Drivers and trends in landscape patterns of stand-replacing fire in forests of the US Northern Rocky Mountains (1984–2010)
Harvey BJ, Donato DC, Turner MG. 2016. Drivers and trends in landscape patterns of stand-replacing fire in forests of the US Northern Rocky Mountains (1984–2010). Landscape Ecology. :1-17
- Context: Resilience in fire-prone forests is strongly affected by landscape burn-severity patterns, in part by governing propagule availability around stand-replacing patches in which all or most vegetation is killed. However, little is known about drivers of landscape patterns of stand-replacing fire, or whether such patterns are changing during an era of increased wildfire activity. - Objectives: (a) Identify key direct/indirect drivers of landscape patterns of stand-replacing fire (e.g., size, shape of patches), (b) test for temporal trends in these patterns, and (c) anticipate thresholds beyond which landscape patterns of burn severity may change fundamentally. - Methods: We applied structural equation modeling to satellite burn-severity maps of fires in the US Northern Rocky Mountains (1984–2010) to test for direct and indirect (via influence on fire size and proportion stand-replacing) effects of climate/weather, vegetation, and topography on landscape patterns of standreplacing fire. We also tested for temporal trends in landscape patterns.
- Type
- Journal Article
- Authors
- Harvey, Brian; Donato, Daniel; Turner, Monica
- Units
- GRYN
- Keywords
- burn severity, conifer forest, disturbance, heterogeneity, patch size, RdNBR (relative differenced normalized burn ratio), spatial configuration, structural equation modeling, wildfire
- Subjects
- Ecological Framework: Biological Integrity | Focal Species or Communities | Forest/Woodland Communities