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Fuel Profiles and Biomass Carbon Following Bark Beetle Outbreaks: Insights for Disturbance Interactions from a Historical Silvicultural Experiment

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Abstract

Anticipating consequences of disturbance interactions on ecosystem structure and function is a critical management priority as disturbance activity increases with warming climate. Across the Northern Hemisphere, extensive tree mortality from recent bark beetle outbreaks raises concerns about potential fire behavior and post-fire forest function. Silvicultural treatments (that is, partial or complete cutting of forest stands) may reduce outbreak severity and subsequent fuel loads, but longevity of pre-outbreak treatment effects on outbreak severity and post-outbreak fuel profiles remains underexplored. Further, treatments may present tradeoffs for other management objectives focused on ecosystem services (for example, carbon storage). We measured structure in old-growth subalpine forests following a recent (early 2000s) severe mountain pine beetle (MPB; Dendroctonus ponderosae) outbreak to examine effects of historical (1940s) cutting intensity on gray stage (~10 years after peak of outbreak) post-outbreak (1) fuel profiles and (2) aboveground biomass carbon. Compared to control (uncut) stands, historically cut stands subjected to the same MPB outbreak had approximately half the post-outbreak surface fuel loads, about 2–3x greater live canopy fuel loads, and greater within-stand spatial heterogeneity of dead canopy cover and available canopy fuel load. Post-outbreak total aboveground biomass carbon was similar across all stands, though historically cut stands had about 2x greater carbon in live biomass compared to uncut stands. These findings suggest tradeoffs with altered post-outbreak potential fire behavior and carbon storage in cut stands. Additional implications of historical silvicultural treatments for wildlife habitat, firefighting operations, and long-term carbon trajectories highlight temporal legacies of management on directing forest response to interacting disturbances.

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Data availability

Data analyzed in this study are available on Zenodo: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7675524

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Acknowledgements

We thank the USDA Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station and K Elder, D McClain, and B Starr of the Fraser Experimental Forest for logistical support. We thank F Carroll, N Lau, A Link, A Liu, F Mac, S Riedel, and RT Sternberg for field assistance. We appreciate J Franklin, M Harmon, L Huckaby, D Kashian, W Moir, J Negrón, C Rhoades, and T Veblen for project insights. We thank E Alvarado, J Hille Ris Lambers, S Hart, and two anonymous reviewers for manuscript feedback. This work was supported by the (1) McIntire-Stennis Cooperative Forestry Research Program (grant no. NI17MSCFRXXXG003/project accession no. 1012773) from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture; (2) the National Science Foundation (Award 1853520); (3) Graduate Research Opportunity Enhancement Fellowship from University of Washington’s College of the Environment; (4) and Jesse L. Riffe Family Endowed Fellowship from University of Washington’s School of Environmental and Forest Sciences. B Harvey acknowledges support from the Jack Corkery and George Corkery Jr. Endowed Professorship in Forest Sciences. This manuscript was written and prepared with a US Government employee on official time, and therefore, it is in the public domain and not subject to copyright.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA

    Jenna E. Morris, Michele S. Buonanduci, Michelle C. Agne, Daniel C. Donato & Brian J. Harvey

  2. Quantitative Ecology and Resource Management, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA

    Michele S. Buonanduci & Brian J. Harvey

  3. USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA

    Mike A. Battaglia

  4. Washington State Department of Natural Resources, Olympia, Washington, USA

    Daniel C. Donato

  5. USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station, Olympia, Washington, USA

    Michelle C. Agne

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Correspondence to Jenna E. Morris.

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Author Contributions JEM and BJH conceived and designed the study, with input from all authors. JEM led the field data collection with assistance from MSB, MCA, and BJH. JEM led the analysis with overall guidance from BJH, guidance from DCD on fuel and carbon calculations, guidance from MAB on stand history and silvicultural prescriptions, and support from all authors. JEM and BJH wrote the manuscript, and all authors contributed critically to drafts and approved the final manuscript.

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Morris, J.E., Buonanduci, M.S., Agne, M.C. et al. Fuel Profiles and Biomass Carbon Following Bark Beetle Outbreaks: Insights for Disturbance Interactions from a Historical Silvicultural Experiment. Ecosystems 26, 1290–1308 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-023-00833-5

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