Pre-print: "Post-fire Quercus alba fitness in a stressed plant community"
In "Disentangling effects of fire, habitat, and climate on an endangered prairie-specialist butterfly," the authors present an analysis of long-term datasets on populations of an endangered species, habitat quality, and prescribed fire management.
Published December 14, 2017
Abstract:
Understanding the relationship between fire intensity and fuel mass is essential information for scientists and forest managers seeking to manage forests using prescribed fires. Peak burning temperature, duration of heating, and area under the temperature profile are fire behavior metrics obtained from thermocouple-datalogger assemblies used to characterize prescribed burns. Despite their recurrent usage in prescribed burn studies, there is no simple protocol established to guide the orientation of thermocouple installation. Our results from dormant and growing season burns in coastal longleaf pine (Pinus palustris Mill.) forests in South Carolina suggest that thermocouples located horizontally at the litter-soil interface record significantly higher estimates of peak burning temperature, duration of heating, and area under the temperature profile than thermocouples extending 28 cm vertically above the litter-soil interface (p < 0.01). Surprisingly, vertical and horizontal estimates of these measures did not show strong correlation with one another (r2 ≤ 0.14). The horizontal duration of heating values were greater in growing season burns than in dormant season burns (p < 0.01), but the vertical values did not indicate this difference (p = 0.52). Field measures of fuel mass and depth before and after fire showed promise as significant predictive variables (p ≤ 0.05) for the fire behavior metrics. However, all correlation coefficients were less than or equal to r2 = 0.41. Given these findings, we encourage scientists, researchers, and managers to carefully consider thermocouple orientation when investigating fire behavior metrics, as orientation may affect estimates of fire intensity and the distinction of fire treatment effects, particularly in forests with litter-dominated surface fuels.
Citation:
Coates, T. A., A. T. Chow, D. L. Hagan, T. A. Waldrop, G. G. Wang, W. C. Bridges, M. Rogers, and J. H. Dozier. 2017. Thermocouple Probe Orientation Affects Prescribed Fire Behavior Estimation. J. Environ. Qual. 0. doi:10.2134/jeq2017.02.0055
Corresponding author: Alex T. Chow (achow "at" clemson.edu)
Media coverage included, "More frequent fires reduce soil carbon and fertility, slowing the regrowth of plants" at phys.org.
Abstract:
Fire frequency is changing globally and is projected to affect the global carbon cycle and climate. However, uncertainty about how ecosystems respond to decadal changes in fire frequency makes it difficult to predict the effects of altered fire regimes on the carbon cycle; for instance, we do not fully understand the long-term effects of fire on soil carbon and nutrient storage, or whether fire-driven nutrient losses limit plant productivity. Here we analyse data from 48 sites in savanna grasslands, broadleaf forests and needleleaf forests spanning up to 65 years, during which time the frequency of fires was altered at each site. We find that frequently burned plots experienced a decline in surface soil carbon and nitrogen that was non-saturating through time, having 36 per cent (±13 per cent) less carbon and 38 per cent (±16 per cent) less nitrogen after 64 years than plots that were protected from fire. Fire-driven carbon and nitrogen losses were substantial in savanna grasslands and broadleaf forests, but not in temperate and boreal needleleaf forests. We also observe comparable soil carbon and nitrogen losses in an independent field dataset and in dynamic model simulations of global vegetation. The model study predicts that the long-term losses of soil nitrogen that result from more frequent burning may in turn decrease the carbon that is sequestered by net primary productivity by about 20 per cent of the total carbon that is emitted from burning biomass over the same period. Furthermore, we estimate that the effects of changes in fire frequency on ecosystem carbon storage may be 30 per cent too low if they do not include multidecadal changes in soil carbon, especially in drier savanna grasslands. Future changes in fire frequency may shift ecosystem carbon storage by changing soil carbon pools and nitrogen limitations on plant growth, altering the carbon sink capacity of frequently burning savanna grasslands and broadleaf forests.
Citation:
Pellegrini, A. F., Ahlström, A., Hobbie, S. E., Reich, P. B., Nieradzik, L. P., Staver, A. C., ... & Jackson, R. B. (2017). Fire frequency drives decadal changes in soil carbon and nitrogen and ecosystem productivity. Nature.
doi:10.1038/nature24668
Corresponding author: Adam F. A. Pellegrini (afapelle "at" stanford.edu)
This study of habitat use by the rare Henslow's sparrow in eastern Kansas sampled grassland sites in the fragmented agricultural landscape ("Western Corn Belt Plains" ecoregion) as well as the extensive remnant grasslands of the Flint Hills. The species avoided woody vegetation and cropland, preferring landscapes with a higher proportion of grassland; for example, individuals were more likely to be detected in smalll patches of CRP embedded in rangeland than small patches of CRP surrounded by agricultural land. However, even in the Flint Hills the sparrows occupied less than 4% of the grassland area preferring CRP to intensively managed rangeland (typically grazed or burned then grazed). By using multiple sampling periods, researchers found that the sparrows were highly mobile within any given year, and in some cases occupied sites after mid-June that had been burned earlier in the year, though none were detected at completely burned sites during early season sampling.
First online 10/5/17 in Landscape Ecology.
New research on the 2016 drought in the southern Appalachians demonstrates this event was an anomaly given recent regional climate trends. Since the 1950s, average fall weather has seen higher than average precipitation and lower than average daily high temperatures. The drought of 2016 (sometimes called a "flash drought") was notable for the "...intensity and rapid onset... and its destructive impact on wildfire and human water resources..."
The infamous Chimney Tops 2 Fire occured during this flash drought. Following ignition by an arsonist, this fire burned from Great Smokey Mountains National Park to Gatlinburg, Tennessee. With severe drought, strong winds, steep terrain, and high fuel loads (including recent leaf fall and dry heavy fuels) the fire covered 14,000 acres, destroyed structures, and resulted in 14 fatalities.
Read the abstract below or check out the article "The 2016 southeastern U.S.drought: An extreme departure from centennial wetting and cooling" at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2017JD027523/full
Introducing a new tool to stay up-to-date on fire science for the tallgrass prairie and oak savanna region as it comes out. The New Science Blog is an experimental effort to increase the rate at which relevant science is shared with practitioners and researchers in the Upper Midwest.
Google Scholar and Web of Science alerts notify us when new fire science publications have been published for the tallgrass prairie and oak savanna ecosystems; for example, Google Scholar alerts notify us of papers that include both the phrase "tallgrass prairie" and "fire." However, this is a relatively poor filter -- many of the publications are not necessarily relevant to the region (for instance, a paper may be picked up because of a reference to tallgrass prairie in a literature review or the title of a paper in the works cited section). Papers shared via the blog are selected for their potential relevance to fire practitioners, land managers, ecologists, researchers, and policy makers in the region.
Your feedback about whether we were too narrow or too broad with our first selections will help us modify how we determine which papers to share.
Applied science is favored by practitioners, so expect to see an emphasis on papers that compare restoration and management techniques that incorporate prescribed fire (for example, research published in Restoration Ecology, Ecological Restoration, Fire Ecology, Conservation Biology, Ecosphere). Studies of fire effects on taxa and other natural history papers also provide valuable information to land stewards and wildlife biologists (journals such as American Midland Naturalist, Natural Areas Journal, Biodiversity Conservation).
We will also share papers that provide examples of fire ecology research methods that can be applied to management challenges in the TPOS region-even if the study was not conducted here. Those posts will be tagged "research methods."
While we are sometimes encouraged to avoid "preaching to the choir," some of our members have interest in papers that share interesting perspectives on fire ecology, wildfire, and prescribed fire, whether or not the information can be directly applied. We'll aim for 5-10 percent of posts sharing new peer-reviewed papers that address national policy, controversial issues that affect public opinion about prescribed fire, and fire science that is otherwise nationally or internationally notable.
Abstract
Agricultural intensification and urbanization have greatly reduced the extent of tallgrass prairie across North America. To evaluate the impact of these changes, a reference ecosystem of unperturbed prairie is required. The Konza Prairie Biological Station in northeastern Kansas is a long-term research site at which a critical zone approach has been implemented. Integration of climatic, ecologic, and hydropedologic research to facilitate a comprehensive understanding of the complex environment provides the basis for predicting future aquifer and landscape evolution. We present a conceptual framework of the hydrology underpinning the area that integrates the extensive current and past research and provides a synthesis of the literature to date. The key factors in the hydrologic behavior of Konza Prairie are climate, ecology, vadose zone characteristics and management, and groundwater and bedrock. Significant interactions among these factors include bedrock dissolution driven by cool-season precipitation and hence a climatic control on the rate of karstification. Soil moisture dynamics are influenced at various timescales due to the short- and long-term effects of prescribed burning on vegetation and on soil physical characteristics. The frequency of burning regimes strongly influences the expansion of woody species in competition with native tallgrasses, with consequent effects on C and N dynamics within the vadose zone. Knowledge gaps exist pertaining to the future of Konza Prairie (a model for US tallgrass prairie)—whether continued karstification will lead to increasingly flashy and dynamic hydrology and whether compositional changes in the vegetation will affect long-term changes in water balances.
Citation: