Fire in upper Midwestern oak forest ecosystems: an oak forest restoration and management handbook

Frelich, Lee E.; Peterson, David W.

doi:10.2737/pnw-gtr-914

Cited by 15 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 51 publications

(66 reference statements)

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“…maple) and are almost completely absent in the plots that have remained savanna, likely limiting their ability to rapidly recruit when fire was excluded (Peterson & Reich 2001). As forest succession continues, pin and bur oak forests are replaced by red oaks and maples (Frelich et al 2015), but this has not yet occurred in CCSFE. While oak forests in eastern Minnesota can still burn (but fire is heavily suppressed), they would do so less frequently even under a natural fire regime than the savanna (fire return intervals of 15-50 vs. 3-6 years respectively).…”

Section: Role Of Species Compositionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Disease and fire interact to influence transitions between savanna–forest ecosystems over a multi‐decadal experiment

et al. 2021

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Global change is shifting disturbance regimes that may rapidly change ecosystems, sometimes causing ecosystems to shift between states. Interactions between disturbances such as fire and disease could have especially severe effects, but experimental tests of multi‐decadal changes in disturbance regimes are rare. Here, we surveyed vegetation for 35 years in a 54‐year fire frequency experiment in a temperate oak savanna–forest ecotone that experienced a recent outbreak of oak wilt. Different fire regimes determined whether plots were savanna or forest by regulating tree abundance (r2 = 0.70), but disease rapidly reversed the effect of fire exclusion, increasing mortality by 765% in unburned forests, but causing relatively minor changes in frequently burned savannas. Model simulations demonstrated that disease caused unburned forests to transition towards a unique woodland that was prone to transition to savanna if fire was reintroduced. Consequently, disease–fire interactions could shift ecosystem resilience and biome boundaries as pathogen distributions change.

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Section: Role Of Species Compositionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Disease and fire interact to influence transitions between savanna–forest ecosystems over a multi‐decadal experiment

et al. 2021

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“…In the absence of structure and composition indicative of resilience (i.e., overstory species diversity or advance reproduction), passively waiting for what may be an inevitable spruce beetle outbreak represents an important lost opportunity. There are extensive examples of the cost and uncertainty of restoration in diverse systems including oak-savannas across the Great Plains [38], and floodplain forests along the Mississippi River [39]. Having to start "from scratch", post-outbreak, (i.e., reacting to the outbreak) presents a restoration challenge that squanders the considerable opportunity that extant forests represent for the management of desired future structure and composition.…”

Section: Resilience Of Spruce-fir To Spruce Beetle Outbreaksmentioning

confidence: 99%

Building Resistance and Resilience: Regeneration Should Not be Left to Chance

Long

Windmuller-Campione

DeRose

2018

Forests

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Contemporary forest planning has tasked managers with developing goals associated with resistance and resilience. In practice, silviculturists use forest structure and tree species composition to characterize goals and desired future conditions, write prescriptions, and monitor outcomes associated with resistance and resilience. Although rarely discussed in the exploding literature relating to forest resistance and resilience, silvicultural regeneration methods are important and underutilized tools to meet these goals. We propose alternative silvicultural systems for building resistance and resilience to two common large-scale bark beetle disturbance agents in the Intermountain West, United States: mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins) and spruce beetle (Dendroctonus rufipennis Kirby). Shelterwood, and shelterwood-with-reserves, silvicultural systems provide the desirable facilitative characteristics of a mature overstory on maintaining advance reproduction and the establishment of new cohorts of desirable tree species. These also allow the timely regeneration of large treatment areas necessary to rapidly promote desired future conditions in the face of inevitable disturbance. When implemented proactively, regeneration treatments allow silviculturists to take advantage of currently existing vegetation for the creation of age class and tree species diversity. In general, these examples illustrate the need for proactive planning for regeneration in response to any disturbance where desired future conditions include particular species. Furthermore, we argue that timely silvicultural interventions that focus on regenerating trees may be a key factor in achieving goals relating to resilience to specific disturbance types. Waiting until after the disturbance has occurred could result in the lost opportunity to establish desired species composition or stand structure-and may well result in a considerable restoration challenge.

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“…We think the difference in firesusceptibility between the two oak species may account for this difference. Q. macrocarpa is considered among the most fire-resistant oaks, particularly as compared to Q. ellipsoidallis (Lorimer 1985, Frelich et al 2015, illustrated by the much higher survival rate (260% higher) of Q. macrocarpa during the study (Davis 2021). This means that Q. ellipsoidalis is more likely to serve as fuel, threatening the survival of their neighbors.…”

Section: Survivalmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neighbors consistently influence growth and survival in a frequently burned savanna

Davis

Condit

2021

Preprint

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Successful management of savannas is challenging and requires knowledge of the causes and consequences of the spatial arrangement of the trees. In savannas, trees are often aggregated, and the ability of trees within the clumps to survive fires plays a significant role in determining the savannas landscape dynamics. Whether or not a tree survives a fire is often dependent on the nature of their interactions with neighboring trees, positive or negative. In cases where disturbances are episodic, detecting these interactions is only going to be possible through long-term studies. Data reported here, from twenty-five years of annual tree censusing of a large grid-plot in a frequently burned savanna, showed consistent neighbor facilitated survival, irrespective as to whether the neighbors were conspecifics or heterospecifics. The positive interactions likely involve the reduction of both herbaceous and woody fuel in denser sites, and possibly mycorrhizal sharing among nearby trees.

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Fire in upper Midwestern oak forest ecosystems: an oak forest restoration and management handbook

Cited by 15 publications

References 51 publications

Disease and fire interact to influence transitions between savanna–forest ecosystems over a multi‐decadal experiment

Disease and fire interact to influence transitions between savanna–forest ecosystems over a multi‐decadal experiment

Building Resistance and Resilience: Regeneration Should Not be Left to Chance

Neighbors consistently influence growth and survival in a frequently burned savanna

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