Hostname: page-component-7bb8b95d7b-dtkg6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-09-18T07:21:58.547Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Role of Fire in Natural Communities: An Example from the Southern Sierra Nevada, California

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 August 2009

David J. Parsons
David J. Parsons
Affiliation:
Research Scientist, U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, Three Rivers, California 93271, U.S.A.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The exclusion of fire from the low-elevation foothills of the southern Sierra Nevada of California over the past century has resulted in large expanses of over-mature, senescent chaparral. The fuel buildup associated with this situation poses a threat, in that any fire which gets started has the potential of becoming a major holocaust.

A detailed analysis is made of the vegetational succession following fire in four different-aged stands of Chamise chaparral in the southern Sierra Nevada. Progression from a diverse multi-species herb and shrub community towards a dense, structurally uniform, low-diversity stand dominated by a single woody species, Adenostoma fasciculatum (Chamise), is demonstrated. An increase in shrub cover and height along with the amount of dead material found laddered through the canopy, create optimal conditions for combustion within some 35 years following the last fire. The herbaceous vegetation shows a high diversity and cover in the first few years after burning, but rapidly decreases thereafter. Evidence is presented that frequent fires are required to maintain the chaparral community in a vigorous and healthy state. The need to institute progressive fuel-management programmes which recognize the natural role of fire in the evolution of the chaparral type wherever it is found, is discussed and advocated. Attempts are also made to relate these findings to the preservation of other fire-adapted vegetation types of the world.

Type
Main Papers
Information
Environmental Conservation , Volume 3 , Issue 2 , Summer 1976 , pp. 91 - 99
Copyright
Copyright © Foundation for Environmental Conservation 1976

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Agee, J. K. (1974). Fire management in the national parks. Western Wildlands, 1(3), pp.27–33.Google Scholar
Ahloren, I. F. & Ahlgren, C. E. (1960). Ecological effects of forest fires. Bot. Rev., 26, pp. 483–533.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Becking, R. W. (1957). The Zurich-Montpellier school of phytosociology. Bot. Rev., 23, pp. 411–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Biswell, H. H. (1972). Fire ecology in Ponderosa Pine–grassland. Tall Timbers Fire Ecology Conference, 12, pp. 69–96.Google Scholar
Biswell, H. H. (1974). Effects of fire on chaparral. Pp. 321–64 in Fire and Ecosystems (Ed. Kozlowski, T. T. & Ahlgren, C. E.). Academic Press, New York: xii + 542 pp., illustr.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carroll, F. O. (1975). Forest fires started by lightning. Environmental Conservation, 2(1), p. 24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Christensen, N. L. (1974). Fire and the nitrogen cycle in California chaparral. Science, 181, pp. 66–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Christensen, N. L. & Muller, C. H. (1975). Effects of fire on factors controlling plant growth in Adenostoma chaparral. Ecol. Monog., 45, pp. 29–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooper, W. S. (1922). The broad-sclerophyll vegetation of California. Carnegie Inst. Wash. Publ., No. 319, 124 pp.Google Scholar
Countryman, C. M. & Philpot, C. W. (1970). Physical characteristics of Chamise as a wildland fuel. USDA Forest Serv. Res. Paper, PSW-66, 16 pp.Google Scholar
Daniels, O. L. (1974). Test of a new land management concept: Fritz Creek 1973. Western Wildlands, 1(3), pp. 23–6.Google Scholar
DeBano, L. F. (1969). Water-repellent soils: a worldwide concern in management of soil and vegetation. Agri. Sci. Rev., 7, pp. 11–8.Google Scholar
Dodge, M. (1972). Forest fuel accumulation–a growing problem. Science, 177, pp. 139–42.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hanes, T. L. (1971). Succession after fire in the chaparral of southern California. Ecol. Monog., 41, pp. 27–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hodgson, A. (1967). Fire management in eucalypt forests. Tall Timbers Fire Ecology Conference, 6, pp. 97–112.Google Scholar
Horton, J. S. & Kraebel, C. J. (1955). Development of vegetation after fire in the Chamise chaparral of southern California. Ecology, 36, pp. 244–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kayll, A. J. (1974). Use of fire in land management. Pp. 485–511 in Fire and Ecosystems (Ed. Kozlowski, T. T. & Ahlgren, C. E.). Academic Press, New York: xii + 542 pp., illustr.Google Scholar
Kilgore, B. M. (1971). The role of fire in managing Red Fir forests. Transactions of the North America Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference, 36, pp. 405–16.Google Scholar
Kilgore, B. M. (1972). Impact of prescribed burning on a Sequoia-mixed conifer forest. Tall Timbers Fire Ecology Conference, 12, pp. 345–75.Google Scholar
Kilgore, B. M. (1973). The ecological role of fire in Sierran conifer forests. J. Quat. Res., 3, pp. 496–513.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kilgore, B. M. & Briggs, G. S. (1972). Restoring fire to high-elevation forest in California. J. Forestry, 70, pp. 266–71.Google Scholar
Leopold, A. S., Cain, S. A., Cottam, C. M., Gabrielson, I. N. & Kimball, T. L. (1963). Wildlife management in the National Parks. Amer. For., 69(4), pp. 32-5, 61–3.Google Scholar
Lewis, H. T. (1973). Patterns of Indian Burning in California: Ecology and Ethnohistory. Gallena Press, Ramona, California: xlvii + 101 pp.Google Scholar
Loope, L. L. & Gruell, G. E. (1973). The ecological role of fire in the Jackson Hole area, northwestern Wyoming. J. Quat. Res., 3, pp. 425–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mcpherson, J. K. & Muller, C. H. (1969). Allelopathic effects of Adenostoma fasciculatum, ‘Chamise’, in the California chaparral. Ecol. Monog., 39, pp. 177–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mooney, H. A. & Parsons, D. J. (1973). Structure and function of the California chaparral–an example from San Dimas. Pp. 83–112 in Ecological Studies, Mediterranean Type Ecosystems (Ed. Castri, F. di & Mooney, H. A.). Springer-Verlag, New York: vii + 405 pp., illustr.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Munz, P. A. (1959). A California Flora. University of California Press, Berkeley: 1, 681 pp.Google Scholar
Mutch, R. W. (1970). Wildland fires and ecosystems–a hypothesis. Ecology, 51, pp. 1,046–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Naveh, Z. (1974). Effects of fire in the Mediterranean region. Pp. 401–34 in Fire and Ecosystems (Ed. Kozlowski, T. T. & Ahlgren, C. E.). Academic Press, New York: xii + 542 pp., illustr.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Phillips, J. (1974). Effects of fire in forest and savanna ecosystems of sub-Saharan Africa. Pp. 435–81 in Fire and Ecosystems (Ed. Kozlowski, T. T. & Ahlgren, C. E.). Academic Press, New York: xii + 542 pp., illustr.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pielou, E. C. (1966). Shannon's formula as a measure of specific diversity; its use and misuse. Amer. Nat., 100, pp. 463–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Polunin, N. (1960). Introduction to Plant Geography and Some Related Sciences. Longmans, Green, London, and Barnes & Noble, New York: xix + 640 pp., illustr.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stocking, S. K. (1966). Influences of fire and sodium-calcium borate on chaparral vegetation. Madroño, 18(17), pp. 193–203.Google Scholar
Vale, T. R. (1975). Ecology and environmental issues of the Sierra Redwood (Sequoiadendron giganteum), now restricted to California. Environmental Conservation, 2(1), pp. 179–88, 5 figs.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vankat, J. L. (1970). Vegetation Change in Sequoia National Park. Ph.D. thesis, University of California, Davis: 197 pp. (typescript).Google Scholar
Vogl, R. J. (1974). Effects of fire on grasslands. Pp. 139–94 in Fire and Ecosystems (Ed. Kozlowski, T. T. & Ahlgren, C. E.). Academic Press, New York: xii + 542 pp., illustr.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vogl, R. J. & Schorr, P. K. (1972). Fire and manzanita chaparral in the San Jacinto Mountains, California. Ecology, 53, pp. 1,179–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weaver, H. (1974). Effects of fire on temperate forests: western United States. Pp. 279–319 in Fire and Ecosystems (Ed. Kozlowski, T. T. & Ahlgren, C. E.). Academic Press, New York: xii + 542 pp., illustr.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wright, H. E. Jr, & Heinselman, M. L. (1973). The ecological role of fire in natural conifer forests of western and northern North America. J. Quat. Res., 3, pp. 317–28.Google Scholar