Pacific Southwest

Title: Influence of Fire on Oak Seedlings and Saplings in Southern Oak Woodland on the Santa Rosa Plateau Preserve, Riverside County, California

Author: Lathrop, Earl W.; Osborne, Chris D.

Date: 1991

Source: In: Standiford, Richard B., tech. coord. 1991. Proceedings of the symposium on oak woodlands and hardwood rangeland management; October 31 - November 2, 1990; Davis, California. Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW-GTR-126. Berkeley, CA: Pacific Southwest Research Station, Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture; p. 366-370

Station ID: GTR-PSW-126

Description: One wildfire and two prescription burns were monitored at 15 oak seedling/sapling regeneration sites and at four non-burned comparison sites to study the effect of fire on seedlings and saplings of Quercus engelmannii (Engelmann oak) and Q. agrifolia (coast live oak). The number of initial topkilled seedlings and saplings, initial survivors, postburn resprouts and total survivors at the end of the study were compared between fire study sites and the non-burned comparison sites. The initial top-kill rate was higher in the burn sites than in comparison sites. Although top-killed seedlings and saplings in burned sites resprouted at a higher rate than top-killed seedlings and saplings in unburned sites, the differences were not statistically significant. Total overall survival of test seedlings and saplings at the end of the study was slightly higher in burned sites than in non-burned sites. Resprouting after fires may compensate for the high initial top-kill rate of fire in oak woodlands and contribute to the early recovery and total survivorship of the young oak population following fires.

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Citation

Lathrop, Earl W.; Osborne, Chris D.  1991.  Influence of Fire on Oak Seedlings and Saplings in Southern Oak Woodland on the Santa Rosa Plateau Preserve, Riverside County, California.   In: Standiford, Richard B., tech. coord. 1991. Proceedings of the symposium on oak woodlands and hardwood rangeland management; October 31 - November 2, 1990; Davis, California. Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW-GTR-126. Berkeley, CA: Pacific Southwest Research Station, Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture; p. 366-370.