FIRE DISTURBANCE PATTERNS AND FOREST AGE STRUCTURE |
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Authors: | CHAO LI HUGH J. BARCLAY |
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Affiliation: | 1. Northern Forestry Centre Canadian Forest Service 5320 - 122 Street Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6H 3S5 E-mail: cli@nrcan.gc.ca;2. Pacific Forestry Centre Canadian Forest Service 506 Burnside Road Victoria, British Columbia, Canada V8Z 1M5 E-mail: hbarclay@nrcan.gc.ca |
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Abstract: | ABSTRACT. This paper investigates how the stability of forest age-distribution is related to the fire regimes. We start with the derivation of theoreticalnegative exponentialforest age-distribution, and use three models to explore the condition with which a stable age-distribution could be expected. The results suggested that a stable age-distribution could always be achieved as long as the forest age-specific mortality is constant over time, and the shape of a stable age-distribution is mainly determined by the forest age-specific mortality. However, the stability of forest age-distribution will be reduced when a small variation in the age-specific mortality is introduced. The simulation results of the possible patterns of the age-distribution under various fire regimes indicated that a variety of age-distribution curves could appear, including negative exponential and one or multiple peaks in the curves. The results suggested that a stable forest age-distribution might never be achieved if the forest landscape is subjected to large and irregular fire disturbances. |
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Keywords: | Forest age-distribution landscape stability Leslie transition matrix landscape fire model SEM-LAND model scenario model |
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