Silviculture that sustains: the nexus between silviculture, frequent prescribed fire, and conservation of biodiversity in longleaf pine forests of the southeastern United States

Mitchell, Robert J.; Hiers, J. Kevin; O’Brien, Joseph J.; Jack, Steven B.; Engstrom, R. Todd

doi:10.1139/x06-100

Cited by 193 publications

(152 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…Openings should not be created in stands with understories dominated by woody species, or in portions of stands dominated by woody understory. As noted by Mitchell et al (2006), removal of the overstory in these circumstances will release this woody competition, which will further reduce any understory grasses while removing the overstory needlefall. Lack of fuel will make this patch of woody growth nearly impervious to fire and unsuitable for longleaf regeneration.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lightning, fire and longleaf pine: Using natural disturbance to guide management

Outcalt

2008

Forest Ecology and Management

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The importance of lightning as an ignition source for the fire adapted longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) ecosystem is widely recognized. Lightning also impacts this system on a smaller scale by causing individual tree mortality. The objective of this study was to determine mortality due to lightning and other agents in longleaf stands on the Ocala National Forest in central Florida and to quantify lightning ignited fire. Mortality from lightning was also tracked in longleaf stands on the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. Lightning killed more trees than any other agent with a mean mortality of nearly 1 tree/3 ha/yr in Florida and 1 tree/8 ha/yr in South Carolina. The probability of a tree being struck by lightning increased as a function of tree height at both sites, i.e. lightning preferentially removed the largest trees from the stand. In addition lightning strikes were clumped within stands, sometimes killed multiple trees with a single strike, and often hit trees on the edge of existing gaps. The combination of these processes means gaps suitable for regeneration within longleaf stands are created quite rapidly. This information provides guidelines for the development of selection harvest systems based on this natural disturbance. Although lightning activity was greatest during the summer months in Florida and most fires occurred in June, the probability of a strike causing a fire was highest in February to May. Published by Elsevier B.V.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lightning, fire and longleaf pine: Using natural disturbance to guide management

Outcalt

2008

Forest Ecology and Management

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“…Fire frequency is one of the most important determinants for sustaining flatwoods ecosystems [40]. The relationship between fire frequency and the probability of high burn severity in prescribed burns and wildfires were not surprising; as frequencies increased the probability of high burn severity decreased ( Figure 3).…”

Section: The Influence Of Fire Frequency and Time Since Last Fire On mentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Additionally, the models are able to capture the relationship between fire frequency and high severity, and time between fires and increased risks of high burn severity. As fire frequency has been identified as an important indicator of ecosystem condition in flatwoods forest [40], these models can be used to inform prioritization and timing of fire use to maintain the pine flatwoods forests of the southern Coastal Plain.…”

Section: Conclusion and Recommendationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling Relationships among 217 Fires Using Remote Sensing of Burn Severity in Southern Pine Forests

et al. 2011

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Pine flatwoods forests in the southeastern US have experienced severe wildfires over the past few decades, often attributed to fuel load build-up. These forest communities are fire dependent and require regular burning for ecosystem maintenance and health. Although prescribed fire has been used to reduce wildfire risk and maintain ecosystem integrity, managers are still working to reintroduce fire to long unburned areas. Common perception holds that reintroduction of fire in long unburned forests will produce severe fire effects, resulting in a reluctance to prescribe fire without first using expensive mechanical fuels reduction techniques. To inform prioritization and timing of future fire use, we apply remote sensing analysis to examine the set of conditions most likely to result in high burn severity effects, in relation to vegetation, years since the previous fire, and historical fire frequency. We analyze Landsat imagery-based differenced Normalized Burn Ratios (dNBR) to model the relationships between previous and future burn severity to better predict areas of potential high severity. Our results show that remote sensing techniques are useful for modeling the relationship between elevated risk of high burn severity and the amount of time between fires, the type of fire (wildfire or prescribed burn), and the historical frequency of fires in pine flatwoods forests.

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“…Field trials to demonstrate and assess the utility of UEA silviculture in these forests have been attempted to a limited degree. The Stoddard-Neel (S-N) approach to single-tree selection is one example of UEA silviculture in longleaf pine forests (Moser et al, 2002;Mitchell et al, 2006;Neel et al, 2010). However, the S-N approach is not quantitative, and it cannot be systematically evaluated because there is no defined target residual structure.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of basal area on survival and growth of longleaf pine when practicing selection silviculture

2017

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Aim of study: Uneven-aged (UEA) management systems can achieve multiple-use objectives, however, use of UEA techniques to manage longleaf pine (Pinus palustris Mill.) forests are still open to question, because of the species' intolerance of competition. It was our aim to examine the influence of different levels (9.2, 13.8 and 18.4 m 2 ha -1 ) of residual basal area (RBA) on longleaf pine seedling survival and growth following three growing seasons.Area of study: This study was conducted at the Escambia Experimental Forest, located on the Southern Coastal Plain of Alabama, in the southeastern United States.Material and Methods: Selection silviculture was implemented with the Proportional-Basal Area (Pro-B) method. Prescribed burning was conducted before seed dispersal and in the second year after germination. Photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) was measured under the canopy in the study plots. Survival and growth of longleaf pine seedlings were observed for three growing seasons.Main results: An inverse relationship was found between the number of germinants and RBA, but the mortality of germinants and planted seedlings was not affected by RBA. At age three, an inverse relationship was observed between root-collar diameter (RCD) growth of the germinants and RBA, but RCD growth of planted seedlings was not affected by RBA. Most of the study plots contained more than the projected number of seedlings needed to sustain the target diameter structure.Research highlights: Long-term continuous monitoring of seedling development and recruitment into canopy is required to determine the efficacy of UEA management. However, current data suggest that UEA methods may be a viable alternative to the use of even-aged (EA) methods in longleaf ecosystems.

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Silviculture that sustains: the nexus between silviculture, frequent prescribed fire, and conservation of biodiversity in longleaf pine forests of the southeastern United States

Cited by 193 publications

References 54 publications

Lightning, fire and longleaf pine: Using natural disturbance to guide management

Lightning, fire and longleaf pine: Using natural disturbance to guide management

Modeling Relationships among 217 Fires Using Remote Sensing of Burn Severity in Southern Pine Forests

Effects of basal area on survival and growth of longleaf pine when practicing selection silviculture

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