Climate warming may be partially responsible for this change and may favor quaking aspen and paper birch at the expense of spruces. In deciduous-spruce forest mosaics, fires typically burn in mosaic patterns, with quaking aspen and paper birch-quaking aspen stands either burning at low severity or not burning at all, and spruce stands experiencing stand-replacing crown fire.Ĭompared to the 1940s and 1950s, fire frequency increased in interior Alaska during the 1960s-1990s. Fires typically stay on the surface and are of low severity, although stand-replacement fires occur infrequently. Documented fire-return intervals range from about 40 to over 200 years in Alaskan quaking aspen stands these are shorter than those documented for spruce forests. Wildfires in quaking aspen forests are usually ignited by summer lightning and occur in drought years. Quaking aspen forest is generally a seral type that succeeds to spruce forest.

Quaking aspen stands generally occur within a deciduous-spruce forest mosaic, occupying warm slopes lacking permafrost.

Quaking aspen is a minor but widespread forest type throughout boreal interior Alaska. Where applicable, information on quaking aspen and balsam poplar communities is separated. Details and documentation of source materials follow this summary. This section summarizes fire regime information available in the scientific literature as of 2014. For a complete list of common and scientific names of species mentioned and for links to FEIS Species Reviews, see Appendix B. Reviews and primary literature are cited in this synthesis.Ĭommon names are used throughout this Fire Regime Synthesis. It does not include information on fire regimes of quaking aspen and balsam poplar vegetation types in the conterminous United States or Canada.

enable LANDFIRE to incorporate the latest science on historical fire regimes into data revisions and identify regions and plant community types lacking.

supplement information on individual species’ adaptations and responses to fire provided by FEIS Species Reviews, and.

provide up-to-date information to the management community on historical fire regimes and contemporary changes in fuels and fire regimes,.

This Fire Regime Synthesis brings together information from 2 sources: the scientific literature as of 2014, and theīiophysical Settings (BpS) models and associatedĭeveloped by LANDFIRE, which are based on literature, local data, and/or expert estimates. Rocky Mountain Research Station, Missoula Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Fire regimes of Alaskan quaking aspen and balsam poplar communities. USDI, National Park Service photo by Tim Rains.įryer, Janet L. Mosaic of quaking aspen and spruce stands in Denali National Park.

APPENDIX B: Common and scientific names of plant species and links to FEIS Species Reviewsįigure 1.

APPENDIX A: Summary of fire regime information for Biophysical Settings covered in this synthesis.

DISTRIBUTION AND PLANT COMMUNITY COMPOSITION.

Fire regimes of Alaskan quaking aspen and balsam poplar communities

Ona fontaine white