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Prescribed Fire in the Southern Appalachians: Stand Structure, Oak Seedlings, and Fuel
M.A. Arthur
Department of Forestry
Non-Technical Summary
Fire has been an important disturbance agent in our forests for thousands of years, and is thought to have been integral to the long-term development of upland oak forests in the Appalachian region and beyond Starting in the 1930s, fire suppression was initiated as a control measure to limit the negative impacts of fire on forest stands.
Although seemingly necessary at the time, recent evidence suggests some negative effects on forest stand structure and species composition resulting from this policy of fire suppression. This project builds on ten years of research examining the potential role of carefully prescribed fire in the management of stand structure, light availability and tree seedling success, and fuel reduction and accumulation. This project has an important technology transfer component that stems from close collaboration with National Forest and USDA Forest Service Experiment Station personnel.
2009 Project Description
Fire has been an important disturbance agent in our forests for thousands of years, and is thought to have been integral to the long-term development of upland oak forests in the Appalachian region and throughout the eastern deciduous forest.
Starting in the 1930s fire suppression was initiated as a control measure to limit the negative impacts of fire on forest stands. Although seemingly necessary at the time, recent evidence suggests some negative effects on forest stand structure and species composition resulting from this policy of fire suppression.
This project builds on fifteen years of research examining the potential role of carefully prescribed fire in the management of stand structure, light availability and tree seedling success, and fuel reduction and accumulation. Prescribed fires have been implemented as part of this study in 2003, 2004, 2006, 2008 and 2009; data collection on study sites in the Daniel Boone National Forest is ongoing. Long term datasets are under development that will describe impacts of burning on fuel reduction, growth and damage to residual trees, and oak seedling regeneration. These components of the research are of interest and importance to forest managers as they plan ongoing and future burning programs across large acreages of public land.
In some cases, evidence we have gathered to date does not strongly suggest that prescribed fire can accomplish management objectives, perhaps because fire is an imprecise management tool whose effects unfold over long time periods. The results of this research have been widely disseminated in both peer-reviewed journal articles and to managers. During 2009, results were communicated through the Central Appalachian Fire Learning Network, to the US Forest Service Daniel Boone National Forest Management Team, and through the Kentucky Prescribed Fire Council.
2009 Impact
Experimentation to test the effectiveness of prescribed fire in achieving management objectives articulated by forest managers is very limited throughout the region, and yet necessary to the development of forest and fire management in the southern Appalachian region. Researchers in the University of Kentucky Department of Forestry are collaborating with USDA Forest Service researchers and managers to examine the effects of annual and infrequent prescribed fires on forest stand structure, seedling response, and fuel consumption on a landscape scale on the Daniel Boone National Forest. This project includes an important outreach component and is contributing to the regional dialogue on hardwood forest management using prescribed fire. Data are made available to land managers who are actively implementing prescribed fires across the landscape through periodic meetings and dissemination of research results. Results of this research are being used in forestry extension activities, including bi-annual training sessions for the US Forest Service Program of Advanced Silvicultural Studies (PASS), Mountain Module. Dissemination of research results to forest managers may lead to the development of realistic goals for short and longterm forest burning to achieve specific management goals.
2009 Publications
Poulette, M.M. and M.A. Arthur. 2009. Single-tree effects of savanna trees and the influence of the invasive shrub Lonicera maackii on litter decomposition dynamics. Ecological Society of America, August 2009, Albuquerque, NM.
Weand, M.P., M.A. Arthur, G.M. Lovett and K.C. Weathers. 2009. Nitrogen and phosphorus stoichiometry in a northern hardwood forest. Ecological Society of America, August 2009, Albuquerque, NM.
Wilson, H.N., M.A. Arthur, McEwan, R., B. Lee and R.D. Paratley. 2009. Do mature forests present barriers to non-native plant invasion: A case study of Lonicera maackii establishment in deciduous forests of central Kentucky. Ecological Society of America, August 2009, Albuquerque, NM.
Yanai, R.D., S. P. Hamburg, M.A. Arthur, M.A. Vadaboncoeur, C.B. Fuss, and T.G. Siccama. 2009. From missing source to missing sink: Long-term nitrogen dynamics in the northern hardwood forest. Ecological Society of America, August 2009, Albuquerque, NM.
Weand, M.P., M.A. Arthur, G.M. Lovett, F. Sikora and K.C. Weathers. 2009. The phosphorus status of northern hardwoods differs by species but is unaffected by nitrogen fertilization. Biogeochemistry DOI 10.1007/s10533-009-9364-2.
Alexander, H.D. and M.A. Arthur. 2009. Foliar morphology and chemistry of upland oaks, red maple, and sassafras seedlings in response to single and repeated prescribed fires. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 39: 740-754.
Christensen, L.M., G.M. Lovett, K.C. Weathers and M.A. Arthur. 2009. The influence of tree species, nitrogen fertilization and soil C:N ratio on gross soil nitrogen transformations. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 73: 638-646.
Fabio E.S., M.A. Arthur, C.C. Rhoades. 2009. Influence of moisture regime and tree species composition on nitrogen cycling dynamics in hardwood forests of Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky, USA. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 39: 330-341.
McEwan, R.W., M. K. Birchfield, A. Schoergendorfer and M.A. Arthur. 2009. Leaf phenology and freeze tolerance of the invasive shrub Amur honeysuckle and potential native competitors. Journal of the Torrey Botanical Society 136:212-220.
McEwan, R.W., L.K. Rieske, and M.A. Arthur. 2009. Potential interaction between invasive woody shrubs and the gypsy moth (Lymantria dispar), an invasive insect herbivore. Biological Invasions 11: 1053-1058.
Arthur, M.A., K.C. Weathers and G.M. Lovett. 2009. A beech bark disease-induced change in tree species composition influences forest floor acid-base chemistry. Ecological Society of America, August 2009, Albuquerque, NM.
Kuchle, C., M.A. Arthur, R.W. McEwan, Bray, S. 2009. Accelerated leaf decomposition in an invasive shrub (Lonicera maackii) in a function of leaf chemistry, not the decomposition environment. Ecological Society of America, August 2009, Albuquerque, NM.