Effects of 40 Years of Prescribed Fire on Pine Regeneration and Productivity. Final Report to the Joint Fire Science Program AFP 2004-2, Project No. 04-2-1-35

摘要

The Santee Fire Plot is among the oldest ongoing prescribed fire studies in the United States. The study was established in 1946 to test the effects of fire frequency and seasonality on pine growth, vegetation, and soil properties. The treatments comprised a factorial of periodic and annual, summer and winter burns. After 42 years of burning there were no deleterious effects of the treatments, through the consideration of tree growth and soil nutrients. In 1989, the treatment stands were destroyed by hurricane Hugo, and a new stands was regenerated in the original treatment plots boundary. The plots have not been burned since 1989. Observations of the plots ten years after being regenerated suggested that there was a legacy of the prescribed fire treatment on the regenerated stand. The current study was posed to determine whether the regenerated stand shows an effect from the legacy of fire treatments. Specifically, this project considered a detailed assessment of the vegetation community, tree productivity and soil biogeochemistry in an attempt to address this critically important question. The project also provides the benchmark for continuing the fire treatments, now that the stand is of sufficient stature. Communication and technology transfer were a major objective of the work associated with this study. Those accomplishments are presented in Table 1, which cross-walks the intended activities with the actual accomplishments. The outreach and communication accomplishments exceeded the planned activities.