Abstract
Little is known about the dynamics of coarse woody debris (CWD) in forests that were originally characterized by frequent, low-moderate intensity fires. We investigated effects of prescribed burning at the Blacks Mountain Experimental Forest in northeastern California following creation of two stand structure conditions: 1) high structural diversity (HiD) that included retaining large, old-growth trees while thinning smaller trees in the understory through whole-tree harvesting, and 2) low structural diversity (LoD) simulating a more traditional approach that removed overstory trees by individual tree selection while thinning the vigorous younger trees and removing the suppressed understory by whole-tree harvesting. Each of the two structures was replicated six times in a randomized block design for a total of 12 approximately 100 ha factorial plots. Each factorial plot was split and prescribed fire applied to one half of each plot. We classified CWD as either: sound or decayed. Coarse woody debris was abundant on all plots regardless of stand structure. Statistically significant differences (α = 0.05) were found in the mass of the CWD between the burned and unburned splits across all experimental units combined for both sound and decayed material. However, when analyzed separately, the difference in the burned and unburned splits was statistically significant for LoD condition but not for HiD condition, likely due to greater heterogeneity of burn in the HiD condition. Coarse woody debris mass declined even in unburned units following treatments (p ≤ 0.1).
Highlights
The management of coarse woody debris (CWD) is an issue of importance and interest to wildlife biologists, ecologists, mycologists, foresters, fire managers, soil scientists, and land managers because CWD management can have important ecological consequences
What constitutes too much or too little CWD is largely unknown in forests with annual warm season droughts that originally had fire regimes characterized by frequent, low to moderate intensity fires, such as those in northeastern California
Standards are often proposed in terms of what may be good or optimum for particular wildlife species or suites of species or for soil processes without accommodation for an ecological baseline that would likely be sustainable under the local climate and fire regime (Harmon 2002, Marcot 2002)
Summary
Uzoh and Skinner: Stand Structure, Prescribed Fire, and Coarse Woody Debris Page. EffEcts of crEating two forEst structurEs and using prEscribEd firE on coarsE woody dEbris in northEastErn california, usa Fabian C.C. Though no data exist describing the original character of CWD in these forests, it is likely that frequent fires originally limited the accumulations of CWD (Skinner 2002, Stephens 2004) Woody material in these summer dry climates decomposes slowly (Busse 1994, McColl and Powers 2003) relative to the frequency of fire that existed under pre-fire-exclusion fire regimes (Taylor 2000, Norman and Taylor 2003). The combinations of treatments would set the stands on very different successional trajectories and CWD differences should become more pronounced over time (Oliver 2000)
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