Fire history of the Appalachian region: a review and synthesis
Lafon CW, Naito AT, Grissino-Mayer HD, Horn SP, Waldrop TA. 2017. Fire history of the Appalachian region: a review and synthesis. USDA GTR-SRS-219. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service. Southern Research Station, Asheville, NC
The importance of fire in shaping Appalachian vegetation has become increasingly apparent over the last 25 years. This period has seen declines in oak (Quercus) and pine (Pinus) forests and other fire-dependent ecosystems, which in the near-exclusion of fire are being replaced by fire-sensitive mesophytic vegetation. These vegetation changes imply that Appalachian vegetation had developed under a history of burning before the fire-exclusion era, a possibility that has motivated investigations of Appalachian fire history using proxy evidence. Here we synthesize those investigations to obtain an up-to-date portrayal of Appalachian fire history.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Lafon, Charles; Naito, Adam; Grissino-Mayer, Henri; Horn, Sally; Waldrop, Thomas
- Date of Issue
- 2017
- Publisher
- U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service
- Units
- GRSM , SHEN
- Keywords
- Age structure, Appalachian Mountains, charcoal, fire history, fire scars, fire regime, witness trees
- Subjects
- Ecological Framework: Landscapes | Fire and Fuel Dynamics | Fire and Fuel Dynamics