Riparian and adjacent upland forests burned synchronously during dry years in eastern Oregon (1650–1900 CE), USA
Grant L. Harley A E , Emily K. Heyerdahl B , James D. Johnston C and Diana L. Olson D
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A Department of Geography, University of Idaho, 875 Perimeter Drive, Moscow, ID 83843, USA.
B USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Missoula, MT 59808, USA.
C College of Forestry, Oregon State University, 140 Peavy Hall, 3100 SW Jefferson Way, Corvallis, OR 97333, USA.
D Department of Forest Rangeland, and Fire Sciences, College of Natural Resources, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID 83843, USA.
E Corresponding author. Email: gharley@uidaho.edu
International Journal of Wildland Fire 29(7) 602-610 https://doi.org/10.1071/WF19101
Submitted: 9 July 2019 Accepted: 26 February 2020 Published: 8 April 2020
Abstract
Riparian forests link terrestrial and freshwater communities and therefore understanding the landscape context of fire regimes in these forests is critical to fully understanding the landscape ecology. However, few direct studies of fire regimes exist for riparian forests, especially in the landscape context of adjacent upland forests or studies of long-term climate drivers of riparian forest fires. We reconstructed a low-severity fire history from tree rings in 38 1-ha riparian plots and combined them with existing fire histories from 104 adjacent upland plots to yield 2633 fire scars sampled on 454 trees. Historically (1650–1900), low-severity fires burned more frequently in upland than in riparian plots, but this difference was not significant (P = 0.15). During more than half of the fire years at both sites, fires were extensive and burned synchronously in riparian and upland plots, and climate was significantly dry during these years. However, climate was not significantly dry when fires burned in only one plot type. Historically, entire riparian zones likely burned in these two study sites of the Blue Mountains during dry years. This study suggests that riparian and upland forests could be managed similarly, especially given the projected increases to fire frequency and intensity from impending climate change.
Additional keywords: Blue Mountains, dendrochronology, drought, fire, mixed-conifer forests.
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