Friday Flash: Multi-scale synthesis of historical fire regimes along the south-central US prairie–forest border
Post oak (Quercus stellata) trees of short stature and poor form grow to old age in the Cross Timbers ecoregion. Photo taken at the Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge in southwest Oklahoma.
In this study, researchers synthesized the findings from a growing network of tree-ring based fire-scar studies in the prairie-forest transition zone of the south-central US to increase the understanding of historical fire regimes of the region. Tree-ring based fire history reconstructions offer insights into long-term ecosystem changes and associated human influences, and a recent increase of high-severity fires in the region has led to heightened interest in better understanding the past, to manage current and future ecosystems. The findings from three new site-level fire-scar data sets, and those from 10 previously published similar studies (13 total fire history study sites) were compared, and the regional fire regime characteristics of frequency, severity, extent, and seasonality were synthesized and reported.
In conclusion, the results from this study show that frequent fire has a long and important role in the ecology of the prairies, woodlands, and forests of the prairie-forest border. Fire frequency generally increased following Euro-American settlement, while severity decreased, likely related to fragmentation of fuels and land-use changes (likely related to livestock grazing). The findings in this study show that interactions between humans, vegetation, and fire have varied with human population levels and culture. The unique long-term data presented in this study has fire management implications to the conservation of wildlife, range and grazing management, controlling the expansion of eastern redcedar (Juniperus virginiana), and wildfire risk management.