Great Basin Bristlecone Pine (Pinus longaeva) Historic Fire Regimes and Future Fire Risk: A Multi-Scale Assessment
Location
USU Eccles Conference Center
Abstract
Great Basin bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva: GBBP) is an iconic species found in montane habitats of the Great Basin and Colorado Plateau – a region in which wild fire severity and size have increased over the past 30 years. Study objectives were to use multiple lines of evidence to – 1) reconstruct historic fire regime patterns across a range of sites, 2) quantify conifer succession on GBBP sites after stand-replacing fire and 3) assess GBBP wild re-related risk under contemporary and future environmental conditions. Results from 10 sites reveal that historical fires in GBBP were typically small and of mixed-severity, with moderate to long re-free intervals. Initial post-fire conifer recruitment for three fires was relatively rapid with GBBP dominant to subdominant. Large size and high severity of recent fires in GBBP habitats suggest that contemporary and future re risk may exceed historical conditions resulting in GBBP range contractions and possible localized extinctions.
Great Basin Bristlecone Pine (Pinus longaeva) Historic Fire Regimes and Future Fire Risk: A Multi-Scale Assessment
USU Eccles Conference Center
Great Basin bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva: GBBP) is an iconic species found in montane habitats of the Great Basin and Colorado Plateau – a region in which wild fire severity and size have increased over the past 30 years. Study objectives were to use multiple lines of evidence to – 1) reconstruct historic fire regime patterns across a range of sites, 2) quantify conifer succession on GBBP sites after stand-replacing fire and 3) assess GBBP wild re-related risk under contemporary and future environmental conditions. Results from 10 sites reveal that historical fires in GBBP were typically small and of mixed-severity, with moderate to long re-free intervals. Initial post-fire conifer recruitment for three fires was relatively rapid with GBBP dominant to subdominant. Large size and high severity of recent fires in GBBP habitats suggest that contemporary and future re risk may exceed historical conditions resulting in GBBP range contractions and possible localized extinctions.