Effects of wildfire on a pine stand in the Bohemian Switzerland National Park

Abstract

The pine stand in the Havraní Skála locality in the Bohemian Switzerland National Park was affected by an extensive mixed-severity wildfire in summer 2006. The fire severity, fire type and fire extent were assessed by various fire severity measures collected in the field (mean bole char height on stems on sample plots, content of oxidizable C and total N at a soil depth of 0-5 cm), as well as by classification and filtering of green canopy cover from time series of aerial photographs acquired before the fire (2005), soon after the fire (2006) and one year after the fire (2007). The specific image analyses made it possible to uncover the spatial and temporal pattern of the stand defoliation. The central part of the site was mainly affected by the crown fire and thus defoliated substantially right during the fire. On the contrary, the peripheral part of the site was mostly affected by low-severity ground fire and therefore defoliated progressively one year later. All the fire severity measures used were well related.

Keywords

• forest fire
• aerial photographs
• classification
• defoliation
• fire severity