Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-13T23:40:49.341Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The effects of fire and tephra deposition on forest vegetation in the Central Cascades, Oregon

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Colin J. Long ,
Mitchell J. Power  and
Patrick J. Bartlein
Colin J. Long*
Affiliation:
Department of Geography and Urban Planning, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, Oshkosh, WI 54901-8642, USA
Mitchell J. Power
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, Utah Museum of Natural History, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
Patrick J. Bartlein
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403, USA
*
⁎Corresponding author. Fax: + 1 920 424 0292.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

High-resolution charcoal and pollen analyses were used to reconstruct a 12,000-yr-long fire and vegetation history of the Tumalo Lake watershed and to examine the short-term effects that tephra deposition have on forest composition and fire regime. The record suggests that, from 12,000 to 9200 cal yr BP, the watershed was dominated by an open Pinus forest with Artemisia as a common understory species. Fire episodes occurred on average every 115 yr. Beginning around 9200 cal yr BP, and continuing to the present, Abies became more common while Artemisia declined, suggesting the development of a closed forest structure and a decrease in the frequency of fire episodes, occurring on average every 160 yr. High-resolution pollen analyses before and after the emplacement of three distinct tephra deposits in the watershed suggest that nonarboreal species were most affected by tephra events and that recovery of the vegetation community to previous conditions took between 40 and 100 yr. Changes in forest composition were not associated with tephra depositional events or changes in fire-episode frequency, implying that the regional climate is the more important control on long-term forest composition and structure of the vegetation in the Cascade Range.

Keywords

Fire historyTephraCascade Range
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 75 , Issue 1 , January 2011 , pp. 151 - 158
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Agee, J.K. Fire Ecology of Pacific Northwest Forests. (1993). Island Press, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Antos, J.A., and Zobel, D.B. Plant responses in forest of the tephra-fall zone. Franklin, J.F., Dale, V.H., Swanson, F.J., and Crisafulli, C.M. Ecological Response to the 1980 Eruption of Mount St. Helens. (2005). Springer Science, New York. 47–58.Google Scholar
Bartlein, P.J., Anderson, K.A., Anderson, P.M., Edwards, M.E., Mock, C.J., Thompson, R.S., Webb, R.S., Webb, T. III, and Whitlock, C. Paleoclimate simulations for North America over the past 21, 000 years: features of the simulated climate and comparisons with paleoenvironmental data. Quaternary Science Reviews 17, (1998). 549–585.Google Scholar
Brunelle, A., and Whitlock, C. Postglacial fire, vegetation, and climate history in the Clearwater Range, Northern Idaho, USA. Quaternary Research 60, (2003). 307–318.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dale, V.H., Swanson, F.J., and Crisafulli, C.M. Disturbance, survival, and succession: understanding ecological responses to the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. Franklin, J.F., Dale, V.H., Swanson, F.J., and Crisafulli, C.M. Ecological Response to the 1980 Eruption of Mount St. Helens. (2005). Springer Science, New York. 3–11.Google Scholar
del Moral, R., and Grishin, S.Y. Volcanic disturbances and ecosystem recovery. Walker, L.R. Ecosystems of Disturbed Ground. Ecosystems of the World 16. (1999). Elsevier, New York. 137–160.Google Scholar
Faegri, K., Kaland, P.E., and Krzywinski, K. Textbook of Pollen Analysis. (1989). Wiley, London.Google Scholar
Franklin, J.F., and Dyrness, C.T. Natural Vegetation of Oregon and Washington. General Technical Report PNW-8. (1988). United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Portland.Google Scholar
Gavin, D.G., Hu, F.S., Lertzman, K., and Corbett, P. Weak climatic control of stand scale fire history during the late Holocene in southeastern British Columbia. Ecology 87, (2006). 1722–1732.Google Scholar
Grimm, E.C. CONISS: a FORTRAN 77 program for stratigraphically constrained cluster analysis by the method of incremental sum of squares. Computers and Geosciences 13, (1987). 13–35.Google Scholar
Hansen, H. The influence of volcanic eruptions upon post-Pleistocene forest succession in central Oregon. American Journal of Botany 29, (1942). 214–217.Google Scholar
Haruki, M., and Tsuyuzaki, S. Woody plant establishment during the early stages of volcanic succession on Mount Usu, northern Japan. Ecological Research 16, (2001). 451–457.Google Scholar
Hebda, R.J., and Whitlock, C. Environmental history. Schoonmaker, P.K., von Hagen, B., and Wolf, E.C. The Rain Forests of Home: Profile of a North American Bioregion. (1997). Island Press, Washington, DC. 227–256.Google Scholar
Higuera, P.E., Brubaker, L.B., Anderson, P.M., Hu, F.S., and Brown, T.A. Vegetation mediated the impacts of postglacial climatic change on fire regimes in the south-central Brooks Range, Alaska. Ecological Monographs 79, (2009). 201–219.Google Scholar
Hotes, S., Poschlod, P., and Takahashi, H. Effects of volcanic activity on mire development: case studies form Hokkaido, northern Japan. The Holocene 16, (2006). 561–573.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Long, C.J., Whitlock, C., Bartlein, P.J., and Millspaugh, S.H. A 9000-year fire history from the Oregon Coast Range, based on a high-resolution charcoal study. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 28, (1998). 774–787.Google Scholar
Marlon, J.R., Bartlein, P.J., and Whitlock, C. Fire–fuel–climate linkages in the northwestern U.S. during the Holocene. The Holocene 16, (2006). 1059–1071.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mehringer, P.J., Blinman, E., and Petersen, K.L. Pollen influx and volcanic ash. Science 198, (1977). 257–261.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Millar, C.I., King, J.C., Westfall, R.D., Alden, H.A., and Delany, D.L. Late Holocene forest dynamics, volcanism, and climate change at Whitewing Mountain and San Joaquin Ridge, Mono Count, Sierra Nevada, CA, USA. Quaternary Research 66, (2006). 273–287.Google Scholar
Minckley, T., and Whitlock, C. Spatial variation of modern pollen in Oregon and southern Washington, USA. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 112, (2000). 97–123.Google Scholar
Mock, C.J. Climate controls and spatial variations of precipitation in the western United States. Journal of Climate 9, (1996). 1111–1115.Google Scholar
Mullineaux, D.R. Pre-1980 Tephra-Fall Deposits Erupted From Mount St. Helens, Washington: USGS Professional Paper 1563. (1996). Google Scholar
NRCS (National Resource Conservation Service) (2006). Instrumental weather data from SNOTEL stations in the western U.S.. data archived at: http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov.Google Scholar
Scott, W.E., Iverson, R.M., Schilling, S.P., and Fisher, B.J. Volcano Hazards in the Three Sisters Region, Oregon. Open-file Report 99-437. (2001). U.S. Department of Interior, Vancouver.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simkin, T., and Seibert, L. Volcanoes of the World. 2nd Ed (1994). Geosciences Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M., Reimer, P.J., and Braziunas, T.F. High-precision radiocarbon age calibration for terrestrial and marine samples. Radiocarbon 40, (1998). 1127–1151.Google Scholar
Thompson, R.S., Whitlock, C., Bartlein, P.J., Harrison, S.P., and Spaulding, W.G. Climatic changes in the western United States since 18,000 yr BP. Wright, H.E. Jr., Kutzbach, J.E., Ruddiman, W.F., Street-Perrott, F.A., Webb, T. III, and Bartlein, P.J. Global climates since the last glacial maximum. (1993). University of Minnesota Press, 468–513.Google Scholar
Turner, M.G., Collins, S.L., Lugo, A.L., Magnuson, J.L., Rupp, T.S., and Swanson, F.J. Disturbance dynamics and ecological response: the contribution of long-term ecological research. BioScience 53, (2003). 46–56.Google Scholar
Walsh, M.K., Whitlock, C., and Bartlein, P.J. 14,300-year-long record of fire–vegetation–climate linkages at Battle Ground Lake, southwestern Washington. Quaternary Research 70, (2008). 251–264.Google Scholar
Whitlock, C., and Bartlein, P.J. Vegetation and climate change in Northwest America during the past 125 kyr. Nature 388, (1997). 59–61.Google Scholar
Whitlock, C., and Larsen, C. Charcoal as a fire proxy. Smol, J.P., Birks, H.J.B., and Last, W.M. Tracking Environmental Change Using Lake Sediments: Vol. 3. Terrestrial, Algal, and Siliceous Indicators. (2001). Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht. 75–98.Google Scholar
Whitlock, C., Sarna-Wojcicki, A.M., Bartlein, P.J., and Nickmann, R.J. Environmental history and tephrostratigraphy at Carp Lake, southwestern Columbia Basin, Washington, USA. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 155, (2000). 7–29.Google Scholar
Wright, H.E. Jr., Mann, D.H., and Glaser, P.H. Piston cores for peat and lake sediments. Ecology 65, (1983). 657–659.Google Scholar
Zdanowicz, C.M., Zuekubsju, G.A., and Germani, M.A. Mount Mazama eruption: calendrical age verified and atmospheric impact assessed. Geology 27, (1999). 621–624.Google Scholar