Fire regimes of northeastern spruce-fir communities
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Missoula Fire Sciences Laboratory. 2026. Fire regimes of northeastern spruce-fir 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/northeastern-spruce-fir
A complete Fire Regime Synthesis for northeastern spruce-fir communities has not yet been published in the Fire Effects Information System. However, LANDFIRE succession modeling of northeastern spruce-fir 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 northeastern spruce-fir Biophysical Settings (BpS).
| Biophysical Setting | Mean Fire Interval (years) | Fire Severity Percent (%) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Code | Fire Regime Group | Low | Mixed | Replacement | All | Low | Mixed | Replacement |
| Series 13500 - Central and Southern Appalachian Spruce-Fir Forest | ||||||||
| 13500_57 | V-B | 1155 | 1000 | 536 | 0 | 46 | 54 | |
| 13500_61 | V-B | 12028 | 834 | 780 | 0 | 7 | 93 | |
| Series 13890 - Acadian-Appalachian Subalpine Woodland and Heath-Krummholz | ||||||||
| 13890_64_66 | V-B | 4331 | 1795 | 3351 | 916 | 22 | 51 | 27 |
| Series 13740 - Acadian-Appalachian Montane Spruce-Fir Forest | ||||||||
| 13740_64_65_66 | V-B | 580 | 580 | 0 | 0 | 100 | ||
| Series 13730 - Acadian Low-Elevation Spruce-Fir-Hardwood Forest | ||||||||
| 13730_65_66 | V-B | 1127 | 1127 | 0 | 0 | 100 | ||
| 13730_63_64 | V-B | 1053 | 1053 | 0 | 0 | 100 | ||
| Summary | ||||||||
| Minimum | 4331 | 1155 | 580 | 536 | 0 | 0 | 27 | |
| Maximum | 4331 | 12028 | 3351 | 1127 | 22 | 51 | 100 | |
| Mean | 4331 | 4993 | 1324 | 832 | 4 | 17 | 79 | |
| Median | 4331 | 1795 | 1027 | 848 | 0 | 4 | 97 | |
| 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]