Relationships between landscape patterns and fire occurrence within a successional gradient in sagebrush steppe–juniper woodland
Aaron D. Roth A B C , Stephen C. Bunting A and Eva K. Strand A
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A Department of Rangeland Ecology and Management, College of Natural Resources, University of Idaho, PO Box 441135, Moscow, ID 83844, USA.
B Present address: USDA-Natural Resource Conservation Service, John Day Service Center, 721 S Canyon Boulevard, John Day, OR 97845, USA.
C Corresponding author. Email: aaron.roth@or.usda.gov
International Journal of Wildland Fire 20(1) 69-77 https://doi.org/10.1071/WF08189
Submitted: 13 November 2008 Accepted: 29 March 2010 Published: 14 February 2011
Abstract
Expansion of western juniper (Juniperus occidentalis Hook. var. occidentalis) has altered vegetation composition, fire behaviour and fire potential throughout south-western Idaho and eastern Oregon. Utilising GIS-derived products and fire-simulation software, the influence of the spatial arrangement of different woodland developmental stages on simulated surface fire occurrence was evaluated. Custom fuel models and a recent vegetation map processed in FARSITE under moderate fire conditions were used to create a fire-occurrence grid in three sixth-order watersheds on the Owyhee Plateau of south-western Idaho. Landscape pattern metrics were selected to quantify the spatial arrangement of plant communities within a neighbourhood around points from each successional stage randomly placed within each watershed. Linear regression analysis of fire occurrence and each of the selected landscape metrics was compared for four successional stages of western juniper encroachment to assess the effect of landscape-scale vegetation arrangement on fire occurrence. The landscape structure had little influence on whether an early-successional area burns in a surface fire, whereas the surrounding landscape structure influenced whether a late-successional or mature woodland area burned. Landscape metrics that showed significance in late-successional and mature woodland stages include patch density, mean area and Simpson’s diversity.
Additional keywords: FARSITE, fire models, FRAGSTATS, Idaho, Juniperus occidentalis Hook. var. occidentalis, Northern Great Basin, simulated fire, western juniper.
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