Investigator’s Annual Reports (IAR’s) for Crater Lake National Park
The role of western dwarf mistletoe in fire susceptibility and behavior in mature ponderosa pine stands
Report Number: 28174
Permit Number: CRLA-2002-SCI-0008
Current Status: Checked in
Date Received: Mar 30, 2004
Reporting Year: 2002
Principal Investigator: Ms Sharon Stanton, Department of Geography, Portland State University, Portland, OR
Park-assigned Study Id. # CRLA-02028
Permit Expiration Date: Sep 30, 2005
Permit Start Date: Jul 18, 2002
Study Starting Date: Jul 01, 2002
Study Ending Date: Sep 30, 2005
Study Status: Continuing
Activity Type: Research
Subject/Discipline: Fire (Behavior, Ecology, Effects)
Objectives: This research investigates the influence of mistletoe on fuel loadings, fire behavior and fuel consumption during prescribed burns. Patterns of post-fire mortality as well as mistletoe spread and intensification will be monitored for several years following prescribed burning.
Findings and Status: Fourteen plots were established in areas dominated by large ponderosa pine. Plots were chosen to represent a range of mistletoe infection levels. Data were collected on tree size, age, degree of mistletoe infection or other diseases, and biomass of fuel accumulations. Understory diversity was surveyed, including counts of seedlings.
Analyses of fuel accumulations indicate that plots infected with mistletoe do not have higher fuel loadings than healthy plots. Areas with a high density of white fir have the highest levels of fuel accumulation. Biomass of leaf litter is the only type of fuel that shows a positive correlation with mistletoe infection.
For this study, were one or more specimens collected and removed from the park but not destroyed during analyses? Yes
Funding provided this reporting year by NPS: 0
Funding provided this reporting year by other sources: 1000
Full name of college or university: n/a
Annual funding provided by NPS to university or college this reporting year: 0
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