RAPID Collaborative Research: Fire severity and ecosystem impacts immediately following an extreme fire event in northern Minnesota

University Of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison WI

Investigators

Abstract

Large natural disturbances have important implications for both short and long term ecosystem function and dynamics. Among the most important attributes is severity, a combined function of disturbance intensity and the relative susceptibility of ecosystem elements, such as vegetation and soils. The Pagami Creek Fire of August 2011 in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness of Minnesota presents an historical opportunity for understanding spatial heterogeneity in fire effects and its consequences for future ecosystem recovery within a fire dependent ecosystem in the eastern United States. This large fire exhibited a wide range of behaviors across an ecologically diverse area for which unprecedented levels of pre-fire forest conditions were documented. The seasonal timing requires a rapid field response so that fire intensity, severity, and initial soil impacts can be accurately measured prior to the onset of winter. Transects of plots will be sampled across major forest types for data on live and dead vegetation amounts and distribution and chemical attributes of the soils in burned and unburned plots that will also be compared to data obtained before the fire. Satellite imagery will be used to characterize tree and shrub burn severity and vegetation loss. This information will be used to scale the plot level data to the entire burned area and will enable the scientists to examine the feedbacks among forest structure and fire disturbance and to better predict future ecosystem recovery. Opportunities for studying the behavior and ecological impacts of major fire events in forests of the eastern United States are dramatically less than in the west. This research will provide a foundation for programs that will increase public safety, facilitate reintroduction of fire into fire dependent eastern forests, and provide guidance for forest and wilderness management in the face of major natural disturbances.