Fire regimes of desert riparian communities
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Missoula Fire Sciences Laboratory. 2026. Fire regimes of desert riparian communities. In: Fire Effects Information System, [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Missoula Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Available: https://research.fs.usda.gov/feis/fire-regimes/desert-riparian
A complete Fire Regime Synthesis for desert riparian communities has not yet been published in the Fire Effects Information System. However, LANDFIRE succession modeling of desert riparian Biophysical Settings (BpS) provides estimates of fire regime characteristics (see LANDFIRE Biophysical Settings section). Figure 1 shows where these BpSs occur.
Figure 1—Land cover distribution of desert riparian Biophysical Settings (BpS).
| Biophysical Setting | Mean Fire Interval (years) | Fire Severity Percent (%) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Code | Fire Regime Group | Low | Mixed | Replacement | All | Low | Mixed | Replacement |
| Series 11552 - North American Warm Desert Riparian Systems - Stringers | ||||||||
| 11552_13_14_15 | V-B | 735 | 735 | 0 | 0 | 100 | ||
| Series 11550 - North American Warm Desert Riparian Systems | ||||||||
| 11550_25 | V-A | 225 | 225 | 0 | 0 | 100 | ||
| 11550_26_35 | ||||||||
| 11550_4 | I-C | 23 | 788 | 23 | 0 | 97 | 3 | |
| Summary | ||||||||
| Minimum | 23 | 225 | 23 | 0 | 0 | 3 | ||
| Maximum | 23 | 788 | 735 | 0 | 97 | 100 | ||
| Mean | 23 | 583 | 328 | 0 | 32 | 68 | ||
| Median | 23 | 735 | 225 | 0 | 0 | 100 | ||
| Percentage of fires in 3 fire severity classes, derived from LANDFIRE succession modeling. Replacement-severity fires cause >75% kill or top-kill of the upper canopy layer; mixed-severity fires cause 26%-75%; low-severity fires cause <26%. | ||||||||
| LANDFIRE. 2020. Biophysical settings models and descriptions, [Online]. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service; U.S. Department of the Interior; U.S. Geological Survey; Arlington, VA: The Nature Conservancy, (Producers). Available: https://www.landfirereview.org/search.php [96496] | ||||||||
1. LANDFIRE. 2020. Biophysical settings layer, CONUS (LANDFIRE 2.2.0). In: LANDFIRE download data mosaic products, [Online]. U.S. Department of the Interior, Geological Survey; U.S. Department of Agriculture (Producer). Available: https://www.landfire.gov/version_download.php [2023, June 20]. [98050]
2. LANDFIRE. 2020. Biophysical settings models and descriptions, [Online]. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service; U.S. Department of the Interior; U.S. Geological Survey; Arlington, VA: The Nature Conservancy, (Producers). Available: http://www.landfirereview.org/search.php [2022, February 2]. [96496]