Simulating cumulative fire effects in ponderosa pine/Douglas-fir forests
- Dept. of Agriculture Forest Service, Ogden, UT (USA)
A successional process model has been adapted for use with species from ponderosa pine/Douglas-fir (Pinus ponderosa var. ponderosa)/(Pseudotsuga menziesii var. glacua) forests of the inland Northwest. Its design allows modification for application to other forest types. This model, FIRESUM, simulates tree establishment, growth, and mortality, along with live and dead fuel accumulation, fire behavior, and fuel reduction on a 400-m{sup 2} plot. The modeling contains algorithms for influences on tree establishment and growth including temperature, water stress, light tolerance, and site quality. The model was used to predict 200 yr of forest succession for five different disturbance regimes. This allowed comparison of patterns of basal area by species, of duff and fuel accumulation, and of fire intensities among the following scenarios: (1) no fires (fire suppression), (2) consistent fire intervals of 10, 20, and 50 yr, and (3) a natural fire regime of variable intervals reconstructed from fire scarred trees. These five scenarios resulted in a differential survival of species determining dominance in the understory and eventually in the overstory. A test of the model showed predictions to be within 19% of field observations, and a sensitivity analysis of FIRESUM showed parameters associated with the growth algorithm to be most critical for predicting successional trends.
- OSTI ID:
- 6271827
- Journal Information:
- Ecology; (USA), Vol. 71:1; ISSN 0012-9658
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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