Fire and land cover change in the Palouse Prairie-forest ecotone, Washington and Idaho, USA

Abstract

Prairie-forest ecotones are ecologically important for biodiversity and ecological processes. While these ecotones cover small areas, their sharp gradients in land cover promote rich ecological interaction and high conservation value. Our objective was to understand how historical and current fire occurrences and human development influenced the Palouse Prairie-forest ecotone. We used General Land Office survey field notes about the occurrence of bearing trees to locate historical (1870s to 1880s) prairie, pine savanna, and forest at the eastern edge of the bioregion. We combined LANDFIRE Existing Vegetation classes to contrast historical land cover with current land cover. We reconstructed historical fire occurrence (1650 to 1900) from fire-scarred trees. We used fire and lightning records from 1992 to 2015 to interpret the role of people and lightning.

Citation

Morgan, Penelope; Heyerdahl, Emily K.; Strand, Eva K.; Bunting, Stephen C.; Riser, James P., II; Abatzoglou, John T.; Nielsen-Pincus, Max; Johnson, Mara. 2020. Fire and land cover change in the Palouse Prairie-forest ecotone, Washington and Idaho, USA. Fire Ecology. 16: 2.