Predicting late-successional fire refugia pre-dating European settlement in the Wenatchee Mountains |
| |
| Institution: | 1. US Department of Agriculture, Pacific Northwest Research Station, Wenatchee Forestry Sciences Laboratory, 1133 N. Western Avenue, Wenatchee, WA 98801, USA;2. University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA;1. Department of Economics, University of Venice Ca’ Foscari, Italy;2. Policy and Technical Experts Committee, WAVES, Wealth Accounting and Valuation of Ecosystem Services, The World Bank, TESAF – Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of Padova, Italy;1. Insubric Ecosystem Research Group, Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, a Ramél 18, 6593, Cadenazzo, Switzerland;2. Institute of Plant Sciences and Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, Altenbergrain 21, 3013, Bern, Switzerland;1. Universidade da Coruña, Spain;2. Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, Spain;3. Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche, Spain;1. Department of Forest & Rangeland Stewardship, Colorado State University, 1472 Campus Delivery, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA;2. US Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, 240 West Prospect Road, Fort Collins, CO 80526, USA;3. US Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Wildland Fire Sciences Lab, 400 N 34th St #201, Seattle, WA 98103, USA;1. Department of Geography and Interdepartmental Graduate Program in Ecology, 302 Walker Building, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, United States;2. USDA Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station, 3644 Avetech Parkway, Redding, CA 96002, United States |
| |
| Abstract: | Fires occur frequently in dry forests of the Inland West. Fire effects vary across the landscape, reflecting topography, elevation, aspect, slope, soils, and vegetation attributes. Patches minimally affected by successive fires may be thought of as ‘refugia’, islands of older forest in a younger forest matrix. Refugia support species absent within the landscape matrix. Our goal was to predict the occurrence of pre-settlement refugia using physiographic and topographic variables.We evaluated 487 plots across a 47000 ha landscape using three criteria to identify historical fire refugia: different structure from surrounding matrix; different fire regime from surrounding matrix; presence of old individuals of fire-intolerant tree species. Several combinations of aspect, elevation, and topography best predicted refugial presence.Less than 20% of the pre-settlement landscape was identified as historical fire refugia. Refugia were not connected except by younger stands within the matrix. Current management goals of increasing amounts and connectivity of old, refugia-like forests for the benefit of species associated with late-successional habitat increase the risk of insect and pathogen outbreaks and catastrophic wildfires. |
| |
| Keywords: | |
| 本文献已被 ScienceDirect 等数据库收录！ |
|
