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Project ID: 03-1-1-06

Year: 2003

Date Started: 07/30/2003

Date Completed: 07/30/2008

Title: Carbon Cycling at the Landscape Scale: The Effect of Changes in Climate and Fire Frequency on Age Distribution, Stand Structure, and Net Ecosystem Production

Project Proposal Abstract: Our project addresses Task 1 in RFP 2003-1. Climate, fire (frequency and intensity), and forest structure and development are strongly linked, but our knowledge of the interactions of these factors is poor. We lack the ability to make robust predictions about how changes in climate will alter these interactions and change the carbon balance of a landscape. Our objective. is to estimate how changes in fire frequency, pattern, and intensity will alter the distribution of forest age and structure across a landscape and how these changes, in turn, will change the landscape carbon balance. We will determine the cu ent carbon balance for the Yellowstone National Park (YNP) landscape and how much carbon was lost in the 1988 fires by (a) mapping the current distribution of forest age and tree density for the YNP landscape, (b) measuring how annual net carbon storage (NEP) varies with forest age and tree density using replicated chronosequences, (c) estimating how much carbon was removed from the landscape by the 1988 fires through direct combustion, and (ci) extrapolating stocks and fluxes to the landscape using the detailed maps and measurements. We will then determine how NEP will change for the YNP landscape with changes in climate and fire regimes (a) by calibrating the Century biogeochemical model to assess how changes in climate will alter NEP across stand development, (b) using models developed in past research to simulate fire frequency, fire spread, and the resulting landscape stmcture (the distribution of stand age and tree density) for alternative climatic conditions, and (c) by combining (a) and (b) to estimate landscap NEP for different climates and the different fire regimes they cause. The lodgepole pine ecosystems of YNP are ideal for this research because the landscape mosaic is complex (high variability in tree density and stand age), the structure within a patch is simple (generally one species with even-aged cohorts of trees), and, because soils and climate are similar across the plateau, information from replicated plot studies can be extrapolated to the landscape. We hypothesize that variation in tree establishment after a fire and the legacy of the prior stand will control the trajectory of NEP through time, and that climate and fire frequency will change the distribution of forest age and structure, and these changes will alter net carbon storage for the landscape. This research will significantly improve our knowledge of how NEP changes with stand development after a fire, and how climate-induced changes in the disturbance regime will affect landscape age and stand structure and NEP for the landscape. Because we will examine the entire C budget we will also tightly link fuels (litter, CWD, foliage, etc.) with overstory characterics on a landscape scale.

Principal Investigator: Michael G. Ryan

Agency/Organization: Forest Service

Branch or Dept: RMRS-Forestry Sciences Lab-Fort Collins

Other Project Collaborators

Type	Name	Agency/Organization	Branch or Dept
Co-Principal Investigator	William H Romme	Colorado State University	Department of Forest, Rangeland & Watershed Stewardship
Co-Principal Investigator	Daniel B. Tinker	University of Wyoming	Department of Botany
Co-Principal Investigator	Monica G. Turner	University of Wisconsin-Madison	Department of Zoology
Federal Cooperator	Michael G. Ryan	Forest Service	RMRS-Forestry Sciences Lab-Fort Collins

Project Locations

Consortium

Northern Rockies

There are no project locations identified for this project.

Project Deliverables

Final Report ("Results presented in JFSP Final Reports may not have been peer-reviewed and should be interpreted as tentative until published in a peer-reviewed source.")

	ID	Type	Title
	10374	Refereed Publication	Postfire Changes in Forest Carbon Storage Over a 300-Year Chronosequence of Pinus contorta-Dominated Forests
	7672	Refereed Publication	Long-Term Ecosystem Nitrogen Storage and Soil Nitrogen Availability in Post-Fire Lodgepole Pine Ecosystems
	7853	Refereed Publication	Landscape Heterogeneity Following Large Fires: Insights from Yellowstone National Park, USA
	7649	Refereed Publication	Carbon Storage on Landscapes with Stand-Replacing Fires
	7661	Invited Paper/Presentation	Lodgepole Pine Ecology
	7655	Invited Paper/Presentation	Heterogeneity, Legacies, and Convergence: Forest Structure and Function on Rocky Mountain Landscapes
	7654	Invited Paper/Presentation	Stand Dynamics, Fire Frequency, and Carbon Storage Across Lodgepole Pine Landscape of the Rocky Mountains
	7657	Invited Paper/Presentation	Effects of Changes in Climate and Fire Frequency on Landscape-Scale Carbon Cycling in Coniferous Forests
	7670	Invited Paper/Presentation	Modeling the Effects of Fire and Climate Change on Carbon and Nitrogen Storage in Lodgepole Pine (Pinus contorta) Stands
	7653	Invited Paper/Presentation	Playing with Fire: Implications of Climate Change for Disturbances that Shape Rocky Mountain Landscapes
	8847	Invited Paper/Presentation	What is the Role of Forests in the US Carbon Balance?
	8846	Invited Paper/Presentation	Broad-Scale Patterns of Ecosystem N Stocks and Soil N Availability in Post-Fire Lodgepole Pine Ecosystems
	8851	Invited Paper/Presentation	Lodgepole Pine Ecology In the Wild...
	8850	Invited Paper/Presentation	Playing With Fire: Disturbances Shaping Rocky Mountain Forest Landscapes and Their Implications for Global Change
	8849	Invited Paper/Presentation	Potential Effects of Altered Fire Frequency on Carbon Cycling on Coniferous Landscapes
	8848	Invited Paper/Presentation	Stand-Replacing Fires and Carbon Storage: Effects of Stand Age and Density on Carbon Sotrage in Lodgepole Pine Ecosystems
	7651	Poster	Allometric Model Development, and Biomass Allocation Patterns of Lodgepole Pine in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem

Supporting Documents

The following supporting documents are available for this project.

Brief

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