Tree-Growth and Understory Responses to Low-Severity Prescribed Burning in Thinned Pinus ponderosa Forests of Central Oregon

By M. Busse, S. A. Simon, Gregg M. Riegel. Forestry sciences, 2000

106 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The growth of ponderosa pine and associated understory vegetation was evaluated for a 6 yr period following spring underburning of surface fuels. Underburn and control (unburned) plots were paired at 15 replicate sites in pole-sized ponderosa pine forests of central Oregon. The burns were generally low in severity, as noted by low 0 horizon mass reduction (24%) and tree mortality (6%). A small but significant decline in basal area and volume growth rates of surviving trees was found in the 6 yr following underburning. The reduction in tree growth was related to a combination of crown length reduction, 0 horizon reduction, and site productivity. More productive stands had the highest proportional reduction in growth due to burning. By comparison, site conditions including stand density, initial basal area, elevation, parent material, and soil fertility were not related to the observed growth reduction. Understory vegetation showed a mixed response to burning. Shrub cover, dominated by Purshia tridentata, declined significantly following burning and remained well below preburn levels for the length of the study, even though one-fourth of all burned Purshia plants successfully resprouted. Total herbaceous vegetation cover and production were unaffected by burning, while species diversity increased slightly. With the exception of the decline in Purshia cover, the results indicate that low-severity prescribed burning has a relatively minor impact on tree-growth and understory response in thinned ponderosa pine stands. For. Sci. 46(2):258-268.

Subfields: Global and Planetary Change, Nature and Landscape Conservation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/6e9f830eee6a984a48335acd1f130b163b5ad7b4

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Global and Planetary Change

1. Joshua Varner
2. John Kevin Hiers
3. C. Fiedler

In Nature and Landscape Conservation

1. Joshua Varner
2. Francis E. Putz
3. John Kevin Hiers
4. D. Gordon
5. C. Fiedler
6. K. Metlen

Citations in the corpus

• Restoring Fire to Long‐Unburned Pinus palustris Ecosystems: Novel Fire Effects and Consequences for Long‐Unburned Ecosystems (2005, background): “Postfire tree decline and mortality can also result from fire-caused root damage (Wade & Johansen 1986; Swezy & Agee 1991; Busse et al. 2000).”
• Restoration treatment effects on the understory of ponderosa pine/Douglas-fir forests in western Montana, USA (2006, background): “Busse et al. (2000) also found increased herbaceous richness in thinned ponderosa pine forests of central Oregon two years after spring burning, though changes in abundance were not detected.”