RAPID Collaborative Research: Fire severity and ecosystem impacts immediately following an extreme fire event in northern Minnesota

大的自然干扰对短期和长期生态系统功能和动态都有重要影响。最重要的属性之一是严重性，这是干扰强度和生态系统要素（如植被和土壤）相对敏感性的综合函数。2011年8月在明尼苏达州的边界沃茨独木舟区荒野的Pagami溪火灾提供了一个历史性的机会，了解火灾影响的空间异质性及其对未来生态系统恢复的后果在美国东部的火灾依赖的生态系统。这场大火在一个生态多样的地区表现出广泛的行为，记录了前所未有的火灾前森林条件。季节性的时间需要一个快速的现场反应，使火灾的强度，严重程度和最初的土壤影响，可以准确地测量之前，冬季的到来。将对主要森林类型的样地进行样带取样，以获得关于已燃烧和未燃烧样地中活的和死的植被数量和分布以及土壤化学属性的数据，这些数据还将与火灾前获得的数据进行比较。卫星图像将用于确定树木和灌木燃烧的严重程度和植被损失的特点。这些信息将用于将地块水平数据扩展到整个烧毁区域，并使科学家能够检查森林结构和火灾干扰之间的反馈，并更好地预测未来的生态系统恢复。研究美国东部森林重大火灾事件的行为和生态影响的机会明显少于西部。这项研究将提供一个基础的方案，这将增加公共安全，促进重新引入火依赖东部森林，并提供指导森林和荒野管理在面对重大的自然干扰。

Large natural disturbances have important implications for both short and long term ecosystem function and dynamics. Among the most important attributes is severity, a combined function of disturbance intensity and the relative susceptibility of ecosystem elements, such as vegetation and soils. The Pagami Creek Fire of August 2011 in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness of Minnesota presents an historical opportunity for understanding spatial heterogeneity in fire effects and its consequences for future ecosystem recovery within a fire dependent ecosystem in the eastern United States. This large fire exhibited a wide range of behaviors across an ecologically diverse area for which unprecedented levels of pre-fire forest conditions were documented. The seasonal timing requires a rapid field response so that fire intensity, severity, and initial soil impacts can be accurately measured prior to the onset of winter. Transects of plots will be sampled across major forest types for data on live and dead vegetation amounts and distribution and chemical attributes of the soils in burned and unburned plots that will also be compared to data obtained before the fire. Satellite imagery will be used to characterize tree and shrub burn severity and vegetation loss. This information will be used to scale the plot level data to the entire burned area and will enable the scientists to examine the feedbacks among forest structure and fire disturbance and to better predict future ecosystem recovery. Opportunities for studying the behavior and ecological impacts of major fire events in forests of the eastern United States are dramatically less than in the west. This research will provide a foundation for programs that will increase public safety, facilitate reintroduction of fire into fire dependent eastern forests, and provide guidance for forest and wilderness management in the face of major natural disturbances.