Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Fire and disease history of forests

  • Chapter
Vegetation history

Part of the book series: Handbook of vegetation science ((HAVS,volume 7))

Abstract

Climate is the driving force of vegetation change on the time scale of thousands of years. Initially, ecologists like Clements (1916) focused their study of forest development on long-term changes that are largely a function of climate, and their theories for short-term changes emphasized autogenic processes under stable climatic conditions. Today we recognize the importance of allogenic factors that influence vegetation on the scale of a few tens to a few hundreds of years (Spurr, 1956; Stephens, 1955; Brown, 1960; Henry and Swan, 1974). These factors include insects, wind storms, volcanoes, glaciers, animal effects, diseases, and fire. Of these, only fire and forest pathogens can influence vegetation on more than a local (i.e. more than a few km2) basis.

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

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 259.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 329.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  • Ahlgren, I. F. and C. E. Ahlgren, 1960. Ecological effects of forest fires. Botanical Review 26:483–533.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Allison, T. D., R. K. Moeller, and M. B. Davis, 1986. Pollen in laminated sediments provides evidence for a mid-Holocene forest pathogen outbreak. Ecology 67: 1101–1105.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, T. W., 1974. The chestnut pollen decline as a time horizon in lake sediments in eastern North America. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 11: 678–685.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, R. S., 1979. A holocene record of vegetation and fire at Upper South Branch Pond in northern Maine. M.S. thesis, University of Maine.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, R. S., R. B. Davis, N. G. Miller, and R. Stuckenrath, 1986. History of late- and post-glacial vegetation and disturbance around Upper South Branch Pond, northern Maine. Canadian Journal of Botany 64:1977–1986.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Backman, A. E., 1984. 1000-year record of fire-vegetation interactions in the northeastern United States: A comparison between coastal and inland regions. M.S. thesis, University of Massachusetts.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beattie, R. K. and J. D. Diller, 1954. Fifty years of chestnut blight in America. Journal of Forestry 52: 323–329.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bormann, F. H. and G. E. Likens, 1979. Catastrophic disturbances and the steady state in northern hardwood forests. American Scientist 67: 660–669.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown, J. H., Jr., 1960. The role of fire in altering the species composition of forests in Rhode Island. Ecology 41: 310–316.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brubaker, L. B., 1975. Postglacial forest patterns associated with till and outwash in northcentral Upper Michigan. Quaternary Research 5: 499–527.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brugam, R. B., 1975. The human disturbance history of Linsley Pond, North Branford, Conn. Ph.D. dissertation, Yale University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brugam, R. B., 1978. Pollen indicators of land-use change in southern Connecticut. Quaternary Research 9: 349–362.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Byrne, R., J. Michaelsen, and A. Soutar, 1977. Fossil charcoals as a measure of fire frequency in southern California: A preliminary analysis, pp. 361–367. In: H. A. Mooney and C. E. Conrad (eds.), Proceedings of the Symposium on the Environmental Consequences of Fire and Fuel Management in Mediterranean Ecosystems. U.S.D.A. Forest Service General Technical Report WO-3, Washington, D.C.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clark, J. S. and W. A. Patterson III, 1984. Pollen, Pb-210, and opaque spherules: An integrated approach to dating and sedimentation in the intertidal environment. Journal of Sedimentary Petrology 54:1251–1265.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clark, R. L., 1981. The prehistory of bushfires, pp. 60–73. In: P. J. Stanbury (ed.), Bushfires — Their Effects on Australian Life and Landscape. Macleay Museum, University of Sydney.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clements, F. E., 1916. Plant Succession: An Analysis of the Development of Vegetation. Publication No. 242. Carnegie Institute, Washington, D.C. 512 pp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cwynar, L. C, 1978. Recent history of fire and vegetation from laminated sediments of Greenleaf Lake, Algonquin Park, Ontario. Canadian Journal of Botany 56:10–21.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davis, M. B., 1981. Outbreaks of forest pathogens in Quaternary history. IV International Palynology Conference, Lucknow (1976–77) 3: 216–228.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davis, M. B., 1983a. Quaternary history of deciduous forests of eastern North America and Europe. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 70: 550–563.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davis, M. B., 1983b. Holocene vegetational history of the Eastern United States, pp. 166–181. In: H. E. Wright, Jr. (ed.), Late-Quaternary Environments of the United States. Vol. 2. The Holocene. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davis, R. B., 1967. Pollen studies of near-surface sediments in Maine lakes, pp. 143–173. In: E. J. Cushing and H. E. Wright, Jr. (eds.), Quaternary Paleoecology. Yale University Press, New Haven.

    Google Scholar 

  • Egler, F. E., 1954. Vegetation science concepts I. Initial floristic composition. A factor in old-field vegetation development. Vegetatio 4: 412–417.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Edwards, K. J. and K. R. Hirons, 1984. Cereal pollen grains in pre-elm decline deposits: implications for the earliest agriculture in Britain and Ireland. Journal of Archaeological Science 11: 71–84.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fahey, T. J. and W. A. Reiners, 1981. Fire in the forests of Maine and New Hampshire. Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 108: 362–373.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fowells, H. A., 1965. Silvics of the Forest Trees of the United States. U.S.D.A. Forest Service Agriculture Handbook Number 271. 762 pp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frissell, S. S., Jr., 1973. The importance of fire as a natural ecological factor in Itasca State Park, Minnesota. Quaternary Research 3: 397–407.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gajewski, K., 1983. On the interpretation of climatic change from the climatic record: Climatic change in the central and eastern United States over the past 2000 years estimated from pollen data. Ph.D. thesis, University of Wisconsin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gaudreau, D. C. and T. Webb III, 1985. Late-Quaternary pollen stratigraphy and isochrone maps for the northeastern United States, pp. 247–280. In: V. M. Bryant, Jr. and R. G. Holloway (eds.), Pollen Records of Late-Quaternary North American Sediments. American Association of Stratigraphic Palynologists, Dallas, Texas.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gill, A. M., R. H. Groves, and I. R. Noble (eds.), 1981. Fire and the Australian Biota. Australian Academy of Science, Canberra. 560 pp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Green, D. G., 1981. Time series and postglacial forest ecology. Quaternary Research 15: 265–277.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Green, D. G., 1982. Fire and stability in the postglacial forests of southwest Nova Scotia. Journal of Biogeography 9: 29–40.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harris, D. R., 1972. Swidden systems and settlement, pp. 245–262. In: Man, Settlement, and Urbanism. Duckworth, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Henry, J. D. and J. M. A. Swan, 1974. Reconstructing forest history from live and dead plant material — An approach to the study of forest succession in southeastern New Hampshire. Ecology 55: 772–783.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hepting, G. H., 1974. Death of the American chestnut. Journal of Forest History 18: 60–67.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hutchinson, G. E. and C. E. Goulden, 1966. The history of Laguna de Petenxil: The plant microfossils. Memoirs of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Science 17: 67–73.

    Google Scholar 

  • Innis, J. B., 1981. Environmental alteration by Mesolithic communities in the North York Moors. M. Ph. thesis, University of Durham.

    Google Scholar 

  • Iversen, J., 1941. Land occupation in Denmark’s Stone Age. Danmarks Geologiske Undersogelse, 11(66), 68 pp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Iversen, J., 1949. The influence of prehistoric man on vegetation. Danmarks Geologiske Undersogelse, IV(6), 25 pp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Iversen, J., 1973. The development of Denmark’s nature since the last glacial. Danmarks Geologiske Undersogelse, V(7-C), 126 pp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jacobson, G. L., Jr., 1979. The paleoecology of white pine (Pinus strobus) in Minnesota. Journal of Ecology 67: 697–726.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jordan, R. H., Jr., 1975. Pollen studies at Hamilton Inlet, Labrador, Canada and their implications for environmental prehistory. Ph.D. thesis, University of Minnesota.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kemp, E. M., 1981. Pre-Quaternary fire in Australia, pp. 3–21. In: A. M. Gill, R. H. Groves, and I. R. Noble (eds.) Fire and the Australian Biota. Australian Academy of Science, Canberra.

    Google Scholar 

  • Komarek, E. V., Sr., 1968. Lightning and lightning fires as ecological forces. Proceedings 8th Annual Tall Timbers Fire Ecology Conference, pp. 169–197.

    Google Scholar 

  • Komarek, E. V., 1973. Ancient fires. Proceedings 12th Annual Tall Timbers Fire Ecology Conference, pp. 219–240.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mackey, H. E., Jr. and N. Sivec, 1973. The present composition of former oak-chestnut forest in the Allegheny Mountains of western Pennsylvania. Ecology 54: 915–919.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mehringer, P. J., S. F. Arno, and K. L. Petersen, 1977. Postglacial history of Lost Trail Pass Bog, Bitterroot Mountains, Montana. Arctic and Alpine Research 9: 345–368.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moore, P. D., 1984. Hampstead Heath clue to historical decline of elms. Nature 312:103.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Paillet, F. L., 1982. The ecological significance of American chestnut (Castanea dentate Marsh.) Borkh.) in the Holocene forests of Connecticut. Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 109: 457–473.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Paillet, F. L., 1984. Growth-form and ecology of American chestnut sprout clones in ortheastern Massachusetts. Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club III: 316–328.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Palmer, P., 1976. Grass cuticles: a paleoecological tool for East African lake sediments. anadian Journal of Botany 54:1725–1735.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Patterson, W. A. III, 1978. The effects of past and current land disturbances on Squaw Lake, Minnesota and its watershed. Ph.D. thesis, University of Minnesota.

    Google Scholar 

  • Patterson, W. A. III, K. J. Edwards, and D. J. Maguire, 1987. Microscopic charcoal as a fossil indicator of fire. Quaternary Science Reviews 6: 3–23.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Patterson, W. A. III and E. V. Nordheim. Fragment size as an indication of fire occurrence in sedimentary charcoal analyses, submitted to Quaternary Research.

    Google Scholar 

  • Patterson, W. A. III and K. E. Sassaman, 1988. Indian fires in the prehistory of New England, pp. 107–131. In: G. Nicholas (ed.) Holocene Human Ecology in Northeastern North America. Plenum Publishing Co.

    Google Scholar 

  • Patterson, W. A. III, K. E. Saunders, and L. J. Horton, 1983. Fire regimes of the coastal Maine forests of Acadia National Park. U.S.D.I.-N.P.S. North Atlantic Region Office of Scientific Studies OSS 83–3, 259 pp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Patterson, W. A. Ill, K. E. Saunders, L. J. Horton, and M. K. Foley, 1985. Fire management options for coastal New England forests: Acadia National Park and Cape Cod National Seashore, pp. 360–365. In: Proceedings Fire Symposium and Workshop on Wilderness Fire, Missoula, MT, November 15–18, 1983. U.S.D.A. Forest Service General Technical Report INT-18 2.

    Google Scholar 

  • Romme, W., 1980. Fire history terminology: Report of the ad hoc committee, pp. 135–137. In: M. A. Stokes and J. H. Dieterich (tech. coord.), Proceedings of the Fire History Workshop. U.S.D.A. Forest Service General Technical Report RM-81.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shafi, M. I. and G. A. Yarronton, 1973. Vegetational heterogeneity during a secondary (postfire) succession. Canadian Journal of Botany 51: 73–90.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shigo, A. L., 1972. The beech bark disease today in the northeastern United States. Journal of Forestry 70: 286–289.

    Google Scholar 

  • Singh, G., A. P. Kershaw, and R. Clark, 1981. Quaternary vegetation and fire history in Australia, pp. 23–54. In: A. M. Gill, R. H. Groves and I. R. Noble (eds.), Fire and the Australian Biota. Australian Academy of Science, Canberra.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, A. G., 1960. The Atlantic — sub-boreal transition. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London 172: 38–48.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Spurr, S. H., 1956. Natural restocking of forests following the 1938 hurricane in central New England. Ecology 37: 443–451.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Spurr, S. H. and B. V. Barnes, 1980. Forest Ecology, 3rd Edition. John Wiley and Sons, New York. 687 pp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stephens, E. P., 1955. The historical-developmental method of determining forest trends. Ph.D. dissertation. Harvard University, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Swain, A. M., 1973. A history of fire and vegetation in northeastern Minnesota as recorded in lake sediments. Quaternary Research 3: 383–396.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Swain, A. M., 1978. Environmental changes during the past 2000 years in northcentral Wisconsin: Analysis of pollen, charcoal, and seeds from varved lake sediments. Quaternary Research 10: 55–68.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Swain, A. M., 1980. Landscape patterns and forest history in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, Minnesota: A pollen study from Hug Lake. Ecology 61: 747–754.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tolonen, K., 1983. The post-glacial fire record, pp. 21–44. In: R. W. Wein and D. A. MacLean (eds.), The Role of Fire in Northern Circumpolar Ecosystems. John Wiley and Sons, Chichester.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tsukada, M., 1966. Late glacial absolute pollen diagram in Lake Nojiri. Botanical Magazine, Tokyo 79:179–184.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tsukada, M. and E. S. Deevey, Jr., 1967. Pollen analysis from four lakes in the southern Maya area of Guatemala and El Salvador, pp. 303–331. In: E. J. Cushing and H. E. Wright, Jr. (eds.), Quaternary Paleoecology. Yale University Press, New Haven.

    Google Scholar 

  • Turner, C. P., 1986. The first Americans: The dental evidence. National Geographic Research 2: 37–46.

    Google Scholar 

  • Twery, M. J. and W. A. Patterson III, 1984. Variations in beech bark disease and its effects on species composition and structure of northern hardwood stands in central New England. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 14: 565–574.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Waddington, J. C. B., 1969. A stratigraphic record of the pollen influx to a lake in the Big Woods of Minnesota. Geological Society of America, Special Paper 123: 263–283.

    Google Scholar 

  • Watts, W. A., 1960. Post-Atlantic forests in Ireland. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London 172: 33–38.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Webb, T. III, 1973. Pre- and postsettlement pollen in a short core from Blackhawk Lake, west-central Iowa. Proceedings Iowa Academy of Sciences 80: 41–44.

    Google Scholar 

  • Webb, T. III, 1982. Temporal resolution in Holocene pollen data. Proceedings, 3rd North American Paleontological Convention, Vol. 2: 569–572.

    Google Scholar 

  • Webb, T. III, P. J. H. Richard, and R. G. Mott, 1983. A mapped history of Holocene vegetation in southern Quebec. Syllogeus 49: 273–336.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wein, R. W. and J. M. More, 1977. Fire history and rotations in the New Brunswick Acadian forest. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 7: 285–294.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Winkler, M. J., 1982. Late-glacial and post-glacial vegetation history of Cape Cod and the paleolimnology of Duck Pond, South Wellfleet, Massachusetts. M.S. thesis, University of Wisconsin.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors
  1. William A. Patterson III
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Andrew E. Backman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Botony, Science Laboratories, University of Durham, South Road, Durham, DH1 3LE, England

    B. Huntley

  2. Department of Geological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, 02912-1846, USA

    T. Webb III

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 1988 Kluwer Academic Publishers

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Patterson, W.A., Backman, A.E. (1988). Fire and disease history of forests. In: Huntley, B., Webb, T. (eds) Vegetation history. Handbook of vegetation science, vol 7. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-3081-0_16

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-3081-0_16

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-7884-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-009-3081-0

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation