Skip to main content

FRAMES logo
Resource Catalog

Document

Type: Journal Article
Author(s): J. R. McBride; H. T. Lewis
Publication Date: 1984

Fire intervals determined by counting annual growth rings between fire scars were compared to the actual fire intervals on experimentally burned plots. The comparison was used to test the efficacy of fire scar analysis for determining historic fire intervals. Trees in two vegetation types dominated by Eucalyptus spp.(high open forest; low open woodland) were burned by three treatments (late annual, early annual, early biennial) for periods of seven (woodland) or eight (forest) years. An average of 20-90 percent of annual rings produced per tree during the study period were scarred. Significantly higher percentages occurred in plots treated with late annual and early biennial burning. However, no association was demonstrated between the expected and observed number of fire scars in a chi-square test. The lack of association was related primarily to differences in fire intensity. Correlations between bark type, bark thickness, or tree diameter and the occurrence of fire scars were not significant. Composite fire intervals (Dieterich 1980) were calculated for each treatment and found to be in agreement with the actual fire frequencies in all treatments except the early annual burn in the low open forest. © Society of American Foresters, Bethesda, MD. Abstract reproduced by permission.

Citation: McBride, J. R., and H. T. Lewis. 1984. Occurrence of fire scars in relation to the season and frequency of surface fires in Eucalyptus forests of the Northern Territory, Australia. Forest Science, v. 30, no. 4, p. 970-976.

Cataloging Information

Topics:
Regions:
Keywords:
  • Acacia spp.
  • Australia
  • bark
  • dendrochronology
  • eucalyptus
  • field experimental fires
  • fire frequency
  • fire intensity
  • fire management
  • fire scar analysis
  • fuel accumulation
  • fuel appraisal
  • grasslands
  • Northern Territory of Australia
  • season of fire
  • surface fires
  • trees
Tall Timbers Record Number: 10302Location Status: In-fileCall Number: Fire File DDWAbstract Status: Okay, Fair use, Reproduced by permission
Record Last Modified:
Record Maintained By: FRAMES Staff (https://www.frames.gov/contact)
FRAMES Record Number: 35965

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.