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Project

Principal Investigator(s):
  • David M. Engle
    Oklahoma State University, Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, Department of Plant and Soil Sciences
Co-Principal Investigator(s):
  • J. D. Carlson
    Oklahoma State University
  • Samuel D. Fuhlendorf
    Oklahoma State University
  • Tyson E. Ochsner
    Oklahoma State University
Collaborator(s):
  • Mark S. Gregory
    Oklahoma State University
  • Thomas B. Lynch
    Oklahoma State University
Completion Date: September 29, 2016

The proposed project addresses Task Statement 2 (Shrub and grass fuelbed production, growth, and succession) of JFSP Project Announcement FA-RFA011-0001. Within the context of grassland fuels, all three questions posed in this statement will be targeted: " How can the spatial and temporal variation in shrub and grass growth and production be best represented in fuel models? " How do invasive species, grazing, and fires affect fuel loading and heterogeneity of shrub and grass fuels? " How do shrub and grass fuel loading and production vary along post-fire successional trajectories? We first propose an intensive field study over a two-year period to collect fuelbed data from a local perennial grassland research location with successional vegetation produced by fuel treatments consisting of spatially and temporally variable fire and grazing. Soil and weather data for model development will be supplemented with remotely sensed spectral reflectance data from a hand-held radiometer as well as from satellites. Using data collected at the above research location, empirical dynamic models will be developed for live fuel moisture, live and dead fuel loads, and live-to-dead fuel ratio within the context of fuel treatments resulting from burning and grazing. Models will be developed using a hierarchy (varying in temporal and spatial resolution, accuracy, and cost) of input data - some based solely on weather data, some solely on remotely sensed spectral data, some on weather and soil data, and some using all available data. In this way, looking toward future applications, the fire or land manager will be able to select the models appropriate to the resources at hand (e.g., remotely sensed data only, weather station data only, etc). The models will then be evaluated using independent sets of field data from not only the local research location but also from two additional perennial grassland locations across Oklahoma at which fuelbed data will be collected during the third year of the project. Expected benefits of the proposed project include the development of improved dynamic fuel models that can be used (1) in fire danger and fire behavior systems for grasslands and (2) for fuel treatment planning on grasslands where grazing and/or prescribed fire are the primary fuel treatments. Even though not developed for forest systems, the models might also prove useful for simulating the annual dynamics of herbaceous understory fuels and their response to forest fuel treatments. Because a hierarchy of models using various sets of input data will be developed, other expected benefits include the ability of the fire or land manager to use the resources at hand to model grassland fuelbed change over time following fuel treatment.

Cataloging Information

Topics:
Fire Ecology    Fire Effects    Fuels    Models
Regions:
Keywords:
  • dynamic vegetation model
  • fuel loading
  • grasslands
  • grazing
  • heterogeneity
  • Oklahoma
  • vegetation dynamics
JFSP Project Number(s):
  • 11-1-2-19
Record Maintained By: FRAMES Staff (https://www.frames.gov/contact)
Record Last Modified:
FRAMES Record Number: 22830