Fire Regimes of Remnant Pitch Pine Communities in the Ridge and Valley Region of Central Pennsylvania, USA

Marschall, Joseph M.; Stambaugh, Michael C.; Jones, Benjamin C.; Guyette, Richard P.; Brose, Patrick H.; Dey, Daniel C.

doi:10.3390/f7100224

Cited by 20 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…(), (c) data from Marschall et al. (). Years of EAS (stars) were independently determined from historical documents (Appendix ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…, Marschall et al. , Saladyga ). To address this hypothesis, we tested for significant changes in fire interval lengths and serial variance in FPD.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…, Marschall et al. ), to produce a broad, spatially distributed site network. Of the seven new sites, five were located in the Ridge and Valley Physiographic Province and two in the Appalachian Plateaus Physiographic Province (Sevon , Table , Fig.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The majority of fire scars occurred in the dormant season across all sites and across all time periods (Table 3). For † Data from Marschall et al (2016). ‡ Data from Brose et al (2013). individual sites, the percent of dormant season fires ranged from 65.8 to 74.2 (mean = 70.1).…”

Section: Historical Fire Regimesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Wave of fire: an anthropogenic signal in historical fire regimes across central Pennsylvania,USA

et al. 2018

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Increasingly detailed records of long‐term fire regime characteristics are needed to test ecological concepts and inform natural resource management and policymaking. We reconstructed and analyzed twelve 350+ yr‐long fire scar records developed from 2612 tree‐ring dated fire scars on 432 living and dead pine (Pinus pungens, Pinus rigida, Pinus resinosa, Pinus echinata) trees from across central Pennsylvania. We used multiple spatial and time series analysis methods to quantify fire regime characteristics (frequency, seasonality, percentages of trees scarred, extent) and fire–climate–human associations. Prior to the 20th‐century fire suppression, fire regimes at the majority of sites consisted of frequent, low‐to‐moderate severity, dormant season fires. Fires were often regionally synchronous when preceded by significantly dry years. Using documentary archives, we provide the first description of a “wave of fire”—an anthropogenic signal in fire frequency that progressively moved across the region. This “wave of fire” reflects a changing progression of anthropogenic fire regimes from Native American occupation and depopulation, to Euro‐American settlement, to industrialization and declining fire use up to the 20th century era of fire suppression. The wave of fire provides a new perspective on historical and modern fire regime dynamics and identifies socio‐ecological impacts since North American colonization. Because the anthropogenic wave of fire exists at sites across North America, we emphasize the need for a broader determination of its geographic prevalence and variability as such determinations could influence historical ecology interpretations and perspectives on past and future roles of humans in managing ecosystems with fire.

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“…(), (c) data from Marschall et al. (). Years of EAS (stars) were independently determined from historical documents (Appendix ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…, Marschall et al. , Saladyga ). To address this hypothesis, we tested for significant changes in fire interval lengths and serial variance in FPD.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Historical Fire Regimesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Wave of fire: an anthropogenic signal in historical fire regimes across central Pennsylvania,USA

et al. 2018

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“…, , Marschall et al. , Stambaugh et al. ) and reflecting modern seasonal trends in which most wildland fires occur during the early spring (Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Wildfire Statistics ), fire scars were assigned to the calendar year of cambial response; therefore, dormant season fire scars (between annual rings) were assigned to the latter, rather than the preceding year.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial variability of historical fires across a red pine–oak landscape, Pennsylvania,USA

et al. 2019

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Long‐term, ecosystem‐specific fire regime information improves natural community restoration and management by providing a basis for scientifically reasoned fire management prescriptions. Historical fire regimes can be reconstructed to sub‐annual resolution using fire‐scarred trees, and while such reconstructions have become increasingly prevalent across the eastern USA, little information regarding how they vary at landscape scale is available. Most studies report fire regime characteristics (i.e., frequency, seasonality) at site‐composite levels, commonly at ≤1 km2 spatial resolution. In this study, we analyzed the historical spatial variation of fire regime characteristics over the past four centuries (1620 CE to present) in a red pine/oak landscape (30.75 km2) in north‐central Pennsylvania, USA. Fire event data were reconstructed based on fire scars and locations of 192 living and dead red pines. The spatial and temporal distributions of fire scars revealed a historical fire regime dominated by frequent, dormant season fires most often detected at relatively small spatial extents and by relatively few trees. There was, however, evidence of less frequent, relatively large fires that scarred high percentages of trees. These fire regime characteristics likely resulted in a spatially and temporally transient patchwork of varying vegetation age and structures resulting in a heterogeneous landscape. At the landscape scale, fire frequency changed with human cultures, while fire spatial extent and scarring patterns appeared to be modulated by drought conditions. Results from this study show historical precedence for landscape‐scale burning across a broad range of drought conditions and spatial extents, which should be considered when designing fire‐management and ecosystem restoration objectives.

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The North American tree‐ring fire‐scar network

et al. 2022

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Fire regimes in North American forests are diverse and modern fire records are often too short to capture important patterns, trends, feedbacks, and drivers of variability. Tree‐ring fire scars provide valuable perspectives on fire regimes, including centuries‐long records of fire year, season, frequency, severity, and size. Here, we introduce the newly compiled North American tree‐ring fire‐scar network (NAFSN), which contains 2562 sites, >37,000 fire‐scarred trees, and covers large parts of North America. We investigate the NAFSN in terms of geography, sample depth, vegetation, topography, climate, and human land use. Fire scars are found in most ecoregions, from boreal forests in northern Alaska and Canada to subtropical forests in southern Florida and Mexico. The network includes 91 tree species, but is dominated by gymnosperms in the genus Pinus. Fire scars are found from sea level to >4000‐m elevation and across a range of topographic settings that vary by ecoregion. Multiple regions are densely sampled (e.g., >1000 fire‐scarred trees), enabling new spatial analyses such as reconstructions of area burned. To demonstrate the potential of the network, we compared the climate space of the NAFSN to those of modern fires and forests; the NAFSN spans a climate space largely representative of the forested areas in North America, with notable gaps in warmer tropical climates. Modern fires are burning in similar climate spaces as historical fires, but disproportionately in warmer regions compared to the historical record, possibly related to under‐sampling of warm subtropical forests or supporting observations of changing fire regimes. The historical influence of Indigenous and non‐Indigenous human land use on fire regimes varies in space and time. A 20th century fire deficit associated with human activities is evident in many regions, yet fire regimes characterized by frequent surface fires are still active in some areas (e.g., Mexico and the southeastern United States). These analyses provide a foundation and framework for future studies using the hundreds of thousands of annually‐ to sub‐annually‐resolved tree‐ring records of fire spanning centuries, which will further advance our understanding of the interactions among fire, climate, topography, vegetation, and humans across North America.

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Fire Regimes of Remnant Pitch Pine Communities in the Ridge and Valley Region of Central Pennsylvania, USA

Cited by 20 publications

References 42 publications

Wave of fire: an anthropogenic signal in historical fire regimes across central Pennsylvania,USA

Wave of fire: an anthropogenic signal in historical fire regimes across central Pennsylvania,USA

Spatial variability of historical fires across a red pine–oak landscape, Pennsylvania,USA

The North American tree‐ring fire‐scar network

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