Fire History of Lodgepole Pine in the Southern Sierra Nevada. California.
Caprio AC. Fire History of Lodgepole Pine in the Southern Sierra Nevada. California.. In AFE International Fire Ecol. Congress, San Diego
Lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) is a wide-ranging species occurring throughout much of western North America across a diverse set of habitats (Critchfield 1980). In the Sierra Nevada, fire has been described as having a minor role in the dynamics of lodgepole (var. murrayana ) communities unlike much of the lodgepole (var. latifolia) found in the Rocky Mountains (Lotan 1976; Rundel et al. 1988; Parker 1986, 1988). However, although lodgepole is one of the most widespread forest types in the Sierra Nevada, fire regimes have not been well studied and fire’s role prior to EuroAmerican settlement is poorly understood (Skinner and Chang 1996). Persistence has been primarily attributed to gap phase dynamics characterized by continuous or intermittent regeneration with fires depicted as being small and infrequent. In contrast results from two recent studies (Keifer 1991; Stephens 2001) suggest fire’s role in these communities may be quite different. To more fully ascertain and quantify fire regimes in this community a suite of sites have been sampled across the southern Sierra Nevada. Preliminary results are presented here for fire history sampling in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks (SEKI) and Devils Postpile National Monument (DEPO).
- Type
- Conference Proceeding Paper
- Authors
- Caprio, Anthony
- Date of Issue
- 2006-11-11
- Units
- DEPO , SEKI
- Keywords
- Devils Postpile National Monument, Fire Ecology, Fire History, fire regimes, Lodgepole Pine (Pinus contorta), Sierra Nevada