Changes in Fire Regimes and the Successional Status of Table Mountain Pine in the Southern Appalachians Henri D. Grissino-Mayer Michael R. Armbrister Laboratory of Tree-Ring Science Department of Geography University of Tennessee Knoxville, Tennessee 37996

Table Mountain pine endemic to Appalachians Fire-dependent species: cone serotiny, site prep Considerable human alterations to native communities Primary among these is 20 th century fire exclusion = new fire regime Effects on this species are a major concern for management agencies Information needed on site-specific fire history Retrospective study provides needed reference conditions Problem Statement

Evaluate current age structure of select TMP stands Identify and characterize historical fire regimes in these stands Combine this information to assess its current successional status Objectives

Field Methods 1.Age structure analysis Cored minimum 75 trees at 5 sites, 2 cores per tree Aged seedlings and saplings via bud scars, branch nodes 2.Fire-scar analysis Located suitable fire-scarred logs and snags Collected small wedges from selected living trees All sections collected via hand saws

Laboratory Methods 1.Age structure analysis Mounted, sanded, dated all tree rings on all cores Developed histograms that depicted the age structure of all 5 stands 2.Fire-scar analysis Sanded, dated all tree rings on all sections Dated all embedded fire scars to year of formation * Developed graphs depicting fire occurrence over time

Stagnation!

Undated samples were very useful!

Mean Fire Interval8 yrs Median Fire Interval6 Weibull Modal Interval (MOI)5 Weibull Median Interval (MEI)7 Lower Exceedance Interval (LEI)3 Upper Exceedance Interval (UEI) 13 Maximum Hazard Interval (MHI) 81 Preliminary statistics on fire history in TMP stands of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Major Conclusions 1.Living TMP crossdate very well = great potential. 2.Older dead and downed more difficult. 3.Age structure shows peaks in and classes. 4.Little to no regeneration is occurring in these stands. 5.Fire history information can be obtained even on undated samples. 6.Fires occurred ca. every 6-7 years in pre-park era. 7.Maximum Hazard Interval indicates conditions in these park stands are strongly conducive to burning.

Acknowledgements Thank you JFSP! GSMNP, NPS, Mike Jenkins TVA, Charles Smart Committee members: Ken Orvis, Sally Horn Laboratory of Tree-Ring Science Department of Geography, University of Tennessee Field and lab help from: Daniel Lewis, David Mann, Jake Cseke, Beth Atchley, Damian Kolbay, Bill Dennis, Brian Reed