METHODS OF EVALUATING FOREST FIRE HISTORY

Forest fire history can be reconstructed over past centuries across a wide variety of forest types. Fire scars on living tress, and age classes of forest stands, are the two sources of information for these reconstructions. Point and area frequencies are used to reconstruct fire history. Point frequencies are useful in forest types that burn with frequent, low intensity fire so that many fire-scarred residual trees exist. A true point is a single tree, but more often point estimates are made by combining fire scar records from several adjacent trees. Area frequences are applied where fires are infrequent but of moderate to high intensity, so that stand ages are used across wide areas to estimate fire return interals. Proper selection and application of fire history methods are essential to deriving useful ecological implications from fire history studies.This review evaluates the common methods of determining fire history :what the techniques are, where they are best applied, and how to interpret them in an ecological context. Emphasis is placed on fire freqency and predictability, but choosing a proper technique may also be a function of fire intensity.

THE ROLE OF FIRE IN FOREST DYNAMICS IN DAXINGANLING REGION

Recent fire statistics and preliminary fire history data suggest that fire has been historically responsible for maintaining the vegetative communities up to present in Daxinganling region. Forest types, and even tree species, arc dependent on the degree of fire intensity, fire size, depth of burn and fire frequency. Selected samples of larch, pine, birch and spruce forest were studied in terms of species composition as determined by fire frequency which mainly depends on topography and site conditions. Intervals between fires range between 6 and 170 years.

Holocene vegetation change in relation to fire and volcanic events in Jilin, Northeastern China

Volatiles erupted from large-scale explosive volcanic activities have a significant impact on climate and environmental changes.As an important ecological factor,the occurrence of fire is affected by vegetation cover,and fire can feed back into both vegetation and climatic change.The causes of fire events are diverse;and can include volcanic eruptions.The amount of charcoal in sediment sequences is related to the frequency and intensity of fire,and hence under good preservation conditions fire history can be reconstructed from fossil charcoal abundance.Until now,little research on the role of fire has been carried out in northeastern China.In this study,through research on charcoal and tephra shards from Gushantun and Hanlongwan,Holocene vegetation change in relation to fire and volcanic events in Jilin,Northeastern China,was investigated.Where tephra shards are present in Gushantun it is associated with low level of both conifers and broadleaved trees,and is also associated with a pronounced charcoal peak.This suggests forest cover was greatly reduced from a fire caused by an eruption of the Tianchi volcano.We also detected one tephra layer in Hanlongwan,which also has the almost same depth with low level forest pollen values and one charcoal peak.This was caused probably by an eruption of the Jinlongdingzi volcano.

Vegetation and Environment History for the Past 14 000 yr BP from Dingnan, Jiangxi Province, South China

A Late Pleistocene-Holocene pollen, phosphorus, and charcoal record was reconstructed from a peatland in southern Jiangxi Province in southern China. The area today has a mountainous and rolling landscape with villages, small towns, and agriculture dominated by rice paddies, vegetable, and fruit gardens, as well as areas of secondary forest and pine re-afforestation. The record opens before 14 300 yr BP, with Alnus woodland dominating the wetland areas and with an open Quercus woodland on the surrounding slopes. The forest area becomes more complex from approximately 12 800 yr BP and further from 9 000 yr BP. At approximately 6 000 yr BP, there is evidence of clearing and, by 4 500-4 000 yr BP, a complete collapse in the wetland Alnus and terrestrial forest as the low-lying areas are converted to rice production. For much of the record, the occurrence of fire around the site was low, although there is evidence of regional fires. Fire was used as a tool in clearing and then used in the annual cycles of stubble burning after rice harvest. Nutrient levels, as reflected by total phosphorus in the sediment, seem to be closely related to forest changes and high values in the surface layers probably result from land-management techniques associated with agriculture. Therefore, human impact greatly altered forest cover, fire frequency, and nutrient dynamics; this has been evident for approximately 6 000 yr BP and then intensities towards the present day.