Ecosystem Effects and Propagation of the Biscuit Fire Across the Large-scale Plots of the Long-Term Ecosystem Productivity Experiment

摘要

The Biscuit Fire has important lessons for us, about the effects of wildfire on forest ecosystems. Our study--above all else--demonstrates that interactions of wildfire with ecosystem processes and conditions can create very complex patterns of response. Complex responses from previous fires likely created much of the high small-scale spatial variability described we previously described for these sites (Homann et al. 2001). We also have documented important temporal complexities. For example, many legacies from the last fire, about 110 years ago, persisted until fire returned. Legacies include hardwood mid-canopy trees (tanoak, madrone, and others), over-mature knobcone pines (with serotinous cones), and apparent seed banks in the soil. We expect that Biscuit legacies, by extrapolation, will likely last to the next fire. Spatial and temporal complexities are extended by other uncertainties and surprises about ecosystem processes (such as possible plume-driven soil loss and a damping effect on fire by mid-canopy hardwoods, discussed later).