What are long term impacts of fires on vegetation recovery processes and trajectories?

Effects of fire severity on vegetation recovery (UCI and JPL)

We will investigate the short-term recovery from the 2007 burns along gradients of burn severity/mortality. The field measurements of vegetation cover, species composition (woody plant density, woody cover, herbaceous cover), LAI, and NPP during 2010-2012 (3.1.1) will cover the 5 years after fire, when the fastest rate of vegetation recovery occurs (McMichael et al. 2004). We will also explore the immediate recovery using the time series of MASTER imagery (Fig. 3; three sets of images are already available; we request support to acquire additional images 3 and 5 years after the fires). We will examine the longer-term recovery using a chronosequence approach that makes use of field and Landsat imagery (Fig. 6; McMillan and Goulden 2008), and also a historical time series approach that makes use of the 25-year Landsat record (see also Fig. 6). We will determine stand ages from the FRAP fire histories. We will use Landsat scenes from shortly before and after the burns to characterize burn severity and pre-burn vegetation. We will use time series (stacks) of Landsat images to analyze the temporal evolution of post-fire vegetation recovery. We will examine how fire severity affects vegetation recovery, and the role environmental conditions, such as precipitation in the year following the fire, play in the process.