Resource Catalog
Document
The Vegetation Dynamics Development Tool (VDDT) is a vegetation simulation model developed to examine the impacts of a variety of landscape scale disturbances on vegetation succession and development. It assumes that the ecosystem exists in a discrete number of states, and pathways are defined to be links between vegetation states. Transitions between states may be due to disturbances or successional change in the absence of disturbances. Historical data gathered in the mid-1930's for Yosemite National Park was used to examine the ability of VDDT to predict the amount of wildland fire that occurred between 1937 and 1996. Data from the 1930's was used to define initial stand conditions, and fire regimes were derived from National Forest data for the Sierra Nevada. Preliminary results indicate that VDDT can predict the total area of vegetation burned by wildland fires for larger vegetation areas if adequate data exists to define fire frequencies and there have not been any management changes.
Cataloging Information
- Abies magnifica
- age classes
- Calocedrus
- catastrophic fires
- computer program
- disturbance
- ecosystem dynamics
- fire frequency
- fire intensity
- fire management
- fire regimes
- fire weather
- forest management
- fuel breaks
- fuel loading
- JFSP - Joint Fire Science Program
- montane forests
- national forests
- overstory
- Pinus albicaulis
- Pinus contorta
- Pinus jeffreyi
- Pinus monticola
- Pinus ponderosa
- population density
- Pseudotsuga menziesii
- Quercus chrysolepis
- Quercus wislizenii
- recreation
- site treatments
- subalpine forests
- succession
- threatened and endangered species
- Tsuga mertensiana
- understory vegetation
- US Forest Service
- VDDT - Vegetation Dynamics Development Tool
- vegetation
- wildfires
- wildland fires
- Yosemite National Park
This bibliographic record was either created or modified by Tall Timbers and is provided without charge to promote research and education in Fire Ecology. The E.V. Komarek Fire Ecology Database is the intellectual property of Tall Timbers.