Limited conifer regeneration following wildfires in dry ponderosa pine forests of the Colorado Front Range

Rother, Monica T.; Veblen, Thomas T.

doi:10.1002/ecs2.1594

Cited by 100 publications

(94 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…While the conditions created by high-severity fire can lead to dispersal and recruitment limitations [23,25,29], the residual forest structure following mixed-severity fire contained fire-resistant, seed-bearing conifer trees [68], whose location within the landscape, thick bark, and high crown base heights facilitated their survival and post-fire forest recovery. The residual forest following mixed-severity fire was sufficient to support natural regeneration within 12 years following the fire, in a region where seed masting events are episodic [26,69,70] and occur on average every 3-12 years for dominant conifers (ponderosa pine and Douglas-fir), with limited seed availability in intervening years [71].…”

Section: Post-fire Regenerationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mixed-Severity Fire Fosters Heterogeneous Spatial Patterns of Conifer Regeneration in a Dry Conifer Forest

Malone

Fornwalt

Battaglia

et al. 2018

Forests

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Abstract:We examined spatial patterns of post-fire regenerating conifers in a Colorado, USA, dry conifer forest 11-12 years following the reintroduction of mixed-severity fire. We mapped and measured all post-fire regenerating conifers, as well as all other post-fire regenerating trees and all residual (i.e., surviving) trees, in three 4-ha plots following the 2002 Hayman Fire. Residual tree density ranged from 167 to 197 trees ha −1 (TPH), and these trees were clustered at distances up to 30 m. Post-fire regenerating conifers, which ranged in density from 241 to 1036 TPH, were also clustered at distances up to at least 30 m. Moreover, residual tree locations drove post-fire regenerating conifer locations, with the two showing a pattern of repulsion. Topography and post-fire sprouting tree species locations further drove post-fire conifer regeneration locations. These results provide a foundation for anticipating how the reintroduction of mixed-severity fire may affect long-term forest structure, and also yield insights into how historical mixed-severity fire may have regulated the spatially heterogeneous conditions commonly described for pre-settlement dry conifer forests of Colorado and elsewhere.

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Section: Post-fire Regenerationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mixed-Severity Fire Fosters Heterogeneous Spatial Patterns of Conifer Regeneration in a Dry Conifer Forest

Malone

Fornwalt

Battaglia

et al. 2018

Forests

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“…Regardless of future precipitation patterns, which remain uncertain, rising temperatures are likely to drive increasing drought stress across many western forest landscapes due to increasing evapotranspiration, temperature‐induced increases in evaporative demand, and reduced winter snowpack (Adams et al., ; Gergel, Nijssen, Abatzoglou, Lettenmaier, & Stumbaugh, ; Williams et al., ). The drier sites within a region currently tend to face greater risk of poor postfire tree recruitment (Dodson & Root, ; Donato, Harvey, & Turner, ; Rother & Veblen, ), suggesting that a growing portion of the landscape could become subject slower forest recovery in a warmer, drier climate. Also, long distance from seed sources, which is commonly associated with larger or more severe fires, can further limit postfire recruitment and extend the time to forest recovery (Donato, Fontaine, Campbell et al., 2009; Harvey, Donato, & Turner, ; Kemp, Higuera, & Morgan, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vulnerability to forest loss through altered postfire recovery dynamics in a warming climate in the Klamath Mountains

Tepley

Thompson

Epstein

et al. 2017

Global Change Biology

168

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In the context of ongoing climatic warming, certain landscapes could be near a tipping point where relatively small changes to their fire regimes or their postfire forest recovery dynamics could bring about extensive forest loss, with associated effects on biodiversity and carbon-cycle feedbacks to climate change. Such concerns are particularly valid in the Klamath Region of northern California and southwestern Oregon, where severe fire initially converts montane conifer forests to systems dominated by broadleaf trees and shrubs. Conifers eventually overtop the competing vegetation, but until they do, these systems could be perpetuated by a cycle of reburning. To assess the vulnerability of conifer forests to increased fire activity and altered forest recovery dynamics in a warmer, drier climate, we characterized vegetation dynamics following severe fire in nine fire years over the last three decades across the climatic aridity gradient of montane conifer forests. Postfire conifer recruitment was limited to a narrow window, with 89% of recruitment in the first 4 years, and height growth tended to decrease as the lag between the fire year and the recruitment year increased. Growth reductions at longer lags were more pronounced at drier sites, where conifers comprised a smaller portion of live woody biomass. An interaction between seed-source availability and climatic aridity drove substantial variation in the density of regenerating conifers. With increasing climatic water deficit, higher propagule pressure (i.e., smaller patch sizes for high-severity fire) was needed to support a given conifer seedling density, which implies that projected future increases in aridity could limit postfire regeneration across a growing portion of the landscape. Under a more severe prospective warming scenario, by the end of the century more than half of the area currently capable of supporting montane conifer forest could become subject to minimal conifer regeneration in even moderate-sized (10s of ha) high-severity patches. K E Y W O R D SDouglas-fir, forest resilience, Klamath Mountains, postfire recruitment, propagule pressure, reburn, stem analysis, tipping point, tree regeneration

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“…Such forests were preferentially treated under the National Fire Plan in 2004-2008 (80). Thinning may effectively restore more frequent, low-severity fire in some dry forests, but when thinning is combined with the expected warming, unintended consequences may ensue, whereby regeneration is compromised and forested areas convert to nonforest (56,57,81). Strategic placement of treatments to promote low-severity fire at ecotones between dry and mesic forest distributions may help facilitate postfire migration of species better adapted to warmer, drier conditions.…”

Section: Firementioning

confidence: 99%

Adapt to more wildfire in western North American forests as climate changes

Schoennagel

Balch

Brenkert–Smith

et al. 2017

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

594

416

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Wildfires across western North America have increased in number and size over the past three decades, and this trend will continue in response to further warming. As a consequence, the wildland-urban interface is projected to experience substantially higher risk of climate-driven fires in the coming decades. Although many plants, animals, and ecosystem services benefit from fire, it is unknown how ecosystems will respond to increased burning and warming. Policy and management have focused primarily on specified resilience approaches aimed at resistance to wildfire and restoration of areas burned by wildfire through fire suppression and fuels management. These strategies are inadequate to address a new era of western wildfires. In contrast, policies that promote adaptive resilience to wildfire, by which people and ecosystems adjust and reorganize in response to changing fire regimes to reduce future vulnerability, are needed. Key aspects of an adaptive resilience approach are (i) recognizing that fuels reduction cannot alter regional wildfire trends; (ii) targeting fuels reduction to increase adaptation by some ecosystems and residential communities to more frequent fire; (iii) actively managing more wild and prescribed fires with a range of severities; and (iv) incentivizing and planning residential development to withstand inevitable wildfire. These strategies represent a shift in policy and management from restoring ecosystems based on historical baselines to adapting to changing fire regimes and from unsustainable defense of the wildlandurban interface to developing fire-adapted communities. We propose an approach that accepts wildfire as an inevitable catalyst of change and that promotes adaptive responses by ecosystems and residential communities to more warming and wildfire.wildfire | resilience | forests | wildland-urban interface | policy

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Limited conifer regeneration following wildfires in dry ponderosa pine forests of the Colorado Front Range

Cited by 100 publications

References 48 publications

Mixed-Severity Fire Fosters Heterogeneous Spatial Patterns of Conifer Regeneration in a Dry Conifer Forest

Mixed-Severity Fire Fosters Heterogeneous Spatial Patterns of Conifer Regeneration in a Dry Conifer Forest

Vulnerability to forest loss through altered postfire recovery dynamics in a warming climate in the Klamath Mountains

Adapt to more wildfire in western North American forests as climate changes

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