A 7000-Year Record of Environmental Change, Bear Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park, USA

Caffrey, M.; Doerner, James P.

doi:10.2747/0272-3646.33.5.438

Cited by 11 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…S2). This lack of change is consistent with pollen records from subalpine forests in Rocky Mountain National Park (Caffrey & Doerner ; Dunnette et al . ) and the region (e.g.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

“…year BP at Bear Lake (Fig. ; Caffrey & Doerner ). Plant macrofossil and pollen evidence from other sites in southern, central and northern Colorado suggests that treeline was above its present elevation from ca.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Palaeoclimate records from H idden L ake (Shuman et al . ), B ison L ake (Anderson ) and Y ellow L ake (Anderson ) are identified on the regional inset map, and the pollen and charcoal records from B ear L ake (Caffrey & Doerner ) and C hickaree L ake (Dunnette et al . ) are identified on the main map (X).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Fire‐regime complacency and sensitivity to centennial‐through millennial‐scale climate change in Rocky Mountain subalpine forests, Colorado, USA

2014

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Summary1. Key uncertainties in anticipating future fire regimes are their sensitivity to climate change, and the degree to which climate will impact fire regimes directly, through increasing the probability of fire, versus indirectly, through changes in vegetation and landscape flammability. 2. We studied the sensitivity of subalpine forest fire regimes (i.e. fire frequency, fire severity) to previously documented climate variability over the past 6000 years, utilizing pollen and macroscopic charcoal from high-resolution lake-sediment records in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado. We combined data from the four lakes to provide composite records of vegetation and fire history within a 200 km 2 study area. 3.Rates of forest burning were relatively complacent to millennial-scale summer cooling and decreased effective moisture. Mean return intervals between fire episodes, defined over 500-year periods, generally varied between 150 and 250 years, consistent with tree-ring-based estimates spanning recent centuries. Variability around these long-term means, however, was significantly correlated with variability in summer moisture (i.e. more burning with drier summers), inferred from existing lake-level and supporting palaeoenvironmental records. 4. The most pronounced change in fire regimes was in response to decreased subalpine forest density ca. 2400 cal. year BP, itself a response to regional cooling. This indirect impact of climate was followed by a decrease in charcoal production per fire, a proxy for crown-fire severity, while the long-term rate of burning remained unchanged. Over the last 1500 years, increased summer evaporation and drought frequency were associated with increased fire severity, highlighting a direct link between fire and climate. 5. Synthesis. Subalpine forest fire history reveals complacency and sensitivity of fire regimes to changing vegetation and hydroclimate over the past 6000 years. Complacency is highlighted by non-varying fire frequency over millennia. Sensitivity is evident through changes in biomass burned per fire (and inferred fire severity), in response to climate-induced changes in forest density and, more recently, increased summer drought. Overall, the palaeo record suggests that (i) fire severity may be more responsive to climate change than fire frequency in Rocky Mountain subalpine forests and (ii) the indirect impacts of climate on vegetation and fuels are important mechanisms determining fire-regime response to climate change.

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“…S2). This lack of change is consistent with pollen records from subalpine forests in Rocky Mountain National Park (Caffrey & Doerner ; Dunnette et al . ) and the region (e.g.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Fire‐regime complacency and sensitivity to centennial‐through millennial‐scale climate change in Rocky Mountain subalpine forests, Colorado, USA

2014

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“…Anderson et al, 2015;Carter et al, 2013;Jiménez-Moreno et al, 2011; Jiménez-Moreno and Anderson, 2013;Minckley et al, 2012), while other datasets are centered around smaller timeframes to capture specific events like the Medieval Climate Anomaly, Little Ice Age, and other brief periods of climate variation during the late Holocene from about 7000 calibrated years before 1950 AD (cal yr BP) to present (e.g. Caffrey and Doerner, 2012;Calder and Shuman, 2017;Dunnette et al, 2014;Leys et al, 2016).…”

Section: Paleoecological Findings From Rocky Mountain Subalpine Lakesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Paleoecological reconstructions during the late Holocene are often focused on capturing vegetation shifts in response to recent climate anomalies like the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA) from 1,200-850 cal yr BP (Cook et al, 2007) and the Little Ice Age (LIA) from 500-100 cal yr BP (Trouet et al, 2013) (e.g. Caffrey and Doerner, 2012;Calder and Shuman, 2017). In the western United States, the Medieval Climate Anomaly was characterized by increased prevailing drought conditions, as inferred through tree ring datasets (Cook et al, 2007), which has been interpreted to have driven the increases in regional wildfire activity around 1,000 cal yr BP (Calder et al, 2015;Marlon et al, 2006; observed in paleoecological reconstructions.…”

Section: Climate Reconstructions From Paleoecological Records In the mentioning

confidence: 99%

Vegetation Response to Wildfire and Climate Forcing in a Rocky Mountain Lodgepole Pine Forest Over the Past 2500 Years

Chileen¹,

McLauchlan²,

Higuera³

2019

Geological Society of America Abstracts With Programs

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Wildfire is a ubiquitous disturbance agent in Rocky Mountain subalpine forests.Lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta), a dominant tree species in subalpine forests of western North America, is largely resilient to high-severity fires. However, the resilience of lodgepole forests may be compromised with predicted changes to climate and moisture availability. While the modern post-fire dynamics of these systems are well studied, less is known about post-fire responses of lodgepole forests over the past few centuries and millennia. Thus, I investigated fire occurrence and post-fire vegetation change in a lodgepole forest over the past two millennia to understand ecosystem responses to variability in wildfire activity and climate. I reconstructed vegetation composition over the past 2,500 years in the small basin of Chickaree Lake, Colorado, U.S.A., in Rocky Mountain National Park. Pollen samples (n=52) were analyzed to characterize both broad-scale (centennial to millennial) trends in pollen assemblages associated with climate, and short-term (decadal) changes associated with multiple high-severity fire events previously reconstructed through charcoal analysis. Pollen assemblages were dominated by Pinus throughout the record. The primary broadscale change in pollen composition characterized by an increase Artemisia and Rosaceae, and a decrease in mean Pinus and extra local pollen (Quercus, Salix, and Sarcobatus), which occurred around 1,155 calibrated years before present (cal yr BP). This change is coincident with a shift towards increased winter precipitation which characterizes modern climate identified from δO 18 and lake level data. Wildfire occurrence resulted in significant decreases in Pinus pollen following the zone break at 1,155 cal yr BP, suggesting that impacts of fire on the composition of lodgepole pine forests may depend on underlying climate conditions. Throughout the past 2,500 years, vegetation composition returned to pre-fire conditions within 75 years, indicating overall resilience of Rocky Mountain lodgepole forests to fire activity despite some variability in post-fire vegetation recovery. v

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Assessing flood-induced ecological vulnerability and risk using GIS-based in situ measurements in Bhagirathi sub-basin, India

et al. 2021

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A 7000-Year Record of Environmental Change, Bear Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park, USA

Cited by 11 publications

References 39 publications

Fire‐regime complacency and sensitivity to centennial‐through millennial‐scale climate change in Rocky Mountain subalpine forests, Colorado, USA

Fire‐regime complacency and sensitivity to centennial‐through millennial‐scale climate change in Rocky Mountain subalpine forests, Colorado, USA

Vegetation Response to Wildfire and Climate Forcing in a Rocky Mountain Lodgepole Pine Forest Over the Past 2500 Years

Assessing flood-induced ecological vulnerability and risk using GIS-based in situ measurements in Bhagirathi sub-basin, India

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