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Project ID:

12-4-01-1

Year:

2012

Date Started:

08/01/2012

Date Completed:

09/23/2013

Title:

Data Archival for Fire Studies in the Coastal Plain, Piedmont, and Southern Appalachian Mountains

Project Proposal Abstract:

This project will compile data from on-going and previous fire studies in the Coastal Plain, Piedmont, and Southern Appalachian regions in the southeastern U.S. These projects include research funded by the Joint Fire Science Program (JFSP) as well as other funding agencies dating back over the past 50 years.

In particular, we have 7 studies with datasets that should provide valuable information for the scientific community regarding fire and/or fuel treatment effects on vegetation, fuels, and soils: 1) prescribed burning for stand replacement in Table Mountain pine stands in the southern Appalachian Mountains; 2) consequences of fire and fuel reduction treatments in the Piedmont and Coastal Plain; 3) fuel classification by landscape position in the southern Appalachians; 4) fuel decomposition rates by landscape position in the Southern Appalachians; 5) prescribed burning and release of mercury; 6) long-term winter-burning effects on vegetation and soils in the Coastal Plain; and 7) season of burn and fire return interval effects on vegetation and soils in the Piedmont. Five of these studies can be considered as long-term projects with sampling occurring over 8-24 years (with one study encompassing 50+ years), whereas the other 2 studies were 2-5 year projects.

These projects have helped to advanced fire science and provided much needed information about fire effects on ecosystem components. These projects have demonstrated how returning fire to once fire-adapted communities is an on-going process that needs to be repeated relatively frequently. They also give insight into alternative treatments that may be used for fuel reduction, depending on land managers objectives, and the ecological effects that can be associated with alternative treatment. The commonalities between these studies both in variables measured and site locations provide data that allow a more complete view of these ecosystems providing a unique opportunity for meta-analysis of multiple fires and other fuel reduction treatments at regional levels.

Principal Investigator:

Ross J. Phillips

Agency/Organization:

Forest Service

Branch or Dept:

SRS-Department of Forest Resources

Other Project Collaborators

Type	Name	Agency/Organization	Branch or Dept
Agreements Contact	Joyce M. Gorgas	Forest Service	SRS-Southern Research Station
Budget Contact	Shelly M. Gates	Forest Service	SRS-Southern Research Station
Co-Principal Investigator	Thomas A. Waldrop	Forest Service	SRS-Department of Forest Resources
Collaborator/Contributor	Mac A. Callaham	Forest Service	SRS-Forestry Sciences Lab-Athens GA