Disturbance Regime and Disturbance Interactions in a Rocky Mountain Subalpine Forest

Abstract

The spatial and temporal patterns of fire, snow avalanches and spruce beetle outbreaks were investigated in Marvine Lakes Valley in the Colorado Rocky Mountains in forests of Picea engelmannii, Abies lasiocarpa, Pseudotsuga menziesii and Populus tremuloides. Dates and locations of disturbances were determined by dendrochronological techniques. A geographic information system (GIS) was used to calculate areas affected by the different disturbance agents and to examine the spatial relationships of the different disturbances. In the Marvine Lakes Valley, major disturbance was caused by fire in the 1470s, the 1630s and the 1870s and by spruce beetle outbreak in c. 1716, 1827 and 1949 (...)