Landscape Ecology of Large, Infrequent Fires in Yellowstone Park

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This Issue focuses on a research article by Turner et al. (2003) that was published in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. The article discusses the ecological causes and effects of intense, infrequent fires such as the large fire that occurred during 1988 in Yellowstone National Park. Turner et al. synthesize 15 years of research on vegetation and ecological processes at Yellowstone and discuss how factors such as fire intensity, patch size, plant species, and the type of forest factor in to a complex pattern of causes and effects. In this Issue, students explore some of those factors using two figures from the original research article and five figures from Ecological Monographs.

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Primary or BEN resource type	Teaching strategies & guidelines
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Format	html
Ecological Core Concept	Landscapes and larger scales -- Spatial heterogeneity and connectivity Landscapes and larger scales Communities -- Disturbance, assembly, and succession Communities
Drought & Water-Ecosystem Services Collection	Off
Conservation Targets Under Global Change Collection	Off
Big Data Collection	Off
Editor's Choice	No
Audience	Undergraduate upper division 15-16 Undergraduate lower division 13-14
Pedagogical Use Description	Frontiers Issues are designed to help faculty use a Frontiers article in the classroom. The Turner et al (Frontiers, 2003) paper can be used to discuss many ecological topics, including: fire ecology, disturbance, landscape ecology, patches, adaptations of trees to fire, and succession. Students will also be interested in the more applied aspects and some will likely recall seeing this or similar fires in the news. For example, the Bush Administration used this and other large fires to promote the “healthy forests” initiative. Also, as discussed in the Scientific Teaching section of the Issue, the Turner et al. paper is a good opportunity to discuss misconceptions that students may have about the effects that fires and fire management have on forests.
Keywords	Frontiers; Monographs; fire; intensity; patch; succession; Yellowstone National Park; landscape; disturbance; TIEE; pedagogy; student active
Key taxa	lodgepole pine; Pinus contorta; graminoid; forb
Life science discipline (subject)	Ecology
Primary Author Controlled Name	Charlene D'Avanzo
Primary Author Affiliation	Hampshire College, School of Natural Sciences
Primary Author email	cdavanzo@hampshire.edu
Rights	Copyright 2005 by Charlene D'Avanzo and the Ecological Society of America.
Resource Editor	Unknown
Reviewer A	Unknown
Reviewer B	Unknown
Date Of Record Submission	2007-11-01

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Subject: Landscape Ecology of Large, Infrequent Fires in Yellowstone Park

Posted By: hbalbach

Date Posted: 2010-03-11 10:15:45

The story of the aftereffect of this massive fire is not as well known as it should be. Several valuable lessons here for more advanced students, especially. One important one is that by no means 100% of any large ares is actually fully involved...something we try hard to do when we do prescribed burns...possibly erroneously?