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Impacts of mixed severity wildfire on exotic plants in a Colorado ponderosa pine–Douglas-fir forest

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Abstract

The 2002 Hayman Fire burned with mixed severity across 55,800 ha of montane Colorado forest, including pre-existing plots that were originally measured for understory plant composition and cover in 1997. We examined the influence of the Hayman Fire on exotic plants by remeasuring these plots annually from 2003 to 2007. We found that (1) exotic richness and cover generally increased as fire severity and time since fire increased; (2) the exotic species present in a plot before the fire were also largely present in the plot postfire, regardless of fire severity; (3) most of the new postfire species in a plot were present elsewhere in the study area before the fire, although some new species were truly new invaders that were not found in prefire surveys; (4) lightly burned riparian forests were not more susceptible to exotic invasion than surrounding uplands that burned with similar severity; and (5) native and exotic richness and cover were positively correlated or uncorrelated for all fire severities and years. Our findings indicate that exotics were stimulated by the Hayman Fire, especially in severely burned areas. However, exotic richness and cover remain low as of 2007, and correlations between native and exotic richness and cover suggest that exotics have not yet interfered with native understory development. Therefore, we conclude that exotic plants are not a major ecological threat at present, but recommend that monitoring be continued to evaluate if they will pose a threat in future years.

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Acknowledgments

This research project was funded by the Joint Fire Science Program (Project Numbers 03-2-3-08 and 04-2-1-118), NASA (Project Number NRA-03-OES-03), and the USDA Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station. We gratefully acknowledge Stephanie Asherin, Allison Grow, Rebecca Hemmerling, Micky McNaughton, Jill Oropeza, Lisa Schell, and Betsy Smith for their assistance with plant surveys, and Rebecca Hemmerling, Rick Shory and Jennifer Ventker for help with data management and specimen archiving. We also thank Laurie Huckaby, William Romme, and two anonymous reviewers for their useful comments on earlier drafts of the article, and Rudy King and Jim zumBrunnen for statistical advice.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, 240 West Prospect Road, Fort Collins, CO, 80526, USA

    Paula J. Fornwalt & Merrill R. Kaufmann

  2. US Geological Survey, Fort Collins Science Center, 2050 Centre Street, Building C, Fort Collins, CO, 80526, USA

    Thomas J. Stohlgren

Authors
  1. Paula J. Fornwalt
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  2. Merrill R. Kaufmann
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  3. Thomas J. Stohlgren
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Correspondence to Paula J. Fornwalt.

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This paper was written and prepared by US Government employees on official time, and therefore it is in the public domain and not subject to copyright.

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Fornwalt, P.J., Kaufmann, M.R. & Stohlgren, T.J. Impacts of mixed severity wildfire on exotic plants in a Colorado ponderosa pine–Douglas-fir forest. Biol Invasions 12, 2683–2695 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-009-9674-2

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