Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Topography, Fuels, and Fire Exclusion Drive Fire Severity of the Rim Fire in an Old-Growth Mixed-Conifer Forest, Yosemite National Park, USA

  • Published:
Ecosystems Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The number of large, high-severity fires has increased in the western United States over the past 30 years due to climate change and increasing tree density from fire suppression. Fuel quantity, topography, and weather during a burn control fire severity, and the relative contributions of these controls in mixed-severity fires in mountainous terrain are poorly understood. In 2013, the Rim Fire burned a previously studied 2125 ha area of mixed-conifer forest in Yosemite National Park. Data from 84 plots sampled in 2002 revealed increases in tree density, basal area, and fuel buildup since 1899 due to fire exclusion. A dendroecological fire history and reconstruction of forest structure in 1899 showed that this area historically experienced frequent, low-severity fire. In contrast with this region’s historical fire regime, burn severity from Landsat imagery showed that this area burned at mixed-severity in the Rim Fire, with 13% of plots classified as unchanged, 31% low severity, 32% moderate severity, and 24% high severity. A random forest model was used to identify the controls of fire severity in this portion of the Rim Fire, using daily area burned, daily fire weather, and fuels and vegetation data for the surface and canopy. Topography, tree species composition, and cover of forbs and shrubs best explained the fire severity. As an example of a re-entry burn, this study demonstrates how fire exclusion alters fire–vegetation interactions, leading to uncharacteristically severe burns and potentially new fire-vegetation dynamics.

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

Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4
Figure 5
Figure 6
Figure 7

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Agee JK. 1993. Fire ecology of Pacific northwest forests. Washington (DC): Island Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Agee JK, Skinner CN. 2005. Basic principles of forest fuel reduction treatments. For Ecol Manage 211:83–96.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baker W. 2014. Historical forest structure and fire in Sierran mixed-conifer forests reconstructed from General Land Office survey data. Ecosphere 5:1–70.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Banwell EM, Morgan Varner J, Knapp EE, Van Kirk RW. 2013. Spatial, seasonal, and diel forest floor moisture dynamics in Jeffrey pine-white fir forests of the Lake Tahoe Basin, USA. For Ecol Manage 305:11–20.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beaty R, Taylor A. 2001. Spatial and temporal variation of fire regimes in a mixed conifer forest landscape, Southern Cascades, California, USA. J Biogeogr 28:955–66.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blonski KS, Schramel JL. 1981. Photo series for quantifying natural forest residues: southern Cascades, northern Sierra Nevada. General Technical Report. PSW-56. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station, Albany.

  • Bonnicksen TM, Stone EC. 1982. Reconstruction of a presettlement giant sequoia-mixed conifer forest community using the aggregation approach. Ecology 63:1134–48.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bowman DMJS, Balch JK, Artaxo P, Bond WJ, Carlson JM, Cochrane MA, D’Antonio CM, Defries RS, Doyle JC, Harrison SP, Johnston FH, Keeley JE, Krawchuk MA, Kull CA, Marston JB, Moritz MA, Prentice IC, Roos CI, Scott AC, Swetnam TW, van der Werf GR, Pyne SJ. 2009. Fire in the Earth system. Science 324:481–4.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bradshaw LS, Deeming JE, Burgan RE, Cohen JD. 1983. The 1978 national fire-danger rating system: Technical documentation. General Technical Report INT-169. USDA Forest Service, Intermountain Forest and Range Experiment Station, Ogden.

  • Breiman L. 2001. Random forests. Mach Learn 45:5–32.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brown R, Agee J, Franklin J. 2004. Forest restoration and fire: principles in the context of place. Conserv Biol 18:903–12.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cocke AE, Fulé PZ, Crouse JE. 2005. Forest change on a steep mountain gradient after extended fire exclusion: San Francisco Peaks, Arizona, USA. J Appl Ecol 42:814–23.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Collins BM, Everett RG, Stephens SL. 2011. Impacts of fire exclusion and recent managed fire on forest structure in old growth Sierra Nevada mixed-conifer forests. Ecosphere 2:art51.

  • Collins BM, Kelly M, Wagtendonk JW, Stephens SL. 2007. Spatial patterns of large natural fires in Sierra Nevada wilderness areas. Landsc Ecol 22:545–57.

    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 12:114–28.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Collins BM, Roller GB. 2013. Early forest dynamics in stand-replacing fire patches in the northern Sierra Nevada, California, USA. Landsc Ecol 28:1801–13.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Collins BM, Stephens SL. 2010. Stand-replacing patches within a “mixed severity” fire regime: quantitative characterization using recent fires in a long-established natural fire area. Landsc Ecol 25:927–39.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • De’ath G, Fabricius K. 2000. Classification and regression trees: a powerful yet simple technique for ecological data analysis. Ecology 81:3178–92.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • DellaSala D, Bond M, Hanson C. 2014. Complex early seral forests of the Sierra Nevada: what are they and how can they be managed for ecological integrity? Nat Areas J 34:310–24.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dillon GK, Holden ZA, Morgan P, Crimmins MA, Heyerdahl EK, Luce CH. 2011. Both topography and climate affected forest and woodland burn severity in two regions of the western US, 1984 to 2006. Ecosphere 2:art130.

  • Estes BL, Knapp EE, Skinner CN, Uzoh FCC. 2012. Seasonal variation in surface fuel moisture between unthinned and thinned mixed conifer forest, northern California, USA. Int J Wildland Fire 21:428–35.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fulé PZ, Cocke AE, Heinlein TA, Covington WW. 2004. Effects of an intense prescribed forest fire: is it ecological restoration? Restor Ecol 12:220–30.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fulé P, Swetnam T, Brown P, Falk D, Peterson D, Allen C, Aplet G, Battaglia M, Binkley D, Farris CA, Keane RE, Margolis E, Grissino-Mayer HD, Miller C, Sieg C, Skinner CN, Stephens SL, Taylor AH. 2014. Unsupported inferences of high-severity fire in historical dry forests of the western United States: response to Williams and Baker. Global Ecol Biogeogr 23:825–30.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gunderson L. 2000. Ecological resilience—in theory and application. Annu Rev Ecol Syst 31:425–39.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haines D. 1988. A lower atmosphere severity index for wildlife fires. Natl Weather Dig 13:23–7.

    Google Scholar 

  • Halofsky JE, Donato DC, Hibbs DE, Campbell JL, Cannon MD, Fontaine JB, Thompson JR, Anthony RG, Bormann BT, Kayes LJ, Law BE, Peterson DL, Spies TA. 2011. Mixed-severity fire regimes: lessons and hypotheses from the Klamath-Siskiyou Ecoregion. Ecosphere 2:art40.

  • Hickman JC. 1993. The Jepson manual: higher plants of California. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hill M. 1975. Geology of the Sierra Nevada. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holden ZA, Morgan P, Evans JS. 2009. A predictive model of burn severity based on 20-year satellite-inferred burn severity data in a large southwestern US wilderness area. For Ecol Manage 258:2399–406.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Huber, N. 1987. The geologic story of Yosemite National Park. Washington (DC), US Geological Survey.

  • Iverson LR, Prasad AM, Matthews SN, Peters M. 2008. Estimating potential habitat for 134 eastern US tree species under six climate scenarios. For Ecol Manage 254:390–406.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jenness J, Brost B, Beier P. 2013. Land facet corridor designer: extension for ArcGIS. Jennes Enterprises. http://www.jennessent.com/arcgis/land_facets.htm.

  • Johnstone JF, Chapin FS. 2006. Effects of soil burn severity on post-fire tree recruitment in Boreal forest. Ecosystems 9:14–31.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kane VR, Lutz JA, Alina C, Povak NA, Churchill DJ, Smith DF, Kane JT, North MP. 2015. Water balance and topography predict fire and forest structure patterns. For Ecol Manage 338:1–13.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Key CH, Benson NC. 2006. Landscape assessment (LA) sampling and analysis methods. In: Lutes DC, Ed. FIREMON: fire effects monitoring and inventory system. USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fort Collins, Colorado. pp LA1–49.

  • Knapp EE, Skinner CN, North MP, Estes BL. 2013. Long-term overstory and understory change following logging and fire exclusion in a Sierra Nevada mixed-conifer forest. For Ecol Manage 310:903–14.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Knapp EE, Weatherspoon J, Skinner CN. 2012. Shrub seed banks in mixed Conifer forests of Northern California and the role of fire in regulating abundance. Fire Ecol 7:32–48.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liaw A, Wiener M. 2002. Classification and Regression by randomForest. R News 2(3):18–22.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lindenmayer DB, Hobbs RJ, Likens GE, Krebs CJ, Banks SC. 2011. Newly discovered landscape traps produce regime shifts in wet forests. Proc Natl Acad Sci 108:15887–91.

    Article  PubMed Central  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Luo L, Tang Y, Zhong S, Bian X, Heilman WE. 2013. Will future climate favor more erratic wildfires in the western United States? J Appl Meteorol Climatol 52:2410–17.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lydersen J, North M. 2012. Topographic variation in structure of mixed-Conifer forests under an active-fire regime. Ecosystems 15:1134–46.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Lydersen JM, North MP, Collins BM. 2014. Severity of an uncharacteristically large wildfire, the Rim Fire, in forests with relatively restored frequent fire regimes. For Ecol Manage 328:326–34.

    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 113:645–56.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miller JD, Safford H. 2012. Trends in wildfire severity: 1984 to 2010 in the Sierra Nevada, Modoc Plateau, and Southern Cascades, California, USA. Fire Ecol 8:41–57.

    Article  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 

  • Nagel T, Taylor A. 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 132:442–57.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • North M, Stine P, O’Hara K, Zielinski W, Stephens S. 2009. An ecosystem management strategy for Sierran mixed-conifer forests. General Technical Report PSW-GTR-220. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station, Albany.

  • NPS. 2006. National park service management policies. Washington, DC: United States Department of the Interior.

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Connor CD, Falk DA, Lynch AM, Swetnam TW. 2014. Fire severity, size, and climate associations diverge from historical precedent along an ecological gradient in the Pinaleño Mountains, Arizona, USA. For Ecol Manage 329:264–78.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Odion DC, Hanson CT, Arsenault A, Baker WL, Dellasala DA, Hutto RL, Klenner W, Moritz MA, Sherriff RL, Veblen TT, Williams MA. 2014. Examining historical and current mixed-severity fire regimes in ponderosa pine and mixed-conifer forests of western North America. PLoS One 9:e87852.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Odion DC, Moritz MA, DellaSala DA. 2010. Alternative community states maintained by fire in the Klamath Mountains, USA. J Ecol 98:96–105.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Parker AJ. 1982. The topographic relative moisture index: an approach to soil-moisture assessment in mountain terrain. Phys Geogr 3:160–8.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parks SA, Miller C, Nelson CR, Holden ZA. 2014. Previous fires moderate burn severity of subsequent wildland fires in two large western US wilderness areas. Ecosystems 17:29–42.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Perry DA, Hessburg PF, Skinner CN, Spies TA, Stephens SL, Taylor AH, Franklin JF, McComb B, Riegel G. 2011. The ecology of mixed severity fire regimes in Washington, Oregon, and Northern California. For Ecol Manage 262:703–17.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Peterson GD. 2002. Contagious disturbance, ecological memory, and the emergence of landscape pattern. Ecosystems 5:329–38.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Peterson SH, Franklin J, Roberts DA, van Wagtendonk JW. 2013. Mapping fuels in Yosemite National Park. Can J For Res 43:7–17.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pierce AD, Taylor AH. 2011. Fire severity and seed source influence lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta var. murrayana) regeneration in the southern cascades, Lassen volcanic National Park, California. Landsc Ecol 26:225–37.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Prasad AM, Iverson LR, Liaw A. 2006. Newer classification and regression tree techniques: bagging and random forests for ecological prediction. Ecosystems 9:181–99.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ritchie MW, Skinner CN, Hamilton TA. 2007. Probability of tree survival after wildfire in an interior pine forest of northern California: Effects of thinning and prescribed fire. For Ecol Manage 247:200–8.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rothermel R. 1983. How to predict the spread and intensity of forest and range fires. U.S. Forest Service General Technical Report INT-GTR-143.

  • Sakulich J, Taylor AH. 2007. Fire regimes and forest structure in a sky island mixed conifer forest, Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Texas, USA. For Ecol Manage 241:62–73.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Savage M, Mast JN. 2005. How resilient are southwestern ponderosa pine forests after crown fires? Can J For Res 35:967–77.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scholl AE, Taylor AH. 2010. Fire regimes, forest change, and self-organization in an old-growth mixed-conifer forest, Yosemite National Park, USA. Ecol Appl 20:362–80.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Schoennagel T, Smithwick EA, Turner MG. 2009. Landscape heterogeneity following large fires: insights from Yellowstone National Park, USA. Int J Wildl Fire 17(6):742–53.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Skinner CN, Chang C. 1996. Fire regimes, past and present in Sierra Nevada ecosystems project: final report to congress. Davis: University of California. pp 1041–69.

    Google Scholar 

  • Taylor AH. 2010. Fire disturbance and forest structure in an old-growth Pinus ponderosa forest, southern Cascades, USA. J Veg Sci 21:561–72.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Taylor AH, Scholl AE. 2012. Climatic and human influences on fire regimes in mixed conifer forests in Yosemite National Park, USA. For Ecol Manage 267:144–56.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Taylor AH, Skinner C. 1998. Fire history and landscape dynamics in a late-successional reserve, Klamath Mountains, California, USA. For Ecol Manage 111:285–301.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Taylor AH, Skinner C. 2003. Spatial patterns and controls on historical fire regimes and forest structure in the Klamath Mountains. Ecol Appl 13:704–19.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Taylor AH, Vandervlugt AM, Maxwell RS, Beaty RM, Airey C, Skinner CN. 2014. Changes in forest structure, fuels and potential fire behaviour since 1873 in the Lake Tahoe Basin, USA. Appl Veg Sci 17:17–31.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thompson JR, Spies TA. 2009. Vegetation and weather explain variation in crown damage within a large mixed-severity wildfire. For Ecol Manage 258:1684–94.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thompson J, Spies TA, Ganio LM. 2007. Reburn severity in managed and unmanaged vegetation in a large wildfire. Proc Natl Acad Sci 104:10743–8.

    Article  PubMed Central  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Trouet V, Taylor AH. 2010. Multi-century variability in the Pacific North American (PNA) circulation pattern reconstructed from tree rings. Clim Dyn 35:953–63.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Trouet V, Taylor AH, Carleton AM, Skinner CN. 2009. Interannual variations in fire weather, fire extent, and synoptic-scale circulation patterns in northern California and Oregon. Theoret Appl Climatol 95:349–60.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Turner M, Hargrove W, Gardner R, Romme W. 1994. Effects of fire on landscape heterogeneity in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. J Veg Sci 5:731–42.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Turner MG, Tinker DB, Romme WH, Kashian DM, Litton CM. 2004. Landscape patterns of sapling density, leaf area, and aboveground net primary production in postfire lodgepole Pine Forests, Yellowstone National Park (USA). Ecosystems 7:751–75.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Turner MG. 1989. Landscape ecology: the effect of pattern on process. Annu Rev Ecol Syst 20:171–97.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • van Wagtendonk JW. 1974. Refined burning prescriptions for Yosemite National Park. USDI National Park Service Occasional Paper 2. p 21.

  • van Wagtendonk JW, van Wagtendonk KA, Thode AE. 2012. Factors associated with the severity of intersecting fires in Yosemite National Park, California, USA. Fire Ecol 7:11–31.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weatherspoon C, Skinner C. 1995. An assessment of factors associated with damage to tree crowns from the 1987 wildfires in northern California. For Sci 41:430–51.

    Google Scholar 

  • Werth P, Ochoa R. 1993. The evaluation of Idaho wildfire growth using the Haines Index. Weather Forecast 8:223–34.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Werth PA, Potter BE, Clements CB, Finney MA, Goodrick SL, Alexander ME, Cruz MG, Jason A, Mcallister SS. 2011. Synthesis of knowledge of extreme fire behavior: volume I for fire managers. General Technical Report PNW-GTR-854. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station. Portland.

  • Westerling AL, Hidalgo HG, Cayan DR, Swetnam TW. 2006. Warming and earlier spring increase western U.S. forest wildfire activity. Science 313:940–3.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

Support for the initial field data collection was provided by the Joint Fire Sciences Program Grant (01-3-3-12) and additional support was provided by an E.W. and Ruby S. Miller Distinguished Graduate Fellowship from the Department of Geography. We thank C. N. Skinner, E.A.H. Smithwick, and A. Carleton for helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper. This work was completed as partial fulfillment of the requirements for an M.S. degree in the Department of Geography.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, Pennsylvania State University, 302 Walker Building, University Park, Pennsylvania, 16802, USA

    Lucas Harris & Alan H. Taylor

Authors
  1. Lucas Harris
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Alan H. Taylor
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lucas Harris.

Additional information

Author contributions

Lucas Harris designed the study, analyzed data, and wrote the paper. Alan H. Taylor designed the study and wrote the paper.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Harris, L., Taylor, A.H. Topography, Fuels, and Fire Exclusion Drive Fire Severity of the Rim Fire in an Old-Growth Mixed-Conifer Forest, Yosemite National Park, USA. Ecosystems 18, 1192–1208 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-015-9890-9

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-015-9890-9

Keywords

Search

Navigation