Advancing Fire Science with Large Forest Plots and a Long-Term Multidisciplinary Approach

Abstract

Large, spatially explicit forest plots have the potential to address currently understudied aspects of fire ecology and management, including the validation of physics-based fire behavior models and next-generation fire effects models. Pre-fire forest structures, fire-mediated mortality, and post-fire forest development can be examined in a spatial context, and value can be added to current multidisciplinary approaches by adding a long-term perspective. Here we propose that the fire science community begin to build a collaborative network of fire-related large forest dynamics plots to examine explicit spatial patterns of surface fuels, tree mortality, and post-fire regeneration throughout ecosystems with frequent-fire forests.Keywords: large forest plots; fire severity; Smithsonian ForestGEO; Yosemite Forest Dynamics Plot One of the central challenges in fire ecology and management is to validate next-generation models at ecologically and operationally relevant scales. This includes physics-based fire behavior models and physiologically informed fire effects models, as well as integration of outputs from such models with measurements of fire effects and post-fire ecosystem development. Meeting this challenge will require large field sites in which surface and canopy fuels are mapped in three-dimensional (3D) space at high resolution [1] and where medium-and long-term fire effects on community composition, structure, and fuel accumulation are measured. Here, we suggest that large, spatially explicit forest plots modeled after the Smithsonian ForestGEO network [2] are a key investment needed to meet one of the most pressing research challenges in fire science.The high-frequency, low-and moderate-severity fire regime forest types are the most appropriate ecosystems for investment in large, spatially explicit forest plots. Recent modeling studies illustrate the effects of fine-scale differences in stand structure on fire behavior (e.g., [3]), with the finding that aggregated fuel patterns (i.e., arising from spatially aggregated tree patterns) increase the variability of fire behavior. These initial results suggest a promising pathway for testing conceptual models for forest dynamics and the generation of spatial heterogeneity in frequent-fire forests [4,5]), and for the design and evaluation of fuel reduction, restoration, and climate change adaptation treatments in frequent-fire forests [6,7].Large plots in which pre-fire measurements are comprehensive and long-term fire effects are monitored can fill gaps in fire research. Potential improvements extend from the scale of ecophysiological measurements of fire on seedlings [8] to socio-ecological "firescapes" [9] and to large landscapes [10].

Fixing a snag in carbon emissions estimates from wildfires

“…The YFDP (800 m × 320 m) was divided into ten, 160 m × 160 m quadrats, and pre-and post-fire aboveground carbon pools were calculated for each quadrat (Table 1, and Tables S3 and S4). The plot was burned in an unattended backfire set by Yosemite National Park to check the advance of the Rim Fire (Lutz, Larson, & Swanson, 2018;Lutz et al, 2017).…”

Stem-Maps of Forest Restoration Cuttings in Pinus ponderosa-Dominated Forests in the Interior West, USA

“…The Wildland-urban interface Fire Dynamics Simulator (WFDS) model is interoperable with stem-map data, as WFDS resolves the distribution of vegetative fuel throughout three-dimensional space [11]. The dual assessment of tree pattern manipulation and spatial tree-fire behavior interactions is important considering how much remains unknown regarding how tree spatial arrangements alter wildland fire behavior [6,12,13]. Stem-maps are therefore useful data products for forest and wildland fire research [13].…”

“…The dual assessment of tree pattern manipulation and spatial tree-fire behavior interactions is important considering how much remains unknown regarding how tree spatial arrangements alter wildland fire behavior [6,12,13]. Stem-maps are therefore useful data products for forest and wildland fire research [13].…”

Genetic and Spatial Structuring of Populus tremuloides in a Mixed-Species Forest of Southwestern Utah, USA

“…The study site was the Utah Forest Dynamics Plot (UFDP), located in Cedar Breaks National Monument in southwestern Utah (latitude 37.66° N, longitude 112.85° W). The UFDP is a 13.64-ha forest dynamics plot affiliated with the Smithsonian ForestGEO network (Anderson-Teixeira et al 2015, Lutz 2015, Lutz et al 2018b) within which all 23,177 live woody stems ≥1 cm diameter at breast height (dbh; 1.37 along the main stem) have been identified, mapped, and tagged (Furniss et al 2017). The UFDP has 8 habitat types differentiated by soil parent material and topographic position (Furniss et al 2017), with all 8 habitat types showing positive or negative associations with the principal woody species (Table S3 in Furniss et al 2017).…”