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You are here >1Up Info > Wildlife, Animals, and Plants > Plant Species > Shrub > Species: Gaylussacia baccata | Black Huckleberry
 

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FIRE EFFECTS

SPECIES: Gaylussacia baccata | Black Huckleberry
IMMEDIATE FIRE EFFECT ON PLANT : Most fires kill aboveground portions of black huckleberry [31,32]. Buds on unburned, but heated aboveground stems are usually dead, indicating that black huckleberry buds are very sensitive to heat. Moderate-severity or severe fire that burns the humus layer may kill many of the rhizomes, killing the plant [32]. DISCUSSION AND QUALIFICATION OF FIRE EFFECT : NO-ENTRY PLANT RESPONSE TO FIRE : Surviving rhizomes sprout from dormant buds following fire [6,7]. Sprouting depends on the release of hormonally suppressed buds following the death of the dominant aboveground stem [32]. Sprouting of plants top-killed by fire does not differ in vigor from sprouting of clipped plants, indicating that heat is not a factor in stimulating sprouting [32]. A single low-severity fire usually encourages prolific black huckleberry growth [30]. Vigorous black huckleberry thickets with high stem densities arise after low-severity fire [33]. Annual growth of black huckleberry stems increased considerably in the first growing season after a low-severity March fire in the New Jersey pine barrens. The new sprouts formed a closed canopy by August of the same year, but growth rates diminished rapidly the second year [32]. Brayton and Woodwell [6] compared the response of black huckleberry to light and heavy fire damage from a crown fire which occurred in September. The degree of fire damage was measured using several factors including the amount of charcoal in the soil and the amount of litter remaining. At this Long Island, New York, site black huckleberry rhizomes were generally in the humus layer and the top 1 inch (2.5 cm) of the A1 soil horizon. Where heavy damage occurred (a large amount of charcoal, no litter, and no standing shrub stems), black huckleberry sprouts were restricted to rhizomes that were 0.6 to 1.4 inches (1.5-3.5 cm) beneath the soil surface. In areas with light damage, sprouts originated from rhizomes 0 to 0.8 inches (0-2 cm) beneath the soil surface. The postfire density of black huckleberry was 11 stems per square meter in the heavily damaged area and 72 stems per square meter in the lightly damaged area. The authors concluded that fire damaged the perennating buds on rhizomes in the heavily damaged areas [6]. In a south-central New York oak forest, black huckleberry neither increased nor decreased after a single spring fire when compared to adjacent unburned communities [49]. DISCUSSION AND QUALIFICATION OF PLANT RESPONSE : Effects of repeated burning on black huckleberry vary and may depend on plant community and availiability of light. Buell and Cantlon [7] investigated the effects of fire frequency on an upland oak forest in New Jersey with a well-developed shrub layer. Low-severity prescribed fires were conducted in the winter at 1-, 2-, 3-, 4-, 5-, 10-, and 15-year intervals. Black huckleberry showed long-term decline in percent cover at fire intervals of 5 years or less. Black huckleberry had 40 percent cover on unburned control plots and 3 percent cover on plots burned annually for 10 years. In a black oak savanna in Indiana, two plots were prescribed burned: one plot was burned four times in 8 years (3 spring fires and 1 fall fire) and the other plot was burned five times in 8 years (3 spring and 2 fall fires). Black huckleberry decreased from prefire levels with progressive fires [2]. In little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium) grasslands in Connecticut with up to 40 percent woody cover of clonal shrubs, black huckleberry increased in cover with annual spring fires that were conducted while plants were still dormant. Cover of an established black huckleberry thicket on one tract increased four times over prefire levels after 12 annual spring fires [35]. The ability of black huckleberry to increase its cover on this site despite the high fire frequency may be related to the high availability of light. Black huckleberry takes advantage of light with vigorous growth [31]. FIRE MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS : In New Jersey, biomass nutrient concentrations of a heath, shrub, and herb vegetative group which included black huckleberry did not differ depending on site fire history. Sites which had burned by wildfire (usually severe) did not differ significantly (P>0.05) from those that had undergone prescribed burning (low-severity) or from the control which had not burned for 53 years. In addition, nutrient levels in the humus were similar among sites despite differing fire histories [3]. Stergas and Adams [45] determined macronutrient concentrations, ash content, heat content, and ash-free heat content for black huckleberry foliage in four different-aged jack pine (Pinus banksiana) stands. Ash content ranged from 4.38 percent to 4.83 percent. Litter depth did not affect black huckleberry stem production or growth after fire or after clipping of stems to simulate fire [32].

Related categories for Species: Gaylussacia baccata | Black Huckleberry

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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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