Fire regimes of mixed dwarf sagebrush communities

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Missoula Fire Sciences Laboratory. 2026. Fire regimes of mixed dwarf sagebrush 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/mixed-dwarf-sagebrush

Photo of a broad valley floor covered by a low, dry, shrubland with a lot of bare soil and mountains in the background.

Photo Credit: Creative Commons image by Matt Lavin, Bozeman, Montana.

A black sagebrush community below the Pequop Mountains, northeastern Nevada.

A complete Fire Regime Synthesis for mixed dwarf sagebrush communities has not yet been published in the Fire Effects Information System. However, LANDFIRE succession modeling of mixed dwarf sagebrush Biophysical Settings (BpS) provides estimates of fire regime characteristics (see LANDFIRE Biophysical Settings section). Figure 1 shows where these BpSs occur, and table 1 lists shrub species commonly dominant in dwarf sagebrush communities. The Pacific Southwest Research Station, Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture [3] provides a review and synthesis of the historical range of variability of sagebrush communities in California.

Table 1—Names of shrub species commonly dominant in dwarf sagebrush communities.
Common name	Scientific name
antelope bitterbrush	Purshia tridentata
Bigelow sagebrush	Artemisia bigelovii
black greasewood	Sarcobatus vermiculatus
black sagebrush	Artemisia nova
broom snakeweed	Gutierrezia sarothrae
fourwing saltbush	Atriplex canescens
green ephedra	Ephedra viridis
low sagebrush	Artemisia arbuscula
Nevada jointfir	Ephedra nevadensis
rubber rabbitbrush	Ericameria nauseosa
sand sagebrush	Artemisia filifolia
yellow rabbitbrush	Chrysothamnus viscidiflorus

Image of a map of the western United States showing the distribution of mixed dwarf sagebrush communities, mostly in the Great Basin of Nevada, Utah, Idaho, and Oregon, as well as the Columbia Plateau of Oregon and Washington, with additional occurrences in Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona.

Photo Credit

Map based on the LANDFIRE (2020) BpS data layer [1].

Figure 1—Land cover distribution of mixed dwarf sagebrush Biophysical Settings (BpS). Numbers indicate LANDFIRE map zones.

2020 LANDFIRE Biophysical Settings — Historical Fire Regime Characteristics
Biophysical Setting		Mean Fire Interval (years)				Fire Severity Percent (%)
Code	Fire Regime Group	Low	Mixed	Replacement	All	Low	Mixed	Replacement
Series 10650 - Columbia Plateau Scabland Shrubland
10650_1_8_9_10	V-A			253	253	0	0	100
Series 10720 - Wyoming Basins Dwarf Sagebrush Shrubland and Steppe
10720_28	IV-B			125	125	0	0	100
10720_22_29	V-A			331	331	0	0	100
Series 11262 - Inter-Mountain Basins Montane Sagebrush Steppe - Low Sagebrush
11262_16_23	V-A			219	219	0	0	100
Series 10640 - Colorado Plateau Mixed Low Sagebrush Shrubland
10640_15_16_17_23_24_27_28	III-A		119	239	79	0	67	33
Series 10790 - Great Basin Xeric Mixed Sagebrush Shrubland
10790_6_9_10_12_16_17_18	IV-A		831	94	84	0	10	90
10790_13	IV-A		727	99	87	0	12	88
Series 11240 - Columbia Plateau Low Sagebrush Steppe
11240_1_7_8_9	V-A			222	222	0	0	100
11240_10_12_17_18_19_21	V-A			201	201	0	0	100
Summary
Minimum			119	94	79	0	0	33
Maximum			831	331	331	0	67	100
Mean			559	198	178	0	10	90
Median			727	219	201	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]

3. USDA. 2016. Sagebrush natural range of variation, [Online]. In: Pacific Region, Ecology program documents, reports and publications, Natural range of variation of Sierra Nevada habitats. Vallejo, CA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Region (Producer). Available: https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/r5/plants-animals/?cid=stelprdb5434436 [2018, September 10]. 36 p. [90944]

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Introduction

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LANDFIRE Biophysical Settings

References