ◽  
San Juan ◽  
Landscape Resistance ◽  
Mixed Conifer ◽  
San Juan Mountains ◽  
Ponderosa Pine Forests ◽  
High Severity ◽  
Understory Shrubs

Late-1800s land surveys were used to reconstruct historical forest structure and fire over more than 235,000 ha in ponderosa pine and mixed conifer landscapes of the San Juan Mountains, Colorado, to further understand differences among regional mountain ranges and help guide landscape-scale restoration and management. Historically, fire-resistant ponderosa pine forests with low tree density and relatively frequent fire, the most restorable forests, covered only the lower 15%–24% of the study area. The other 76%–85% had dominance by mixed- to high-severity fires. Both ponderosa pine and dry mixed conifer had generally pervasive, often dense understory shrubs, and ~20% of pine and ~50%–75% of mixed conifer forests also had high historical tree density. Intensive fuel reduction and mechanical restoration are infeasible and likely ineffective in the upper part of the pine zones and in mixed conifer, where restoring historical fire and creating fire-adapted communities and infrastructure may be the only viable option. Old-growth forests can be actively restored in the lower 15%–24% of the montane, likely increasing landscape resistance and resilience to fire, but mixed- to high-severity fires did also occur near these areas. This imperfect resistance suggests that fire-adapted human communities and infrastructure are needed throughout the study area.

Evaluation of roe deer effects upon forest structure in Nogueira Mountain (NE of Portugal)

2007 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aurora Monzon ◽  
António L. Crespí ◽  
Sónia Pinto ◽  
Adriano Castro ◽  
Claúdia P. Fernandes ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Forest Structure ◽  
Roe Deer
Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document