Geography 433/533

Fire and Natural Disturbances

Fall, 2011

Lecture: Tues & Thurs, 2:00-3:20, in 260 Condon
 
Instructor: Daniel Gavin (dgavin@uoregon.edu)
Office: 110 Condon Hall; Phone: 346-5787
Office Hours: 1:30-2:30 in 110 Condon
 
Required field trip October 15-16
Lecture Schedule Tue & Thu 2-3:320 in 260 Condon
Week Date Topic (Lecture slides will be posted on Blackboard)
Reading
1 Sept 27
 Overview of the course
Overview of disturbance ecology
Basics of fire and fire in the carbon cycle
Introduction to natural fire regimes of the Pacific Northwest.

Sept 29
 Fire behavior
2 Oct 4
 Fire effects
Adaptations of plants and animals to fire.
Condition classes.

Oct 6
 Fire effects cont.
    3 Oct 11
    		 Fire history and the fire-climate connection.
    Fire in ponderosa pine and Douglas-fir forest.

    		Oct 13
    		 Fire on the west side and subalpine
    • Agee p. 205-225 (hemlock)
    • Baker chapter 8

    		Oct 15/16
    		 Field Trip
    4 Oct 18
    		 Landscape equilibrium concepts
    Natural vegetation in a changing environment
    • 533: Perry
    • 433/533: Lertzman and Fall. Three kinds of heterogeneity in fire regimes.
    • Sprugel

    		Oct 20
    		 The water balance, measuring drought, and fire danger.
    5 Oct 25
    		 Environmental effects of fire: soil, water, air, wildlife.
    • 433: Arno p. 89-101
    • 533: Agee p. 151-171
    • 433: Leopold: Grass, brush, timber and fire in southeast Arizona.

    		Oct 27
    		 Fire as the global herbivore: the occurrence of fire at very large scales of space and time.
    • Bond: Journal of Vegetation Science 1995
    • and Bowman 1995 (for an  introduction to Bond)
    • 533: Marlon
    6 Nov 1
    		 Exam 1

    		Nov 3
    		 Fire and biodiversity.
    "Patch mosaic burning" in northern Australia.
    Fire in northeast Queensland, Australia
    		 Research paper topic submitted
    • Bowman p.385-394, and general conclusions, p.404.
    7 Nov 8
    		 Sagebrush in the Great Basin, prairie in the midwest.
    • Baker Chapter 9

    		Nov 10
    		 Fire simulation model computer lab
    8 Nov 15
    		 Logging, El Nino and fire in the wet tropics.
    • Hartshorn and Bynum

    		Nov 17
    		 Management strategies, the I-Zone (wildland-urban interface), and public perceptions
    9 Nov 22
    		 Forest insects: defoliators, bark beetles, and other herbivores Fire simulation due
    • Cooke, B.. et al. Insect defoliators as periodic disturbance in Northern Ecosystems.

    		Nov 24
    		 No Class
    10 Nov 29
    		 Beavers
    Wind disturbance
    • Quine and Gardiner. Understanding how the interaction of wind and trees results in windthrow, stem breakage, and canopy gap formation.
    • Naiman et al. Alteration of North American streams by beaver.

    		Dec 2
    		 Current ideas in emulating natural disturbance regimes.

    Exam 2 - 24-hour take-home exam
    		 No reading




    11 Dec 7
    		Research paper due

    Additional classic ecology papers on natural disturbance
    Connell and Slatyer 1977
    White 1979
    Sousa 1984
    Pickett and White 1985
    Turner 1989

    Selected papers on fire history and climate change
    Lertzman et al. 2002
    Swetnam and Betancourt 1998
    Swetnam 1993
    Gavin et al. 2007
    Heyerdahl 2008a, 2008b

    Fire resources online:

    Basics on fire and educational materials
    60 Minutes: Megafires (including 12 minute video: October 2007)
    NOVA-Fire Wars
    The wildland fire communicator's guide from the National Interagency Fire Center
    Firewise.org

    Current and recent fires
    Inciweb (United States)
    firedetect.noaa.gov (remotely sensed fires and analyzed smoke)
    National Interagency Fire Center
    Current large incidents (National)
    Northwest Interagency Coordination Center
            Northwest Large Fire Map
    Eugene Interagency Communication Center (including Willamette National Forest)
    Canadian Wildland Fire Information System
    NASA Earth Observatory Natural Hazards
    NASA Earth Observatory global maps

    Fire weather, behavior and effects
    Fire Effects Guide (PDF) from the National Wildlife Coordinating Group
    Pacific Northwest Fire Weather Forecast
    Canadian Wildland Fire Information System
    Wildland Fire Assessment System
    Fire Effects Information System
    Australia fire ecology

    Mapping
    Fire-climate relationships; analyses by Patrick Bartlein and Steven Hostetler
    Condition classes described
    LANDFIRE: Mapped (modelled) forest attributes
            View data on the National Map

    Science and Policy
    The National Fire Plan (see links on right side of page)
    Joint Fire Science Program (US Government Research)
    FUSEE: Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics, and Ecology
    Western Fire Ecology Center

    Nice photos of fire and fire fighting
    Current images on the Weather Underground
    Forestryimages.org


    Department of Geography, University of Oregon
    Modified Oct 4th, 2011