Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center
77. Forman, R. T., and R. E. Boernes. 1981. Fire frequency and the pine barrens
of New Jersey. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 108:34-50.
Although the number of annual wildfires has remained at about 1,100 since 1940 when fire control became effective in the Barrens, the total area burned annually has decreased from 22,000 ha during 1906-1939 to 8,000 ha in the past 4 decades. The Pine Barrens are a mosaic of fire-caused patches at a fine-grained scale of small (average 6 ha) young patches within a coarse-grain scale of large (several tens of ha) variable size patches more than 4 decades old. The drop in point fire frequency (65 years now versus 20 years earlier in the century) favors nonfire-adapted populations, hardwood swamp replacing Atlantic white-cedar swamp, and 1oss of the coarse-grained landscape mosaic. [From authors' abstract]
U.S. Department of the Interior |
U.S. Geological Survey
URL: http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/literatr/firewild/bib/077.htm
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