FIRE EFFECTS
SPECIES: Ribes oxyacanthoides | Northern Gooseberry 



IMMEDIATE FIRE EFFECT ON PLANT : 
Fire that burns the organic soil probably kills Ribes oxyacanthoides.
Noste and Bushey [26] report that fire that removes the organic soil layer
will likely kill the shallow root systems of most Ribes spp.  The
ability of R. oxyacanthoides to sprout after top-kill by fire is not
described in the literature.

Ribes oxycanthoides seeds contained in the organic mantle are probably
killed by severe fire, but seeds buried in the mineral soil probably
survive.


DISCUSSION AND QUALIFICATION OF FIRE EFFECT : 
NO-ENTRY


PLANT RESPONSE TO FIRE : 
Northern and inland gooseberry have been observed on burned sites 3
months after low-severity spring fire [1,19].  Whether they were present
as seedlings or sprouts was not reported.  As with other Ribes spp., R.
oxyacanthoides may sprout from the root crown after low-severity fire,
and it probably colonizes burned sites via long-lived seed and/or seed
carried on-site by animals.

Northern gooseberry frequency and cover increased after spring fire in a
western snowberry shrub community in central Alberta.  Three months
after a May 1971 fire, northern gooseberry frequency was 6 percent and
cover was 1 percent.  Frequency and cover on unburned sites was 1
percent and less than 1 percent, respectively.  Similar results were
obtained after a May fire in 1970 [1]:

                                       May 1970 fire
                         unburned                       burned
                   1970    1971    1972          1970    1971    1972

frequency (%)       4       9       9             7       11      11    
cover (%)           +       +       +             +       1        +

+ = present but less than 1 percent

Inland gooseberry was present in the summer following spring prescribed
fire in the Blacktail Hills of central Montana [19].

Idaho gooseberry was present in postfire years 1 and 2 in a patchily
burned ravine area of the Pattee Canyon wildfire in western Montana
[17].

Severe fire creates canopy openings and suitable mineral seedbeds for
Ribes oxyacanthoides establishment.  On islands in Great Slave Lake in
the Northwest Territories, northern gooseberry was present on a site
burned severely 12 years previously but not on adjacent unburned spruce
(Picea spp.)  forest sites [18].


DISCUSSION AND QUALIFICATION OF PLANT RESPONSE : 
NO-ENTRY


FIRE MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS : 
Fire suppression in quaking aspen parklands in central Alberta resulted
in increased brush cover.  Prescribed fire was considered for removal of
brush dominated by western snowberry and including northern gooseberry
[1].  At the time of the May prescribed fires, standing woody fuel
averaged 11,017 kg/ha and fuel moisture was 20 percent.  During the
fires, soil surface temperatures ranged from 242 to 1,198 degrees
Fahrenheit (117-648 deg C) with an average of 748 degrees Fahrenheit
(398 deg C) [2].  Northern gooseberry cover returned to prefire levels 3
months after prescribed fire [1].

In the Blacktail Hills of central Montana, the crude protein content of
inland gooseberry foliage collected in late summer and in early spring
was 3.4 to 9.8 percent higher on burned sites than unburned sites [19] .

Related categories for Species: Ribes oxyacanthoides | Northern Gooseberry