Abstract

Rampant wildfire is becoming increasingly prevalent.  Ecosystems vulnerable to fire provide many of the services needed to sustain communities, so it is important to understand how these ecosystems recover from wildfire.  Our objective was to understand how different ecohydrological variables influence the recovery of a mixed-conifer forest.  Following the 2011 Las Conchas Fire in the Jemez Mountains of New Mexico, ten time-lapse digital cameras were installed to take hourly images of the understory regrowth.  Additionally, multiple post-fire terrestrial LiDAR scans captured three-dimensional changes in the forest.  Two meteorological stations and four soil pits with moisture and temperature sensor profiles captured half-hourly measurements within the watershed.  Using our images and LiDAR scans, we present the understory regrowth dynamics in the context of our ecohydrological variables.  We highlight the major influences on the post-burn recovery of the understory and suggest implications of the recovery dynamics on the hydrology of the watershed.

Citation

Wilcox D., Papuga S.A. and Swetnam T. (2014): Understory growth dynamics following high severity burn in a mixed-conifer forest. Poster presented at EarthWeek, University of Arizona, Tucson, 8-11 April 2014.

This Paper/Book acknowledges NSF CZO grant support.