Abstract
The predominant fire regime associated with ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) forests in the southwestern US has shifted from the historic norm of frequent, low-severity fires to less frequent mixed-severity and crown fires. This change in the severity of fire has altered ponderosa pine forests from the open stands typical of pre-settlement times to even-aged, high-density stands at increased risk of crown fire. As a result, restoration plans and post-fire management practices must consider the spatial and temporal variability of fire severity in both mixed-severity and crown fire events because fire-severity patterns strongly influence post-fire ecological conditions. This study examines the landscape pattern of fire severity in the Ponil Complex Fire and applies a moving-window approach to post-fire landscape pattern measurement. The moving-window approach allows examination of the quantitative and spatial variability of landscape pattern, producing a more nuanced description of forest pattern when compared to whole-landscape or patch-based metrics. The fire resulted in a complex mosaic of fire patches and forest-structure changes. In high-severity fire patches, mean and median values of many post-fire landscape metrics were markedly different from those in low and moderate-severity patches. Landscape pattern in high-severity patches also had the greatest variability of metric values, suggesting that high-severity fire patches require a spatially mediated management response to fire. Categorical fire-severity maps and traditional landscape-pattern assessment would not be able to identify these spatially variable post-fire conditions.
Original language | English (US) |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 1392-1400 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | Forest Ecology and Management |
Volume | 261 |
Issue number | 8 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Apr 15 2011 |
Keywords
- Fire ecology
- Landscape metrics
- Landscape pattern
- Mixed-severity fire
- Moving-window metrics
- Ponderosa pine
- Spatial heterogeneity
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Forestry
- Nature and Landscape Conservation
- Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law