Effects of Prescribed Fire and Season of Burn on Recruitment of the Invasive Exotic Plant, Potentilla recta, in a Semiarid Grassland

Abstract Prescribed fire is often used to restore grassland systems to presettlement conditions; however, fire also has the potential to facilitate the invasion of exotic plants. Managers of wildlands and nature reserves must decide whether and how to apply prescribed burning to the best advantage in the face of this dilemma. Herbicide is also used to control exotic plants, but interactions between fire and herbicides have not been well studied. Potentilla recta is an exotic plant invading Dancing Prairie Preserve in northwest Montana. We used a complete factorial design with all combinations of spring burn, fall burn, no burn, picloram herbicide, and no herbicide to determine the effects of fire, season of burn, and their interaction with herbicide on the recruitment and population growth of P. recta over a 5‐year period. Recruitment of P. recta was higher in burn plots compared with controls the first year after the fire, but this did not lead to significant population growth in subsequent years, possibly due to drier than normal conditions that occurred most years of the study. Effect of season of burn was variable among years but was higher in fall compared with spring burn plots across all years. Herbicide effectively eliminated P. recta from sample plots for 3–5 years. By the end of the study density of P. recta was greater in herbicide plots that were burned than those that were not. Results suggest that prescribed fire will enhance germination of P. recta, but this will not always lead to increased population growth. Prescribed fire may reduce the long‐term efficacy of herbicide applied to control P. recta and will be most beneficial at Dancing Prairie when conducted in the spring rather than the fall. Results of prescribed fire on exotic plant invasions in semiarid environments will be difficult to predict because they are strongly dependent on stochastic climatic events.     

Initial Effects of Prescribed Fire on Morphology, Abundance, and Phenology of Forbs in Big Sagebrush Communities in Southeastern Oregon

Abstract Historic fire return intervals in Artemesia tridentata (big sagebrush) ecosystems have been altered by livestock grazing, fire suppression, and other land management techniques resulting in ecological changes in these areas. Increases in abundance of woody vegetation may be causing declines in native herbaceous understory species. We examined the effects of prescribed fire on the morphology, abundance, and phenology of nine abundant forb (herbaceous dicot) species used selectively by Centrocercus urophasianus (Sage Grouse). In September 1997 prescribed fire was applied to four of eight randomly assigned 400‐ha A.t. wyomingensis (Wyoming big sagebrush) study plots at Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge, Oregon. Livestock had not grazed experimental plots since 1991. Burning caused morphological changes such as significantly greater numbers of racemes and flowers per raceme in Astragalus malachus (shaggy milkvetch‐Legumoideae) (9 in burn vs. 6 in control; 23 in burn vs. 21 in control, respectively). Also, prescribed burning caused greater numbers of flowers in Phlox gracilis (microsteris‐Polemoniaceae) (57 vs. 13), greater numbers of umbels and umbelletts in Lomatium nevadense (Nevada desert parsley‐Umbellifereae) (4 vs. 2 and 59 vs. 31, respectively), greater numbers of flower heads in Crepis modocensis (Modoc hawksbeard‐Compositae) (32 vs. 21), and greater number of flowers/cm³ in Phlox longifolia (longleaf phlox‐Polemoniaceae) (0.11 vs. 0.06). Crown volume of Crepis modocensis (7,085 vs. 4,179 cm³) and Astragalus malachus (2,854 vs. 1,761 cm³) plants was greater in burned plots than control plots. However, burning resulted in a smaller crown area of Antennaria dimorpha (low pussytoes‐Compositae) (20 vs. 37 cm²). Phenology and time of flowering were also affected by fire. The period of active growth for each species was extended later into the summer in burned plots ( p < 0.01). In addition, Crepis modocensis and Lomatium nevadense flowered 12 to 14 days earlier in burned plots. Fire had no effect on frequency, density, and relative abundance of seven of the nine studied species. Fire reduced the frequency and relative abundance of A. dimorpha and Phlox longifolia and reduced the density of A. dimorpha.     

Micro-Scale Restoration: A 25-Year History of a Southern Illinois Barrens

We studied vegetation change of a remnant barrens in southern Illinois over twenty‐five years. The study area was periodically burned between 1969 and 1993, but fire was excluded for a 16‐year period (1974–1989). During the study, the barrens supported a mixture of species whose preferred habitats ranged from prairie and open woodlands to closed forest communities. The herbaceous vegetation may be on a trajectory characterized by increasing dominance of woodland species and declining prairie species. Fire management temporarily reversed this trend, but it continued once fire was excluded. Reintroduction of prescribed burning in 1990–1993 altered the vegetation trajectory but not back toward a species composition comparable to that present on the site before cessation of fire management after 1973. Following interruption of prescribed burning, tree basal area more than doubled, and density showed a 67% increase between premanagement conditions in 1968 and 1988. Salix humilis (prairie willow) density had significant negative correlations with tree density and basal area. However, there was no consistency in response of shrub species on the site to the varied site conditions over time. Fire management on the site may not recover the historic barrens that occurred on the site. Nevertheless, consistent fire management will drive vegetation changes toward increasing abundance of prairie and open woodland species that would otherwise be lost without burning.     

Fire, fuels and restoration of ponderosa pine–Douglas fir forests in the Rocky Mountains, USA

Aim Forest restoration in ponderosa pine and mixed ponderosa pine–Douglas fir forests in the US Rocky Mountains has been highly influenced by a historical model of frequent, low‐severity surface fires developed for the ponderosa pine forests of the Southwestern USA. A restoration model, based on this low‐severity fire model, focuses on thinning and prescribed burning to restore historical forest structure. However, in the US Rocky Mountains, research on fire history and forest structure, and early historical reports, suggest the low‐severity model may only apply in limited geographical areas. The aim of this article is to elaborate a new variable‐severity fire model and evaluate the applicability of this model, along with the low‐severity model, for the ponderosa pine–Douglas fir forests of the Rocky Mountains. Location Rocky Mountains, USA. Methods The geographical applicability of the two fire models is evaluated using historical records, fire histories and forest age‐structure analyses. Results Historical sources and tree‐ring reconstructions document that, near or before ad 1900, the low‐severity model may apply in dry, low‐elevation settings, but that fires naturally varied in severity in most of these forests. Low‐severity fires were common, but high‐severity fires also burned thousands of hectares. Tree regeneration increased after these high‐severity fires, and often attained densities much greater than those reconstructed for Southwestern ponderosa pine forests. Main conclusions Exclusion of fire has not clearly and uniformly increased fuels or shifted the fire type from low‐ to high‐severity fires. However, logging and livestock grazing have increased tree densities and risk of high‐severity fires in some areas. Restoration is likely to be most effective which seeks to (1) restore variability of fire, (2) reverse changes brought about by livestock grazing and logging, and (3) modify these land uses so that degradation is not repeated.     

Effects of Differences in Prescribed Fire Regimes on Patchiness and Intensity of Fires in Subtropical Savannas of Everglades National Park, Florida

Abstract We investigated effects of fire frequency, seasonal timing, and plant community on patchiness and intensity of prescribed fires in subtropical savannas in the Long Pine Key region of Everglades National Park, Florida (U.S.A.). We measured patchiness and intensity in different plant communities along elevation gradients in “fire blocks.” These blocks were prescribed burned at varying times during the lightning season and at different frequencies between 1995 and 2000. Fire frequency, seasonal timing, and plant community all influenced the patchiness and intensity of prescribed fires. Fires were less patchy and more intense, probably because of drier conditions and pyrogenic fuels, in higher elevation plant communities (e.g., high pine savannas) than in lower elevation communities (e.g., long‐hydroperiod prairies). In all plant communities fires became increasingly patchy and less intense as the wet season progressed and moisture accumulated in fuels. Frequent prescribed fire resulted in increased patchiness but a wider range of intensities; higher intensities appeared to result from regrowth of more flammable vegetation. Our study suggests that frequent early lightning season prescribed fires produce a wider range of post‐fire conditions than less frequent late lightning season prescribed fires. Our study also suggests that natural early lightning season fires readily carried through pine savannas and short‐hydroperiod prairies, but lower elevation long‐hydroperiod prairies functioned as firebreaks. Natural fires probably crossed these firebreaks only during drier years, potentially producing large landscape‐level fires. Knowledge of how patchily and intensely fires burn across a savanna landscape should be useful for developing landscape‐level fire management.     

Restoration of a Native Shrubland Impacted by Exotic Grasses, Frequent Fire, and Nitrogen Deposition in Southern California

Natural ecosystems globally are often subject to multiple human disturbances that are difficult to restore. A restoration experiment was done in an urban fragment of native coastal sage scrub vegetation in Riverside, California that has been subject to frequent fire, high anthropogenic nitrogen deposition, and invasion by Mediterranean annual weeds. Hand cultivation and grass‐specific herbicide were both successful in controlling exotic annual grasses and promoting establishment of seeded coastal sage scrub vegetation. There was no native seedbank left at this site after some 30 years of conversion to annual grassland, and the only native plants that germinated were the seeded shrubs, with the exception of one native summer annual. The city green‐waste mulch used in this study (C:N of 39:1) caused short‐term N immobilization but did not result in decreased grass density or increased native shrub establishment. Seeding native shrubs was successful in a wet year in this Mediterranean‐type climate but was unsuccessful in a dry year. An accidental spring fire did not burn first‐year shrubs, although adjacent plots dominated by annual grass did burn. The shrubs continued to exclude exotic grasses into the second growing season, suggesting that successful shrub establishment may reduce the frequency of the fire return interval.     

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.     

Soil-surface carbon dioxide efflux and microbial biomass in relation to tree density 13 years after a stand replacing fire in a lodgepole pine ecosystem

The effects of fire on soil‐surface carbon dioxide (CO₂) efflux, F_S, and microbial biomass carbon, C_mic, were studied in a wildland setting by examining 13‐year‐old postfire stands of lodgepole pine differing in tree density (< 500 to > 500 000 trees ha^?1) in Yellowstone National Park (YNP). In addition, young stands were compared to mature lodgepole pine stands (～110‐year‐old) in order to estimate ecosystem recovery 13 years after a stand replacing fire. Growing season F_S increased with tree density in young stands (1.0 µmol CO₂ m^?2 s^?1 in low‐density stands, 1.8 µmol CO₂ m^?2 s^?1 in moderate‐density stands and 2.1 µmol CO₂ m^?2 s^?1 in high‐density stands) and with stand age (2.7 µmol CO₂ m^?2 s^?1 in mature stands). Microbial biomass carbon in young stands did not differ with tree density and ranged from 0.2 to 0.5 mg C g^?1 dry soil over the growing season; C_mic was significantly greater in mature stands (0.5–0.8 mg C g^?1 dry soil). Soil‐surface CO₂ efflux in young stands was correlated with biotic variables (above‐ground, below‐ground and microbial biomass), but not with abiotic variables (litter and mineral soil C and N content, bulk density and soil texture). Microbial biomass carbon was correlated with below‐ground plant biomass and not with soil carbon and nitrogen, indicating that plant activity controls not only root respiration, but C_mic pools and overall F_S rates as well. These findings support recent studies that have demonstrated the prevailing importance of plants in controlling rates of F_S and suggest that decomposition of older, recalcitrant soil C pools in this ecosystem is relatively unimportant 13 years after a stand replacing fire. Our results also indicate that realistic predictions and modeling of terrestrial C cycling must account for the variability in tree density and stand age that exists across the landscape as a result of natural disturbances.     

Diversity and succession of epiphytic macrolichen communities in low‐elevation managed conifer forests in Western Oregon

Abstract. We examined epiphytic macrolichen communities in Pseudotsuga menziesii (Douglas‐fir) forests across the western Oregon landscape for relationships to environmental gradients, stand age and structure, and commercial thinning. We used a retrospective, blocked design through the Coast and the western Cascade ranges of Oregon. Each of our 17 blocks consisted of a young, unthinned stand (age 50–110 yr); an adjacent, thinned stand of equivalent age; and an old‐growth stand (age > 200 yr). We found 110 epiphytic macrolichen taxa in the stands. Forage‐providing alectorioid lichens and the nitrogen‐fixing cyanolichen Lobaria oregana associated strongly with old‐growth stands and remnant old trees in younger stands (unthinned + thinned). Relative to unthinned stands, thinned stands had a slightly higher abundance of alectorioid lichens and a greater presence of Hypogymnia imshaugii. However, thinned stands hosted a lower landscape‐level (γ) diversity, lacking many species that occurred infrequently in the unthinned stands. Patterns in the lichen community composition correlated strongly with climatic gradients; the greatest variation in composition was between the Coast and Cascade ranges. The difference in communities between mountain ranges was greatest among stands 70–110 yr old, suggesting a difference in lichen successional dynamics between the ranges.