Journal
FOREST ECOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT
Volume 521, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
ELSEVIER
DOI: 10.1016/j.foreco.2022.120429
Keywords
Fire regime; Forest management; Restoration; Return interval severity; Exploratory model
Categories
Funding
- National Science Foundation EAR Grant [1013339]
- National Science Foundation CZCN Grant [2011346]
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This study uses a simple dynamical model to explore the forest cover dynamics in two basins in the Sierra Nevada of California, and explains the differences between them by comparing their fire histories.
A simple dynamical model was used to explore the forest cover dynamics for two basins in the Sierra Nevada of California, Illilouette Creek Basin (ICB) in Yosemite National Park and Sugarloaf Creek Basin (SCB) in Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Park. Since the 1970s, fire management in these basins has attempted to restore a near-natural fire regime, after nearly a century of fire exclusion and suppression. The model describes two canopy layers, representing mixed conifer and shrub-dominated landcover types, and is calibrated using landcover maps and fire recurrence and severity data from the ICB. The calibrated model is used to explore several scenarios pertaining to increasing fire severity and return interval in the ICB, and to explore the differences between the ICB and SCB. The results indicate that (i) the ICB in 2012 had not yet reached steady state forest cover, (ii) potential future changes in fire severity and frequency will yield reductions in forest cover, and (iii) differences in forest cover change in response to fire regime restoration between basins can be explained by differences in fire histories.
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