FIRE EFFECTS
SPECIES: Calamagrostis canadensis | Bluejoint Reedgrass 



IMMEDIATE FIRE EFFECT ON PLANT : 
Fire will kill aboveground vegetation of bluejoint reedgrass [35,37].
Severe fires will also kill belowground rhizomes [35,37].


DISCUSSION AND QUALIFICATION OF FIRE EFFECT : 
Under droughty conditions dead shoots of bluejoint reedgrass exhibit low
moisture content [20,37].  In small experimental fires in Inuvik,
Northwest Territories, dead litter sustained combustion, but the fire
merely burned around the live material [37].


PLANT RESPONSE TO FIRE : 
Following low-severity fires, bluejoint reedgrass will typically sprout
from on-site surviving rhizomes.  Buried or wind-dispersed seeds may be
the primary source of plant establishment on severly burned sites
[28,37].


DISCUSSION AND QUALIFICATION OF PLANT RESPONSE : 
Light surface burning tends to increase the abundance of bluejoint
reedgrass [9,35,40].  Following a low-severity burn in a trembling aspen
(Populus tremuloides) woodland in southern Ontario, this species'
frequency was twice as high on burned areas.  The abundance of bluejoint
reedgrass 4 months after the fires in 1973 was four times greater than
in the control areas and two times greater than in areas burned in 1972
[35].


FIRE MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS : 
When grazing pressure is light, litter accumulates rapidly [37].
Low-intensity fires can be used to remove this litter and improve forage
quality [22].  Because of wet conditions in the spring and summer,
successful burning of these communities is limited to the drier fall
period [4].

Related categories for Species: Calamagrostis canadensis | Bluejoint Reedgrass