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Research Project Summary: Prescribed fire effects on canyon live oak and invertebrates in a southern California forest

• RESEARCH PROJECT SUMMARY CITATION
• SPECIES INCLUDED IN THE SUMMARY
• STUDY LOCATION
• SITE DESCRIPTION
• PREFIRE PLANT COMMUNITY
• PLANT PHENOLOGY
• FIRE SEASON/SEVERITY CLASSIFICATION
• FIRE DESCRIPTION
• FIRE EFFECTS ON BIOTIC COMMUNITY
• FIRE MANAGEMENT IMPLICATIONS
• REFERENCES

Sources: Unless otherwise indicated, the information in this Research Project Summary comes from the following papers:

Narog, Marcia Gay. 1991. Invertebrate responses to the effects of thinning and understory burning in a canyon live oak (Quercus chrysolepis) forest in the San Bernardino mountains, California. San Bernardino, CA: California State University, San Bernardino. 50 p. Thesis [5].

Narog, Maria G.; Paysen, Timothy E. 1994. Multiple-use management of canyon live oak forests using thinning and prescribed burning. Proceedings, 15th annual forest vegetation management conference; 1994 January 25-27; Redding, CA. Redding, CA: Forest Vegetation Management Conference: 154-160 [6].

Narog, Marcia G.; Wilson, Ruth C.; Paysen, Timothy E. 1993. Invertebrate responses to thinning and understory burning in a canyon live oak forest. In: ICFVM, Proceedings of the international conference on forest vegetation management. Auburn, AL: Auburn University School of Forestry Report No. 1: 209-213 [4].

Paysen, Timothy E.; Narog, Marcia G. 1990. Selective mortality with prescribed fire in canyon live oak. In: Krammes, J. S., technical coordinator. Effects of fire management of southwestern natural resources: Proceedings of the symposium; 1988 November 15-17; Tucson, AZ. Gen. Tech. Rep. RM-191. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Forest and Range Experiment Station: 241-243 [7].

Paysen, Timothy E.; Narog, Marcia G. 1993. Tree mortality 6 years after burning a thinned Quercus chrysolepis stand. Canadian Journal of Forest Research. 23(10): 2236-2241. [8].

The study was initiated at the beginning of a 7-year drought (1984-1990) [8].

Based on the description provided in Narog [5], vegetation on the study site could be classified in the following plant community and probably historically experienced the fire regime described below:

Abundance of ground-level invertebrates was measured for 30-day periods in winter (November/December) from 1983 through 1986. These measurements covered 2 prefire years (1983 and 1984), conditions in the first month after prescribed burns (1985), and conditions 1 year after prescribed burning (1986) [4]. Many ground-level invertebrate species in canyon live oak forests are inactive during winter, but the species collected were considered representative of the native invertebrate community [5].

• Improve stand quality through selective thinning
• Reduce fire hazard by creating a shaded fuel break [5,7]

Fire prescription and behavior: Slash greater than 5 cm in diameter was removed before burning. Fuels consisted of "light slash" and oak leaf litter [8], which was "generally heavy" [4]. Fine fuel moistures averaged around 10%; duff moisture was slightly greater [8]:

Prescribed burning was conducted when wind speed averaged less than 10 miles/hour. Due to danger of fire spread from Santa Ana winds, burned areas were saturated with water immediately after burning [8].

Firing proceeded from top to bottom of plots in an "inverse chevron" formation, which concentrated heat near the center of plots [8]. Flames did not reach the canopy, so no crowning occurred [7]. Because of fuel discontinuity, fire carried poorly on portions of some plots [8].

Canyon live oak mortality in thin-burn treatments was measured 2 and 6 years after burning. Nearly half of small trees died in the first 2 postfire years, and a much smaller proportion (6%) of larger trees died; mortality in both size classes had increased 4% to 5% by postfire year 6 [8]:

The following descriptors were useful for discriminating live from dead trees in postfire year 6 [8]:

In the first 6 postfire years, trees in control plots increased in diameter at about half the rate of trees in treated plots. Average diameter increase on control plots after 6 years was 0.44 cm. Diameter increase on thin-only plots averaged 0.82 cm; on thin-burn plots, diameter increase in surviving trees averaged 0.98 cm [6].

Ground-level invertebrates: Invertebrate abundance fluctuated substantially from year to year. Populations of most orders declined from 1983 to 1984 and were lowest in 1985, regardless of treatment. Narog [5] attribute these population declines to effects of cold temperatures and drought.

Invertebrate populations showed little sensitivity to treatments, including prescribed fire (see figures below). Abundance was lowest one month after the prescribed burns, regardless of treatment. A year later, abundance had increased for all treatments, although recovery in thin-burn areas was less than that in control and thinned areas. Treatments apparently did not affect species richness [5].

Species in 3 insect families were selected for in-depth analysis of population trends:

• Pterostichus species (family Carabidae (ground beetles and tiger beetles), order Coleoptera) did not appear sensitive to treatment.
• Tomerus flavescens (family Entomobryidae, order Collembola) declined in all treatments from the beginning to the end of the study, but the decline was more pronounced in thin-burn plots than in other plots.
• Three taxa in the Gryllacrididae (leaf-rolling grasshoppers, order Orthoptera)—Ceutophilus spp., Gammarotetix spp., and Pristoceutophilus pacificus—decreased on thin-burn plots in the first postfire year while increasing on other treatments; a year later, these taxa were as abundant on thin-burn plots as on control plots but had declined on thin-only plots [5].

Thinning and fall prescribed burning produced a shaded fuel break, with high mortality in small trees and minimal mortality of canyon live oak >15 cm DBH. Approximately 95% of surface fuels were consumed by burning, so the thin-burn treatment reduced fire hazard [8].

Other fire management information: The authors comment that fire-caused mortality of canyon live oak in this study was "minimal" compared to mortality usually caused by wildfires. Logging slash may enhance potential heat release over that in unlogged stands, but thinning may also reduce the heat convection around tree boles that is likely to damage large trees in unthinned stands [8].

In southern California, canyon live oak forests are common between chaparral and higher-elevation forests, so they are often focal points in fire management programs, forming the "defining line" between urban areas and wildlands [6]. Results of this study suggest that thinning and burning canyon live oak stands can increase growth [6] and reduce fire hazard [6,8].

In this study, ground-level invertebrate populations appeared little affected by low- to moderate-severity prescribed fire. The relatively small plots (30 × 40 m) and patchy quality of burns may have improved invertebrate population resilience because of reservoir populations within burns and short migration distances from adjacent areas. The authors recommend further research to investigate sensitivity of ground-level invertebrates to fire [4].

REFERENCES:

1. Hann, Wendel; Havlina, Doug; Shlisky, Ayn; [and others]. 2005. Interagency fire regime condition class guidebook. Version 1.2, [Online]. In: Interagency fire regime condition class website. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service; U.S. Department of the Interior; The Nature Conservancy; Systems for Environmental Management (Producer). Variously paginated [+ appendices]. Available: http://www.frcc.gov/docs/1.2.2.2/Complete_Guidebook_V1.2.pdf [2007, May 23]. [66734]

2. LANDFIRE Rapid Assessment. 2005. Reference condition modeling manual (Version 2.1), [Online]. In: LANDFIRE. Cooperative Agreement 04-CA-11132543-189. Boulder, CO: The Nature Conservancy; U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service; U.S. Department of the Interior (Producers). 72 p. Available: http://www.landfire.gov/downloadfile.php?file=RA_Modeling_Manual_v2_1.pdf [2007, May 24]. [66741]

3. LANDFIRE Rapid Assessment. 2007. Rapid assessment reference condition models, [Online]. In: LANDFIRE. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Lab; U.S. Geological Survey; The Nature Conservancy (Producers). Available: http://www.landfire.gov/models_EW.php [2008, April 18] [66533]

4. Narog, Marcia G.; Wilson, Ruth C.; Paysen, Timothy E. 1993. Invertebrate responses to thinning and understory burning in a canyon live oak forest. In: ICFVM, Proceedings of the international conference on forest vegetation management. Auburn, AL: Auburn University School of Forestry Report No. 1: 209-213. [68690]

5. Narog, Marcia Gay. 1991. Invertebrate responses to the effects of thinning and understory burning in a canyon live oak (Quercus chrysolepis) forest in the San Bernardino mountains, California. San Bernardino, CA: California State University, San Bernardino. 50 p. Thesis. [69718]

6. Narog, Maria G.; Paysen, Timothy E. 1994. Multiple-use management of canyon live oak forests using thinning and prescribed burning. Proceedings, 15th annual forest vegetation management conference; 1994 January 25-27; Redding, CA. Redding, CA: Forest Vegetation Management Conference: 154-160. [68696]

7. Paysen, Timothy E.; Narog, Marcia G. 1990. Selective mortality with prescribed fire in canyon live oak. In: Krammes, J. S., technical coordinator. Effects of fire management of southwestern natural resources: Proceedings of the symposium; 1988 November 15-17; Tucson, AZ. Gen. Tech. Rep. RM-191. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Forest and Range Experiment Station: 241-243. [11297]

8. Paysen, Timothy E.; Narog, Marcia G. 1993. Tree mortality 6 years after burning a thinned Quercus chrysolepis stand. Canadian Journal of Forest Research. 23(10): 2236-2241. [22734]