scholarly journals The Effect of Seeding Treatments and Climate on Fire Regimes in Wyoming Sagebrush Steppe

Fire ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 16
Author(s):  
Chris Bowman-Prideaux ◽  
Beth A. Newingham ◽  
Eva K. Strand
Keyword(s):  
Fire Regime ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Fire Frequency ◽  
Western United States ◽  
Sagebrush Steppe ◽  
Annual Grass ◽  
Big Sagebrush ◽  
Return Interval ◽  
Arid Steppe ◽  
Wyoming Big Sagebrush

Wildfire size and frequency have increased in the western United States since the 1950s, but it is unclear how seeding treatments have altered fire regimes in arid steppe systems. We analyzed how the number of fires since 1955 and the fire return interval and frequency between 1995 and 2015 responded to seeding treatments, anthropogenic features, and abiotic landscape variables in Wyoming big sagebrush ecosystems. Arid sites had more fires than mesic sites and fire return intervals were shortest on locations first treated between 1975 and 2000. Sites drill seeded before the most recent fire had fewer, less frequent fires with longer fire return intervals (15–20 years) than aerially seeded sites (intervals of 5–8 years). The response of fire regime variables at unseeded sites fell between those of aerial and drill seeding. Increased moisture availability resulted in decreased fire frequency between 1994 and 2014 and the total number of fires since 1955 on sites with unseeded and aerially pre-fire seeding, but fire regimes did not change when drill seeded. Greater annual grass biomass likely contributed to frequent fires in the arid region. In Wyoming big sagebrush steppe, drill seeding treatments reduced wildfire risk relative to aerial seeded or unseeded sites.

Identifying key climate and environmental factors affecting rates of post-fire big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) recovery in the northern Columbia Basin, USA

2016 ◽  
Vol 25 (9) ◽  
pp. 933 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas J. Shinneman ◽  
Susan K. McIlroy
Keyword(s):  
Artemisia Tridentata ◽  
Fire Frequency ◽  
Mixed Effects Models ◽  
Sagebrush Steppe ◽  
Columbia Basin ◽  
Percentage Cover ◽  
Climate Conditions ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Big Sagebrush ◽  
Wyoming Big Sagebrush

Sagebrush steppe of North America is considered highly imperilled, in part owing to increased fire frequency. Sagebrush ecosystems support numerous species, and it is important to understand those factors that affect rates of post-fire sagebrush recovery. We explored recovery of Wyoming big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata ssp. wyomingensis) and basin big sagebrush (A. tridentata ssp. tridentata) communities following fire in the northern Columbia Basin (Washington, USA). We sampled plots across 16 fires that burned in big sagebrush communities from 5 to 28 years ago, and also sampled nearby unburned locations. Mixed-effects models demonstrated that density of large–mature big sagebrush plants and percentage cover of big sagebrush were higher with time since fire and in plots with more precipitation during the winter immediately following fire, but were lower when precipitation the next winter was higher than average, especially on soils with higher available water supply, and with greater post-fire mortality of mature big sagebrush plants. Bunchgrass cover 5 to 28 years after fire was predicted to be lower with higher cover of both shrubs and non-native herbaceous species, and only slightly higher with time. Post-fire recovery of big sagebrush in the northern Columbia Basin is a slow process that may require several decades on average, but faster recovery rates may occur under specific site and climate conditions.

Using Herbicides to Restore Native Species and Improve Habitat on Rangelands and Wildlands

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 57-60
Author(s):  
Shannon L. Clark
Keyword(s):  
Native Species ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Fire Frequency ◽  
Sagebrush Steppe ◽  
Native Plant ◽  
Intermountain West ◽  
Downy Brome ◽  
Annual Grass ◽  
Annual Grasses ◽  
Winter Annual

Invasive winter annual grasses are one of the largest threats to the arid and semiarid rangelands and wildlands in the Intermountain West of North America. The most impactful species include downy brome (Bromus tectorum), medusahead (Taeniatherum caput-medusae), ventenata (Ventenata dubia), and to a lesser extent Japanese brome (Bromus japonicus), feral rye (Secale cereale), and jointed goatgrass (Aegilops cylindrica). These winter annuals can germinate in the fall, winter or early spring, exploiting soil moisture and nutrients before native plant communities begin active growth in the spring. These characteristics impart a competitive advantage in the perennial grass dominated natural landscapes of the Intermountain West. Downy brome, a winter annual grass native to Eurasia, is the most widespread invasive species in the western US covering an estimated 22 million ha and a projected 14% annual spread rate. Invasive winter annuals negatively impact these ecosystems by depleting soil moisture and nutrients, reducing native plant productivity and diversity, altering fire frequency, and diminishing pollinator and wildlife habitat. Large amounts of litter which act as a fuel source are left after these grasses senesce early in the summer, greatly increasing the frequency and spread of wildfires in invaded areas. Historically, fire frequency in the 41 million ha sagebrush steppe occurred every 60 to 110 years, but this interval has been shortened to less than every five years since the introduction of invasive annual grasses. Annual grasses quickly (re)invade after these fires while sagebrush (Artemisia spp.), the dominant vegetation type in the sagebrush steppe, can take decades to recover. Therefore, the altered fire regime has resulted in a substantial loss of sagebrush and converted millions of hectares into monocultures of winter annual grass. This altered fire regime also negatively impacted the abundance of small mammals, birds, larger browsing mammals, and pollinating insects in the sagebrush steppe. Managing the weed seedbank is the key to long-term control of invasive winter annual grasses on rangelands and wildlands. Past herbicides have provided adequate short-term control but have often failed due to annual grasses reinvading from the soil seedbank. Indaziflam is a new tool for land managers to achieve multi-year control of the annual grass seedbank while promoting restoration of native species. As wildlife and pollinator habitat continue to be degraded and fragmented through development and agricultural production, indaziflam is a viable option for restoring the rangelands and wildlands impacted by winter annual grasses in the Intermountain West that serve as critical habitat areas.

Fire regime shift linked to increased forest density in a piñon–juniper savanna landscape

2014 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellis Q. Margolis
Keyword(s):  
Regime Shift ◽  
Fire History ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Fire Frequency ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Tree Density ◽  
High Severity ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
In Fire

Piñon–juniper (PJ) fire regimes are generally characterised as infrequent high-severity. However, PJ ecosystems vary across a large geographic and bio-climatic range and little is known about one of the principal PJ functional types, PJ savannas. It is logical that (1) grass in PJ savannas could support frequent, low-severity fire and (2) exclusion of frequent fire could explain increased tree density in PJ savannas. To assess these hypotheses I used dendroecological methods to reconstruct fire history and forest structure in a PJ-dominated savanna. Evidence of high-severity fire was not observed. From 112 fire-scarred trees I reconstructed 87 fire years (1547–1899). Mean fire interval was 7.8 years for fires recorded at ≥2 sites. Tree establishment was negatively correlated with fire frequency (r=–0.74) and peak PJ establishment was synchronous with dry (unfavourable) conditions and a regime shift (decline) in fire frequency in the late 1800s. The collapse of the grass-fuelled, frequent, surface fire regime in this PJ savanna was likely the primary driver of current high tree density (mean=881treesha–1) that is >600% of the historical estimate. Variability in bio-climatic conditions likely drive variability in fire regimes across the wide range of PJ ecosystems.

scholarly journals Potentials and limitations for human control over historic fire regimes in the boreal forest

2007 ◽  
Vol 363 (1501) ◽  
pp. 2351-2356 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anders Granström ◽  
Mats Niklasson
Keyword(s):  
Fire Regime ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Fire Spread ◽  
Fire Frequency ◽  
Human Control ◽  
Regime Changes ◽  
Northern Fennoscandia ◽  
Potential Impact ◽  
Cattle Husbandry ◽  
Different Cultures

Fire, being both a natural and cultural phenomenon, presents problems in disentangling the historical effect of humans from that of climate change. Here, we investigate the potential impact of humans on boreal fire regimes from a perspective of fuels, ignitions and culture. Two ways for a low technology culture to impact the fire regime are as follows: (i) by altering the number of ignitions and their spatial distribution and timing and (ii) by hindering fire spread. Different cultures should be expected to have quite different impacts on the fire regimes. In northern Fennoscandia, there is evidence for fire regime changes associated with the following: a reindeer herding culture associated with few ignitions above the natural; an era of cattle husbandry with dramatically increased ignitions and somewhat higher fire frequency; and a timber exploitation era with decreasing fire sizes and diminishing fire frequency. In other regions of the boreal zone, such schemes can look quite different, but we suggest that a close look at the resource extraction and land use of different cultures should be part of any analysis of past fire regimes.

Using simulation to map fire regimes: an evaluation of approaches, strategies, and limitations

2003 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 309 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert E. Keane ◽  
Geoffrey J. Cary ◽  
Russell Parsons
Keyword(s):  
Geographical Information Systems ◽  
Fire History ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Wildland Fire ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Simulation Modelling ◽  
Fire Frequency ◽  
Geographical Information ◽  
Spatially Explicit ◽  
Eastern Australia

Spatial depictions of fire regimes are indispensable to fire management because they portray important characteristics of wildland fire, such as severity, intensity, and pattern, across a landscape that serves as important reference for future treatment activities. However, spatially explicit fire regime maps are difficult and costly to create requiring extensive expertise in fire history sampling, multivariate statistics, remotely sensed image classification, fire behaviour and effects, fuel dynamics, landscape ecology, simulation modelling, and geographical information systems (GIS). This paper first compares three common strategies for predicting fire regimes (classification, empirical, and simulation) using a 51�000�ha landscape in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness Area of Montana, USA. Simulation modelling is identified as the best overall strategy with respect to developing temporally deep spatial fire patterns, but it has limitations. To illustrate these problems, we performed three simulation experiments using the LANDSUM spatial model to determine the relative importance of (1) simulation time span; (2) fire frequency parameters; and (3) fire size parameters on the simulation of landscape fire return interval. The model used to simulate fire regimes is also very important, so we compared two spatially explicit landscape fire succession models (LANDSUM and FIRESCAPE) to demonstrate differences between model predictions and limitations of each on a neutral landscape. FIRESCAPE was developed for simulating fire regimes in eucalypt forests of south-eastern Australia. Finally, challenges for future simulation and fire regime research are presented including field data, scale, fire regime variability, map obsolescence, and classification resolution.

Fire regimes and their correlates in the Darwin region of northern Australia

2007 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 177 ◽  
Author(s):  
Owen Price ◽  
Bryan Baker
Keyword(s):  
Fire History ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Fire Suppression ◽  
Landsat Imagery ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Fire Frequency ◽  
Dry Season ◽  
Generalized Linear Modelling

A nine year fire history for the Darwin region was created from Landsat imagery, and examined to describe the fire regime across the region. 43% of the region burned each year, and approximately one quarter of the fires occur in the late dry season, which is lower than most other studied areas. Freehold land, which covers 35% of the greater Darwin region, has 20% long-unburnt land. In contrast, most publicly owned and Aboriginal owned land has very high fire frequency (60-70% per year), and only 5% long unburnt. It seems that much of the Freehold land is managed for fire suppression, while the common land is burnt either to protect the Freehold or by pyromaniacs. Generalized Linear Modelling among a random sample of points revealed that fire frequency is higher among large blocks of savannah vegetation, and at greater distances from mangrove vegetation and roads. This suggests that various kinds of fire break can be used to manage fire in the region. The overall fire frequency in the Darwin region is probably too high and is having a negative impact on wildlife. However, the relatively low proportion of late dry season fires means the regime is probably not as bad as in some other regions. The management of fire is ad-hoc and strongly influenced by tenure. There needs to be a clear statement of regional fire targets and a strategy to achieve these. Continuation of the fire mapping is an essential component of achieving the targets.

Mapping fire regime ecoregions in California

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (7) ◽  
pp. 595 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra D. Syphard ◽  
Jon E. Keeley
Keyword(s):  
Fire Regime ◽  
Fire Severity ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Unsupervised Classification ◽  
Fire Frequency ◽  
The State ◽  
Reduction Strategies ◽  
Lower Variability ◽  
Fire Characteristics ◽  
In Fire

The fire regime is a central framing concept in wildfire science and ecology and describes how a range of wildfire characteristics vary geographically over time. Understanding and mapping fire regimes is important for guiding appropriate management and risk reduction strategies and for informing research on drivers of global change and altered fire patterns. Most efforts to spatially delineate fire regimes have been conducted by identifying natural groupings of fire parameters based on available historical fire data. This can result in classes with similar fire characteristics but wide differences in ecosystem types. We took a different approach and defined fire regime ecoregions for California to better align with ecosystem types, without using fire as part of the definition. We used an unsupervised classification algorithm to segregate the state into spatial clusters based on distinctive biophysical and anthropogenic attributes that drive fire regimes – and then used historical fire data to evaluate the ecoregions. The fire regime ecoregion map corresponded well with the major land cover types of the state and provided clear separation of historical patterns in fire frequency and size, with lower variability in fire severity. This methodology could be used for mapping fire regimes in other regions with limited historical fire data or forecasting future fire regimes based on expected changes in biophysical characteristics.

Floristics and Fire Regimes of a Vegetation Sequence From Sedgeland-Heath to Rainforest at Bathurst Harbour, Tasmania

1982 ◽  
Vol 30 (6) ◽  
pp. 659 ◽  
Author(s):  
MJ Brown ◽  
FD Podger
Keyword(s):  
Gradient Analysis ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Major Axis ◽  
Fire Frequency ◽  
Edaphic Factors ◽  
Direct Gradient Analysis ◽  
Principal Coordinates ◽  
Successional Pathways ◽  
Descriptive Models

The floristic differences found in vegetation ranging from sedgeland-heath to rainforest were sampled by the placement of 80 quadrats in an area 2 km2 near Bathurst Harbour, Tasmania. A direct gradient analysis using the time since last fire as the major axis of variation suggests that the changing species composition of sites is both gradational and fire-related. This interpretation is supported by a point- centred quarter analysis of the forested communities and by Principal Coordinates and Detrended Correspondence Analyses of the entire vegetation sequence. Previous descriptive models based on correlations between he frequency and structural formations are confirmed by this study. A broad correlation between fire frequency and floristic associations within non-forested vegetation is also demonstrated. However, explanation of detailed patterns requires consideration of the total fire regime (including duration and intensity of fire) and its interaction with edaphic factors. For example, fires which burn in peat lead to hysteresis in the successional pathways.

scholarly journals Small mammals decline with increasing fire extent in northern Australia: evidence from long-term monitoring in Kakadu National Park

2015 ◽  
Vol 24 (5) ◽  
pp. 712 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. Lawes ◽  
Brett P. Murphy ◽  
Alaric Fisher ◽  
John C. Z. Woinarski ◽  
Andrew C. Edwards ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Small Mammals ◽  
National Park ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Fire Frequency ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Northern Australia ◽  
Fire Size ◽  
Burnt Area ◽  
Fire Extent

Small mammal (<2 kg) numbers have declined dramatically in northern Australia in recent decades. Fire regimes, characterised by frequent, extensive, late-season wildfires, are implicated in this decline. Here, we compare the effect of fire extent, in conjunction with fire frequency, season and spatial heterogeneity (patchiness) of the burnt area, on mammal declines in Kakadu National Park over a recent decadal period. Fire extent – an index incorporating fire size and fire frequency – was the best predictor of mammal declines, and was superior to the proportion of the surrounding area burnt and fire patchiness. Point-based fire frequency, a commonly used index for characterising fire effects, was a weak predictor of declines. Small-scale burns affected small mammals least of all. Crucially, the most important aspects of fire regimes that are associated with declines are spatial ones; extensive fires (at scales larger than the home ranges of small mammals) are the most detrimental, indicating that small mammals may not easily escape the effects of large and less patchy fires. Notwithstanding considerable management effort, the current fire regime in this large conservation reserve is detrimental to the native mammal fauna, and more targeted management is required to reduce fire size.

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