Coarse woody debris: Managing benefits and fire hazard in the recovering forest

Brown, James K.; Reinhardt, Elizabeth D.; Kramer, Kylie A.

doi:10.2737/rmrs-gtr-105

Cited by 133 publications

(140 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…This is consistent with a pulse of new logs into the system, many of which (46.8%) were in decay class 1 when sampled in 2009, as well as with greater decay of logs in decay class 3; 100% of logs lost to decay between 2004 and 2009 in mixedconifer forest were in decay class 3 in 2004. Changes in decay status can affect fire behavior, with flammability and probability of ignition generally increasing as logs progress from sound to rotten (Brown et al, 2003). Thus, this large pulse of new logs has implications for fire behavior not only in terms of fuel loads (see below), but also with respect to fuel type.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Brown et al (2003) provided recommendations for optimal ranges of CWD in warm dry coniferous forests, based on factors such as resistance of fires to control, fire duration, soil heating, wildlife values, and historical ranges. Recent studies by Hoffman et al (2011) and Stevens-Rumann et al (2012) documented increases in surface fuel loads in ponderosa pine forests following disturbance by bark beetles and wildfire, respectively.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Coarse woody debris (CWD), defined as the large-size component of downed woody material (Harmon et al, 1986), provides important ecosystem services in forest systems (McComb & Lindenmayer, 1999;Butler et al, 2002;Woldendorp & Keenan, 2005), and amounts and types of CWD can affect surface fuel loads and fire behavior in these systems (Brown et al, 2003;Brewer, 2008). Much of the volume of CWD in southwestern mixed-conifer and ponderosa pine forests consists of logs (defined here as down woody material >20 cm in large-end diameter and ≥2 m in length).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Rapid Increase in Log Populations in Drought-Stressed Mixed-Conifer and Ponderosa Pine Forests in Northern Arizona

Ganey¹,

Vojta²

2012

OJF

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Down logs provide important ecosystem services in forests and affect surface fuel loads and fire behavior. Amounts and kinds of logs are influenced by factors such as forest type, disturbance regime, forest management, and climate. To quantify potential short-term changes in log populations during a recent globalclimate-change type drought, we sampled logs in mixed-conifer and ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) forests in northern Arizona in 2004 and 2009 (n = 53 and 60 1-ha plots in mixed-conifer and ponderosa pine forests, respectively). Over this short time interval, density of logs, log volume, area covered by logs, and total length of logs increased significantly in both forest types. Increases in all log parameters were greater in mixed-conifer than in ponderosa pine forest, and spatial variability was pronounced in both forest types. These results document rapid increases in log populations in mixed-conifer forest, with smaller changes observed in ponderosa pine forest. These increases were driven by climate-mediated tree mortality which created a pulse in log input, rather than by active forest management. The observed increases will affect wildlife habitat, surface fuel loads, and other ecosystem processes. These changes are likely to continue if climate change results in increased warmth and aridity as predicted, and may require shifts in management emphasis.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Rapid Increase in Log Populations in Drought-Stressed Mixed-Conifer and Ponderosa Pine Forests in Northern Arizona

Ganey¹,

Vojta²

2012

OJF

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“…Fire temperatures and burn times were modeled for the surface of v www.esajournals.org the mineral soil without a duff layer. While the exclusion of duff from consideration may cause the fire to appear hotter than it actually was, removal served to standardize the soil exposure, and was deemed an equitable means of comparison between fuel loadings (Brown et al 2003) since the relative change in fire characteristics along the interaction gradient was the phenomenon of interest. A map of burn severity was used to estimate distance to the edge of high-severity burned areas for the spatial scale analysis and neighborhood burn severity.…”

Section: Sitementioning

confidence: 99%

Disturbance interactions can impact resilience mechanisms of forests

2011

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Abstract. Interactions between multiple disturbances are of special concern in ecology due to their potential for non-linear behavior and long-lasting legacies on landscape structure and function. If multiple disturbances overcome the ecological resilience of a system, alternate stable states are possible. Increases in the frequency and severity of disturbance events as a result of climate change heighten this concern. This study directly addresses the question of ecosystem resilience in the face of multiple disturbances. We investigated a gradient of disturbance interaction severities between two events in a subalpine forest, a 1997 windstorm (variable severity) and a 2002 wildfire (high-severity). A third disturbance, salvage logging of blowdown (1999)(2000)(2001) prior to the fire, served as a de facto experimental treatment. Ninetynine study plots were established across the disturbance gradient, including fire-only areas for a baseline fire response. Modeling indicated that the combination of two severe disturbances created novel conditions which exceeded the resilience mechanisms of the system. Modeled mean fire residence time and temperature (First Order Fire Effects Model, FOFEM), as well as mean distance to potential seed sources, increased as a result of the interaction. Regeneration 8 years post-fire was essentially absent in medium-to high-severity blowdown þ fire plots, whereas low-severity blowdown þ fire and fire-only areas showed strong regeneration. Blowdown þ salvage þ fire had significantly higher regeneration than areas of comparable blowdown, suggesting that fuel loading drove the interaction. CART analysis supported this hypothesis. Multiple disturbances have the potential to create surprising situations and reduce the resilience of an ecosystem. Differential recovery as a result of a ''novel disturbance'' created by compounding events will likely have long lasting legacies across the landscape.

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“…As Kennedy et al (2010) noted, management effects on deadwood may not appear for 100-200 years due to the potentially long persistence of legacy deadwood. Based on this fact, a rule of thumb might be that a model needs to run at least twice as many years as it takes for an average freshly killed tree to fully decompose, although Brown et al (2003) argue that with uncertainty increasing with time, reasonable projections of deadwood can only be simulated for 50-100 years. If live tree models are used to grow trees for future deadwood inputs, upper time bounds for growth models may limit the maximum number of years that can be projected.…”

Section: H) Temporal Projectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modelling deadwood supply for biodiversity conservation: Considerations, challenges and recommendations

Venier

Hébert

Grandpré

et al. 2015

The Forestry Chronicle

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There are concerns that deadwood supply (both snags and downed wood) may become a limiting resource for biodiversity conservation as the bio-economy develops. Despite this concern, it remains difficult to monitor all elements of biodiversity to ensure that forest management activities are not reducing deadwood below minimum thresholds. As a dynamic resource, deadwood quantity and quality does change throughout forest succession. Simulation modelling represents one approach to integrating this variability and supporting the refinement of forest management guidelines. In this paper, we review important considerations for developing deadwood models that address biodiversity concerns. These include defining initial conditions, estimating deadwood inputs over time, identifying parameters necessary to represent biodiversity, identifying data available to parameterize, calibrate and validate models, and identifying requirements for model validation and documentation. In addition, we consider how deadwood characteristics such as form, size, state of decay, tree species, cause of mortality and position can be treated in models to represent the full range of biodiversity requirements. Lastly, we review examples of stand-alone and study-specific deadwood modelling approaches to provide a road map for development of a robust, temporally dynamic deadwood model that addresses biodiversity and sustainability issues related to biomass harvest for bioenergy.Key words: deadwood modelling, biodiversity, bioenergy, coarse woody debris, decay class, sustainability. RÉSUMÉOn craint que les stocks de bois mort (sous forme d'arbres debout et de débris au sol) pourraient devenir une ressource limitative en matière de conservation de la biodiversité au fur et à mesure du développement de la bioéconomie. Malgré ces inquiétudes, il demeure difficile de surveiller tous les éléments de biodiversité pour s'assurer que les activités d'aména-gement forestier ne réduisent pas la quantité de bois mort en deçà d'un seuil limite. En tant que ressource dynamique, la quantité et la qualité du bois mort changent au cours de l' évolution des peuplements forestiers. Un modèle de simulation constitue une approche d'intégration de cette variabilité et permet de raffiner les directives d'aménagement forestier. Nous révisons dans cet article les principales considérations à retenir dans l' élaboration de modèles de bois mort qui tiennent compte des questions de biodiversité. Celles-ci comportent les conditions initiales, l' estimation de la production de bois mort en fonction du temps, l'identification des paramètres requis pour représenter la biodiversité, l'identification des données disponibles pour établir les paramètres, la calibration et la validation des modèles et l'identification de ce qui est requis pour valider et documenter les modèles. De plus, nous avons étudié comment les caractéristiques du bois mort comme sa forme, ses dimensions, son état de décomposition, son espèce, la cause de la mortalité et sa position, pouvaient être traitées...

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Coarse woody debris: Managing benefits and fire hazard in the recovering forest

Cited by 133 publications

References 30 publications

Rapid Increase in Log Populations in Drought-Stressed Mixed-Conifer and Ponderosa Pine Forests in Northern Arizona

Rapid Increase in Log Populations in Drought-Stressed Mixed-Conifer and Ponderosa Pine Forests in Northern Arizona

Disturbance interactions can impact resilience mechanisms of forests

Modelling deadwood supply for biodiversity conservation: Considerations, challenges and recommendations

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