Continuity in fire disturbance between riparian and adjacent sideslope Douglas-fir forests

Site effects outweigh riparian influences on ground-dwelling beetles adjacent to first order streams in wet eucalypt forest

“…Plant species distribution is generally used to define the boundaries of the riparian zone (Brinson and Verhoeven 1999;Naiman et al 1998), with the result that an a priori judgment of riparian zone width based on vegetation has been implicit in some studies comparing riparian to upslope conditions (e.g. Brenner 2000;Everett et al 2003). This approach may be valid in some systems where the change in vegetation is abrupt, however different ecological processes and biotic communities may behave differently (Gregory et al 1991), and perhaps a better approach is to define the riparian zone specific to the study group of interest by sampling at various distances from the stream.…”

Effects of prescribed fire on a Sierra Nevada (California, USA) stream and its riparian zone

“…Research on fire history suggests that fire played an important role in structuring riparian communities (e.g., Everett et al, 2003;Skinner, 2003). Although the importance of fire to riparian ecosystem dynamics is not always clear (e.g., Russell and McBride, 2001), recent research indicates that fire usually occurred less frequently in riparian zones than in adjacent upland areas in California and the western U.S. (Arno, 1996;Russell and McBride, 2001;Everett et al, 2003;Skinner, 2003).…”

“…Although the importance of fire to riparian ecosystem dynamics is not always clear (e.g., Russell and McBride, 2001), recent research indicates that fire usually occurred less frequently in riparian zones than in adjacent upland areas in California and the western U.S. (Arno, 1996;Russell and McBride, 2001;Everett et al, 2003;Skinner, 2003). However, moisture regimes affect the frequency of riparian fires.…”

The effects of indigenous prescribed fire on riparian vegetation in central California

“…Fire is a natural process that maintains heterogeneity in composition and structure of riparian ecosystems (Pilliod et al 2003). However, relatively few studies have examined the role of fire in riparian ecosystems (Ellis 2001;Bisson et al 2003;Dwire and Kauffman 2003;Haflofsky and Hibbs 2009;Petit and Naiman 2007), and much of the literature focuses on the effects of high-intensity and high-severity fires on riparian vegetation (e.g., Busch 1995; Gom and Rood 1999;Ellis 2001), or examines larger wildfire impacts on riparian vegetation within a matrix of other vegetation communities (e.g., Everett et al 2003;Russell and McBride 2001;Kozbiar and McBride 2006;Bendix and Cowell 2010).…”