OOS 23 - Linking Fire, Fuels, and Biological Diversity

Wednesday, August 9, 2017: 8:00 AM-11:30 AM
Portland Blrm 257, Oregon Convention Center
Organizer:
E. Louise Loudermilk, USDA Forest Service
Co-organizer:
Joseph J. O'Brien, USDA Forest Service
Moderator:
Brooke A. Cassell, Portland State University
This session disseminates findings from a multidisciplinary five year project, the main goal of which was to identify ecological mechanisms that drive extraordinarily high levels of plant and insect diversity in longleaf pine (Pinus palustris Mill.) ecosystems. Further, we aimed to link these mechanisms to forest structure in order to evaluate ecological theory, and derive a modeling framework for testing the outcomes of various management actions on biological diversity. We tested ecological theory by examining the gradient between species competition and pure stochasticity as driven by varying fire frequency and fire intensity driven by tree canopy density. Our study areas were located in the longleaf pine sandhills and flatwoods of Eglin Air Force Base, NW FL, USA, where one of the few remaining substantial tracts of old-growth longleaf pine remain intact. We present findings on methods for capturing multiple aspects of biodiversity, such as interaction diversity and examine mechanisms driving changes of diversity in time and space. We examined how plant and arthropod communities colonized and assembled post-fire. Analyses presented include structural equation modeling, ordination, spatially explicit modeling, and other non-linear statistical techniques. We discuss how fire is measured spatially using thermal imagery, and why this is important for understanding individual and community level plant mortality and recruitment patterns. We present how these fire effects are explained by the arrangement of fuels which are in turn linked to both tree canopy structure and fire frequency. Tree canopy height models, developed from Light Detection and Ranging, coupled with plot level fuel measurements and models of episodic cone production were used to determine landscape level fuels over space and time. We also present on a novel 3D graphic design technique for simulating three-dimensional models of fuelbeds and relationships with fuel attributes, such as volume, surface area and biomass. This cross scale analysis is key to understanding the mechanisms that drive high plant diversity and patterns of interaction diversity at multiple trophic levels. Although this session focuses on longleaf pine forests of the southeastern U.S., the theme is relevant to many other frequently burned conifer or pine dominated ecosystems. These communities are often similar in structure and function, where fuels and fire frequency determine fire effects, in particular fire effects on patterns and processes of biological diversity.
8:00 AM
 Understanding the contribution of litter type to ground cover plant diversity in a frequently burned forest
Jane E. Dell, University of Nevada; Lora A. Richards, University of Nevada; Joe O'Brien, USDA Forest Service; E. Louise Loudermilk, USDA Forest Service; Scott Pokswinski, Tall Timbers Research Station; Andrew Hudak, USDA Forest Service; Benjamin Bright, Rocky Mountain Research Station, USDA Forest Service; J. Kevin Hiers, Tall Timbers Research Station; Brett W. Williams, Eglin Air Force Base; Lee A. Dyer, University of Nevada
8:40 AM
 Chemically mediated tri-trophic interaction diversity along a time since fire gradient
Danielle Salcido, University of Nevada; Lee A. Dyer, University of Nevada; Lora A. Richards, University of Nevada; Jane E. Dell, University of Nevada
9:00 AM
 Deviations in neutrality that drive plant community assembly in a frequently burned ecosystem: A spatial simulation approach
E. Louise Loudermilk, USDA Forest Service; Joseph J. O'Brien, USDA Forest Service; Lee A. Dyer, University of Nevada; Scott Pokswinski, University of Nevada, Reno; Benjamin S. Hornsby, USDA Forest Service; Andrew Hudak, USDA Forest Service; Lora A. Richards, University of Nevada; Jane E. Dell, University of Nevada
9:20 AM
 The interaction of fire, the lack of fire and plant life history traits in affecting community assembly in a pine forest dependent on frequent fire
Joseph J. O'Brien, USDA Forest Service; E. Louise Loudermilk, USDA Forest Service; Lee A. Dyer, University of Nevada; Scott Pokswinski, University of Nevada, Reno; Benjamin S. Hornsby, USDA Forest Service; Lora A. Richards, University of Nevada; Jane E. Dell, University of Nevada; Andrew Hudak, USDA Forest Service
9:40 AM
9:50 AM
 Ecological concepts informing management decisions: A case study on how multi-decadal datasets can cause management paradigm shifts
Scott Pokswinski, University of Nevada, Reno; J. Kevin Hiers, Sewanee; E. Louise Loudermilk, USDA Forest Service; Joseph J. O'Brien, USDA Forest Service; Lee A. Dyer, University of Nevada; Jane E. Dell, University of Nevada, Reno; Lora A. Richards, University of Nevada; Andrew Hudak, USDA Forest Service; Benjamin S. Hornsby, USDA Forest Service; Benjamin Bright, Rocky Mountain Research Station, USDA Forest Service
10:10 AM
 Ecologically relevant measurements of fire behavior for understanding fire effects
Benjamin S. Hornsby, USDA Forest Service; Joseph J. O'Brien, USDA Forest Service; E. Louise Loudermilk, USDA Forest Service; Scott Pokswinski, University of Nevada, Reno
10:30 AM
 Longleaf pine overstory structure constrains fine-scale dynamics in fuels, fire, and plant species diversity
Andrew T. Hudak, USDA Forest Service; Benjamin Bright, Rocky Mountain Research Station, USDA Forest Service; Scott Pokswinski, University of Nevada, Reno; E. Louise Loudermilk, USDA Forest Service; Joseph J. O'Brien, USDA Forest Service; Benjamin S. Hornsby, USDA Forest Service; Carine Klauberg, US Forest Service; Carlos Silva, University of Idaho
10:50 AM
 Comparison of terrestrial and airborne LiDAR derived crown metrics for describing forest structure at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, USA
Carlos Silva, University of Idaho; Andrew T. Hudak, USDA Forest Service; Eric Rowell, University of Montana; Carl Seielstad, The University of Montana; Carine Klauberg, US Forest Service; Benjamin Bright, Rocky Mountain Research Station, USDA Forest Service; E. Louise Loudermilk, USDA Forest Service; Joseph J. O’Brien, USDA Forest Service, Southern Research Station, Athens, GA
11:10 AM
 Characterization of fine-scale fuelbeds using terrestrial laser scanning and 3D simulation to link tree stand structure and biodiversity
Eric Rowell, University of Montana; Carl Seielstad, The University of Montana; E. Louise Loudermilk, USDA Forest Service; Joseph J. O'Brien, USDA Forest Service; J. Kevin Hiers, Tall Timbers Research Station