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Holocene fire and vegetation dynamics in a montane forest, North Cascade Range, Washington, USA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Susan J. Prichard ,
Ze'ev Gedalof ,
W. Wyatt Oswald  and
David L. Peterson
Susan J. Prichard*
Affiliation:
College of Forest Resources, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA
Ze'ev Gedalof
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada N1G 2W1
W. Wyatt Oswald
Affiliation:
Emerson College, 120 Boylston Street, Boston, MA 02116, USA
David L. Peterson
Affiliation:
USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station, 400 N 34th Street, Suite 201, Seattle, WA 98103, USA
*
⁎Corresponding author. Fax: +1 206 732 7801.

E-mail addresses:sprich@u.washington.edu (S.J. Prichard), zgedalof@uoguelph.ca (Z. Gedalof), W_Wyatt_Oswald@emerson.edu (W.W. Oswald), peterson@fs.fed.us (D.L. Peterson).

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Abstract

We reconstructed a 10,500-yr fire and vegetation history of a montane site in the North Cascade Range, Washington State based on lake sediment charcoal, macrofossil and pollen records. High-resolution sampling and abundant macrofossils made it possible to analyze relationships between fire and vegetation. During the early Holocene (> 10,500 to ca. 8000 cal yr BP) forests were subalpine woodlands dominated by Pinus contorta. Around 8000 cal yr BP, P. contorta sharply declined in the macrofossil record. Shade tolerant, mesic species first appeared ca. 4500 cal yr BP. Cupressus nootkatensis appeared most recently at 2000 cal yr BP. Fire frequency varies throughout the record, with significantly shorter mean fire return intervals in the early Holocene than the mid and late Holocene. Charcoal peaks are significantly correlated with an initial increase in macrofossil accumulation rates followed by a decrease, likely corresponding to tree mortality following fire. Climate appears to be a key driver in vegetation and fire regimes over millennial time scales. Fire and other disturbances altered forest vegetation at shorter time scales, and vegetation may have mediated local fire regimes. For example, dominance of P. contorta in the early Holocene forests may have been reinforced by its susceptibility to frequent, stand-replacing fire events.

Keywords

Pacific NorthwestNorth Cascades RangeVegetation historyFire historyLake sediment charcoalHolocene
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 72 , Issue 1 , July 2009 , pp. 57 - 67
Copyright
University of Washington

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