Funded Project Detail

Project ID: 11-1-2-19

Year: 2011

Date Started: 09/01/2011

Ending Date:  08/31/2015

Title: Development and Evaluation of Dynamic Vegetation Models for Grassland Fuels under Variable Fire and Grazing Regimes

Project Proposal Abstract: The proposed project addresses Task Statement 2 (Shrub and grass fuelbed production, growth, and succession) of JFSP Project Announcement FA-RFA011-0001. Within the context of grassland fuels, all three questions posed in this statement will be targeted: " How can the spatial and temporal variation in shrub and grass growth and production be best represented in fuel models? " How do invasive species, grazing, and fires affect fuel loading and heterogeneity of shrub and grass fuels? " How do shrub and grass fuel loading and production vary along post-fire successional trajectories? We first propose an intensive field study over a two-year period to collect fuelbed data from a local perennial grassland research location with successional vegetation produced by fuel treatments consisting of spatially and temporally variable fire and grazing. Soil and weather data for model development will be supplemented with remotely sensed spectral reflectance data from a hand-held radiometer as well as from satellites. Using data collected at the above research location, empirical dynamic models will be developed for live fuel moisture, live and dead fuel loads, and live-to-dead fuel ratio within the context of fuel treatments resulting from burning and grazing. Models will be developed using a hierarchy (varying in temporal and spatial resolution, accuracy, and cost) of input data - some based solely on weather data, some solely on remotely sensed spectral data, some on weather and soil data, and some using all available data. In this way, looking toward future applications, the fire or land manager will be able to select the models appropriate to the resources at hand (e.g., remotely sensed data only, weather station data only, etc). The models will then be evaluated using independent sets of field data from not only the local research location but also from two additional perennial grassland locations across Oklahoma at which fuelbed data will be collected during the third year of the project. Expected benefits of the proposed project include the development of improved dynamic fuel models that can be used (1) in fire danger and fire behavior systems for grasslands and (2) for fuel treatment planning on grasslands where grazing and/or prescribed fire are the primary fuel treatments. Even though not developed for forest systems, the models might also prove useful for simulating the annual dynamics of herbaceous understory fuels and their response to forest fuel treatments. Because a hierarchy of models using various sets of input data will be developed, other expected benefits include the ability of the fire or land manager to use the resources at hand to model grassland fuelbed change over time following fuel treatment.

Principal Investigator: David M. Engle

Agency/Organization: Oklahoma State University

Branch or Dept: Division of Agricultural Sciences & Natural Resources

There is no final report available for this project.

Other Project Collaborators

Type	Name	Agency/Organization	Branch or Dept
Budget Contact	Hollie R. Schreiber	Oklahoma State University	Division of Agricultural Sciences & Natural Resources
Co-Principal Investigator	J. D. Carlson	Oklahoma State University	Department of Biosystems & Agricultural Engineering
Co-Principal Investigator	Samuel D. Fuhlendorf	Oklahoma State University	Department of Plant & Soil Sciences
Co-Principal Investigator	Tyson E. Ochsner	Oklahoma State University	Department of Plant & Soil Sciences
Collaborator/Contributor	Mark S. Gregory	Oklahoma State University	Department of Natural Resource Ecology & Management
Collaborator/Contributor	Thomas B. Lynch	Oklahoma State University	Department of Natural Resource Ecology & Management
Grants and Agreements Contact	Cathryn L. Christensen	Oklahoma State University	Division of Agricultural Sciences & Natural Resources

Project Locations

Level	State	Agency	Unit
STATE	OK	STATE	ALL
STATE	OK	PRIVATE	ALL

Project Deliverables

There are no deliverables available for this project.

Supporting Documents

There are no supporting documents available for this project.

Convert PDF documents to an html document using Adobe's online conversion tool.