Determining Reference Conditions for Ecosystem Management of Southwestern Ponderosa Pine Forests

Fulé, Peter Z.; Covington, W. Wallace; Moore, Margaret M.

doi:10.2307/2269441

Cited by 135 publications

(218 citation statements)

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“…Our approach to classifying communities based on degraded conditions should be broadly applicable to other ecosystems around the world modified by human land use and altered fire regimes, including fragmented woodlands in Australia [45], fire-suppressed savannas in Brazil [47], and forests in the western United States [6], [48], among others. During such application, our framework for developing reference models should be modified to include the relevant suspected drivers of degradation for an ecosystem of interest.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Land-Use History and Contemporary Management Inform an Ecological Reference Model for Longleaf Pine Woodland Understory Plant Communities

et al. 2014

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Ecological restoration is frequently guided by reference conditions describing a successfully restored ecosystem; however, the causes and magnitude of ecosystem degradation vary, making simple knowledge of reference conditions insufficient for prioritizing and guiding restoration. Ecological reference models provide further guidance by quantifying reference conditions, as well as conditions at degraded states that deviate from reference conditions. Many reference models remain qualitative, however, limiting their utility. We quantified and evaluated a reference model for southeastern U.S. longleaf pine woodland understory plant communities. We used regression trees to classify 232 longleaf pine woodland sites at three locations along the Atlantic coastal plain based on relationships between understory plant community composition, soils (which broadly structure these communities), and factors associated with understory degradation, including fire frequency, agricultural history, and tree basal area. To understand the spatial generality of this model, we classified all sites together and for each of three study locations separately. Both the regional and location-specific models produced quantifiable degradation gradients–i.e., progressive deviation from conditions at 38 reference sites, based on understory species composition, diversity and total cover, litter depth, and other attributes. Regionally, fire suppression was the most important degrading factor, followed by agricultural history, but at individual locations, agricultural history or tree basal area was most important. At one location, the influence of a degrading factor depended on soil attributes. We suggest that our regional model can help prioritize longleaf pine woodland restoration across our study region; however, due to substantial landscape-to-landscape variation, local management decisions should take into account additional factors (e.g., soil attributes). Our study demonstrates the utility of quantifying degraded states and provides a series of hypotheses for future experimental restoration work. More broadly, our work provides a framework for developing and evaluating reference models that incorporate multiple, interactive anthropogenic drivers of ecosystem degradation.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Land-Use History and Contemporary Management Inform an Ecological Reference Model for Longleaf Pine Woodland Understory Plant Communities

et al. 2014

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“…The forest is predominantly ponderosa pine with a Gambel oak ( Quercus gambelii ) and Rocky Mountain juniper ( Juniperus scopulorum ) component. This landscape was historically shaped by frequent surface fires occurring every 2–20 years [17], but livestock grazing, logging, and fire suppression have altered the forest structure such that tree density, canopy cover, and surface fuels have all increased relative to the fire-maintained condition, transitioning the fire regime from frequent surface fires to infrequent stand-replacing fires [18–19]. …”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The model requires the landscape be subdivided into abiotically similar ecoregions and that an initial forest communities layer be developed that includes the spatial distribution of age-cohorts of species. Following Hurteau et al [8] I used the same 150m grid, six ecoregions, and initial communities layer (comprised of ponderosa pine and Gambel oak) that were developed based on soil properties, topographic variables, forest inventory data, and age-size distributions from Fulé et al [19] and Mast et al [25] for all simulations.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantifying the Carbon Balance of Forest Restoration and Wildfire under Projected Climate in the Fire-Prone Southwestern US

Hurteau

2017

PLoS ONE

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Climate projections for the southwestern US suggest a warmer, drier future and have the potential to impact forest carbon (C) sequestration and post-fire C recovery. Restoring forest structure and surface fire regimes initially decreases total ecosystem carbon (TEC), but can stabilize the remaining C by moderating wildfire behavior. Previous research has demonstrated that fire maintained forests can store more C over time than fire suppressed forests in the presence of wildfire. However, because the climate future is uncertain, I sought to determine the efficacy of forest management to moderate fire behavior and its effect on forest C dynamics under current and projected climate. I used the LANDIS-II model to simulate carbon dynamics under early (2010–2019), mid (2050–2059), and late (2090–2099) century climate projections for a ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) dominated landscape in northern Arizona. I ran 100-year simulations with two different treatments (control, thin and burn) and a 1 in 50 chance of wildfire occurring. I found that control TEC had a consistent decline throughout the simulation period, regardless of climate. Thin and burn TEC increased following treatment implementation and showed more differentiation than the control in response to climate, with late-century climate having the lowest TEC. Treatment efficacy, as measured by mean fire severity, was not impacted by climate. Fire effects were evident in the cumulative net ecosystem exchange (NEE) for the different treatments. Over the simulation period, 32.8–48.9% of the control landscape was either C neutral or a C source to the atmosphere and greater than 90% of the thin and burn landscape was a moderate C sink. These results suggest that in southwestern ponderosa pine, restoring forest structure and surface fire regimes provides a reasonable hedge against the uncertainty of future climate change for maintaining the forest C sink.

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“…The initial settlement of the Southwest by Euro-Americans (circa 1880s) markedly changed forest structure through intensive logging, livestock grazing and fire suppression, as well as indirectly through fire exclusion (Fulé et al, 1997;Allen et al, 2002;Moore et al, 2004;Cocke et al, 2005). These legacies of past land-use practices, or land-use legacies (a.k.a.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reprint of: Lessons from long-term studies of harvest methods in southwestern ponderosa pine–Gambel oak forests on the Fort Valley Experimental Forest, Arizona, U.S.A.

Meador¹,

Moore²

2011

Forest Ecology and Management

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a b s t r a c tThe Fort Valley Experiment Station (now Fort Valley Experimental Forest) has contributed many longterm studies to forest research. This paper focuses on a "Methods of Cutting" study initiated in 1913 on the Coulter Ranch Unit of Fort Valley and how that long-term study yielded important ecological and management lessons. We quantified the historical and contemporary forest patterns at this ponderosa pine-Gambel oak site, which was harvested using three different harvesting systems in 1913 (seed tree, group selection, and light selection) and was partially excluded from livestock browsing in 1919. Using nine historically stem-mapped permanent plots for the following three stand structural scenarios: 1913 pre-harvest (modeled), post-harvest (actual), and 2003-2006 (actual) conditions, we examined the shortand long-term consequences of harvest and livestock grazing land-use and stand dynamics. We assessed changes in spatial pattern under each harvesting system and in each structural scenario, and lastly, we examined spatial and temporal tree recruitment patterns as observed in the contemporary (2003)(2004)(2005)(2006) conditions. The seed tree harvests effectively converted the spatial patterns from aggregated to random and left few trees, while the group selection and light selection had varying effects, but consistently exaggerated the spatial patchiness of the stand. By 2003-2006, all plots were aggregated at all scales and were one large patch of predominately small trees. Sites that were harvested, but excluded from livestock browsing had 40% more trees in [2003][2004][2005][2006]. Contemporary recruitment patterns were significantly aggregated under all harvesting systems, but were most strongly aggregated if the site received a group selection or light selection cut. For group and light selection, pine seedlings initially established in stump patches created by harvesting and then proceeded to fill-in the remaining area, with recruitment rarely found under the residual pine or oak trees. Long-term data sets, such as these established by the Fort Valley Experimental Forest in 1913, are essential for quantifying the impact of historical land-use practices on contemporary forest composition and structure. Ignoring land-use legacies may lead to the misinterpretation of stand dynamics and development, and therefore should be explicitly quantified and incorporated into future management and restoration activities. (M.M. Moore).

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Determining Reference Conditions for Ecosystem Management of Southwestern Ponderosa Pine Forests

Cited by 135 publications

References 0 publications

Land-Use History and Contemporary Management Inform an Ecological Reference Model for Longleaf Pine Woodland Understory Plant Communities

Land-Use History and Contemporary Management Inform an Ecological Reference Model for Longleaf Pine Woodland Understory Plant Communities

Quantifying the Carbon Balance of Forest Restoration and Wildfire under Projected Climate in the Fire-Prone Southwestern US

Reprint of: Lessons from long-term studies of harvest methods in southwestern ponderosa pine–Gambel oak forests on the Fort Valley Experimental Forest, Arizona, U.S.A.

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