Historic Fire Regimes and Their Relation to Vegetation Patterns in the Monterey Bay Area of California

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Abstract
A study of historic fire regimes in the Monterey Bay area, with emphasis on the coastal redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) community is described. Five distinct historic fire regimes were initially distinguished from the literature on land-use history. Fire scar dating, historical research and fire behavior modeling were used to create maps, or "scenarios," representing fire coverage during each regime. Although effects of ignition and moisture gradient apparently influenced the vegetation pattern in each of the five fire regimes, only three regimes were particularly significant to the vegetation of the area. Prior to human habitation, a lightning fire regime existed which, along with the vegetation, was disturbed by the arrival of humans around 11,000 BP. After adjusting to a series of three burning regimes under different human occupations, the vegetation was again disturbed when fire suppression became effective in the 20th century. The present regime is similar in several respects to that which existed prior to the arrival of humans. We propose that computer modeling of fire behavior combined with historic lightning fire incidence may provide useful information on prehuman fire regimes here and elsewhere.
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