Modelling Variable Fire Severity in Boreal Forests: Effects of Fire Intensity and Stand Structure

It is becoming clear that fires in boreal forests are not uniformly stand-replacing. On the contrary, marked variation in fire severity, measured as tree mortality, has been found both within and among individual fires. It is important to understand the conditions under which this variation can arise. We integrated forest sample plot data, tree allometries and historical forest fire records within a diameter class-structured model of 1.0 ha patches of mono-specific black spruce and jack pine stands in northern Québec, Canada. The model accounts for crown fire initiation and vertical spread into the canopy. It uses empirical relations between fire intensity, scorch height, the percent of crown scorched and tree mortality to simulate fire severity, specifically the percent reduction in patch basal area due to fire-caused mortality. A random forest and a regression tree analysis of a large random sample of simulated fires were used to test for an effect of fireline intensity, stand structure, species composition and pyrogeographic regions on resultant severity. Severity increased with intensity and was lower for jack pine stands. The proportion of simulated fires that burned at high severity (e.g. >75% reduction in patch basal area) was 0.80 for black spruce and 0.11 for jack pine. We identified thresholds in intensity below which there was a marked sensitivity of simulated fire severity to stand structure, and to interactions between intensity and structure. We found no evidence for a residual effect of pyrogeographic region on simulated severity, after the effects of stand structure and species composition were accounted for. The model presented here was able to produce variation in fire severity under a range of fire intensity conditions. This suggests that variation in stand structure is one of the factors causing the observed variation in boreal fire severity.     

Fire disturbance and forest structure in old‐growth mixed conifer forests in the northern Sierra Nevada,California

Question: This study evaluates how fire regimes influence stand structure and dynamics in old‐growth mixed conifer forests across a range of environmental settings. Location: A 2000‐ha area of mixed conifer forest on the west shore of Lake Tahoe in the northern Sierra Nevada, California. Methods: We quantified the age, size, and spatial structure of trees in 12 mixed conifer stands distributed across major topographic gradients. Fire history was reconstructed in each stand using fire scar dendrochronology. The influence of fire on stand structure was assessed by comparing the fire history with the age, size, and spatial structure of trees in a stand. Results: There was significant variation in species composition among stands, but not in the size, age and spatial patterning of trees. Stands had multiple size and age classes with clusters of similar aged trees occurring at scales of 113 ‐ 254 m². The frequency and severity of fires was also similar, and stands burned with low to moderate severity in the dormant season on average every 9–17 years. Most fires were not synchronized among stands except in very dry years. No fires have burned since ca. 1880. Conclusions: Fire and forest structure interact to perpetuate similar stand characteristics across a range of environmental settings. Fire occurrence is controlled primarily by spatial variation in fuel mosaics (e.g. patterns of abundance, fuel moisture, forest structure), but regional drought synchronizes fire in some years. Fire exclusion over the last 120 years has caused compositional and structural shifts in these mixed conifer forests.     

气候、植被和地形对大兴安岭林火烈度空间格局的影响

在北方森林中火干扰是森林景观变化的主导因素。林火烈度作为衡量林火动态的重要指标,较为直观地反映了火干扰对森林生态系统的破坏程度,其空间格局深刻地影响着森林景观中的多种生态过程(如树种组成、种子扩散以及植被的恢复)。解释林火烈度空间格局有助于揭示林火干扰后森林景观格局的形成机制,对预测未来林火烈度空间格局以及制定科学合理林火管理策略均有重要意义。基于LandsatTM/ETM遥感影像,将2000—2016年大兴安岭呼中林区的36场火的林火烈度划分为未过火、轻度、中度、重度4个等级。采用FRAGSTAT景观格局分析软件从类型水平上计算了斑块所占景观面积比、面积加权平均斑块面积、面积加权平均斑块分维数、面积加权边缘面积比、斑块密度5个景观指数,以对林火烈度空间格局进行了定量化描述。并且采用随机森林模型,分析了气候、地形、植被对林火烈度空间格局的影响及其边际效应。通过研究得出以下结果:(1)相对于未过火、轻度、以及中度火烧斑块,重度火烧斑块的面积更大、形状更简单;(2)海拔对重度火烧斑块的空间格局起着至关重要的作用,其次是坡向、坡度、植被覆盖度、相对湿度、温度等;(3)随着海拔的升高,面积加权平均斑块面积和面积加权平均斑块分维数的边际效应曲线呈上升趋势,而面积加权边缘面积比和斑块密度呈下降趋势;除了面积加权平均斑块面积外,都受到火前植被覆盖度的影响,且植被覆盖度为0.2—0.3范围内,重度火烧斑块在景观中所占比例最大。总的来看,2000—2016年大兴安岭呼中森林景观中重度火烧斑块与未过火、轻度以及中度火烧斑块存在显著差异性。相对于气候,地形和植被对于塑造重度火烧斑块空间格局具有重要作用。因此,应针对重度火烧区域进行可燃物处理,从景观层面上合理配置森林斑块,从而降低高烈度森林大火发生的风险。     

Contributions of Ignitions,Fuels, and Weather to the Spatial Patterns of Burn Probability of a Boreal Landscape

The spatial pattern of fire observed across boreal landscapes is the outcome of complex interactions among components of the fire environment. We investigated how the naturally occurring patterns of ignitions, fuels, and weather generate spatial pattern of burn probability (BP) in a large and highly fire-prone boreal landscape of western Canada, Wood Buffalo National Park. This was achieved by producing a high-resolution map of BP using a fire simulation model that models the ignition and spread of individual fires for the current state of the study landscape (that is, the ‘control’). Then, to extract the effect of the variability in ignitions, fuels, and weather on spatial BP patterns, we subtracted the control BP map to those produced by “homogenizing” a single environmental factor of interest (that is, the ‘experimental treatments’). This yielded maps of spatial residuals that represent the spatial BP patterns for which the heterogeneity of each factor of interest is responsible. Residuals were analyzed within a structural equation modeling framework. The results showed unequal contributions of fuels (67.4%), weather (29.2%), and ignitions (3.4%) to spatial BP patterning. The large contribution of fuels reflects how substantial heterogeneity of land cover on this landscape strongly affects BP. Although weather has a chiefly temporal control on fire regimes, the variability in fire-conducive weather conditions exerted a surprisingly large influence on spatial BP patterns. The almost negligible effect of spatial ignition patterns was surprising but explainable in the context of this area’s fire regime. Similar contributions of fuels, weather, and ignitions could be expected in other parts of the boreal forest that lack a strong anthropogenic imprint, but are likely to be altered in human-dominated fire regimes.     

不同强度火干扰下盘古林场天然落叶松林的空间结构

基于2011年7月大兴安岭外业调查数据以林隙为主要研究对象,选取景观生态学中斑块类型指数分析样地内林隙状况,并结合林木分布状态,分析不同强度林火干扰对天然落叶松林空间结构的影响。结果表明:在受中度林火干扰的林分内,只保留了少量的落叶松中径木、大径木,先锋树种在林分内呈现聚集分布;在未受林火干扰的林分和受林火轻微干扰的林分内,天然落叶松均呈现显著聚集分布;由于受到不同强度的林火干扰,林下区域与林隙区域出现不同程度的相互转化,林分空间结构发生了改变。林分按照所受林火干扰强度的递减,在同一时间不同空间上表现出了森林循环过程中所经历的林隙阶段状态、建立阶段状态、成熟阶段状态。     

Changes in fire regime break the legacy lock on successional trajectories in Alaskan boreal forest

Predicting plant community responses to changing environmental conditions is a key element of forecasting and mitigating the effects of global change. Disturbance can play an important role in these dynamics, by initiating cycles of secondary succession and generating opportunities for communities of long‐lived organisms to reorganize in alternative configurations. This study used landscape‐scale variations in environmental conditions, stand structure, and disturbance from an extreme fire year in Alaska to examine how these factors affected successional trajectories in boreal forests dominated by black spruce. Because fire intervals in interior Alaska are typically too short to allow relay succession, the initial cohorts of seedlings that recruit after fire largely determine future canopy composition. Consequently, in a dynamically stable landscape, postfire tree seedling composition should resemble that of the prefire forest stands, with little net change in tree composition after fire. Seedling recruitment data from 90 burned stands indicated that postfire establishment of black spruce was strongly linked to environmental conditions and was highest at sites that were moist and had high densities of prefire spruce. Although deciduous broadleaf trees were absent from most prefire stands, deciduous trees recruited from seed at many sites and were most abundant at sites where the fires burned severely, consuming much of the surface organic layer. Comparison of pre‐ and postfire tree composition in the burned stands indicated that the expected trajectory of black spruce self‐replacement was typical only at moist sites that burned with low fire severity. At severely burned sites, deciduous trees dominated the postfire tree seedling community, suggesting these sites will follow alternative, deciduous‐dominated trajectories of succession. Increases in the severity of boreal fires with climate warming may catalyze shifts to an increasingly deciduous‐dominated landscape, substantially altering landscape dynamics and ecosystem services in this part of the boreal forest.     

Fire Severity and Long-term Ecosystem Biomass Dynamics in Coniferous Boreal Forests of Eastern Canada

The objective of this study was to characterize the effects of soil burn severity and initial tree composition on long-term forest floor dynamics and ecosystem biomass partitioning within the Picea mariana [Mill.] BSP-feathermoss bioclimatic domain of northwestern Quebec. Changes in forest floor organic matter and ecosystem biomass partitioning were evaluated along a 2,355-year chronosequence of extant stands. Dendroecological and paleoecological methods were used to determine the time since the last fire, the soil burn severity of the last fire (high vs. low severity), and the post-fire tree composition of each stand (P. mariana vs. Pinus banksiana Lamb). In this paper, soil burn severity refers to the thickness of the organic matter layer accumulated above the mineral soil that was not burned by the last fire. In stands originating from high severity fires, the post-fire dominance by Pinus banksiana or P. mariana had little effect on the change in forest floor thickness and tree biomass. In contrast, stands established after low severity fires accumulated during the first century after fire 73% thicker forest floors and produced 50% less tree biomass than stands established after high severity fires. Standing tree biomass increased until approximately 100 years after high severity fires, and then decreased at a logarithmic rate in the millennial absence of fire. Forest floor thickness also showed a rapid initial accumulation rate, and continued to increase in the millennial absence of fire at a much slower rate. However, because forest floor density increased through time, the overall rate of increase in forest floor biomass (58 g m⁻² y⁻¹) remained constant for numerous centuries after fire (700 years). Although young stands (< 200 years) have more than 60% of ecosystem biomass locked-up in living biomass, older stands (> 200 years) sequester the majority (> 80%) of it in their forest floor. The results from this study illustrate that, under similar edaphic conditions, a single gradient related to time since disturbance is insufficient to account for the full spectrum of ecosystem biomass dynamics occurring in eastern boreal forests and highlights the importance of considering soil burn severity. Although fire severity induces diverging ecosystem biomass dynamics in the short term, the extended absence of fire brings about a convergence in terms of ecosystem biomass accumulation and partitioning.     

Effects of stand composition on fire hazard in mixed‐wood Canadian boreal forest

Abstract. Surface fuels were examined in 48 stands of the Canadian mixed‐wood boreal forest. Tree canopy was characterized with the point‐centred quadrant method and stands were characterized as deciduous, mixed‐deciduous, mixed‐coniferous or coniferous according to the percentage of conifer basal area. Woody debris loadings were measured with the line intersect method and the litter, duff, shrub loads and depths or heights were sampled with various quadrats. No significant difference was found among stand types for total woody debris load, large basal diameter shrub loads and load or depth of litter and duff. However, conifer stands had significantly heavier loads of small diameter elements (twigs and shrubs) and conifer pieces were more numerous within these stands than in deciduous stands. The BEHAVE prediction system was used to evaluate the impact of these differences on the potential of fire ignition in situations where topography and weather were constant. The qualitative and quantitative changes in fuels, resulting from species replacement and fast decay rates, influence fire hazard. Simulations of fire behaviour showed that in the mixed‐wood boreal forest fires were less intense and spread more slowly in deciduous stands than in mixed or coniferous stands. Moreover, spring fires were more intense than summer fires, and differences between seasons increased with the increase of deciduous basal area.     

Wildfires in the western Canadian boreal forest: Landscape patterns and ecosystem management

Abstract. Mimicking of natural disturbance for ecosystem management requires an understanding of the disturbance processes and the resulting landscape patterns. Since fire is the major disturbance in the boreal forest, three widely held beliefs about fire behavior and resulting landscape patterns are examined in light of the empirical evidence available. These beliefs are: (1) that there is a ‘natural’ fire frequency for boreal ecosystems; (2) that the landscape mosaic created by wildfire is generally one of small, younger patches embedded within a matrix of older forest; and (3) that forest flammability is largely controlled by fuel accumulation. Despite the apparently logical basis for such beliefs, they are not well supported by empirical evidence. This discrepancy is explained by problems such as failure to appreciate the relationship between number of fires and area burned and inappropriate extrapolations or generalizations from other regions and vegetation types. The most important implications for management are that the natural disturbance processes producing landscape patterns in the boreal forest generally operate at much larger scales than management units, and that humans may have more indirect (through landuse change) rather than direct (through fire suppression) effects on the frequency of wildfires.     

Long-term impact of a stand-replacing fire on ecosystem CO2 exchange of a ponderosa pine forest

Ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) forests of the southwestern United States are a mosaic of stands where undisturbed forests are carbon sinks, and stands recovering from wildfires may be sources of carbon to the atmosphere for decades after the fire. However, the relative magnitude of these sinks and sources has never been directly measured in this region, limiting our understanding of the role of fire in regional and US carbon budgets. We used the eddy covariance technique to measure the CO₂ exchange of two forest sites, one burned by fire in 1996, and an unburned forest. The fire was a high‐intensity stand‐replacing burn that killed all trees. Ten years after the fire, the burned site was still a source of CO₂ to the atmosphere [109±6 (SEM) g C m^?2 yr^?1], whereas the unburned site was a sink (?164±23 g C m^?2 yr^?1). The fire reduced total carbon storage and shifted ecosystem carbon allocation from the forest floor and living biomass to necromass. Annual ecosystem respiration was lower at the burned site (480±5 g C m^?2 yr^?1) than at the unburned site (710±54 g C m^?2 yr^?1), but the difference in gross primary production was even larger (372±13 g C m^?2 yr^?1 at the burned site and 858±37 g C m^?2 yr^?1at the unburned site). Water availability controlled carbon flux in the warm season at both sites, and the burned site was a source of carbon in all months, even during the summer, when wet and warm conditions favored respiration more than photosynthesis. Our study shows that carbon losses following stand‐replacing fires in ponderosa pine forests can persist for decades due to slow recovery of the gross primary production. Because fire exclusion is becoming increasingly difficult in dry western forests, a large US forest carbon sink could shift to a decadal‐scale carbon source.     

Fire as a Recurrent Event in Tropical Forests of the Eastern Amazon: Effects on Forest Structure,Biomass, and Species Composition1

The effects of fire on forest structure and composition were studied in a severely fire-impacted landscape in the eastern Amazon. Extensive sampling of area forests was used to compare structure and compositional differences between burned and unburned forest stands. Burned forests were extremely heterogeneous, with substantial variation in forest structure and fire damage recorded over distances of <50 m. Unburned forest patches occurred within burned areas, but accounted for only six percent of the sample area. Canopy cover, living biomass, and living adult stem densities decreased with increasing fire inrensiry / frequency, and were as low as 10–30 percent of unburned forest values. Even light burns removed >70 percent of the sapling and vine populations. Pioneer abundance increased dramatically with burn intensity, with pioneers dominating the understory in severely damaged areas. Species richness was inversely related to burn severity, but no clear pattern of species selection was observed. Fire appears to be a cyclical event in the study region: <30 percent of the burned forest sample had been subjected to only one burn. Based on estimated solar radiation intensities, burning substantially increases fire susceptibility of forests. At least 50 percent of the total area of all burned forests is predicted to become flammable within 16 rainless days, as opposed to only 4 percent of the unburned forest. In heavily burned forest subjected to recurrent fires, 95 percent of the area is predicted to become flammable in <9 rain-free days. As a recurrent disturbance phenomenon, fire shows unparalleled potential to impoverish and alter the forests of the eastern Amazon.     

The impacts and implications of an intensifying fire regime on Alaskan boreal forest composition and albedo

Climate warming and drying are modifying the fire dynamics of many boreal forests, moving them towards a regime with a higher frequency of extreme fire years characterized by large burns of high severity. Plot‐scale studies indicate that increased burn severity favors the recruitment of deciduous trees in the initial years following fire. Consequently, a set of biophysical effects of burn severity on postfire boreal successional trajectories at decadal timescales have been hypothesized. Prominent among these are a greater cover of deciduous tree species in intermediately aged stands after more severe burning, with associated implications for carbon and energy balances. Here we investigate whether the current vegetation composition of interior Alaska supports this hypothesis. A chronosequence of six decades of vegetation regrowth following fire was created using a database of burn scars, an existing forest biomass map, and maps of albedo and the deciduous fraction of vegetation that we derived from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite imagery. The deciduous fraction map depicted the proportion of aboveground biomass in deciduous vegetation, derived using a RandomForest algorithm trained with field data sets (n=69, 71% variance explained). Analysis of the difference Normalized Burn Ratio, a remotely sensed index commonly used as an indicator of burn severity, indicated that burn size and ignition date can provide a proxy of burn severity for historical fires. LIDAR remote sensing and a bioclimatic model of evergreen forest distribution were used to further refine the stratification of the current landscape by burn severity. Our results show that since the 1950s, more severely burned areas in interior Alaska have produced a vegetation cohort that is characterized by greater deciduous biomass. We discuss the importance of this shift in vegetation composition due to climate‐induced changes in fire severity for carbon sequestration in forest biomass and surface reflectance (albedo), among other feedbacks to climate.     

Macrocharcoal-Based Chronosequences Reveal Shifting Dominance of Conifer Boreal Forests Under Changing Fire Regime

Balsam fir (Abies balsamea) and black spruce (Picea mariana) forests are the main conifer forest types in the North American boreal zone. The coexistence of the two species as well as their respective canopy dominance in distinct stands raises questions about the long-term evolution from one forest type to the other in relation to environmental factors including climate and stand disturbance. We tested the hypothesis that repetitive fire events promote the succession of balsam fir forest to black spruce forest and vice versa. Postfire chronosequences of one black spruce (BSP) and one balsam fir (BFI) sites were reconstructed based on the botanical composition and ¹⁴C-dated soil macrocharcoals. The results support the hypothesis of a successional dynamics. The BSP site has been affected by fires for the last 7600 years, whereas the BFI site, after having been impacted by several fires during the first half of the Holocene, evolved in a fire-free environment for the last 4400 years. Periods of fire activity facilitated the dominance of black spruce forests. The cessation of fires around 4400 cal. years BP on BFI site marks the beginning of the transition from black spruce to balsam fir stands. This succession is a long process, due to the ability of black spruce to regenerate by layering in the absence of fire. The resulting balsam fir stands are ancient and precarious ecosystems, since fire generally leads to the return of black spruce. The increase in balsam fir to the detriment of black spruce in boreal forests is a response to a decrease in fire frequency.     

Spatial Scale and Shape of Prescribed Fires Influence Use by Wild Turkeys

In recent years, there have been increasing efforts to understand effects of prescribed fire on population dynamics of wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo; turkeys) in pine (Pinus spp.) forests. Although distribution of turkeys is not limited to pine forests, these forests provide nesting and brood-rearing habitat throughout the southeastern United States. Previous studies have investigated direct (e.g., nest loss to fire) and indirect (e.g., nest- and brood-site selection) effects of prescribed fire, but little is known about how turkeys are influenced by the spatial scale and shape of prescribed fire. We constructed an individual-based model (IBM) with landscapes of 2 burn unit shapes and 17 spatial scales. We used telemetry data obtained from global positioning system-marked female turkeys to replicate movement behaviors of turkeys within the model. We hypothesized that use of units burned during the current year (<1 yr) would decrease as scale of fires increased, and that shape of burn units would influence use by turkeys. Spatial scale most influenced turkey use; the greatest use was in burned stands of approximately 23 ha in size, whereas least use was associated with burned stands >1,269 ha. At a spatial scale of 23 ha, the daily percent use of rectangular burn units was 7% greater than square-shaped burn units. Likewise, daily percent use of rectangular burn units was 34% greater than square-shaped burn units at a spatial scale of 1,269 ha. When burn units were rectangular-shaped, daily percent use decreased by 48% as the spatial extent of the fires increased from 23 ha to 203 ha. Likewise, when burn units were square-shaped, turkey use decreased by 49% as spatial extent of fires increased from 23 ha to 203 ha. Our findings suggest the importance of managing forested landscapes with prescribed fires not exceeding approximately 200 ha if wild turkeys are a management concern. © 2020 The Wildlife Society.     

Barren‐ground caribou (Rangifer tarandus groenlandicus) behaviour after recent fire events; integrating caribou telemetry data with Landsat fire detection techniques

Fire regimes are changing throughout the North American boreal forest in complex ways. Fire is also a major factor governing access to high‐quality forage such as terricholous lichens for barren‐ground caribou (Rangifer tarandus groenlandicus). Additionally, fire alters forest structure which can affect barren‐ground caribou's ability to navigate in a landscape. Here, we characterize how the size and severity of fires are changing across five barren‐ground caribou herd ranges in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, Canada. Additionally, we demonstrate how time since fire, fire severity, and season result in complex changes in caribou behavioural metrics estimated using telemetry data. Fire disturbances were identified using novel gap‐free Landsat surface reflectance composites from 1985 to 2011 across all herd ranges. Burn severity was estimated using the differenced normalized burn ratio. Annual area burned and burn severity were assessed through time for each herd and related to two behavioural metrics: velocity and relative turning angle. Neither annual area burned nor burn severity displayed any temporal trend within the study period. However, certain herds, such as the Ahiak/Beverly, have more exposure to fire than other herds (i.e. Cape Bathurst had a maximum forested area burned of less than 4 km²). Time since fire and burn severity both significantly affected velocity and relative turning angles. During fall, winter, and spring, fire virtually eliminated foraging‐focused behaviour for all 26 years of analysis while more severe fires resulted in a marked increase in movement‐focused behaviour compared to unburnt patches. Between seasons, caribou used burned areas as early as 1‐year postfire, demonstrating complex, nonlinear reactions to time since fire, fire severity, and season. In all cases, increases in movement‐focused behaviour were detected postfire. We conclude that changes in caribou behaviour immediately postfire are primarily driven by changes in forest structure rather than changes in terricholous lichen availability.     

Spatial and temporal dimensions of fire activity in the fire‐prone eastern Canadian taiga

The forest age mosaic is a fundamental attribute of the North American boreal forest. Given that fires are generally lethal to trees, the time since last fire largely determines the composition and structure of forest stands and landscapes. Although the spatiotemporal dynamics of such mosaics has long been assumed to be random under the overwhelming influence of severe fire weather, no long‐term reconstruction of mosaic dynamics has been performed from direct field evidence. In this study, we use fire length as a proxy for fire extent across the fire‐prone eastern Canadian taiga and systematically reconstruct the spatiotemporal variability of fire extent and fire intervals, as well as the resulting forest age along a 340‐km transect for the 1840–2013 time period. Our results indicate an extremely active fire regime over the last two centuries, with an overall burn rate of 2.1% of the land area yr^?1, mainly triggered by seasonal anomalies of high temperature and severe drought. However, the rejuvenation of the age mosaic was strongly patterned in space and time due to the intrinsically lower burn rates in wetland‐dominated areas and, more importantly, to the much‐reduced likelihood of burning of stands up to 50 years postfire. An extremely high burn rate of ~5% yr^?1 would have characterized our study region during the last century in the absence of such fuel age effect. Although recent burn rates and fire sizes are within their range of variability of the last 175 years, a particularly severe weather event allowed a 2013 fire to spread across a large fire refuge, thus shifting the abundance of mature and old forest to a historic low. These results provide reference conditions to evaluate the significance and predict the spatiotemporal dynamics and impacts of the currently strengthening fire activity in the North American boreal forest.     

Return of Fire as a Restoration Tool: Long‐Term Effects of Burn Severity on Habitat Use by Mexican Fox Squirrels

After decades of suppression, fire is returning to forests of the western United States through wildfires and prescribed burns. These fires may aid restoration of vegetation structure and processes, which could improve conditions for wildlife species and reduce severe wildfire risk. Understanding response of wildlife species to fires is essential to forest restoration because contemporary fires may not have the same effects as historical fires. Recent fires in the Chiricahua Mountains of southeastern Arizona provided opportunity to investigate long‐term effects of burn severity on habitat selection of a native wildlife species. We surveyed burned forest for squirrel feeding sign and related vegetation characteristics to frequency of feeding sign occurrence. We used radio‐telemetry within fire‐influenced forest to determine home ranges of Mexican fox squirrels, Sciurus nayaritensis chiricahuae, and compared vegetation characteristics within home ranges to random areas available to squirrels throughout burned conifer forest. Squirrels fed in forest with open understory and closed canopy cover. Vegetation within home ranges was characterized by lower understory density, consistent with the effects of low‐severity fire, and larger trees than random locations. Our results suggest that return of low‐severity fire can help restore habitat for Mexican fox squirrels and other native wildlife species with similar habitat affiliations in forests with a historical regime of frequent, low‐severity fire. Our study contributes to an understanding of the role and impact of fire in forest ecosystems and the implications for forest restoration as fire returns to the region.     

Charcoal Reflectance Reveals Early Holocene Boreal Deciduous Forests Burned at High Intensities

Wildfire size, frequency, and severity are increasing in the Alaskan boreal forest in response to climate warming. One of the potential impacts of this changing fire regime is the alteration of successional trajectories, from black spruce to mixed stands dominated by aspen, a vegetation composition not experienced since the early Holocene. Such changes in vegetation composition may consequently alter the intensity of fires, influencing fire feedbacks to the ecosystem. Paleorecords document past wildfire-vegetation dynamics and as such, are imperative for our understanding of how these ecosystems will respond to future climate warming. For the first time, we have used reflectance measurements of macroscopic charcoal particles (>180μm) from an Alaskan lake-sediment record to estimate ancient charring temperatures (termed pyrolysis intensity). We demonstrate that pyrolysis intensity increased markedly from an interval of birch tundra 11 ky ago (mean 1.52%Ro; 485°C), to the expansion of trees on the landscape ∼10.5 ky ago, remaining high to the present (mean 3.54%Ro; 640°C) irrespective of stand composition. Despite differing flammabilities and adaptations to fire, the highest pyrolysis intensities derive from two intervals with distinct vegetation compositions. 1) the expansion of mixed aspen and spruce woodland at 10 cal. kyr BP, and 2) the establishment of black spruce, and the modern boreal forest at 4 cal. kyr BP. Based on our analysis, we infer that predicted expansion of deciduous trees into the boreal forest in the future could lead to high intensity, but low severity fires, potentially moderating future climate-fire feedbacks.     

Forest Fire Impacts on Carbon Uptake, Storage, and Emission: The Role of Burn Severity in the Eastern Cascades, Oregon

This study quantifies the short-term effects of low-, moderate-, and high-severity fire on carbon pools and fluxes in the Eastern Cascades of Oregon. We surveyed 64 forest stands across four fires that burned 41,000 ha (35%) of the Metolius Watershed in 2002 and 2003, stratifying the landscape by burn severity (overstory tree mortality), forest type (ponderosa pine [PP] and mixed-conifer [MC]), and prefire biomass. Stand-scale C combustion ranged from 13 to 35% of prefire aboveground C pools (area ? weighted mean = 22%). Across the sampled landscape, total estimated pyrogenic C emissions were equivalent to 2.5% of statewide anthropogenic CO₂ emissions from fossil fuel combustion and industrial processes for the same 2-year period. From low- to moderate- to high-severity ponderosa pine stands, average tree basal area mortality was 14, 49, and 100%, with parallel patterns in mixed-conifer stands (29, 58, 96%). Despite this decline in live aboveground C, total net primary productivity (NPP) was only 40% lower in high- versus low-severity stands, suggesting strong compensatory effects of non-tree vegetation on C uptake. Dead wood respiratory losses were small relative to total NPP (range: 10–35%), reflecting decomposition lags in this seasonally arid system. Although soil C, soil respiration, and fine root NPP were conserved across severity classes, net ecosystem production (NEP) declined with increasing severity, driven by trends in aboveground NPP. The high variability of C responses across this study underscores the need to account for landscape patterns of burn severity, particularly in regions such as the Pacific Northwest, where non-stand-replacement fire represents a large proportion of annual burned area.     

Changing growth response to wildfire in old‐growth ponderosa pine trees in montane forests of north central Idaho

North American fire‐adapted forests are experiencing changes in fire frequency and climate. These novel conditions may alter postwildfire responses of fire‐adapted trees that survive fires, a topic that has received little attention. Historical, frequent, low‐intensity wildfire in many fire‐adapted forests is generally thought to have a positive effect on the growth and vigor of trees that survive fires. Whether such positive effects can persist under current and future climate conditions is not known. Here, we evaluate long‐term responses to recurrent 20th‐century fires in ponderosa pine, a fire‐adapted tree species, in unlogged forests in north central Idaho. We also examine short‐term responses to individual 20th‐century fires and evaluate whether these responses have changed over time and whether potential variability relates to climate variables and time since last fire. Growth responses were assessed by comparing tree‐ring measurements from trees in stands burned repeatedly during the 20th century at roughly the historical fire frequency with trees in paired control stands that had not burned for at least 70 years. Contrary to expectations, only one site showed significant increases in long‐term growth responses in burned stands compared with control stands. Short‐term responses showed a trend of increasing negative effects of wildfire (reduced diameter growth in the burned stand compared with the control stand) in recent years that had drier winters and springs. There was no effect of time since the previous fire on growth responses to fire. The possible relationships of novel climate conditions with negative tree growth responses in trees that survive fire are discussed. A trend of negative growth responses to wildfire in old‐growth forests could have important ramifications for forest productivity and carbon balance under future climate scenarios.