Fire Frequency and Subalpine Forest Succession Along a Topographic Gradient in Wyoming
- 1 April 1981
- Vol. 62 (2) , 319-326
- https://doi.org/10.2307/1936706
Abstract
Differences in fire frequency and the rate of secondary succession following fire have had a major effect on the present composition of forest vegetation in a 4500—ha undisturbed watershed in the subalpine zone of the Medicine Bow Mountains, southeastern Wyoming. USA. Periodic fire coupled with slow secondary succession has perpetuated lodgepole pine forest on the upland, while mature Engelmann spruce—subalpine fire forests have developed in sheltered ravines and valley bottoms where fire is less frequent and succession following fire is more rapid and/or more direct. A graphic model is presented showing the relationship between topographic position, fire—free interval, and the occurrence of mature forests dominated by spruce and fire.This publication has 4 references indexed in Scilit:
- Fire history and vegetation pattern of coniferous forests in Jasper National Park, AlbertCanadian Journal of Botany, 1979
- Age Structure and Successional Dynamics of a Colorado Subalpine ForestThe American Midland Naturalist, 1979
- Vegetation and Environmental Patterns in the Crested Butte Area, Gunnison County, ColoradoEcological Monographs, 1962
- Factors Influencing the Natural Restocking of High Altitude Burns by Coniferous Trees in the Central Rocky MountainsEcology, 1943