Patterns of conifer tree regeneration following an autumn wildfire event in the western Oregon Cascade Range, USA

Larson, Andrew J.; Franklin, Jerry F.

doi:10.1016/j.foreco.2005.07.015

Cited by 70 publications

(65 citation statements)

References 35 publications

(46 reference statements)

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“…In a study at the Warner Creek Fire site unrelated to ours, Larson and Franklin (2005) found abundant regeneration 11 years after the fire, except in low-fire-severity areas, and attribute it to a bountiful seed year and a legacy of viable seeds that survived the fire.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 54%

“…Fire severity is an inconsistently applied but unavoidable concept in fire ecology (Keeley 2009). There is a need to provide an index of significance of a fire, but because actual measurements of energy flux, or "fire intensity," are usually impractical, fire severity describes an observed change in matter-for example, the percentage of canopy scorched or removed, observed via satellite or aerial photo (Odion et al 2004), the percentage of stems or basal area killed (Larson and Franklin 2005), or the visible effect on soil (Smucker et al 2005). We chose to use a measure of canopy damage because this could be evaluated both from the air and the ground.…”

Section: Fire Severities and Study Plotsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A local silviculturalist characterized seed in the year following the fire as generally sufficient or abundant (Bailey 1992). Larson and Franklin (2005) have suggested that many seeds survived the Warner fire in the canopy. P. menziesii that survived the fire were typically larger, older individuals, which tend to produce more seed than younger ones (Hermann and Lavender 1990); such trees may have been littering the ground with seeds even as they took a decade or more to die from the stress of the fire.…”

Section: Natural Regeneration Of Treesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Natural tree regeneration and coarse woody debris dynamics after a forest fire in the western Cascade Range

Brown¹,

Kertis²,

Huff³

2013

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Cover photosPlot number 16 at 7 and 14 years after fire. At 7 years, there is abundant regeneration of Pseudotsuga menziesii under a canopy of snags. At 14 years, the snag canopy is thinning out owing to snag fall and fragmentation; tree, shrub, and herb regeneration mix but trees are the tallest elements.This work was performed under USDA Forest Service PO AG-04T0-P-10-0057. We monitored coarse woody debris dynamics and natural tree regeneration over a 14-year period after the 1991 Warner Creek Fire, a 3631-ha (8,972-ac) mixedseverity fire in the western Cascade Range of Oregon. Rates for tree mortality in the fire, postfire mortality, snag fall, and snag fragmentation all showed distinct patterns by tree diameter and species, with Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco) more likely to survive a fire, and to remain standing as a snag, than other common tree species. Natural seedling regeneration was abundant, rapid, and highly variable in space. Densities of seedlings >10 cm height at 14 years postfire ranged from 1,530 to 392,000 per ha. Seedling establishment was not concentrated in a single year, and did not appear to be limited by the abundant growth of shrubs.The simultaneous processes of mortality, snag fall, and tree regeneration increased the variety of many measures of forest structure. The singular event of the fire has increased the structural diversity of the landscape.Keywords: Fire severity, monitoring, coarse woody debris, reforestation, snag recruitment, regeneration. SummaryWe monitored natural tree regeneration and coarse woody debris dynamics over 14 years following the 1991 Warner Creek Fire, a 3,631-ha (8,972-ac) mixed-severity fire in the western Cascade Range of Oregon. The results provide a detailed picture of the variety of natural postfire conditions in westside Cascade forests, and demonstrate how a single mixed-severity fire can increase variety in forest structures.We studied 24 permanent plots representative of the burned area and its mix of fire severities, which ranged from 0.1 to 100 percent of prefire canopy killed. Plots This postfire mortality rate was higher in plots with higher initial fire severity.Much of the new snag volume quickly transferred to the ground via snag fall and fragmentation. Small snags, and A. amabilis snags, were more likely to fall. Larger snags were more likely to fragment.Natural seedling regeneration was abundant, and highly variable in space. Densities of seedlings >10 cm height at 14 years postfire ranged from 1,670 to 392,000 per ha in the higher elevation zone, and from 1,530 to 47,500 per ha in the lower zone. New seedlings were observed over all study visits, in patterns demonstrating that establishment was not concentrated in a single year. The growth of shrubs was abundant but did not appear to be limiting tree regeneration. The mixed-severity fire, followed by variable mortality, snag fall, and tree regeneration, led to an increase in variability, among plots, of several metrics of forest structure. The prominence of P. menziesii ...

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 54%

Section: Fire Severities and Study Plotsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Natural Regeneration Of Treesmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Natural tree regeneration and coarse woody debris dynamics after a forest fire in the western Cascade Range

Brown¹,

Kertis²,

Huff³

2013

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“…In forested ecosystems fire severity has often been classified solely by overstory tree mortality, while incorporating other variables secondarily. For example, Larson and Franklin [19] defined low, moderate, and high severity fire levels by 0-20%, 20.1-80%, and >80.1% basal area mortality. In the context of remote sensing "fire severity" usually refers to measurements made in the same season as the fire [17].…”

Section: Remotely Sensed Burn-severity Indicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Robust Are Burn Severity Indices When Applied in a New Region? Evaluation of Alternate Field-Based and Remote-Sensing Methods

2012

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Abstract:Remotely sensed indices of burn severity are now commonly used by researchers and land managers to assess fire effects, but their relationship to field-based assessments of burn severity has been evaluated only in a few ecosystems. This analysis illustrates two cases in which methodological refinements to field-based and remotely sensed indices of burn severity developed in one location did not show the same improvement when used in a new location. We evaluated three methods of assessing burn severity in the field: the Composite Burn Index (CBI)-a standardized method of assessing burn severity that combines ecologically significant variables related to burn severity into one numeric site index-and two modifications of the CBI that weight the plot CBI score by the percentage cover of each stratum. Unexpectedly, models using the CBI had higher R 2 and better classification accuracy than models using the weighted versions of the CBI. We suggest that the weighted versions of the CBI have lower accuracies because weighting by percentage cover decreases the influence of the dominant tree stratum, which should have the strongest relationship to optically sensed reflectance, and increases the influence of the substrates strata, which should have the weakest relationship with optically sensed reflectance in forested ecosystems. Using a large data set of CBI plots (n = 251) from four fires and CBI scores derived from additional field-based assessments of burn severity (n = 388), we predicted two metrics of image-based burn severity, the Relative differenced Normalized Burn Ratio (RdNBR) and the differenced Normalized Burn Ratio (dNBR). Predictive models for RdNBR showed slightly better OPEN ACCESSRemote Sens. 2012, 4 457 classification accuracy than for dNBR (overall accuracy = 62%, Kappa = 0.40, and overall accuracy = 59%, Kappa= 0.36, respectively), whereas dNBR had slightly better explanatory power, but strong differences were not apparent. RdNBR may provide little or no improvement over dNBR in systems where pre-fire reflectance is not highly variable, but may be more appropriate for comparing burn severity among regions.

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“…Because most seed falls within relatively short distances of the parent plant, establishment tends to be dominated by species with established, reproducing populations at or near the site (Donato et al 2009, Larson and Franklin 2005, Zald et al 2008. Some local populations may be remnant or sink populations that are incapable of producing viable seed, whereas others may require favorable climatic conditions to produce seed.…”

Section: Establishmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate change effects on vegetation in the Pacific Northwest: a review and synthesis of the scientific literature and simulation model projections

Peterson¹,

Kerns²,

Dodson³

2014

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Patterns of conifer tree regeneration following an autumn wildfire event in the western Oregon Cascade Range, USA

Cited by 70 publications

References 35 publications

Natural tree regeneration and coarse woody debris dynamics after a forest fire in the western Cascade Range

Natural tree regeneration and coarse woody debris dynamics after a forest fire in the western Cascade Range

How Robust Are Burn Severity Indices When Applied in a New Region? Evaluation of Alternate Field-Based and Remote-Sensing Methods

Climate change effects on vegetation in the Pacific Northwest: a review and synthesis of the scientific literature and simulation model projections

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