Free Standard AU & NZ Shipping For All Book Orders Over $80!
Register      Login
International Journal of Wildland Fire International Journal of Wildland Fire Society
Journal of the International Association of Wildland Fire
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Vegetation and topographical correlates of fire severity from two fires in the Klamath-Siskiyou region of Oregon and California

John D. Alexander A D , Nathaniel E. Seavy A B , C. John Ralph C and Bill Hogoboom C
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Klamath Bird Observatory, PO Box 758, Ashland, OR 97520, USA.

B Department of Zoology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611-8029, USA.

C USDA Forest Service, Redwood Sciences Laboratory, Pacific Southwest Research Station, 1700 Bayview Drive, Arcata, CA 95521, USA.

D Corresponding author. Email: jda@klamathbird.org

International Journal of Wildland Fire 15(2) 237-245 https://doi.org/10.1071/WF05053
Submitted: 12 May 2005  Accepted: 4 December 2005   Published: 31 May 2006

Abstract

We used vegetation data collected in areas before they were burned by the 2500 ha Quartz fire in southern Oregon and the 50 600 ha Big Bar complex in northern California to evaluate the ability of vegetation and topographic characteristics to predict patterns of fire severity. Fire severity was characterized as high, moderate, or low based on crown scorch and consumption, and changes in soil structure. In both fires, vegetation plots with southern aspects were more likely to burn with high severity than plots with eastern, northern, or western aspects. This was the only consistent predictor across both fires. In the Quartz fire, we found that plots at higher elevations and with larger diameter trees were more likely to burn with low or moderate severity. These correlations may have been influenced in part by the effects of unmeasured weather conditions. We found few strong correlates in the Big Bar complex, owing in part to the fact that most (75%) of our plots were in the low-severity category, providing relatively little variation. These results, in combination with previous studies of fire severity in the Klamath-Siskiyou region, suggest that areas with southern aspects tend to burn with greater severity than those of other aspects, areas with large trees burn less severely than those with smaller trees, and that correlates of fire severity vary extensively among fires.

Additional keywords: classification trees; topography; vegetation structure; wildfire.


References


Agee JK (1991) Fire history along an elevational gradient in the Siskiyou Mountains, Oregon. Northwest Science  65, 188–199.
Agee JK (1993) ‘Fire ecology of Pacific Northwest forests.’ (Island Press: Washington, DC)

Agee JK , Huff MH (1987) Fuel succession in a western hemlock/Douglas-fir forest. Canadian Journal of Forest Research  17, 697–704.
Agresti A (1996) ‘An introduction to categorical data analysis.’ (John Wiley and Sons: New York)

Alexander JD, Ralph CJ, Hollinger K, Hogoboom B (2004) Using a wide-scale landbird monitoring network to determine landbird distribution and productivity in the Klamath Bioregion. In ‘Proceedings of the Second Conference on Klamath-Siskiyou Ecology’. (Eds KL Mergenthaler, JE Williams, ES Jules) pp. 33–41. (Siskiyou Field Institute: Cave Junction, OR)

Andrews PL (1986) ‘BEHAVE: Fire behavior prediction and fuel modeling system: BURN subsystem, part 1.’ USDA Forest Service, General Technical Report INT-194. (Ogden, UT)

Andrews PL, Bevins CD, Seli RC (2003) ‘BehavePlus fire modeling system, version 2.0: User’s Guide.’ USDA Forest Service, General Technical Report RMRS-GTR-106WWW. (Ogden, UT)

Bessie WC , Johnson EA (1995) The relative importance of fuels and weather on fire behavior in subalpine forests. Ecology  76, 747–762.

Crossref | Breiman L, Friedman JH, Olshen RA, Stone CG (1984) ‘Classification and regression trees.’ (Wadsworth International Group: Belmont, CA)

Byram GM (1959) Combustion of forest fuels. In ‘Forest fire control and use’. (Ed. KP Davis) pp. 61–89. (McGraw-Hill: New York)

Chafer CJ, Noonan M , MacNaught E (2004) The post-fire measurement of fire severity and intensity in the Christmas 2001 Sydney wildfires. International Journal of Wildland Fire  13, 227–240.
Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | Finney MA, Bartlette R, Bradshaw L, Close K, Collins BM, et al. (2003) Fire behavior, fuels treatments, and fire suppression on the Haymon Fire. In ‘Hayman fire case study’. (Ed. RT Graham) pp. 59–96. USDA Forest Service, General Technical Report RMRS-GTR-114. (Ogden, UT)

Franklin JF, Dyrness CT (1973) ‘Natural vegetation of Oregon and Washington.’ USDA Forest Service, General Technical Report PNW-GTR-8. (Portland, OR)

Graham RT, McCaffrey S, Jain TB (2004) ‘Science basis for changing forest structure to modify wildfire behavior and severity.’ USDA Forest Service, General Technical Report RMRS-GTR-120. (Fort Collins, CO)

Hely C, Flannigan M , Bergeron Y (2003) Modeling tree mortality following wildfire in southeastern Canadian mixed-wood boreal forest. Forest Science  49, 566–576.
Jimerson TM, Jones DW (2003) Megram: blowdown, wildfire, and the effects of fuel treatment. In ‘Proceedings of fire conference 2000: The first national congress on fire ecology, prevention, and management’. (Eds KEM Galley, RC Klinger, NG Sugihara) pp. 55–59. (Tall Timbers Research Station: Tallahassee, FL)

Legendre P, Dale MRT, Fortin MJ, Casgrain P , Gurevitch J (2004) Effects of spatial structures on the results of field experiments. Ecology  85, 3202–3214.
Odion DC, Frost EJ, DellaSala DA, Strittholt JR, Jiang H, Moritz MA (2004b) Fire and vegetation dynamics in the western Klamath Mountains. In ‘Proceedings of the Second Conference on Klamath-Siskiyou Ecology’. (Eds KL Mergenthaler, JE Williams, ES Jules) pp. 71–80. (Siskiyou Field Institute: Cave Junction, OR)

Omi PN, Martinson EJ (2002) ‘Effects of Fuels Treatment on Wildfire Severity.’ Final Report submitted to the Joint Fire Sciences Governing Board. Available at http://www.cnr.colostate.edu/frws/research/westfire/FinalReport.pdf [Verified 20 March 2006]

Pollet J , Omi PN (2002) Effect of thinning and prescribed burning on crown fire severity in ponderosa pine forests. International Journal of Wildland Fire  11, 1–10.
Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | R Development Core Team (2003) ‘R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing.’ (Vienna, Austria) Available at http://www.R-project.org [Verified 20 March 2006]

Ralph CJ, Guepel GR, Pyle P, Martin TE, Desante DF (1993) ‘Handbook of field methods for monitoring landbirds.’ USDA Forest Service, General Technical Report PSW-GTR-144. (Albany, CA)

Rothermel RC (1983) ‘How to predict the spread and intensity of wildfires.’ USDA Forest Service, General Technical Report INT-143. (Ogden, UT)

Schmoldt DL, Peterson DL, Keane RE, Lenihan JM, McKenzie D, Weise DR, Sandberg DV (1999) ‘Assessing the effects of fire disturbance on ecosystems: a scientific agenda for research and management.’ USDA Forest Service, General Technical Report PNW-GTR-455. (Portland, OR)

Schoennagel T, Veblen TT , Romme WH (2004) The interaction of fire, fuels, and climate across Rocky Mountain forests. Bioscience  54, 661–676.


Stage AR (1976) An expression for the effect of aspect, slope, and habitat type on tree growth. Forest Science  22, 457–460.


Stephens SL (1998) Evaluation of the effects of silviculture and fuels treatments on potential fire behavior in Sierra Nevada mixed conifer forests. Forest Ecology and Management  105, 21–35.
Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |

Swetnam TW , Betancourt JL (1990) Fire–southern oscillation relations in the southwestern United States. Science  249, 1017–1020.


Taylor AH , Skinner CN (1998) Fire history and landscape dynamics in late-successional reserve, Klamath Mountains, California, USA. Forest Ecology and Management  111, 285–301.
Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |

Taylor AH , Skinner CN (2003) Spatial patterns and controls on historical fire regimes and forest structure in the Klamath Mountains. Ecological Applications  13, 704–719.


Turner MG, Romme WH , Gardner RH (1999) Prefire heterogeneity, fire severity, and early post-fire plant reestablishment in subalpine forests of Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. International Journal of Wildland Fire  9, 21–36.
Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |

Uhl C , Kauffman JB (1990) Deforestation, fire susceptibility, and potential tree responses to fire in the eastern Amazon. Ecology  71, 437–449.

Crossref |

Weatherspoon CP , Skinner CN (1995) An assessment of factors associated with damage to tree crowns from the 1987 wildfires in northern California. Forest Science  41, 430–451.


Whitlock C (2004) Forest, fires, and climate. Nature  432, 28–29.
Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | PubMed |

Whitlock C, Shafer SL , Marlon J (2003) The role of vegetation change in shaping past and future fire regimes in the north-west US and the implications for ecosystem management. Forest Ecology and Management  178, 5–21.
Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |

Whittaker RH (1960) Vegetation of the Siskiyou Mountains, Oregon and California. Ecological Monographs  30, 279–338.

Crossref |

Wills RD , Stuart JD (1994) Fire history and stand development of a Douglas-fir/hardwood forest in northern California. Northwest Science  68, 205–212.