The Effects of Varying Fire Frequencies on a Missouri Ozark Oak-Hickory Forest

Vozzo, Justin; Refsland, Tyler

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/99962 Copy

Description

Title

The Effects of Varying Fire Frequencies on a Missouri Ozark Oak-Hickory Forest

Author(s)

• Vozzo, Justin
• Refsland, Tyler

Contributor(s)

Fraterrigo, Jennifer M.

Issue Date

2018-04

Keyword(s)

• Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences
• ecology
• fire
• trees

Abstract

Climate agreements in Kyoto and Paris in the past decades have cited the removal of atmospheric carbon to balance global carbon emissions of the utmost urgency, emphasizing the importance of forests as global carbon sequestration and storage mechanisms. With ecological management techniques shifting from periods long-term fire suppression toward the use of regular controlled burn fire regimes it is essential we understand the effects on overall forest productivity and aboveground carbon storage. In this study, we examined the effects of over 60 years of annual and periodic fire regimes on productivity and above ground carbon storage in a Missouri Ozark oak-hickory forest. If increasing fire frequency under fire regimes decreases the growth rates of species throughout the forest, then the measured productivity and aboveground carbon storage will decrease. If, however, this management practice sustains forest stands and prevents catastrophic fire events it may ultimately increase aboveground carbon storage. We used diameter at breast height (DBH) and wood density forest census data collected in 1963 and 2013 in allometric equations to calculate aboveground dry biomass and compared carbon stocks across non-burned control plots, annual, and periodically burned study plots.

Type of Resource

image

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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/99962

Copyright and License Information

• Copyright 2018 Justin Vozzo
• Copyright 2018 Tyler Refsland

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