Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Stand-replacing patches within a ‘mixed severity’ fire regime: quantitative characterization using recent fires in a long-established natural fire area

  • Research Article
  • Published:
Landscape Ecology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The complexity inherent in variable, or mixed-severity fire regimes makes quantitative characterization of important fire regime attributes (e.g., proportion of landscape burned at different severities, size and distribution of stand-replacing patches) difficult. As a result, there is ambiguity associated with the term ‘mixed-severity’. We address this ambiguity through spatial analysis of two recent wildland fires in upper elevation mixed-conifer forests that occurred in an area with over 30 years of relatively freely-burning natural fires. We take advantage of robust estimates of fire severity and detailed spatial datasets to investigate patterns and controls on stand-replacing patches within these fires. Stand-replacing patches made up 15% of the total burned area between the two fires, which consisted of many small patches (<4 ha) and few large patches (>60 ha). Smaller stand-replacing patches were generally associated with shrub-dominated (Arctostaphylos spp. and Ceanothus spp.) and pine-dominated vegetation types, while larger stand-replacing patches tended to occur in more shade-tolerant, fir-dominated types. Additionally, in shrub-dominated types stand-replacing patches were often constrained to the underlying patch of vegetation, which for the shrub type were smaller across the two fire areas than vegetation patches for all other dominant vegetation types. For white and red fir forest types we found little evidence of vegetation patch constraint on the extent of stand-replacing patches. The patch dynamics we identified can be used to inform management strategies for landscapes in similar forest types.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Agee JK (1998) The landscape ecology of Western forest fire regimes. Northwest Sci 72:24–34

    Google Scholar 

  • Albini FA (1976) Estimating wildfire behavior and effects. General Technical Report INT-30. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Intermountain Forest and Range Experiment Station, Ogden, UT, p 92

  • Beaty RM, Taylor AH (2008) Fire history and the structure and dynamics of a mixed conifer forest landscape in the northern Sierra Nevada, Lake Tahoe Basin, California, USA. For Ecol Manag 255:707–719

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bergeron Y, Drapeau P, Gauthier S, Lecomte N (2007) Using knowledge of natural disturbances to support sustainable forest management in the northern Clay Belt. Forest Chron 83:326–337

    Google Scholar 

  • Bradshaw LS, Deeming JE, Burgan RE and Cohen JD (1984) The 1978 national fire danger rating system: technical documentation. General Technical Report INT-169. U. S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Intermountain and Range Experiment Station, Ogden, UT, p 44

  • Breiman L, Friedman JH, Olshen RA, Stone CG (1984) Classification and regression trees. Wadsworth, Belmont, CA, USA

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown PM, Kaufmann MR, Shepperd WD (1999) Long-term, landscape patterns of past fire events in a montane ponderosa pine forest of central Colorado. Landscape Ecol 14:513–532

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brown PM, Wienk CL, Symstad AJ (2008) Fire and forest history at Mount Rushmore. Ecol Appl 18:1984–1999

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Caprio AC (2006) Fire history of lodgepole pine in the southern Sierra Nevada, California. In: 3rd international fire ecology and management congress changing fire regimes: context and consequences. Association for Fire Ecology, San Diego, California, pp 1–5

  • Caprio AC (2008) Reconstructing fire history of lodgepole pine on Chagoopa Plateau, Sequoia National Park, California. General Technical Report PSW-GTR-189. U. S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station, p 7

  • Collins BM, Stephens SL (2007) Managing natural wildfires in Sierra Nevada wilderness areas. Front Ecol Environ 5:523–527

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Collins BM, Kelly M, van Wagtendonk JW, Stephens SL (2007) Spatial patterns of large natural fires in Sierra Nevada wilderness area. Landscape Ecol 22:545–557

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Collins BM, Miller JD, Thode AE, Kelly M, van Wagtendonk JW, Stephens SL (2009) Interactions among wildland fires in a long-established Sierra Nevada natural fire area. Ecosystems 12:114–128

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • De’ath G (2002) Multivariate regression trees: a new technique for modeling species–environment relationships. Ecology 83:1105–1117

    Google Scholar 

  • De’ath G, Fabricius KE (2000) Classification and regression trees: a powerful yet simple technique for ecological data analysis. Ecology 81:3178–3192

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Franklin JF, Spies TA, Van Pelt R, Carey AB, Thornburgh DA, Berg DR, Lindenmayer DB, Harmon ME, Keeton WS, Shaw DC, Bible K, Chen JQ (2002) Disturbances and structural development of natural forest ecosystems with silvicultural implications, using Douglas-fir forests as an example. Forest Ecol Manag 155:399–423

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Girvetz EH, Greco SE (2007) How to define a patch: a spatial model for hierarchically delineating organism-specific habitat patches. Landscape Ecol 22:1131–1142

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hessburg PF, Agee JK, Franklin JF (2005) Dry forests and wildland fires of the inland Northwest USA: contrasting the landscape ecology of the pre-settlement and modem eras. Forest Ecol Manag 211:117–139

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hessburg PF, Salter RB, James KM (2007) Re-examining fire severity relations in pre-management era mixed conifer forests: inferences from landscape patterns of forest structure. Landscape Ecol 22:5–24

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Holden ZA, Morgan P, Crimmins MA, Steinhorst RK, Smith AM (2007) Fire season precipitation variability influences fire extent and severity in a large southwestern wilderness area, United States. Geophys Res Lett 34:L16708

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jenness J (2007) Some thoughts on analyzing topographic habitat characteristics. Jenness Enterprises, Flagstaff, AZ, USA, p 26

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller JD, Thode AE (2007) Quantifying burn severity in a heterogeneous landscape with a relative version of the delta Normalized Burn Ratio (dNBR). Remote Sens Environ 109:66–80

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miller JD, Safford HD, Crimmins M, Thode AE (2009a) Quantitative evidence for increasing forest fire severity in the Sierra Nevada and southern Cascade Mountains, California and Nevada, USA. Ecosystems 12:16–32

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miller JD, Knapp EE, Key CH, Skinner CN, Isbell CJ, Creasy RM, Sherlock JW (2009b) Calibration and validation of the relative differenced Normalized Burn Ratio (RdNBR) to three measures of fire severity in the Sierra Nevada and Klamath Mountains, California, USA. Remote Sens Environ 113:645–646

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nagel TA, Taylor AH (2005) Fire and persistence of montane chaparral in mixed conifer forest landscapes in the northern Sierra Nevada, Lake Tahoe Basin, California, USA. J Torrey Bot Soc 132:442–457

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • North M, Stine PA, O’hara KL, Zielinski WJ and Stephens SL (2009) An ecosystems management strategy for Sierra mixed-conifer forests. General Technical Report PSW-GTR-220. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station, Albany, CA, p 49

  • Ott RL, Longnecker M (2001) An introduction to statistical methods and data analysis, 5th edn. Duxbury, Thomson Learning, Pacific Grove

    Google Scholar 

  • Parsons DJ, Debenedetti SH (1979) Impact of fire suppression on a mixed-conifer forest. Forest Ecol Manag 2:21–33

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pyne SJ, Andrews PL, Laven RD (1996) Introduction to wildland fire, 2nd edn. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Rollins MG, Morgan P, Swetnam T (2002) Landscape-scale controls over 20th century fire occurrence in two large Rocky Mountain (USA) wilderness areas. Landscape Ecol 17:539–557

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roman-Cuesta RM, Gracia M, Retana J (2009) Factors influencing the formation of unburned forest islands within the perimeter of a large forest fire. Forest Ecol Manag 258:71–80

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Romme WH (1982) Fire and landscape diversity in subalpine forests of Yellowstone National Park. Ecol Monogr 52:199–221

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Safford HD, Miller JD, Schmidt D, Roath B, Parsons A (2008) BAER soil burn severity maps do not measure fire effects to vegetation: a comment on Odion and Hanson (2006). Ecosystems 11:1–11

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schwilk DW, Keeley JE, Bond WJ (1997) The intermediate disturbance hypothesis does not explain fire and diversity pattern in fynbos. Plant Ecol 132:77–84

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scott JH and Reinhardt ED (2001) Assessing crown fire potential by linking models of surface and crown fire behavior. Research Paper RMRS-RP-29. U. S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, p 59

  • Stephens SL, Fry DL (2005) Spatial distribution of regeneration patches in an old-growth Pinus jeffreyi-mixed conifer forest in northwestern Mexico. J Veg Sci 16:693–702

    Google Scholar 

  • Stephens SL, Gill SJ (2005) Forest structure and mortality in an old-growth Jeffrey pine-mixed conifer forest in north-western Mexico. Forest Ecol Manag 205:15–28

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stephens SL, Fry D, Franco-Vizcaíno E (2008) Wildfire and forests in northwestern Mexico: the United States wishes it had similar fire problems. Ecol Soc 13:10

    Google Scholar 

  • Taylor AH, Skinner CN (1998) Fire history and landscape dynamics in a late-successional reserve, Klamath Mountains, California, USA. Forest Ecol Manag 111:285–301

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Taylor AH, Skinner CN (2003) Spatial patterns and controls on historical fire regimes and forest structure in the Klamath Mountains. Ecol Appl 13:704–719

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thompson JR, Spies TA, Ganio LM (2007) Reburn severity in managed and unmanaged vegetation in a large wildfire. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 104:10743–10748

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Turner MG, Romme WH (1994) Landscape dynamics in crown fire ecosystems. Landscape Ecol 9:59–77

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Turner MG, Hargrove WW, Gardner RH, Romme WH (1994) Effects of fire on landscape heterogeneity in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. J Veg Sci 5:731–742

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • van Wagtendonk JW (2007) The history and evolution of wildland fire use. Fire Ecol 3:3–17

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • van Wagtendonk JW, Fites-Kaufman JA (2006) Sierra Nevada bioregion. In: Sugihara NG, van Wagtendonk JW, Shaffer KE, Fites-Kaufman JA, Thode AE (eds) Fire in California’s ecosystems. University of California Press, Berkeley, California, USA, pp 264–294

    Google Scholar 

  • van Wagtendonk JW, Lutz JA (2007) Fire regime attributes of wildland fires in Yosemite National Park, USA. Fire Ecol 3:34–52

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We sincerely thank Jay Miller and Andi Thode for their work in developing burn severity images for Yosemite National Park fires. We also thank Jan van Wagtendonk for his thoughtful discussions on the topic and Kent van Wagtendonk for providing data. The Joint Fire Sciences Program funded this research.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. USDA Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station, Sierra Nevada Research Center, 1731 Research Park Drive, Davis, CA, 95618, USA

    Brandon M. Collins

  2. Ecosystem Sciences Division, Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, University of California, 137 Mulford Hall, Berkeley, CA, 94720-3114, USA

    Scott L. Stephens

Authors
  1. Brandon M. Collins
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Scott L. Stephens
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Brandon M. Collins.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Collins, B.M., Stephens, S.L. Stand-replacing patches within a ‘mixed severity’ fire regime: quantitative characterization using recent fires in a long-established natural fire area. Landscape Ecol 25, 927–939 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-010-9470-5

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-010-9470-5

Keywords

Search

Navigation