scholarly journals Megafire effects on spotted owls: elucidation of a growing threat and a response to Hanson et al. (2018)

2019 ◽  
Vol 37 ◽  
pp. 31-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gavin M. Jones ◽  
R. J. Gutiérrez ◽  
H. Anu Kramer ◽  
Douglas J. Tempel ◽  
William J. Berigan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sierra Nevada ◽  
Forest Restoration ◽  
Forest Ecosystems ◽  
Full Range ◽  
Dry Forest ◽  
Salvage Logging ◽  
High Severity ◽  
Spotted Owls ◽  
Study Population ◽  
Territory Occupancy

The extent to which wildfire adversely affects spotted owls (Strix occidentalis) is a key consideration for ecosystem restoration efforts in seasonally dry forests of the western United States. Recently, Jones et al. (2016) demonstrated that the 2014 King Fire (a “megafire”) adversely affected a population of individually-marked California spotted owls (S. o. occidentalis) monitored as part of a long-term demographic study in the Sierra Nevada, California, USA because territory occupancy declined substantially at territories burned at high-severity and GPS-tagged spotted owls avoided large patches of high-severity fire. Hanson et al. (2018) attempted to reassess changes in territory occupancy of the Jones et al. (2016) study population and claimed that occupancy declined as a result of post-fire salvage logging not fire per se and suggested that the avoidance of GPS-marked owls from areas that burned at high-severity was due to post-fire logging rather than a response to high-severity fire. Here, we demonstrate that Hanson et al. (2018) used erroneous data, inadequate statistical analyses and faulty inferences to reach their conclusion that the King Fire did not affect spotted owls and, more broadly, that large, high-severity fires do not pose risks to spotted owls in western North American dry forest ecosystems. We also provide further evidence indicating that the King Fire exerted a clear and significant negative effect on our marked study population of spotted owls. Collectively, the additional evidence presented here and in Jones et al. (2016) suggests that large, high-severity fires can pose a threat to spotted owls and that restoration of natural low- to mixed-severity frequent fire regimes would likely benefit both old-forest species and dry forest ecosystems in this era of climate change. Meeting these dual objectives of species conservation and forest restoration will be complex but it is made more challenging by faulty science that does not acknowledge the full range of wildfire effects on spotted owls.

scholarly journals Megafire effects on spotted owls: elucidation of a growing threat and a response to Hanson et al. (2018)

2019 ◽  
Vol 33 ◽  
pp. 21-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gavin Jones ◽  
Ralph Gutierrez ◽  
Douglas Tempel ◽  
William Berigan ◽  
Sheila Whitmore ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sierra Nevada ◽  
Forest Restoration ◽  
Forest Ecosystems ◽  
Full Range ◽  
Dry Forest ◽  
Salvage Logging ◽  
High Severity ◽  
Spotted Owls ◽  
Study Population ◽  
Territory Occupancy

The extent to which wildfire adversely affects spotted owls (Strixoccidentalis) is a key consideration for ecosystem restoration efforts in seasonally dry forests of the western United States. Recently, Jones et al. (2016) demonstrated that the 2014 King Fire (a “megafire”) adversely affected a population of individually-marked California spotted owls (S.o.occidentalis) monitored as part of a long-term demographic study in the Sierra Nevada, California, USA because territory occupancy declined substantially at territories burned at high-severity and GPS-tagged spotted owls avoided large patches of high-severity fire. Hanson et al. (2018) attempted to reassess changes in territory occupancy of the Jones et al. (2016) study population and claimed that occupancy declined as a result of post-fire salvage logging not fire per se and suggested that the avoidance of GPS-marked owls from areas that burned at high-severity was due to post-fire logging rather than a response to high-severity fire. Here, we demonstrate that Hanson et al. (2018) used erroneous data, inadequate statistical analyses and faulty inferences to reach their conclusion that the King Fire did not affect spotted owls and, more broadly, that large, high-severity fires do not pose risks to spotted owls in western North American dry forest ecosystems. We also provide further evidence indicating that the King Fire exerted a clear and significant negative effect on our marked study population of spotted owls. Collectively, the additional evidence presented here and in Jones et al. (2016) suggests that large, high-severity fires can pose a threat to spotted owls and that restoration of natural low- to mixed-severity frequent fire regimes would likely benefit both old-forest species and dry forest ecosystems in this era of climate change. Meeting these dual objectives of species conservation and forest restoration will be complex but it is made more challenging by faulty science that does not acknowledge the full range of wildfire effects on spotted owls.

scholarly journals Local forest structure variability increases resilience to wildfire in dry western U.S. coniferous forests

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J Koontz ◽  
Malcolm P. North ◽  
Chhaya M. Werner ◽  
Stephen E. Fick ◽  
Andrew M. Latimer
Keyword(s):  
Sierra Nevada ◽  
Forest Structure ◽  
Tree Mortality ◽  
Forest Ecosystems ◽  
Fire Suppression ◽  
Fire Severity ◽  
Fire Behavior ◽  
Dry Forest ◽  
Structural Variability ◽  
Overstory Trees

A “resilient” forest endures disturbance and is likely to persist. Resilience to wildfire may arise from feedback between fire behavior and forest structure in dry forest systems. Frequent fire creates fine-scale variability in forest structure, which may then interrupt fuel continuity and prevent future fires from killing overstory trees. Testing the generality and scale of this phenomenon is challenging for vast, long-lived forest ecosystems. We quantify forest structural variability and fire severity across >30 years and >1,000 wildfires in California’s Sierra Nevada. We find that greater variability in forest structure increases resilience by reducing rates of fire-induced tree mortality and that the scale of this effect is local, manifesting at the smallest spatial extent of forest structure tested (90 x 90m). Resilience of these forests is likely compromised by structural homogenization from a century of fire suppression, but could be restored with management that increases forest structural variability.

scholarly journals Impacts of Postfire Management Are Unjustified in Spotted Owl Habitat

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chad T. Hanson ◽  
Tonja Y. Chi
Keyword(s):  
Sierra Nevada ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Current Data ◽  
Conifer Forests ◽  
Spotted Owl ◽  
High Severity ◽  
Rim Fire ◽  
Spotted Owls ◽  
Conifer Regeneration ◽  
Live Tree

In mixed-conifer forests inhabited by California spotted owls, land managers hypothesize that without human intervention natural conifer regeneration will take many decades or longer to begin within interior areas of large high-severity fire patches, due to long distances from live tree seed sources. As a result, widespread post-fire logging, followed by sprayed application of herbicides and planting of conifer seedlings, are used to create tree plantations. These are activities routinely conducted in spotted owl territories following fires, despite current data that indicate this approach has adverse impacts on spotted owl occupancy. Land managers acknowledge such impacts, but continue these forest management practices, assuming they are a necessary harm, one that is warranted to ensure the later return of mature conifer forests used by spotted owls for nesting and roosting. However, few data have been gathered to test this hypothesis. At 5 years post-fire, we surveyed field plots on a grid within large high-severity fire patches in spotted owl habitat within the Rim fire of 2013 in the Sierra Nevada, California. In our analysis the percentage of plots lacking conifer regeneration decreased significantly with larger plot sizes, a finding contrary to previous studies which assumed vast “deforested” areas in wildland fires, a bias created by small plot size. We found higher conifer regeneration closer to live-tree edges, but we consistently found natural post-fire conifer regeneration at all distances into interior spaces of large high-severity fire patches, including >300 m from the nearest live trees. Distance from live-tree edges did not affect pine dominance in post-fire regeneration. The post-fire natural conifer regeneration reported in our results suggests that the adverse effects of current post-fire management in spotted owl habitat are not necessary practices that can be justified.

Dynamic seed zones to guide climate-smart seed sourcing for tropical dry forest restoration in Colombia

2021 ◽  
Vol 490 ◽  
pp. 119127
Author(s):  
Tobias Fremout ◽  
Evert Thomas ◽  
Kelly Tatiana Bocanegra-González ◽  
Carolina Adriana Aguirre-Morales ◽  
Anjuly Tatiana Morillo-Paz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Forest Restoration ◽  
Tropical Dry Forest ◽  
Dry Forest ◽  
Seed Zones ◽  
Dry Forest Restoration ◽  
Seed Sourcing

scholarly journals Fire and Mechanical Forest Management Treatments Support Different Portions of the Bird Community in Fire-Suppressed Forests

Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 150
Author(s):  
Lance Jay Roberts ◽  
Ryan Burnett ◽  
Alissa Fogg
Keyword(s):  
Sierra Nevada ◽  
Fire Severity ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Bird Community ◽  
Fire Disturbance ◽  
Long Term Effects ◽  
High Severity ◽  
Commercial Thinning ◽  
Silvicultural Management ◽  
Total Community

Silvicultural treatments, fire, and insect outbreaks are the primary disturbance events currently affecting forests in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California, a region where plants and wildlife are highly adapted to a frequent-fire disturbance regime that has been suppressed for decades. Although the effects of both fire and silviculture on wildlife have been studied by many, there are few studies that directly compare their long-term effects on wildlife communities. We conducted avian point counts from 2010 to 2019 at 1987 in situ field survey locations across eight national forests and collected fire and silvicultural treatment data from 1987 to 2016, resulting in a 20-year post-disturbance chronosequence. We evaluated two categories of fire severity in comparison to silvicultural management (largely pre-commercial and commercial thinning treatments) as well as undisturbed locations to model their influences on abundances of 71 breeding bird species. More species (48% of the community) reached peak abundance at moderate-high-severity-fire locations than at low-severity fire (8%), silvicultural management (16%), or undisturbed (13%) locations. Total community abundance was highest in undisturbed dense forests as well as in the first few years after silvicultural management and lowest in the first few years after moderate-high-severity fire, then abundance in all types of disturbed habitats was similar by 10 years after disturbance. Even though the total community abundance was relatively low in moderate-high-severity-fire habitats, species diversity was the highest. Moderate-high-severity fire supported a unique portion of the avian community, while low-severity fire and silvicultural management were relatively similar. We conclude that a significant portion of the bird community in the Sierra Nevada region is dependent on moderate-high-severity fire and thus recommend that a prescribed and managed wildfire program that incorporates a variety of fire effects will best maintain biodiversity in this region.

Post-fire survival and flushing in three Sierra Nevada conifers with high initial crown scorch

2009 ◽  
Vol 18 (7) ◽  
pp. 857 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chad T. Hanson ◽  
Malcolm P. North
Keyword(s):  
Sierra Nevada ◽  
Pinus Ponderosa ◽  
Fire Severity ◽  
Conifer Species ◽  
Mature Trees ◽  
Salvage Logging ◽  
Abies Magnifica ◽  
Crown Scorch ◽  
Tree Survival ◽  
Large Trees

With growing debate over the impacts of post-fire salvage logging in conifer forests of the western USA, managers need accurate assessments of tree survival when significant proportions of the crown have been scorched. The accuracy of fire severity measurements will be affected if trees that initially appear to be fire-killed prove to be viable after longer observation. Our goal was to quantify the extent to which three common Sierra Nevada conifer species may ‘flush’ (produce new foliage in the year following a fire from scorched portions of the crown) and survive after fire, and to identify tree or burn characteristics associated with survival. We found that, among ponderosa pines (Pinus ponderosa Dougl. ex. Laws) and Jeffrey pines (Pinus jeffreyi Grev. & Balf) with 100% initial crown scorch (no green foliage following the fire), the majority of mature trees flushed, and survived. Red fir (Abies magnifica A. Murr.) with high crown scorch (mean = 90%) also flushed, and most large trees survived. Our results indicate that, if flushing is not taken into account, fire severity assessments will tend to overestimate mortality and post-fire salvage could remove many large trees that appear dead but are not.

scholarly journals Soil carbon and nitrogen erosion in forested catchments: implications for erosion-induced terrestrial carbon sequestration

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (16) ◽  
pp. 4861-4874 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. M. Stacy ◽  
S. C. Hart ◽  
C. T. Hunsaker ◽  
D. W. Johnson ◽  
A. A. Berhe
Keyword(s):  
Organic Matter ◽  
Sierra Nevada ◽  
Sediment Yield ◽  
Forest Ecosystems ◽  
Mineral Particle ◽  
Strongly Correlated ◽  
Terrestrial Carbon ◽  
Stream Discharge ◽  
C And N ◽  
Sediment Export

Abstract. Lateral movement of organic matter (OM) due to erosion is now considered an important flux term in terrestrial carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) budgets, yet most published studies on the role of erosion focus on agricultural or grassland ecosystems. To date, little information is available on the rate and nature of OM eroded from forest ecosystems. We present annual sediment composition and yield, for water years 2005–2011, from eight catchments in the southern part of the Sierra Nevada, California. Sediment was compared to soil at three different landform positions from the source slopes to determine if there is selective transport of organic matter or different mineral particle size classes. Sediment export varied from 0.4 to 177 kg ha−1, while export of C in sediment was between 0.025 and 4.2 kg C ha−1 and export of N in sediment was between 0.001 and 0.04 kg N ha−1. Sediment yield and composition showed high interannual variation. In our study catchments, erosion laterally mobilized OM-rich litter material and topsoil, some of which enters streams owing to the catchment topography where steep slopes border stream channels. Annual lateral sediment export was positively and strongly correlated with stream discharge, while C and N concentrations were both negatively correlated with stream discharge; hence, C : N ratios were not strongly correlated to sediment yield. Our results suggest that stream discharge, more than sediment source, is a primary factor controlling the magnitude of C and N export from upland forest catchments. The OM-rich nature of eroded sediment raises important questions about the fate of the eroded OM. If a large fraction of the soil organic matter (SOM) eroded from forest ecosystems is lost during transport or after deposition, the contribution of forest ecosystems to the erosion-induced C sink is likely to be small (compared to croplands and grasslands).

Influence of wildfire severity on geomorphic features and riparian vegetation of forested streams of the Sierra Nevada, California, USA

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (7) ◽  
pp. 611
Author(s):  
Breeanne K. Jackson ◽  
S. Mažeika P. Sullivan
Keyword(s):  
Sierra Nevada ◽  
Riparian Vegetation ◽  
Fire Severity ◽  
Riparian Ecosystems ◽  
High Severity ◽  
Sediment Size ◽  
Rim Fire ◽  
Geomorphic Features ◽  
Biodiversity And Ecosystem Function ◽  
Riparian Plant

Fires are a common feature of many landscapes, with numerous and complex ecological consequences. In stream ecosystems, fire can strongly influence fluvial geomorphic characteristics and riparian vegetation, which are structural components of stream–riparian ecosystems that contribute to biodiversity and ecosystem function. However, the effects of fire severity on stream–riparian ecosystems in California’s Sierra Nevada region (USA) are not well described, yet critical for effectively informing fire management and policy. At 12 stream reaches paired by fire severity (one high-severity burned, one low-severity burned), no significant differences were found in riparian plant community cover and composition or stream geomorphic characteristics 2–15 years following wildfire. In addition, minimal changes in riparian vegetation and stream geomorphic properties were observed in the first summer following the extensive and severe Rim Fire. However, an upstream-to-downstream influence of multiple fire occurrences was observed over the previous 81 years within each catchment on stream geomorphic metrics, including sediment size, embeddedness and channel geometry, at our study reaches. The inconsistent effects of wildfire on stream–riparian vegetation and geomorphic characteristics over space and time may be related to time since fire and precipitation.

scholarly journals ANALISIS KEBERADAAN PAKAN ORANGUTAN DAN INDEKS SHANNON-WIENER PADA AREA REBOISASI ASRI DI KAWASAN TAMAN NASIONAL GUNUNG PALUNG

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nurul Ihsan Fauzi ◽  
Erina Safitri ◽  
Juliansyah Juliansyah ◽  
Farah Diba
Keyword(s):  
Data Collection ◽  
Forest Restoration ◽  
National Park ◽  
Forest Ecosystems ◽  
Stable Condition ◽  
Wiener Index ◽  
The Past ◽  
Restoration Site ◽  
A Value ◽  
Primary Forests

Gunung Palung National Park had lost 35% of its primary forests over the past 30 years. A forest restoration program is thus vital to restore the damaged forest ecosystems. This study aims to analyze the presence of orangutan food supply and Shannon-Wiener index at Alam Sehat Lestari (ASRI) restoration site in Gunung Palung National Park. The method applies a species data collection of orangutan food (in 91 sample plots) and calculation of Shannon-Wiener index (in six 2009's plots). The result depicted approximately 65 species from 25 families found in ASRI restoration site. Eighty percent of those species indicated orangutan food.  In addition, the restoration site is believed to prevent the orangutan conflict with a human due to food availability in restoration areas for orangutans. Analysis of the Shannon-Wiener index (H') demonstrated a value of H' = 2.789, which indicated that the reforestation forest was in stable condition. The effect of increasing biodiversity as characterized by orangutan nests at restoration sites escalates the presence of wildlife.Keywords: Forest Restoration, Gunung Palung National Park, OrangutanTaman Nasional (TN) Gunung Palung telah kehilangan 35% hutan primer selama 30 tahun terakhir. Program reboisasi diperlukan untuk mengembalikan ekosistem hutan yang telah rusak. Tujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk menganalisis keberadaan pakan orangutan dan indeks Shannon-Wiener di area reboisasi yang dilakukan oleh Yayasan Alam Sehat Lestari (ASRI) di kawasan TN Gunung Palung. Metode yang digunakan adalah monitoring terhadap 91 plot untuk identifikasi pakan orangutan dan 6 plot penanaman tahun 2009 untuk perhitungan indeks Shanon-Wiener. Hasilnya terdapat 65 spesies dari 25 suku yang ditemukan di lokasi reboisasi ASRI. Sebanyak 85% dari spesies tersebut adalah pakan orangutan. Selain itu, keberadaan area reboisasi membantu mencegah konflik ini karena orangutan dapat mencari makanan di area reboisasi. Analisis indeks Shannon-Wiener (H’) didapatkan nilai H’ = 2,789, yang menunjukkan hutan hasil reboisasi berada dalam kondisi menengah atau stabil. Efek peningkatan biodiversitas ditandai dengan sarang-sarang orangutan ditemukan di lokasi reboisasi dan keberadaan satwa liar telah meningkat. Kata kunci: Gunung Palung, Orangutan, Restorasi hutan

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