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Abstract
Forest management, especially restoration, is informed by understanding the dominant natural disturbance regime. In many western North American forests the keystone disturbance is fire, and much research exists characterizing various fire regime parameters, although often only one or two parameters are addressed in individual studies. I performed a systematic review of the literature and meta-analysis of the derived data from 26 publications to characterize five parameters of the historical fire regime of ponderosa pine ecosystems in Colorado: fire frequency, severity, extent, seasonality, and climate relationships. Together, these publications suggest a fire regime predominately characterized by moderate to high frequency, low and mixed severity fires that occurred in late summer to fall, with fires occurring in drier than average years that were often preceded by 2 to 3 years of wetter than average conditions.
Citation
McKinney, Shawn T. 2019. Fire regimes of ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) ecosystems in Colorado: A systematic review and meta-analysis. In: Fire Effects Information System. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Missoula Fire Sciences Laboratory. Online: https://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/fire_regimes/CO_ponderosa_pine/all.html.
