DF005
Fire history database of the western United States, 1994

CREATOR(S): Emily K. Heyerdahl, Frederick J. Swanson

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR(S): Frederick J. Swanson

ORIGINATOR(S): Emily K. Heyerdahl

OTHER RESEARCHER(S): James K. Agee, Frederick J. Swanson, Dawn Berry

DATA SET CONTACT PERSON: Donald L. Henshaw

ABSTRACTOR: Emily K. Heyerdahl

METADATA CREATION DATE:

29 Aug 1994

MOST RECENT METADATA REVIEW DATE:

10 Jul 2013

KEYWORDS:

Disturbance, Disturbance, Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER), disturbance, tree rings

PURPOSE:

To create a database of existing published and unpublished tree-ring reconstructions of fire regimes in forested areas, before circa 1900, west of 100 W longitude in the continental United States, exclusive of Alaska. The studies included in the database are restricted to tree-ring reconstructions of fire history and the information extracted includes citations to the data sources, site information, estimated fire regimes, and information on individual fire events (when readily available). Fire regimes vary greatly across short distances in the western United States, so that a reconstruction of fire history over a small area may not represent the history of a larger area. Therefore, we extracted information on the size of the study area and the amount of fire evidence (number of trees scarred and/or number of tree origin dates) used in computing the fire regimes to allow the user to gauge the applicability of each reconstruction to larger areas.

METHODS:

Experimental Design - DF005:

Description:

Studies in the data are restricted to tree-ring reconstructions of fire history and the information extracted includes citations to the data source, site information, estimated fire regimes, and information on individual fire events (when readily available).

Field Methods - DF005 :

Description:

Literature search.

SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION:

Paper citation: 'Heyerdahl, E.K., D. Berry, and J.K. Agee. 1995. Fire history database of the western United States. EPA/600/R-96/081. Washington, DC: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.' (Pub No: 2302)

SITE DESCRIPTION:

Forested areas.

TAXONOMIC SYSTEM:

None

GEOGRAPHIC EXTENT:

This fire history database is created from existing published and unpublished tree-ring reconstructions of fire regimes in forested areas, before circa 1900, west of 100°W in the continental United States, exclusive of Alaska, and includes data from 13 states.

ELEVATION_MINIMUM (meters):

15

ELEVATION_MAXIMUM (meters):

4312

MEASUREMENT FREQUENCY:

once only

PROGRESS DESCRIPTION:

Complete

UPDATE FREQUENCY DESCRIPTION:

notPlanned

CURRENTNESS REFERENCE:

Observed