Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Fire Regimes And Resultant Forest Structure In Native Año Nuevo Monterey Pine (Pinus Radiata) Forest, California, Scott L. Stephens, Douglas D. Piirto, Domenico F. Caramagno

Natural Resources Management and Environmental Sciences

Native Monterey pine (Pinus radiata) forests occur in five populations on the west coast of North America. High severity fire has been reported to be the main disturbance agent that initiates seedling establishment for this species. To investigate the impacts of fire in this ecosystem, age structure and fire history data were collected from the native Ano Nuevo Monterey pine forest near Santa Cruz California. Stump cross-sections were removed from 10 randomly placed openings, and each was dated to determine tree age and fire history. Average mean fire return intervals were 11.2-20.1 y. Fifty-one percent of the Monterey …