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Full Citation: Savage, Melissa; Mast, Joy Nystrom. 2005. How resilient are southwestern ponderosa pine forests after crown fires? Canadian Journal of Forest Research 35(4):967-977.
External Identifier(s): 10.1139/x05-028 Digital Object Identifier
Location: Mogollon Rim, Arizona, U.S.; New Mexico, U.S.
Ecosystem types: Ponderosa pine, including pinyon juniper woodlands at the lower elevation sites and mixed-conifer at the higher elevation sites.
Southwest FireCLIME Keywords: None
FRAMES Keywords: age classes, Arizona, artificial regeneration, catastrophic fires, coniferous forests, cover, crown fires, droughts, elevation, Festuca arizonica, fire frequency, fire intensity, fire management, fire regimes, fire size, fire suppression, forest management, histories, Juniperus, mortality, Muhlenbergia montana, New Mexico, pine forests, Pinus edulis, Pinus ponderosa, population density, post-fire recovery, precipitation, size classes, sloping terrain, surface fires, understory vegetation, vegetation surveys, wildfires, regeneration, stand replacing fire, ponderosa pine forest

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How resilient are southwestern ponderosa pine forests after crown fires?

Melissa Savage, Joy Nystrom Mast
Summary - what did the authors do and why?

The authors looked at the regeneration of ponderosa pine forests after ten high-severity crown fires that occurred from 1948 to 1977.
Publication findings:

The authors found that in historically low-severity, frequent-?re forests, stand replacing ?re can result in conversion to altered species composition and structure of stands either toward even-aged cohorts of ponderosa pine or to novel vegetation communities through regeneration failure or due to changes in fire regimes which may be exacerbated by climate change and/or extreme weather events.

Fire and Ecosystem Effects Linkages

How does fire severity relate to species composition, non-natives, and structure?

The authors found that in historically low-severity, frequent-fire forests, stand replacing fire can result in conversion to altered species composition and structure of stands either toward even-aged cohorts of ponderosa pine or to novel vegetation communities through regeneration failure or due to changes in fire regimes which may be exacerbated by climate change and/or extreme weather events.