Fire-induced erosion and millennial-scale climate change in northern ponderosa pine forests
Abstract
Western US ponderosa pine forests have recently suffered extensive stand-replacing fires followed by hillslope erosion and sedimentation. These fires are usually attributed to increased stand density as a result of fire suppression, grazing and other land use, and are often considered uncharacteristic or unprecedented. Tree-ring records from the past 500 years indicate that before Euro-American settlement, frequent, low-severity fires maintained open stands. However, the pre-settlement period between about ad 1500 and ad 1900 was also generally colder than present, raising the possibility that rapid twentieth-century warming promoted recent catastrophic fires. Here we date fire-related sediment deposits in alluvial fans in central Idaho to reconstruct Holocene fire history in xeric ponderosa pine forests and examine links to climate. We find that colder periods experienced frequent low-severity fires, probably fuelled by increased understory growth. Warmer periods experienced severe droughts, stand-replacing fires and large debris-flow events that comprise a large component of long-term erosion and coincide with similar events in sub-alpine forests of Yellowstone National Park. Our results suggest that given the powerful influence of climate, restoration of processes typical of pre-settlement times may be difficult in a warmer future that promotes severe fires.
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Paleoecological records and landscape-scale data show that fire frequency has continually responded to climate change, with periods of intense drought featuring more fires and higher severity fires.
“Paleoecological records and landscape-scale data have shown that fire frequency has continually responded to climate change, with periods of intense drought featuring more fires and higher severity fires.20,21”
From Wildfire and the Future of Water Supply (2014) · cites this paper as [21]
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“In addition to the need for increased spatial coverage, key time periods in the past, such as the Medieval Climate Anomaly (950–1250 CE), may provide important analogues to modern and predicted scenarios of changing fire activity (Kelly et al., 2013; Pierce, Meyer, & Jull, 2004).”
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- Authors
- Pierce, J. L., Meyer, G. A., & Timothy Jull, A. J.
- Affiliations
- University of New Mexico (US)
- Corresponding author
- Pierce, Jennifer L.
- Venue
- Nature
- Published
- 2004-11
- Volume
- 432
- Issue
- 7013
- Pages
- 87-90
- ISSN
- 0028-0836 (ISSN-L)
- 1476-4687
- OpenAlex
- W2026259333
- Cited by
- 292
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 13 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 15 · 2019: 14 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 12 · 2016: 16 · 2015: 15 · 2014: 16 · 2013: 16 · 2012: 18
- FWCI
- 14.70
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Nature (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Digital Commons - USU (Utah State University) (submittedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Academia Sinica
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Fire effects on ecosystems
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Atmospheric Science › Tree-ring climate responses
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics
- Keywords
- ponderosa pine forests, fire history, Holocene, millennial-scale climate change, stand-replacing fire, hillslope erosion, sedimentation, alluvial fans, fire suppression, drought, debris flows, tree-ring records, forest restoration, Yellowstone National Park, central Idaho
- MeSH terms
- Calibration, Charcoal, Climate, Fires, Probability, Temperature, Time Factors, Trees, Northwestern United States, Southwestern United States, Ecosystem, Biomass, Geologic Sediments, Pinus, History, 16th Century, History, 17th Century, History, 18th Century, History, 19th Century, History, 20th Century
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