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You are here >1Up Info > Wildlife, Animals, and Plants > Plant Species > Shrub > SPECIES: Artemisia tridentata spp. vaseyana | Mountain Big Sagebrush
 

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FIRE ECOLOGY

SPECIES: Artemisia tridentata spp. vaseyana | Mountain Big Sagebrush

FIRE ECOLOGY OR ADAPTATIONS:


Fire regime | Mountain Big Sagebrush : Presettlement fire return intervals in mountain big sagebrush communities varied from 15 to 25 years [22,155,157]. For example, mountain big sagebrush sites in southwestern Idaho show evidence of about 3 to 5 fires per century prior to 1910 [23]. Very frequent fire suppresses mountain big sagebrush establishment, while long fire return intervals promote tree invasion into mountain big sagebrush communities. Arno and Gruell [3] considered average fire intervals of about 20 years sufficient to control mountain big sagebrush invasion in southwestern Montana grasslands.

Fire exclusion has led to invasion of mountain big sagebrush communities by western juniper [22,156,157]. Mountain big sagebrush can be a nurse plant for western juniper. On a southeastern Oregon site, less than 20% of western juniper seedlings established in the open; the rest were under  mountain big sagebrush or low sagebrush plants [156]. Sparse under presettlement fire frequencies of 15 to 25 years, western juniper has formed dense stands on former mountain big sagebrush communities in the Great Basin [22,156,157]. Miller and others [157] found that on southeastern Oregon and northeastern California sites, mountain big sagebrush cover declined to 80% of maximum potential as western juniper cover increased to 50% of maximum canopy cover. Herbaceous cover and species diversity declined, and bare ground cover increased, with increasing  western juniper dominance. Burkhardt and Tisdale [23] concluded that fire frequencies of 30 to 40 years would control western juniper expansion onto mountain big sagebrush communities.

Fire regimes for communities in which mountain big sagebrush occurs are summarized below. For further information about fire regimes and fire ecology of communities where mountain big sagebrush is found, see the 'Fire Ecology and Adaptations' section of the FEIS species summary for the plant community or ecosystem dominants.

Community or Ecosystem Dominant Species Fire Return Interval Range in Years
sagebrush steppe Artemisia tridentata/Pseudoroegneria spicata 20-70 [16]
basin big sagebrush A. t. var. tridentata 12-43 [109]
mountain big sagebrush A. t. var. vaseyana 15-40 [3,23,156]
Wyoming big sagebrush A. t. var. wyomingensis 10-70 (40)** [128,149]
California montane chaparral Ceanothus and/or Arctostaphylos spp. 50-100 [16]
curlleaf mountain-mahogany* Cercocarpus ledifolius 13-1000 [4,110]
mountain-mahogany-Gambel oak scrub C. l.-Quercus gambelii < 35 to < 100 
western juniper Juniperus occidentalis 20-70
Rocky Mountain juniper J. scopulorum < 35
Engelmann spruce-subalpine fir Picea engelmannii-Abies lasiocarpa 35 to > 200 
pinyon-juniper Pinus-Juniperus spp. < 35
whitebark pine* P. albicaulis 50-200 [16]
Rocky Mountain lodgepole pine* P. contorta var. latifolia 25-300+ [2,107]
Colorado pinyon P. edulis 10-49 
Jeffrey pine P. jeffreyi 5-30 
Pacific ponderosa pine* P. ponderosa var. ponderosa 1-47
Rocky Mountain ponderosa pine* P. p. var. scopulorum 2-10 
Arizona pine P. p. var. arizonica 2-10 [16]
quaking aspen (west of the Great Plains) Populus tremuloides 7-120 [16,48,79]
mountain grasslands Pseudoroegneria spicata 3-40 (10)** [2]
Rocky Mountain Douglas-fir* Pseudotsuga menziesii var. glauca 25-100 
oak-juniper woodland (Southwest) Quercus-Juniperus spp. < 35 to < 200 [16]
*fire return interval varies widely; trends in variation are noted in the species summary
**(mean)

Fire adaptations | Mountain Big Sagebrush : Mountain big sagebrush is readily killed by fire and requires at least 15 years to recover after fire [18]. Postfire establishment is from seed. Data from 1 study suggest that germination is stimulated by fire. Champlin [27] reported that mountain big sagebrush seedling emergence under greenhouse conditions was greater in field-burned (in situ) soil samples than in unburned soil samples. By contrast, seedling emergence of Wyoming big sagebrush was reduced in burned soils. Possible explanatory mechanisms might be related to those explored by Blank and Young [12]. They observed that smoke and compounds present in aqueous extracts of heated soils from beneath a sagebrush canopy increased the emergence of common associated plant species, though big sagebrush seeds were not among those tested.

There is other evidence that mountain big sagebrush seed germination and survival in the field may be quite low following fire. Please refer to the section titled Discussion and Qualification of Plant Response in the Fire Effects section of this report.

POSTFIRE REGENERATION STRATEGY [117]:


Ground residual colonizer (on-site, initial community)
Initial off-site colonizer (off-site, initial community)


Related categories for SPECIES: Artemisia tridentata spp. vaseyana | Mountain Big Sagebrush

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Information Courtesy: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory. Fire Effects Information System

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