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

大型自然干扰对生态系统的短期和长期功能和动态都有重要影响。其中最重要的属性是严重程度，这是扰动强度和生态系统要素（如植被和土壤）相对易感性的组合函数。2011年8月发生在明尼苏达州边界水域独木舟地区荒野的Pagami Creek火灾为理解火灾影响的空间异质性及其对美国东部火灾依赖生态系统未来生态系统恢复的影响提供了一个历史机会。这场大火在生态多样化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。季节性时间需要快速的现场反应，以便在冬季来临之前准确测量火灾强度、严重程度和初始土壤影响。将对主要森林类型的样地取样，以获取活植被和死植被数量、燃烧样地和未燃烧样地土壤分布和化学属性的数据，并将这些数据与火灾前获得的数据进行比较。卫星图像将用于描述树木和灌木的燃烧严重程度和植被损失。这些信息将用于将样地水平数据扩展到整个烧毁区域，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。研究美国东部森林大火的行为和生态影响的机会比西部少得多。这项研究将为提高公共安全、促进在依赖火灾的东部森林中重新引入火灾、面对重大自然干扰时为森林和荒野管理提供指导等项目提供基础。

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.