FIRE ECOLOGY
SPECIES : Bromus hordeaceus | Soft Chess 


FIRE ECOLOGY OR ADAPTATIONS : 
Fire autecology:  Summer and fall fires have no direct effect on soft
chess.  Soft chess has usually senesced and shattered seed when the fire
season starts.  The seed is not killed until fire temperatures rise
above approximately 200 degrees Fahrenheit (93 deg C).  Since grassland
fires are usually fast-burning and relatively "cool," soft chess seed is
usually not damaged by fire [71,80].  Fire can affect relative abundance
of soft chess in the postfire plant community, however [61,82].  Fire
removes mulch, which favors annual forbs over soft chess.  Some soft
chess germinates the fall after fire, but best germination occurs in
mid-succession, when mulch layer is moderate [7,9].

Fire regimes:  California native grassland - Data are lacking to
quantify intensity and frequency of fire in pristine California prairie.
It is generally accepted that lightning-caused fire was part of the
evolutionary history of California prairie.  The California Division of
Forestry reported an average of 312 lightning-ignitied fires per year in
its fire protection area, which is 43 percent woodland-annual grassland.
Frequency of lightning-caused fires was probably at least as great in
the presettlement era [45].

Native Americans may have used frequent fire to enhance production of
edible perennial bunchgrass seeds [13].  Fire enhances flowering and
seedling recruitment for some perennial bunchgrasses native to
California prairie including purple needlegrass [62] and bottlebrush
squirreltail [99].  Both species show mass flowering after fire and
require mineral soil for establishment [36,60].

Annual grassland - Since California annual grassland has existed for
less than two hundred years, it has no evolutionary history of fire.
Like the perennial grassland that preceded it, however, California
annual grassland is a fire-tolerant ecosystem [61].  Studies attempting
to promote native perennial bunchgrasses over exotic annuals by using
prescribed fire have had mixed results.  These results are summarized
in FIRE MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS.


POSTFIRE REGENERATION STRATEGY : 
   Ground residual colonizer (on-site, initial community)

Related categories for SPECIES : Bromus hordeaceus | Soft Chess