Objectives

Quantify first-year ecosystem effects, over a spatially distributed range of fire intensity and severity, of the Biscuit wildfire and backburn.  Primary effects will focus on georeferenced ecosystem parameters measured intensively before the fire that relate to biodiversity and long-term productivity (tables 3 and 4, including changes in fuels; woody debris; soil organic detritus; biomass; total N, S, P, K, Ca, and Mg in vegetation and organic- and mineral-soil layers; and also fungi, birds, small mammals, and herpetofauna). Quantify the apparent intensity of the fire at 25-m grid points where aluminum tags, on steel posts, were variously affected by the fire (grids in burned areas cover more than 100 acres).  Estimate severity, as total calories expended, from losses of organic matter and extent that crowns were damaged.  Reconstruct movement of the fire through the plots with sequential infra-red images from the National Interagency Fire Center and create a fire history layer on a experiment-scale GIS system. Quantify erosion in the first year after the fire by measuring changes in position of washers (placed before significant rains in October 2002) relative to the top of the steel posts. Erosion associated with the underburning study (burned in 2001) appears significant in places.  We can also follow soil accumulation behind charred wood and pedestal erosion under burned wood and perched logs.  Slope and other factors can be accounted for by entering all grid points into the GIS. Evaluate the effects of experimentally added woody debris on fire intensity and severity, fire propagation to adjacent areas, and subsequent 1-yr effects on soils, vegetation, and other ecosystem attributes.  We hypothesize that fires burned the upper crowns and soil hotter where logs were present.  Woody debris is added to enhance long-term productivity and biodiversity under the Northwest Plan, but fire interactions are not well known. Evaluate the effects of experimentally manipulated overstory and understory plants on fire intensity and severity, fire propagation to adjacent areas, and subsequent 1-yr effects on soils, plant and animal succession (especially resprouting, serotinous knobcone pine, invasive species, and birds), and other ecosystem attributes.

Project Objectives

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