METHODS OF EVALUATING FOREST FIRE HISTORY

Forest fire history can be reconstructed over past centuries across a widevariety of forest types.Fire scars on living tress,and age classes of forest stands,are thetwo sources of information for these reconstructions.Point and area frequencies are usedto reconstruct fire history.Point frequencies are useful in forest types that burn withfrequent,low intensity fire so that many fire-scarred residual trees exist.A true point isa single tree,but more often point estimates are made by combining fire scar records fromseveral adjacent trees.Area frequences are applied where fires are infrequent but ofmoderate to high intensity,so that stand ages are used across wide areas to estimate firereturn interals.Proper selection and application of fire history methods are essential toderiving useful ecological implications from fire history studies.This review evaluates the common methods of determining fire history:what thetechniques are,where they are best applied,and how to interpret them in an ecologicalcontext.E

Methods of evaluating forest fire history

Forest fire history can be reconstructed over past centuries across a wide variety of forest types. Fire scars on living tress, and age classes of forest stands, are the two sources of information for these reconstructions. Point and area frequencies are used to reconstruct fire history. Point frequencies are useful in forest types that burn with frequent, low intensity fire so that many fire-scarred residual trees exist. A true point is a single tree, but more often point estimates are made by combining fire scar records from several adjacent trees. Area frequences are applied where fires are infrequent but of moderate to high intensity, so that stand ages are used across wide areas to estimate fire return interals. Proper selection and application of fire history methods are essential to deriving useful ecological implications from fire history studies.This review evaluates the common methods of determining fire history :what the techniques are, where they are best applied, and how to interpret them in an ecological context. Emphasis is placed on fire freqency and predictability, but choosing a proper technique may also be a function of fire intensity.