Changes in Fire Regimes and the Successional Status of Table Mountain Pine in the Southern Appalachians Henri D. Grissino- Mayer Michael R. Armbrister Laboratory of Tree-Ring Science Department of Geography University of Tennessee Knoxville, Tennessee 37996
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Changes in Fire Regimes and the Successional Status of Table Mountain Pine in the Southern Appalachians Henri D. Grissino-Mayer Michael R. Armbrister Laboratory.
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Changes in Fire Regimes and the Successional Status of Table Mountain Pine in the Southern Appalachians
Henri D. Grissino-Mayer
Michael R. Armbrister
Laboratory of Tree-Ring Science
Department of Geography
University of Tennessee
Knoxville, Tennessee 37996
• Table Mountain pine endemic to Appalachians• Fire-dependent species: cone serotiny, site prep• Considerable human alterations to native communities• Primary among these is 20th century fire exclusion = new fire regime• Effects on this species are a major concern for management agencies
• Information needed on site-specific fire history• Retrospective study provides needed reference conditions
Problem Statement
• Evaluate current age structure of select TMP stands
• Identify and characterize historical fire regimes in these stands
• Combine this information to assess its current successional status
Objectives
Field Methods
1. Age structure analysis
Cored minimum 75 trees at 5 sites, 2 cores per tree
Aged seedlings and saplings via bud scars, branch nodes
2. Fire-scar analysis
Located suitable fire-scarred logs and snags
Collected small wedges from selected living trees
All sections collected via hand saws
Laboratory Methods
1. Age structure analysis
Mounted, sanded, dated all tree rings on all cores
Developed histograms that depicted the age structure of all 5 stands
2. Fire-scar analysis
Sanded, dated all tree rings on all sections
Dated all embedded fire scars to year of formation *
Developed graphs depicting fire occurrence over time