Duff Consumption and Southern Pine Mortality

PROJECT

Name: Duff Consumption and Southern Pine Mortality

Date Published: 2001

Brief Description: When reintroducing fire into southern pine stands after long periods of fire exclusion, substantial duff consumption and subsequent overstory mortality often occur. These problems are a major deterrent to the restoration of southern pine communities, especially along the wildland/urban interface where smoke management is a major concern. But without treatment, the fear of catastrophic fire and threat to public health and safety continues to grow. Post-fire observations implicate the consumption of fine roots or cambium damage by smoldering organics as a proximate cause for this mortality. The purpose of this study is to develop prescribed burning guidelines that avoid/minimize overstory southern pine mortality following extended fire-free intervals, while determining the mechanistic relationship between overstory mortality and duff consumption. This work also applies to and informs the latest consumption models for smoldering duff. This study is comprised of 6 major tasks: (1) instrument and conduct prescribed burns over a replicated duff moisture gradient from wet to dry; (2) track fine-root dynamics and southern pine overstory mortality associated with these burns; (3) examine the mechanistic relationship between duff consumption and overstory mortality, (4) validate the latest model for duff consumption in Consume 3.0, (5) develop and field validate prescription parameters to avoid overstory mortality, and (6) disseminate the results. This study addresses issue 3 (evaluate and compare fuels treatment practices and techniques), tasks 1 and 3 of the spring 2001 Joint Fire Science Program request for proposals and indirectly relates to issue 1, task 1.

Complete Description:

Related Resources*

Resource Name:

Small-scale Duff Burning and Mechanisms of Overstory Pine Decline and Mortality -- Weather conditions and forest floor consumption data for 4 burn treatments (OrdwayIndivTreeBurn.xls)
Small-scale Duff Burning and Mechanisms of Overstory Pine Decline and Mortality -- Pre and Post Burn root tip data sampled under 4 different burn treatments (RootTipData.xls)
Small-scale Duff Burning and Mechanisms of Overstory Pine Decline and Mortality -- Station 1 (2003) temperature data for 8 days of experimental fires (Station1_274-290_data.xls)
Small-scale Duff Burning and Mechanisms of Overstory Pine Decline and Mortality -- Station 2 (2003) temperature data for 8 days of experimental fires (Station2_274-290_data.xls)
The forest floor fuel complex in a long-unburned longleaf pine ecosystem
Duff Consumption and Pine Mortality- Supplemental Sites -- Experimental burn data at 3 sites in Georgina and Florida (Supplemental_Sites_PostBurn.xls)
Longleaf Pine Bark Thickness Reduction in Restoration Fires -- Pre and Post-burn bark thickness data (Bark Thickness Data.xls)
Mimicking Fire Damage to Long-unburned Longleaf Pines -- Fire damage mimicry at 8 and 20 month surveys (Rake_Girdle_Pilot.xls)
Duff Consumption and Pine Mortality- Supplemental Sites -- Fire Weather and Behavior Observation Data at Ordway-Swisher Preserve (Wx and Rx Behavior-Ordway.xls)
Duff Consumption and Pine Mortality- Supplemental Sites -- Moisture Data for Ordway-Swisher Preserve (OrdwayDayofBurnFM.xls)
The Forest Floor Fuel Complex of Long-Unburned Longleaf Pine Forests -- Bark Data (BarkDataRun1.JMP)
The Forest Floor Fuel Complex of Long-Unburned Longleaf Pine Forests -- Chamber data to determine the burning characteristics of the forest floor fuel complex (ChamberData.xls)
Mechanisms of tree mortality resulting from re-introduction of fire to long-unburned longleaf pine ecosystems
Correlates of Post-Burn Longleaf Pine Mortality -- 2002 Plot Data (2002AllPlotsFixed.JMP)
carbon table.doc Table 1. Carbon fractions from a long-unburned longleaf pine forest floor at Smith Lake, Ordway-Swisher Preserve, Florida.
The Forest Floor Fuel Complex of Long-Unburned Longleaf Pine Forests -- Measurements of forest fuel accumulations of Cones (ConeDataRun1.JMP)
The Forest Floor Fuel Complex of Long-Unburned Longleaf Pine Forests -- Measurements of forest fuel Accumulations (FFloorDataRun1.JMP)
The Forest Floor Fuel Complex of Long-Unburned Longleaf Pine Forests -- Chemical and Combustion Characteristics of forest fuel accumulations for all forest floor components (i.e. cones, bark, humus, litter) (Run1AllAshData.JMP)
Correlates of Post-Burn Longleaf Pine Mortality -- Summary Consumption Data Statistics 2001 and 2002 (AllPlotsSummaryStats2.JMP)
Restoring fire to long-unburned Pinus palustris ecosystems: Novel fire effects and consequences for long-unburned ecosystem. (ReviewManuscript0704)
Climatic influences on duff moisture and consequences for post-fire mortality
The Forest Floor Fuel Complex of Long-Unburned Longleaf Pine Forests -- Summary statistics including charts of the Chemical and Combustion Characteristics of forest fuel accumulations for all forest floor components (SummaryStatsUmang.xls)
Forest Floor Development in a Long-Unburned Longleaf Pine Forest in Northern Florida -- Forest Floor depth profiles for all Ramer Tower 2001 trees as well as White Point and Airport Triangle plots (RamerDuff01.xls)
Forest Floor Development in a Long-Unburned Longleaf Pine Forest in Northern Florida -- Forest Floor profile of Roots (RootData2001.xls)
Forest Floor Development in a Long-Unburned Longleaf Pine Forest in Northern Florida -- Forest Floor profile data pertaining to Pine Root biomass recorded at Ramer Tower plot in 2001 (RootDataRT01.xls)
Carbon Summary data (EglinPre.xls)
Correlates of Post-Burn Longleaf Pine Mortality -- Tree Bulk Density (BulkDensityPNWdata.xls)
Correlates of Post-Burn Longleaf Pine Mortality -- Eglin Ignition data at 24 different burn units (EglinIgnitionData.xls)
Correlates of Post-Burn Longleaf Pine Mortality -- Eglin Pre-burn Fuels Sample data (EglinPre_burn FuelsSamples.xls)
Correlates of Post-Burn Longleaf Pine Mortality -- Consumption Data (PNWConsumptionData.xls)
Correlates of Post-Burn Longleaf Pine Mortality -- PNW Day of Burn H2O Loading Data (PNWDayofBurnLoadingH2O.xls)
Correlates of Post-Burn Longleaf Pine Mortality -- PNW Tag Number and Tree Number Data (PNWTag_vs_TreeNumber.xls)
Tree mortality resulting from re-introducing fire to long-unburned longleaf pine ecosystems (Mortality_DraftManuscript0704)
Novel fire effects in southeastern pine forests: smoldering fire and overstory pine mortality.
Burning characteristics of cones from eight pine species
Correlates of tree mortality resulting from reintroducing fire to long-unburned longleaf pine forests
The influence of weather on combustion limits in a longleaf pine forest
Duff Consumptiona and Southern Pine Mortality
Restoring fire to long-unburned old-growth southeastern pine savannas: new approaches for novel forests
Measuring moisture dynamics to predict fire severity in longleaf pine forests
Forest floor structure and composition in long-unburned lonleaf pine forests: implications for reintroduction of fire.
Fuel Moisture Stations

Availability & Use

Use Constraints:	Please provide the appropriate citation/credit to the contributor(s) or individual/organization(s) that should receive recognition for their contribution to the project
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Contributor

Name/Organization	Contribution	Role	Contact Information
Dale Wade		Co-Principal Investigator
Doria Gordon		Collaborator
Robert Mitchell		Collaborator
Roger Ottmar		Data Collector
Kevin Hiers		PI

Metadata Reference

Details ®

Created date:

5/5/2005

Metadata Creator:

Chris Szell

The Nature Conservancy

(919) 484-7857 Ext. 142

cszell@tnc.org

Type:

FRAMES project

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Schema:

http://frames.nbii.gov/metadata/projects/projects.xsd

Keyword(s):

FRAMES subject categories	fire ecology
FRAMES subject categories	fire effects
FRAMES subject categories	fuels
FRAMES subject categories	prescribed fire
GACC regions	Southern

Additional Information

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	*Please note: Depending on metadata completion, upkeep, and availability, not all related resources may be available through FRAMES.