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Fire regimes of ponderosa pine communities in Arizona and western New Mexico

Citation:
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Missoula Fire Sciences Laboratory. 2012. Information from LANDFIRE on fire regimes of ponderosa pine communities in Arizona and western New Mexico. In: Fire Effects Information System, [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Missoula Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Available: www.fs.usda.gov/database/feis/fire_regimes/Central_Southern_RM_ponderosa_pine/all.html [].

A complete Fire Regime Synthesis for ponderosa pine communities in Arizona and western New Mexico has not yet been published in the Fire Effects Information System. However, information is available from LANDFIRE succession modeling of Biophysical Settings (BpS). Table 1 summarizes LANDFIRE data on the BpSs in Arizona and western New Mexico ponderosa pine communities; figure 1 shows where they occur. Table A1 lists the BpSs and the results of LANDFIRE succession modeling for each.

Table 1—Modeled fire intervals and severities in Arizona and western New Mexico ponderosa pine communities [3].
Fire intervala
Fire severityb (% of fires)
Number of Biophysical Settings (BpSs) in each fire regime group
  Replacement Mixed Low I II III IV V NAc
8-15 years 2-6 0-39 55-96 6 0 0 0 0 0
aAverage historical fire-return interval derived from LANDFIRE succession modeling (labeled "MFRI" in LANDFIRE).
bPercentage of fires in 3 fire severity classes, derived from LANDFIRE succession modeling. Replacement-severity fires cause >75% kill or top-kill of the upper canopy layer; mixed-severity fires cause 26%-75%; low-severity fires cause <26% [1,2].
cNA (not applicable) refers to BpS models that did not include fire in simulations.

Figure 1—Distribution of ponderosa pine communities in Arizona and western New Mexico based on the LANDFIRE Biophysical Settings (BpS) data layer [3]. Numbers indicate LANDFIRE map zones. Click on the map for a larger image.

References:

1. Barrett, S.; Havlina, D.; Jones, J.; Hann, W.; Frame, C.; Hamilton, D.; Schon, K.; Demeo, T.; Hutter, L.; Menakis, J. 2010. Interagency fire regime condition class guidebook (FRCC), [Online], (Version 3.0). In: Interagency fire regime condition class website. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service; U.S. Department of the Interior; The Nature Conservancy (Producers). Available: https://www.frames.gov/files/7313/8388/1679/FRCC_Guidebook_2010_final.pdf [2017, March 1]. [85876].

2. LANDFIRE Rapid Assessment. 2005. Reference condition modeling manual (Version 2.1). Cooperative Agreement 04-CA-11132543-189. Boulder, CO: The Nature Conservancy; U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service; U.S. Department of the Interior. 72 p. On file at: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory, Missoula, MT. [66741]

3. LANDFIRE. 2008. CONUS refresh (LANDFIRE 1.1.0). Biophysical settings layer. In: LANDFIRE data distribution site, [Online]. In: LANDFIRE. U.S. Department of the Interior, Geological Survey (Producer). Available: https://landfire.cr.usgs.gov/viewer/ [2015, October 7]. [89416]
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