Historical pyrodiversity in Douglas-fir forests of the southern Cascades of Oregon, USA

Abstract

Our understanding of forest dynamics and successional pathways in coastal Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii var menziesii) forests with relatively frequent mixed-severity fires is limited by a lack of annually precise dendroecological reconstructions that combine records of historical fires and tree establishment. The processes by which old-forest heterogeneity developed under historical fire regimes with recurrent low- and moderate-severity fires has not been well studied at fine temporal scales and across spatial scales. We developed crossdated multi-century records of fire and tree establishment histories in old forests (170 – 550 years) at 34 plots distributed across six sites. Study sites include warm-dry to cool-moist Douglas-fir forest types found in the southern west Cascades of Oregon, USA. Spatial variability in historical fire frequency and fire effects resulted in tremendous diversity in forest developmental histories, age structure, and forest conditions. Most historical fire intervals were very frequent (<10 years) to frequent (<25 years) in dry Douglas-fir forests. Exceptionally high fire frequency and an abrupt decrease in fire frequency after European colonization in dry Douglas-fir forests adds to growing evidence and recognition of Indigenous fire stewardship in montane Douglas-fir forests. In moist forests where Douglas-fir is seral to western hemlock, fire intervals were frequent to moderately frequent (<50 years), but intervals varied substantially over time. Relatively young moist forests burned frequently while mature moist forests had long fire intervals (50–160 years). Nearly all tree establishment cohorts were preceded by either stand-replacing (28 %) or non-stand-replacing fires (64 %). However, tree cohorts only provided evidence of 16 % of historical fire events that we reconstructed from cambial fire scars. This study demonstrates that frequent fire can be an important driver of forest development and in some contexts shapes the structure of coastal old-growth Douglas-fir forests, which are often characterized as developing from endogenous disturbances during long fire-free periods. The high level of pyrodiversity we observed was associated with variation in and interactions of micro-climate, topography, fuels, and Indigenous fire stewardship. We recommend rigorous dendroecological reconstructions across the coastal Douglas-fir region to refine our understanding of the geography of fire-mediated forest developmental dynamics in this important forest type, to inform forest management, conservation, and ecocultural restoration.