气候变化领域集成服务门户(CCPortal): Structural diversity and development in active fire regime mixed-conifer forests

CCPortal

DOI	10.1016/j.foreco.2020.118548
	Structural diversity and development in active fire regime mixed-conifer forests
	Berkey J.K.; Belote R.T.; Maher C.T.; Larson A.J.
发表日期	2021
ISSN	0378-1127
卷号	479
英文摘要	Nearly a century of fire suppression in most forested land of the United States has limited researchers’ ability to construct and rigorously test conceptual models of forest structural development in mixed-conifer ecosystems. As a result, land managers must rely on conceptual models of forest development that may overemphasize idealized stand structures and developmental pathways, which ultimately hampers management of many forest systems for resilience to future climate change impacts. We sought to determine the relative importance of fire history (frequency, severity, and time since fire) and biophysical variables on forest structural diversity and development. Importantly, we conducted our study in an ecosystem with a contemporary active fire regime where wildland fire has been managed as an ecosystem process for four decades. Using data from unburned (≥80 years since fire), once-burned and twice-burned mixed-conifer forests in the Bob Marshall Wilderness of Northwest Montana, we conducted a hierarchical clustering analysis to identify forest stand structure classes. We then used a Classification and Regression Tree analysis, combined with other post-hoc analyses, to elucidate the biophysical and disturbance history drivers that lead to each structure class. The cluster analysis revealed six forest structure classes. The CART analysis indicated that time since fire plays a large role in determining forest structure, but at intermediate time scales structure is further shaped by repeat fires and interactions with biophysical variables. The CART and post-hoc analyses did not, however, indicate a singular fire history or biophysical pathway to any one structure class. We synthesize our results in a conceptual model of forest structural development under an active fire regime. This model supports existing theory that succession following severe fire plays a large role in shaping forest structure. It also recognizes the role of fire at variable severities and frequencies, the physical environment, and tree community composition in influencing forest structural development. The complexity of forest structure and development generated by an active fire regime points to the need to incorporate a process-based view of wildfire if the goal is to manage for improved resiliency and adaptive capacity to future climate change impacts. © 2020 Elsevier B.V.
英文关键词	Forest stand dynamics; Forest structure; Heterogeneity; Mixed-conifer forest; Mixed-severity fire; Wilderness
语种	英语
scopus关键词	Biophysics; Climate change; Climate models; Ecosystems; Fires; Hierarchical clustering; Structural analysis; Bio-physical variables; Classification and regression tree analysis; Forest stand structure; Hierarchical clustering analysis; Mixed-conifer forests; Physical environments; Structural development; Structural diversity; Forestry; biodiversity; climate change; climate effect; community composition; coniferous forest; fire; forest management; land management; mixed forest; stand structure; Development; Ecosystems; Fires; Forestry; History; Processes; Structural Analysis; Trees; Bob Marshall Wilderness; Montana; United States; Coniferophyta
来源期刊	Forest Ecology and Management
文献类型	期刊论文
条目标识符	http://gcip.llas.ac.cn/handle/2XKMVOVA/154927
作者单位	Wilderness Institute, W.A. Franke College of Forestry and Conservation, University of Montana, 32 Campus Drive, Missoula, MT 59812, United States; Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, Forestry Division, 2705 Spurgin Road, Missoula, MT 59804, United States; The Wilderness Society, 503 W Mendenhall Street, Bozeman, MT 59715, United States; Environment and Natural Resources Institute, University of Alaska Anchorage, 3211 Providence Drive, Anchorage, AK 99508, United States
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	Berkey J.K.,Belote R.T.,Maher C.T.,et al. Structural diversity and development in active fire regime mixed-conifer forests[J],2021,479.
APA	Berkey J.K.,Belote R.T.,Maher C.T.,&Larson A.J..(2021).Structural diversity and development in active fire regime mixed-conifer forests.Forest Ecology and Management,479.
MLA	Berkey J.K.,et al."Structural diversity and development in active fire regime mixed-conifer forests".Forest Ecology and Management 479(2021).