In the summer of % of Yellowstone National Park was burned by Forest Fires

Objective

Why is this important

Methods Above Ground Biomass Using past field studies to find a correlation between above ground net primary production (ANPP) and NDVI (normalized difference vegetation index) is time zero, where above ground biomass is assumed to be near zero do to being burned away by fire. Each year we add on the estimated ANPP (estimated from the Landsat NDVI for that year) to the above ground biomass pool and subtract out 2% of the above ground biomass pool each year to account for losses in biomass due to mortality and litter loss. When the ANPP is equal to the output for that year then the forest is at steady state and full matured. Foliar Nitrogen Using past field studies to find a correlation between % foliar nitrogen and Landsat band 5 surface reflectance. Using changes in the surface reflectance of band 5 we will track how % foliar nitrogen changes over time. By looking at Landsat images before and after the 1988 fire we will see how long it takes for % foliar nitrogen to reach prefire levels. Ollinger et al Band 5

F OREST B IOMASS ANPP Mortality + Woody Litter Edited from Ollingers 2010 Biogeochemistry class Input Output Diagram of method for estimating above ground biomass At Steady State, M is Constant; Q = S Q M S

Yellowstone: 1988 Fire and Sites Burned in 1988 Unburned in 1988 Ground Sample Locations

P value = <0.0001*

Works Cited Krankina et al. (2005) Effects of climate, disturbance, and species on forest biomass across Russia. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 35: 2281 – 2293 Litton, Creighton M., Above- and Belowground Carbon Allocation in Post-fire Lodgepole Pine Forests: Effects of Tree Density and Stand Age, Ph.D., Department of Botany, December, Ollinger et al. (2008) Canopy nitrogen, carbon assimilation, and albedo in temperate and boreal forest: Functional relations and potential climate feedbacks. PNAS 105: Turner et al. (2004) Landscape Patterns of Sapling Density, Leaf Area, and Aboveground Net Primary Production in Postfire Lodgepole Pine Forest, Yellowstone National Park (USA). Ecosystems 7: 751 – 775 Turner et al. (2009) Variation in foliar nitrogen and aboveground net primary production in young post fire lodgepole pine. Can. J. Res. 39: Wildland Fires in Yellowstone. National Park Service: Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) onboard Landsat 4 and 5: LEDAPS: Landsat Ecosystems Disturbance Adaptive Processing Systems, Jeff Masek: Regional Burn Severity Mosaics from Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (MTBS) by USGS and the Forest Service: