FIRE ECOLOGY
SPECIES: Sequoiadendron giganteum | Giant Sequoia 



FIRE ECOLOGY OR ADAPTATIONS : 
Fire is the most serious damaging agent to young giant sequoia.
Seedlings and saplings are highly susceptible to mortality or serious
injury by fire.  Giant sequoia exhibits the following adaptations to
fire:  rapid growth, fire resistant bark, elevated canopies and
self-pruned lower branches, latent buds, and serotinous cones [10,12].
Mature giant sequoia are more resistant to fire damage and few are
killed by fire alone [28].

Giant sequoia groves represent a fire climax community whose stability
is maintained by frequent fires.  In the absence of regular ground
fires, litter accumulates on the forest floor and limits germination and
establishment of seedlings [24].  Giant sequoia in Whitaker's Forest,
California, produced 9,089 pounds per acre (10,181 kg per ha) of ground
litter [3].  If these conditions are maintained in the future, the
groves will become a long-standing seral community trending toward a
mature white fir forest without giant sequoia [24].


POSTFIRE REGENERATION STRATEGY : 
   crown-stored residual colonizer; long-viability seed in on-site cones
   off-site colonizer; seed carried by wind; postfire years 1 and 2
   off-site colonizer; seed carried by animals or water; postfire yr 1&2

Related categories for Species: Sequoiadendron giganteum | Giant Sequoia