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Fire regimes of California subalpine mixed-conifer woodlands

Citation:
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Missoula Fire Sciences Laboratory. 2019. Fire regimes of California subalpine mixed-conifer woodlands: Information from Information from the Pacific Southwest Research Station and LANDFIRE. 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/CA_subalpine_mixed_conifer/all.html [].

Information from:

PACIFIC SOUTHWEST RESEARCH STATION
The Pacific Southwest Research Station, Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, provides a review and synthesis of the historical range of variability in California subalpine mixed-conifer woodlands (Meyer 2016 [4]). It includes information on:

The literature review of fire regimes occurs in the "NRV Descriptions and Comparisons to Current Conditions" section of this publication.

A western white pine stand at 9,300 feet in Mono County. Image © 2008 by Monty Rickard, used with permission.
A Sierra lodgepole pine community at 7,600 feet on the Inyo National Forest near Mammoth. Image © 2010 by Jean Pawek, used with permission.

LANDFIRE MODELING
LANDFIRE modeled succession and fire frequency of Biophysical Settings (BpSs). Table 1 summarizes LANDFIRE data on the BpSs forCalifornia subalpine mixed-conifer woodland communities. Figure 1 shows where they occur. Table A1 lists the BpSs and the results of LANDFIRE succession modeling for each BpS.

Table 1. Modeled fire intervals and severities in California subalpine mixed-conifer woodlands [3]
Fire interval¹
Fire severity² (% of fires)
Number of Biophysical Settings (BpSs) in each fire regime group
  Replacement Mixed Low I II III IV V NA³
23-321 years 11-89 0-70 0-45 5 0 1 1 6 0
¹Average historical fire interval derived from LANDFIRE succession modeling (labeled "MFRI" in LANDFIRE).
²Percentage 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].
³NA (not applicable) refers to BpS models that did not include fire in simulations.

Figure 1. Distribution of California subalpine mixed-conifer woodlands based on the LANDFIRE Biophysical Settings (BpS) data layer [3]. BpSs 0310580 and 0410330 were not mapped due to limited distributions. Click on the map for a larger image.

See the Fire Regime Report on whitebark pine for information from LANDFIRE on whitebark pine communities across the West.

Table 2—Species dominants of California subalpine mixed-conifer woodlands covered by the Pacific Southwest Research Station's review [4] or by LANDFIRE models [3]. Links go to FEIS Species Reviews.
Common name Scientific name
foxtail pine Pinus balfouriana
Great Basin bristlecone pine Pinus longaeva
limber pine Pinus flexilis
mountain hemlock Tsuga mertensiana
Sierra lodgepole pine Pinus contorta var. murrayana
western white pine Pinus monticola
whitebark pine Pinus albicaulis
white fir Abies concolor

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]

4. Meyer, Marc D. 2016. Natural range of variation of subalpine forests in the bioregional assessment area, [Online]. In: Pacific Region, Ecology program documents, reports and publications, Natural range of variation of Sierra Nevada habitats. Vallejo, CA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Region (Producer). Available: https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/r5/plants-animals/?cid=stelprdb5434436 [2016, October 5]. 60 p. [90945]
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