The effects of conifer encroachment and overstory structure on fuels and fire in an oak woodland landscape

Fire Ecology

Volumn 7, Issue 2, 2011, Pages 32-50

  Engber, Eamon A ^a   Morgan Varner III, J ^a   Arguello, Leonel A ^b   Sugihara, Neil G ^c  

^a HUMBOLDT STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^b Redwood National Park   (United States)

^c Forest Service   (United States)

Author keywords

Bald hills; Ecological restoration; Flammability; Niche construction; Quercus garryana; Savannas

Indexed keywords

ANGIOSPERM; ECOSYSTEM RESPONSE; FIRE MANAGEMENT; FOREST FIRE; GRASSLAND; LANDSCAPE ECOLOGY; LEAF LITTER; NICHE; RESTORATION ECOLOGY; SAVANNA; WOODLAND;

CALIFORNIA; REDWOOD NATIONAL PARK; UNITED STATES;

CONIFEROPHYTA; PSEUDOTSUGA; PSEUDOTSUGA MENZIESII; QUERCUS GARRYANA;

EID: 80051905070     PISSN: None     EISSN: 19339747     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.4996/fireecology.0702032     Document Type: Article

References (66)

1. Abella, S.R., and P.Z. Fulé. 2008. Fire effects on Gambel oak in southwestern ponderosa pine-oak forests. USDA Forest Service Research Note RMRS-RN-36, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA.
2. Agee, J.K. 1993. Fire ecology of Pacific Northwest forests. Island Press, Washington, D.C., USA.
3. Agee, J.K., C.S. Wright, N. Williamson, and M.H. Huff. 2002. Foliar moisture content of Pacific Northwest vegetation and its relation to wildland fire behavior. Forest Ecology and Management 167: 57-66. doi: 10.1016/S0378-1127(01)00690-9
4. Alexander, M.E. 1982. Calculating and interpreting forest fire intensities. Canadian Journal of Botany 60: 349-357. doi: 10.1139/b82-048
5. Arguello, L.A. 1994. Effects of prescribed burning on two perennial bunchgrasses in the Bald Hills of Redwood National Park. Thesis, Humboldt State University, Arcata, California, USA.
6. Barnhart, S.J., J.R. McBride, and P. Warner. 1996. Invasion of northern oak woodlands by Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco in the Sonoma Mountains of California. Madroño 43: 28-45.
7. Beckage, B., W.J. Platt, and L.J. Gross. 2009. Vegetation, fire, and feedbacks: a disturbance-mediated model of savannas. American Naturalist 174: 805-818. doi: 10.1086/648458
8. Bond, W.J., and J.E. Keeley. 2005. Fire as a global "herbivore": the ecology and evolution of flammable ecosystems. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 20: 387-394. doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2005.04.025
9. Bond, W.J., and J.J. Midgley. 1995. Kill thy neighbor-an individualistic argument for the evolution of flammability. Oikos 73:79-85. doi: 10.2307/3545728
10. Bonham, C.D. 1989. Measurements for terrestrial vegetation. John Wiley and Sons, New York, New York, USA.
11. Bova, A.S., and M.B. Dickinson. 2008. Beyond "fire temperatures": calibrating thermocouple probes and modeling their response to surface fires in hardwood fuels. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 38: 1008-1020. doi: 10.1139/X07-204
12. Brooks, M.L., C.M. D'Antonio, D.M. Richardson, J.B. Grace, J.E. Keeley, J.M. Di'Tomaso, R.J. Hobbs, M. Pellant, and D. Pyke. 2004. Effects of invasive alien plants on fire regimes. Bioscience 54: 677-688. doi: 10.1641/0006-3568(2004)054[0677:EOIAPO]2.0.CO;2
13. Brown, J.K. 1974. Handbook for inventorying downed woody material. USDA Forest Service INT-GTR-16. Intermountain Forest and Range experiment Station, Ogden, Utah, USA.
14. Brown, J.K. 1981. Bulk densities of nonuniform surface fuels and their application to fire modeling. Forest Science 27: 667-683. doi: 10.1126/science.6256857
15. Daubenmire, R. 1959. A canopy-coverage method of vegetation analysis. Northwest Science 33: 43-64.
16. Devine, W.D., and C.A. Harrington. 2006. Changes in Oregon white oak (Quercus garryana Dougl. ex Hook) following release from overtopping conifers. Trees 20: 747-756. doi: 10.1007/s00468-006-0089-8
17. Devine, W.D., and C.A. Harrington. 2007. Release of Oregon white oak from overtopping Douglas-fir: effects on soil water and microclimate. Northwest Science 81: 112-124. doi: 10.3955/0029-344X-81.2.112
18. Devine, W.D., C.A. Harrington, and D.H. Peter. 2007. Oak woodland restoration: understory response to removal of encroaching conifers. Ecological Restoration 25: 247-255. doi: 10.3368/er.25.4.247
19. Fonda, R.W., L.A. Belanger, and L.L. Burley. 1998. Burning characteristics of western conifer needles. Northwest Science 72: 1-9.
20. Fonda, R.W. 2001. Burning characteristics of needles from eight pine species. Forest Science 47: 390-396.
21. Foster, J.R., and S.E. Shaff. 2003. Forest colonization of Puget lowland grasslands at Fort Lewis, Washington. Northwest Science 77: 283-296.
22. Fritschle, J.A. 2008. Reconstructing historic ecotones using the public land survey: the lost prairies of Redwood National Park. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 98: 24-39. doi: 10.1080/00045600701734018
23. Gagnon, P.R., H.A. Passmore, W.J. Platt, J.A. Myers, C.E.T. Paine, and K.E. Harms. 2010. Does pyrogenicity protect burning plants? Ecology 91: 3481-3486. doi: 10.1890/10-0291.1
24. Ganteaume, A., C. Lampin-Maillet, M. Guijarro, C. Hernando, M. Jappiot, T. Fonturbel, P. Pérez-Gorostiaga, and J.A. Vega. 2009. Spot fires: fuelbed flammability and capability of fire brands to ignite fuelbeds. International Journal of Wildland Fire 18: 951-969. doi: 10.1071/WF07111
25. Gibson, D.J., D.C. Hartnett, and G.L.S. Merrill. 1990. Fire temperature heterogeneity in contrasting fire prone habitats: Kansas tallgrass prairie and Florida sandhill. Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 117: 349-356. doi: 10.2307/2996832
26. Glitzenstein, J.S., W.J. Platt, and D.R. Streng. 1995. Effects of fire regime and habitat on tree dynamics in north Florida longleaf pine savannas. Ecological Monographs 65: 441-476. doi: 10.2307/2963498
27. Govender, N., W.S.W. Trollope, and B.W. Van Wilggen. 2006. The effect of fire season, fire frequency, rainfall and management on fire intensity in savanna vegetation in South Africa. Journal of Applied Ecology 43: 748-758. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2664.2006.01184.x
28. Grossman, E.B., and D.J. Mladenoff. 2007. Open woodland and savanna decline in a mixed-disturbance landscape (1938 to 1998) in the Northwest Wisconsin (USA) Sand Plain. Landscape Ecology 22: 43-55. doi: 10.1007/s10980-007-9113-7
29. Guerin, D.N. 1993. Oak dome clonal structure and fire ecology in a Florida longleaf pine dominated community. Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 120: 107-114. doi: 10.2307/2996939
30. Hastings, M.S., S. Barnhart, and J.R. McBride. 1997. Restoration management of northern oak woodlands. USDA Forest Service General Technical Report PSW-GTR-160. Pacific Northwest Research Station, Portland, Oregon, USA.
31. Hiers, J.K., J.J. O'Brien, R.E. Will, and R.J. Mitchell. 2007. Forest floor depth mediates understory vigor in xeric Pinus palustris ecosystems. Ecological Applications 17: 806-814. doi: 10.1890/06-1015
32. Higgins, S.I., W.J. Bond, and W.S.W. Trollope. 2000. Fire, resprouting and variability: a recipe for grass-tree coexistence in savanna. Journal of Ecology 88: 213-229. doi: 10.1046/j.1365-2745.2000.00435.x
33. Hoffman, W.A., and O.T. Solbrig. 2003. The role of topkill in the differential response of savanna woody species to fire. Forest Ecology and Management 180: 273-276. doi: 10.1016/S0378-1127(02)00566-2
34. Hoffman, W.A., B. Orthen, and P.K.V. Nascimento. 2003. Comparative fire ecology of tropical savanna and forest trees. Functional Ecology 17: 720-726. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2435.2003.00796.x
35. Hoffman, W.A. 1999. Fire and population dynamics of woody plants in a neotropical savanna: matrix model projections. Ecology 80: 1354-1369. doi: 10.1890/0012-9658(1999)080[1354:FAPDOW]2.0.CO;2
36. Hunter, J.C., and M.G. Barbour. 2001. Through-growth by Pseudotsuga menziesii: a mechanism for change in forest composition without canopy gaps. Journal of Vegetation Science 12: 445-452. doi: 10.2307/3236996
37. Iverson, L.R., D.A. Yaussy, J. Rebbeck, T.F. Hutchinson, P.L. Long, and A.M. Prasad. 2004. A comparison of thermocouples and temperature paints to model spatial and temporal characteristics of landscape-scale prescribed fires. International Journal of Wildland Fire 13: 311-322. doi: 10.1071/WF03063
38. Jackson, L.E., R.B. Strauss, M.K. Firestone, and J.W. Bartolome. 1990. Influence of tree canopies on grassland productivity and nitrogen dynamics in deciduous oak savanna. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment 32: 89-105. doi: 10.1016/0167-8809(90)90126-X
39. Kane, J.M., J.M. Varner, and J.K. Hiers. 2008. The burning characteristics of southeastern oaks: discriminating fire facilitators from fire impeders. Forest Ecology and Management 256: 2039-2045. doi: 10.1016/j.foreco.2008.07.039
40. Kennard, D.K., K.W. Outcalt, D. Jones, and J.J. O'Brien. 2005. Comparing techniques for estimating flame temperature of prescribed fires. Fire Ecology 1(1): 75-84. doi: 10.4996/fireecology.0101075
41. Ko, L.J., and P.B. Reich. 1993. Oak tree effects on soil and herbaceous vegetation in savannas and pastures in Wisconsin. American Midland Naturalist 130: 31-42. doi: 10.2307/2426272
42. MacDougall, A.S., and R. Turkington. 2007. Does the type of disturbance matter when restorating disturbance-dependent grasslands? Restoration Ecology 15: 263-272. doi: 10.1111/j.1526-100X.2007.00209.x
43. Magee, T.K., and J.A. Antos. 1992. Tree invasion into a mountain-top meadow in the Oregon Coast Range, USA. Journal of Vegetation Science 3: 485-494. doi: 10.2307/3235805
44. Moreno, J.M., and W.C. Oechel. 1993. Demography of Adenostoma fasciculatum after fires of different intensities in southern California chaparral. Oecologia 96: 95-101. doi: 10.1007/BF00318035
45. Mutch, R.W. 1970. Wildland fires and ecosystems-a hypothesis. Ecology 51: 1046-1051. doi: 10.2307/1933631
46. Nelson Jr., R.M., and J.K. Hiers. 2008. The influence of fuelbed properties on moisture drying rates and timelags of longleaf pine litter. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 38: 2394-2404. doi: 10.1139/X08-078
47. Peterson, D.W., and P.B. Reich. 2001. Prescribed fire in oak savanna: fire frequency effects on stand structure and dynamics. Ecological Applications 11: 914-927. doi: 10.1890/1051-0761(2001)011[0914:PFIOSF]2.0.CO;2
48. Peterson, D.L., and R.D. Hammer. 2001. From open to closed canopy: a century of change in a Douglas-fir forest, Orcas Island, Washington. Northwest Science 75: 262-269.
49. Peterson, D.W., P.B. Reich, and K.J. Wrage. 2007. Plant functional group responses to fire frequency and tree canopy cover gradients in oak savannas and woodlands. Journal of Vegetation Science 18: 3-12. doi: 10.1111/j.1654-1103.2007.tb02510.x
50. Platt, W.J., and R.M. Gottschalk. 2001. Effects of exotic grasses on potential fine fuel loads in the ground cover of south Florida slash pine savannas. International Journal of Wildland Fire 10: 155-159. doi: 10.1071/WF01016
51. Rebertus, A.J., and B.R. Burns. 1997. The importance of gap processes in the development and maintenance of oak savannas and dry forests. Journal of Ecology 85: 635-645. doi: 10.2307/2960534
52. Regan, A.C., and J.K. Agee. 2004. Oak community and seedling response to fire at Fort Lewis, Washington. Northwest Science 78: 1-11.
53. Rothermel, R.C. 1983. How to predict the spread and intensity of forest and range fires. USDA Forest Service General Technical Report INT-143. Intermountain Forest and Range Experiment Station, Ogden, Utah, USA.
54. Scholes, R.J., and S.R. Archer. 1997. Tree-grass interactions in savannas. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 28: 517-544. doi: 10.1146/annurev.ecolsys.28.1.517
55. Schwilk, D.W. 2003. Flammability is a niche construction trait: canopy architecture affects fire intensity. American Naturalist 162: 725-733. doi: 10.1086/379351
56. Schwilk, D.W., and B. Kerr. 2002. Genetic niche-hiking: an alternative explanation for the evolution of flammability. Oikos 99: 431-442. doi: 10.1034/j.1600-0706.2002.11730.x
57. Snyder, J.R. 1984. The role of fire: Mutch ado about nothing? Oikos 43: 404-405. doi: 10.2307/3544161
58. Sugihara, N.G., L.J. Reed, and J.M. Lenihan. 1987. Vegetation of the Bald Hills oak woodlands, Redwood National Park, California. Madroño 34: 193-208.
59. Sugihara, N.G., and L.J. Reed. 1987. Vegetation ecology of the Bald Hills oak woodlands of Redwood National Park. Redwood National Park Research and Development Technical Report 21. Redwood National Park, Arcata, California, USA.
60. Thilenius, J.F. 1968. The Quercus garryana forests of the Willamette Valley, Oregon. Ecology 49: 1124-1133. doi: 10.2307/1934496
61. Thysell, D.R., and A.B. Carey. 2001. Quercus garryana communities in the Puget Trough, Washington. Northwest Science 75: 219-235.
62. Troumbis, A.Y., and L. Trabaud. 1989. Some questions about flammability in fire ecology. Acta Oecologica-Oecologia Plantarum 10: 167-175.
63. Tveten, R.K., and R.W. Fonda. 1999. Fire effects on prairies and oak woodlands on Fort Lewis, Washington. Northwest Science 73: 145-158.
64. Underwood, S., L. Arguello, and N. Siefkin. 2003. Restoring ethnographic landscapes and natural elements in Redwood National Park. Ecological Restoration 21: 278-283. doi: 10.3368/er.21.4.278
65. Varner, J.M., D.R. Gordon, F.E. Putz, and J.K. Hiers. 2005. Restoring fire to long-unburned Pinus palustris ecosystems: novel fire effects and consequences for long-unburned ecosystems. Restoration Ecology 13: 536-544. doi: 10.1111/j.1526-100X.2005.00067.x
66. Wally, A.L., E.S. Menges, and C.W. Weekly. 2006. Comparison of three devices for estimating fire temperatures in ecological studies. Applied Vegetation Science 9: 97-108. doi: 10.1111/j.1654-109X.2006.tb00659.x