Lindsay R. Boring
Joseph W. Jones Ecological Research Center
Route 2 Box 2324
Newton, GA 39870
lindsay.boring@jonesctr.org
This experiment will address how southern pineland ecosystems respond to differing prescribed fire return intervals and fire suppression across a climatic gradient and urban versus rural landuse. Alterations of mean fire frequency caused by fire suppression treatments in pine woodlands will create conditions for increased fire intensity and severity in wildfire type events in comparison to historically documented shorter intervals. Intensive heat flux, high fuel accumulations, elevated particulate and gas emissions, high tree mortality, decreased species richness, exotic plant invasion, and changes in biogeochemical cycles are hypothesized to result from fire suppression and lengthened intervals from historic fire intervals. The work will be conducted at six Southeastern NEON (SEEON) climate gradient sites, using their dominant regimes of prescribed fire with fire suppression treatments. Although this work is proposed initially as a SEEON experimental study, we seek further possibilities for integrating similar approaches with western domains. This fire research proposal addresses the NEON Grand Challenges of land use, climate, and biodiversity, with a passive element of exotic invasive species. It will address issues related to conservation of biodiversity, wildland-urban interface issues related to use of prescribed fire, and impacts of fire suppression upon ecosystem structure and processes. The needs for large scale biomass and fuel assessments, tower-based measures of atmospheric emissions of gases and particulates, and quantification of heat flux and its impacts require approaches and new technologies well suited to the NEON program, as well as a regional network of sites across a broad climatic regime.