Spatial characteristics of fire severity in relation to fire growth in a Rocky Mountain subalpine forest

Abstract

We compared the spatial characteristics of fire severity patches within individual fire “runs” (contiguous polygons burned during a given day) resulting from a 72,000 ha fire in centralIdaho in 1994. Our hypothesis was that patch characteristics of four fire severity classes (high, moderate, low, and unburned), as captured by five landscape metrics, would vary with the size of the run (ranging from 1 to 6,200 ha). Our results indicated that high severity patches (i.e., crown fires) were typically larger and more complex in larger runs than in smaller runs. Moderate severity, low severity, and unburned patch characteristics were relatively insensitive to fire run size, with most metrics showing little or no trend.

Parent Publication

• Proceedings of the 2002 fire conference: managing fire and fuels in the remaining wildlands and open spaces of the Southwestern United States

Citation

Farris, Calvin A.; Margolis, Ellis Q.; Kupfer, John A. 2008. Spatial characteristics of fire severity in relation to fire growth in a Rocky Mountain subalpine forest. In: Narog, Marcia G., tech. coord. 2008. Proceedings of the 2002 Fire Conference: Managing fire and fuels in the remaining wildlands and open spaces of the Southwestern United States. Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW-GTR-189. Albany, CA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station: p. 175-184