Fire In North American Wetland Ecosystems And Fire Wildlife Relations

This edited volume presents original scientific research and knowledge synthesis covering the past, present, and potential future fire ecology of major US forest types, with implications for forest management in a changing climate. The editors and authors highlight broad patterns among ecoregions and forest types, as well as detailed information for individual ecoregions, for fire frequencies and severities, fire effects on tree mortality and regeneration, and levels of fire-dependency by plant and animal communities. The foreword addresses emerging ecological and fire management challenges for forests, in relation to sustainable development goals as highlighted in recent government reports. An introductory chapter highlights patterns of variation in frequencies, severities, scales, and spatial patterns of fire across ecoregions and among forested ecosystems across the US in relation to climate, fuels, topography and soils, ignition sources (lightning or anthropogenic), and vegetation. Separate chapters by respected experts delve into the fire ecology of major forest types within US ecoregions, with a focus on the level of plant and animal fire-dependency, and the role of fire in maintaining forest composition and structure. The regional chapters also include discussion of historic natural (lightning-ignited) and anthropogenic (Native American; settlers) fire regimes, current fire regimes as influenced by recent decades of fire suppression and land use history, and fire management in relation to ecosystem integrity and restoration, wildfire threat, and climate change. The summary chapter combines the major points of each chapter, in a synthesis of US-wide fire ecology and forest management into the future. This book provides current, organized, readily accessible information for the conservation community, land managers, scientists, students and educators, and others interested in how fire behavior and effects on structure and composition differ among ecoregions and forest types, and what that means for forest management today and in the future.

Fire is a natural disturbance that occurs in most terrestrial ecosystems. It is also a tool that has been used by humans to manage a wide range of natural ecosystems worldwide. As such, it can produce a spectrum of effects on soils, water, riparian biota, and wetland components of ecosystems. Fire scientists, land managers, and fire suppression personnel need to evaluate fire effects on these components, and balance the overall benefits and costs associated with the use of fire in ecosystem management. This publication has been written to provide up-to- date information on fire effects on ecosystem resources that can be used as a basis for planning and implementing fire management activities. It is a companion publication to the recently published book, Fire's Effects on Ecosystems by DeBano and others (1998). In the late 1970s, the USDA Forest Service published a series of state-of-knowledge papers about fire effects on vegetation, soils, water, wildlife, and other ecosystem resources. These papers, collectively called "The Rainbow Series" because of their covers, were widely used by forest fire personnel. This publication updates both the Tiedemann and others (1979) paper on fire's effects on water and the Wells and others (1979) paper on soils. This publication is divided into three major parts (A, B, C) and an introductory chapter that provides discussions of fire regimes, fire severity and intensity, and fire related disturbances. Part A describes the nature of the soil resource, its importance, characteristics and the responses of soils to fire and the relationship of these features to ecosystem functioning and sustainability. Part A is divided into three main chapters (2, 3, and 4) that describe specific fire effects on the physical, chemical, and biological properties of the soil, respectively. Likewise, Part B discusses the basic hydrologic processes that are affected by fire, including the hydrologic cycle, water quality, and aquatic biology. It also contains three chapters which specifically discuss the effect of fire on the hydrologic cycle, water quality, and aquatic biology in chapters 5, 6, and 7, respectively. Part C has five chapters that cover a wide range of related topics. Chapter 8 analyzes the effects of fire on the hydrology and nutrient cycling of wetland ecosystems along with management concerns. The use of models to describe heat transfer throughout the ecosystem and erosional response models to fire are discussed in chapter 9. Chapter 10 deals with important aspects of watershed rehabilitation and implementation of the Federal Burned Area Emergency Rehabilitation (BAER) program. Chapter 11 directs the fire specialists and managers to important information sources including data bases, Web sites, textbooks, journals, and other sources of fire effects information. A summary of the important highlights of the book are provided in chapter 12. Last, a glossary of fire terms is included in the appendix. The material provided in each chapter has been prepared by individuals having specific expertise in a particular subject. This publication has been written as an information source text for personnel involved in fire suppression and management, planners, decisionmakers, land managers, public relations personnel, and technicians who routinely and occasionally are involved in fire suppression and using fire as a tool in ecosystem management. Because of widespread international interest in the previous and current "Rainbow Series" publications, the International System of Units (Systeme International d'Unites, SI), informally called the metric system (centimeters, cubic meters, grams), is used along with English units throughout the volume. In some instances one or the other units are used exclusively where conversions would be awkward or space does not allow presentation of both units.