Structural diversity and development in active fire regime mixed-conifer forests

Berkey, Julia K.; Belote, R. Travis; Maher, Colin; Larson, Andrew J.

doi:10.1016/j.foreco.2020.118548

Cited by 18 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 94 publications

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“…Additionally, the H index for each severity level is within the highest ranges reported for this region [37,38]. Studies at this respect, have found that fire severity modifies species diversity, mainly in the lower strata [12][13][14]39,40]. The results of this study show that the diversity of tree species did not differ across fire severity levels.…”

Section: Changes In Species Diversitysupporting

confidence: 66%

“…However, structural diversity showed no relationship with topographic variables. Although fire severity is known to strongly affect forest structure [43], biophysical variables also play a central role [13] since the fire severity gradient can be parallel to the altitude-related temperature and humidity gradients [43]. In this case, fire severity appears to be largely related to relief slope.…”

Section: Structural Diversity-dnbr Relationshipmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Barton and Poulos [12] found that fire and topography were drivers of plant diversity in a site in the southwestern United States. Berkey et al [13] indicate that succession after a severe fire plays a central role in shaping forest structure. Other studies have identified a decrease in species richness as fire severity increases [14].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effect of Fire Severity on the Species Diversity and Structure of a Temperate Forest in Northern Mexico

Zúñiga-Vásquez

Villanueva‐Díaz

Cerano‐Paredes

et al. 2022

Forests

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Forests experience disturbances, such as fire, that affect their functioning, structure, and species composition. The objective of this work was to compare the species diversity and forest structure at sites affected by different degrees of fire severity, 9 years after a forest fire event. We used the differenced Normalized Burn Ratio (dNBR) index. Vegetation was sampled in three severity levels: high (HS), moderate (MS), and low (LS) and included the unburned (U) level as control. In addition, we calculated the species richness (S), the Shannon index (H), and the Evenness Index (E). The structural diversity of tree diameters and heights was measured applying the indices H, E, and the coefficient of variation (CV). The differences in the indices calculated across the fire severity levels were determined through analyses of variance (ANOVA) and Tukey’s multiple comparison tests. The results showed no significant differences (p ≤ 0.05) in the species diversity indices between fire severity levels. The structural diversity of tree diameters and heights was lower at the HS level. dNBR was negatively related to structural diversity; thus, it is concluded that HS tends to reduce structural variability in terms of diameter, height, and age. These results provide a baseline to understand how fire can modify forest structure and species diversity.

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Section: Changes In Species Diversitysupporting

confidence: 66%

Section: Structural Diversity-dnbr Relationshipmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effect of Fire Severity on the Species Diversity and Structure of a Temperate Forest in Northern Mexico

Zúñiga-Vásquez

Villanueva‐Díaz

Cerano‐Paredes

et al. 2022

Forests

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“…This is true in a strict sense for congressionally designated Wilderness Areas in the United States of America (USA), where the Wilderness Act of 1964 explicitly identi es scienti c use as one of the six public purposes of wilderness. More generally, scienti c study of ecosystems in wilderness and protected areas provides the basis for developing natural models of ecosystem structure and dynamics, including the role of natural disturbances (Franklin et al, 2002;Berkey et al, 2021a). This knowledge informs ecosystem restoration and conservation (Hopkins et al, 2014), including the development of ecologically based management systems used outside of formal reserves (Kuuluvainen et al, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A review of the scientific contributions enabled by wilderness fire management

Kreider

Jaffe

Berkey

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Background Wilderness areas are important natural laboratories for scientists and managers working to understand fire ecology. In the last half-century, shifts in agency culture and policy have encouraged the management practice of letting some naturally ignited fires burn, allowing fire to fulfill its ecological role and increasing the extent of fire-related research opportunities. With the goal to identify the global scientific advances enabled by this paradigm shift in wilderness fire management, we conducted a systematic review of studies in which 1) protected areas were selected for investigation because of an active fire regime enabled by wilderness fire management, or 2) applied research was conducted to support wilderness fire management. Results Our systematic review returned a sample of 222 papers that met these criteria, with an increase in wilderness fire science over time. Studies largely occurred in the United States of America and were concentrated in a relatively small number of protected areas, particularly in the Northern Rocky Mountains. As a result, this sample of wilderness fire science is highly skewed toward areas of temperate mixed conifer forests and historical mixed severity fire regimes. Common principal subjects of papers included fire effects (44%), wilderness fire management (18%), or fire regimes (17%), and studies tended to focus on vegetation, disturbance, or wilderness management as response variables. Conclusions This work identifies major scientific contributions facilitated by active fire management, including concepts such as self-limitation of fire, forest dynamics in active fire regimes, and the effect of fire on wilderness recreation. Our work also identifies areas—both geographic and conceptual—where more research attention is needed and highlights under-represented wilderness areas that could serve to fill these knowledge gaps.

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“…The number of occurrences regarding forest fires has decreased worldwide [12], thus observing increased levels of intensity and destruction, which in many cases endanger urban areas causing not only material damage but also deaths as those occurred in Portugal in 2017 [9]. Wildfires, and in particular forest fires, are increasing in intensity reaching catastrophic dimensions, as a result of poor forest management, territorial planning and economic pressures, also driven by aggravated climate change conditions [7,10,13].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modernized Forest Fire Risk Assessment Model Based on the Case Study of three Portuguese Municipalities Frequently Affected by Forest Fires

Santos

Lopes

Baptista

2020

The 1st International Electronic Conference on Forests—Forests for a Better Future: Sustainability, Innovation, Inter

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The number of forest fires ignitions has decreased worldwide, thus observing increased levels of intensity and destruction, endangering urban areas and causing material damages and deaths (Portugal, 2017). Forest fire hazard mapping supported by the surveillance strategy targeted at very susceptible areas with high losses potential are the common tools of fire prevention. Each municipality creates its own Forest Fire Hazard Map, and so it is observed that along the administrative boundaries, discrepancies occur, even when identical types of land use are in place. The evolution of geographic information systems technology sustained by the open-source satellite imagery, along with the innovative Habitat Risk Assessment model of the InVEST software, allowed the creation of an easily applicable trans-administrative boundary fire hazard map, with frequent update capabilities and fully open source. This work considered three municipalities (Tomar, Ourém, and Ferreira do Zêzere) that annually observe various forest fire occurrences. Results enabled the creation of a homogeneous Forest Fire Risk Map, using landuse, slope, road access network, fire ignitions’ history, visualization basins, and the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) as variables. All variables correlate with each other using different weights, in which the different classes of land use are considered as habitats and the remaining variables as fire hazard stressors. The results produce a coherent monthly updated Risk Map, which is an alternative to many risk assessment systems used worldwide.

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Structural diversity and development in active fire regime mixed-conifer forests

Cited by 18 publications

References 94 publications

Effect of Fire Severity on the Species Diversity and Structure of a Temperate Forest in Northern Mexico

Effect of Fire Severity on the Species Diversity and Structure of a Temperate Forest in Northern Mexico

A review of the scientific contributions enabled by wilderness fire management

Modernized Forest Fire Risk Assessment Model Based on the Case Study of three Portuguese Municipalities Frequently Affected by Forest Fires

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