Document


Title

Fire history and the establishment of oaks and maples in second-growth forests
Document Type: Journal Article
Author(s): Todd F. Hutchinson; Robert P. Long; Robert David Ford; Elaine Kennedy Sutherland
Publication Year: 2008

Cataloging Information

Keyword(s):
  • Acer rubrum
  • Acer saccharum
  • Acer spp.
  • Castanea dentata
  • dendrochronology
  • fire control
  • fire frequency
  • fire management
  • fire regimes
  • fire scar analysis
  • forest management
  • hardwood forest
  • histories
  • logging
  • maple
  • mortality
  • oak
  • Ohio
  • plant growth
  • population density
  • Quercus alba
  • Quercus coccinea
  • Quercus montana
  • Quercus spp.
  • Quercus stellata
  • Quercus velutina
  • regeneration
  • second growth forests
  • thinning
  • vegetation
Region(s):
Record Maintained By:
Record Last Modified: December 28, 2022
FRAMES Record Number: 7185
Tall Timbers Record Number: 22912
TTRS Location Status: In-file
TTRS Call Number: Journals-C
TTRS Abstract Status: Fair use, Okay, Reproduced by permission

This bibliographic record was either created or modified by the Tall Timbers Research Station and Land Conservancy 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 the Tall Timbers Research Station and Land Conservancy.

Description

We used dendrochronology to examine the influence of past fires on oak and maple establishment. Six study units were located in southern Ohio, where organized fire control began in 1923. After stand thinning in 2000, we collected basal cross sections from cut stumps of oak (n = 137) and maple (n = 204). The fire history of each unit was developed from the oaks, and both oak and maple establishment were examined in relation to fire history. Twenty-six fires were documented from 1870 to 1933; thereafter, only two fires were identified. Weibull median fire-return intervals ranged from 9.1 to 11.3 years for the period ending 1935; mean fire occurrence probabilities (years/fires) for the same period ranged from 11.6 to 30.7 years. Among units, stand initiation began ca. 1845 to 1900, and virtually no oak recruitment was recorded after 1925. Most maples established after the cessation of fires. In several units, the last significant fire was followed immediately by a large pulse of maple establishment and the cessation of oak recruitment, indicating a direct relationship between fire cessation and a shift from oak to maple establishment.

Online Link(s):
Citation:
Hutchinson, Todd F.; Long, Robert P.; Ford, Robert D.; Sutherland, Elaine K. 2008. Fire history and the establishment of oaks and maples in second-growth forests. Canadian Journal of Forest Resources 38(5):1184-1198.