Impacts of drought on forest growth and regeneration following fire in southwestern Yukon, Canada
The valleys of southwestern Yukon have a continental climate with average annual precipitation of <300 mm. In 1958, fires burned large areas of mature mixedwood forests dominated by white spruce (Picea glauca (Moench) Voss) in the valleys near Whitehorse. Since then, the burned areas have shown p...
Published in: | Canadian Journal of Forest Research |
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Language: | English |
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Canadian Science Publishing
2005
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/x05-120 http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/x05-120 |
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crcansciencepubl:10.1139/x05-120 2024-09-15T18:40:44+00:00 Impacts of drought on forest growth and regeneration following fire in southwestern Yukon, Canada Hogg, EH (Ted) Wein, Ross W 2005 http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/x05-120 http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/x05-120 en eng Canadian Science Publishing http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/page/about/CorporateTextAndDataMining Canadian Journal of Forest Research volume 35, issue 9, page 2141-2150 ISSN 0045-5067 1208-6037 journal-article 2005 crcansciencepubl https://doi.org/10.1139/x05-120 2024-07-11T04:12:00Z The valleys of southwestern Yukon have a continental climate with average annual precipitation of <300 mm. In 1958, fires burned large areas of mature mixedwood forests dominated by white spruce (Picea glauca (Moench) Voss) in the valleys near Whitehorse. Since then, the burned areas have shown poor regeneration of spruce, but have been colonized by scattered clones of trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) interspersed by grassland. The objective of the study was to examine the influence of climatic variation on forest growth and regeneration in the 1958 burn and the adjacent unburned forests. Tree-ring analysis was conducted on 50 aspen and 54 white spruce in 12 mature stands where these species were codominant, and on 147 regenerating aspen in the 1958 Takhini burn. The mature stands were uneven-aged and the patterns of growth variation for the aspen and spruce between 1944 and 2000 were similar. Growth of both species was most strongly related to variation in precipitation. The regenerating aspen had a wide age-class distribution (19592000) and their growth was also positively related to precipitation. The results indicate that these forests have been slow to regenerate after fire, and are vulnerable if the climate becomes drier under future global change. Article in Journal/Newspaper Whitehorse Yukon Canadian Science Publishing Canadian Journal of Forest Research 35 9 2141 2150 |
institution |
Open Polar |
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Canadian Science Publishing |
op_collection_id |
crcansciencepubl |
language |
English |
description |
The valleys of southwestern Yukon have a continental climate with average annual precipitation of <300 mm. In 1958, fires burned large areas of mature mixedwood forests dominated by white spruce (Picea glauca (Moench) Voss) in the valleys near Whitehorse. Since then, the burned areas have shown poor regeneration of spruce, but have been colonized by scattered clones of trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) interspersed by grassland. The objective of the study was to examine the influence of climatic variation on forest growth and regeneration in the 1958 burn and the adjacent unburned forests. Tree-ring analysis was conducted on 50 aspen and 54 white spruce in 12 mature stands where these species were codominant, and on 147 regenerating aspen in the 1958 Takhini burn. The mature stands were uneven-aged and the patterns of growth variation for the aspen and spruce between 1944 and 2000 were similar. Growth of both species was most strongly related to variation in precipitation. The regenerating aspen had a wide age-class distribution (19592000) and their growth was also positively related to precipitation. The results indicate that these forests have been slow to regenerate after fire, and are vulnerable if the climate becomes drier under future global change. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Hogg, EH (Ted) Wein, Ross W |
spellingShingle |
Hogg, EH (Ted) Wein, Ross W Impacts of drought on forest growth and regeneration following fire in southwestern Yukon, Canada |
author_facet |
Hogg, EH (Ted) Wein, Ross W |
author_sort |
Hogg, EH (Ted) |
title |
Impacts of drought on forest growth and regeneration following fire in southwestern Yukon, Canada |
title_short |
Impacts of drought on forest growth and regeneration following fire in southwestern Yukon, Canada |
title_full |
Impacts of drought on forest growth and regeneration following fire in southwestern Yukon, Canada |
title_fullStr |
Impacts of drought on forest growth and regeneration following fire in southwestern Yukon, Canada |
title_full_unstemmed |
Impacts of drought on forest growth and regeneration following fire in southwestern Yukon, Canada |
title_sort |
impacts of drought on forest growth and regeneration following fire in southwestern yukon, canada |
publisher |
Canadian Science Publishing |
publishDate |
2005 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/x05-120 http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/x05-120 |
genre |
Whitehorse Yukon |
genre_facet |
Whitehorse Yukon |
op_source |
Canadian Journal of Forest Research volume 35, issue 9, page 2141-2150 ISSN 0045-5067 1208-6037 |
op_rights |
http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/page/about/CorporateTextAndDataMining |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1139/x05-120 |
container_title |
Canadian Journal of Forest Research |
container_volume |
35 |
container_issue |
9 |
container_start_page |
2141 |
op_container_end_page |
2150 |
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1810485131012472832 |