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Fire history and fire-climate relationships along a fire regime gradient in the Santa Fe Municipal Watershed, NM, USA

Ellis Q. Margolis, Jeff Balmat


Summary - what did the authors do and why?

The authors reconstructed the historical fire regime along a gradient of elevation and forest type using dendroecological techniques and assess historic climate-fire relationships between forest types in the Santa Fe River watershed.

Publication findings:

Consistent with other literature in the Southwest, the authors found that fire activity was associated with anomalously wet years followed by anomalously dry years, typically within the El Niño/La Niña ENSO cycle. However, fire occurrence in mixed-conifer forests generally required more extreme drought to burn compared to ponderosa pine forest ecosystems. However, the connectivity between the forest types may have influenced the fire frequency in mixed conifer as fire moved upslope. Mixed conifer forests are generally not fuel-limited, so the authors suggest this may explain the relationship between fire occurrence in these forest types and the wet-year lags. The authors also found that the last major fire in spruce-fir-dominated forest at the highest elevations occurred during the worst single-year drought in 1685 and was synchronized across distant mountain ranges regionally.

Climate and Fire Linkages

Fire occurrence in mixed-conifer forests generally required more extreme drought to burn compared to ponderosa pine forest ecosystems. However, the connectivity between the forest types may have influenced the fire frequency in mixed conifer as fire moved upslope. Mixed conifer forests are generally not fuel-limited, so the authors suggest this may explain the relationship between fire occurrence in these forest types and the wet-year lags. The authors also found that the last major fire in spruce-fir-dominated forest at the highest elevations occurred during the worst single-year drought in 1685 and was synchronized across distant mountain ranges regionally.

Consistent with other literature in the Southwest, the authors found that fire activity was associated with anomalously wet years followed by anomalously dry years, typically within the El Niño/La Niña ENSO cycle. However, fire occurrence in mixed-conifer forests generally required more extreme drought to burn compared to ponderosa pine forest ecosystems. However, the connectivity between the forest types may have influenced the fire frequency in mixed conifer as fire moved upslope. Mixed conifer forests are generally not fuel-limited, so the authors suggest this may explain the relationship between fire occurrence in these forest types and the wet-year lags. The authors also found that the last major fire in spruce-fir-dominated forest at the highest elevations occurred during the worst single-year drought in 1685 and was synchronized across distant mountain ranges regionally.