气候变化领域集成服务门户(CCPortal): Historical and current fire regimes in ponderosa pine forests at Zion National Park, Utah: Restoration of pattern and process after a century of fire exclusion

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DOI	10.1016/j.foreco.2019.04.058
	Historical and current fire regimes in ponderosa pine forests at Zion National Park, Utah: Restoration of pattern and process after a century of fire exclusion
	Brown P.M.; Gentry C.; Yao Q.
发表日期	2019
ISSN	0378-1127
起始页码	1
结束页码	12
卷号	445
英文摘要	Plant community resilience in frequent-fire forests of western North America has been compromised by over a century of fire exclusion. However, there are several western National Parks where fires have been reintroduced over the past several decades, including Zion National Park in southwest Utah. Here we reconstruct historical components of fire regimes in ponderosa pine dominated forests at Zion and compare these to recent fire frequency, current plant community and fuels structure, and potential fire behavior. Historical fires burned every 9–10 years on average up until 1879, when fires ceased contemporaneous with introduction of Euro-American livestock grazing and timber harvest in upland forests. Abundant tree regeneration occurred after fire exclusion, with tree density averaging 45 trees ha−1 in reconstructed 1880 forests versus 106 trees ha−1 today. Intervals between recent (since 1988) wildfires and prescribed fires in these same stands ranged from 7 to 13 years, similar to historical fire timing. Depending on whether plots had burned from zero to three times in recent fires, we found significant differences in canopy base heights (increased), duff and litter depths (decreased), and percent cover of grass and forbs (increased), but not tree density, tree basal area, shrub height, shrub cover, or woody fuels. Combined effects of recent fires on overstory and understory structure resulted in a significant difference in likelihood of crown fire occurrence, declining from a mean of 58% in plots with no fire since 1879 to 13% in plots with three fires since 1988. Significant effects were generally seen after two or three fires, suggesting it is the reintroduction of the fire regime and not just individual fire events that restore resiliency. Overall, effects of recent fires are building on the latent resiliency of ponderosa pine forests at Zion National Park, although questions remain about extent and future dynamics of oak and manzanita shrubfields that occupy similar environmental settings, along with a general lack of ponderosa pine regeneration across all plots. © 2019 Elsevier B.V.
语种	英语
scopus关键词	Conservation; Reforestation; Restoration; Combined effect; Fire frequencies; Livestock grazing; Plant communities; Ponderosa pine forest; Prescribed fires; Timber harvests; Tree regeneration; Fires; basal area; coniferous forest; ecosystem resilience; forest fire; grass; grazing; herb; historical record; livestock farming; plant community; prescribed burning; reintroduction; stand structure; timber harvesting; understory; upland region; wildfire; Conservation; Fires; Forests; Pinus Ponderosa; Reforestation; Restoration; Trees; United States; Utah; Zion National Park; Arctostaphylos
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/155967
作者单位	Rocky Mountain Tree-Ring Research, 2901 Moore Lane, Fort Collins, CO 80526, United States; Department of Geosciences, Austin Peay State University, McCord 123, P.O. Box 4418, Clarksville, TN 37044, United States; National Forestry and Grassland Administration (National Park Administration), No. 18 Hepingli East Street, Beijing, 100714, China
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	Brown P.M.,Gentry C.,Yao Q.. Historical and current fire regimes in ponderosa pine forests at Zion National Park, Utah: Restoration of pattern and process after a century of fire exclusion[J],2019,445.
APA	Brown P.M.,Gentry C.,&Yao Q..(2019).Historical and current fire regimes in ponderosa pine forests at Zion National Park, Utah: Restoration of pattern and process after a century of fire exclusion.Forest Ecology and Management,445.
MLA	Brown P.M.,et al."Historical and current fire regimes in ponderosa pine forests at Zion National Park, Utah: Restoration of pattern and process after a century of fire exclusion".Forest Ecology and Management 445(2019).