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View the FRAMES recordLatent resilience in ponderosa pine forest: effects of resumed frequent fire
The authors quantified the effects of reintroducing fire to an unlogged, fire?excluded, ponderosa pine forest to examine post-fire trajectories of forest regeneration and stand composition and structure and to see if ponderosa pine forests possess latent resilience to reintroduced fire.
The authors found that the initial reintroduction of fire reduced tree densities, but resulted in the establishment of a dense stand of lodgepole pine, trending toward an alternative trajectory. However, a second fire killed the regenerating lodgepole pine cohort, as well as the Douglas-fir understory, and returned to a ponderosa pine dominated forest. This suggests that ponderosa pine forests do possess latent resilience to reintroduced fire after extended periods of fire exclusion.
Fire and Ecosystem Effects Linkages
The authors found that the initial reintroduction of fire reduced tree densities, but resulted in the establishment of a dense stand of lodgepole pine, trending toward an alternative trajectory. However, a second fire killed the regenerating lodgepole pine cohort, as well as the Douglas-fir understory, and returned to a ponderosa pine dominated forest. This suggests that ponderosa pine forests do possess latent resilience to reintroduced fire after extended periods of fire exclusion.