LANDFIRE Succession and Fire Regime Products

Succession and Fire Regime Products Theme Overview LANDFIRE’s (LF) Succession and Fire Regime Products consist of Historic Fire Regime products, Potential Vegetation Layers, and Modeled Vegetation tied to pre-Euro-American settlement vegetation succession models. The fire regime products show what fire regime may have existed before European colonization and how that has changed. They are available here https://landfire.gov/fire-regime. Potential vegetation layers and modeled vegetation show site potential along with succession and vegetation departure classes and are available here https://landfire.gov/vegetation. Some of these products are released as they are completed throughout the year, with regional areas released first (if applicable) and full extent mosaics of the regional areas released when complete. Others are fairly static since they reference historic conditions but are occasionally revised. These products are described below. Succession Products The Environmental Site Potential (ESP) product represents the vegetation that could be supported at a given site based on the biophysical environment (biotic and abiotic). Map units are based on NatureServe's Ecological Systems classification and represent the natural plant communities that may have been present during pre-Eurpopean colonization. ESP map units represent the natural plant communities that would become established at late or climax stages of successional development in the absence of disturbance. They reflect the current climate and physical environment, as well as the competitive potential of native plant species. The ESP concept is similar to that used in classifications of potential vegetation, including habitat types and plant associations. Biophysical Settings (BPS) are part of the potential vegetation layers and are a modeled representation of the vegetation system that may have been dominant on the landscape prior to Euro-American settlement and is based on both the ESP and an approximation of modeled past disturbance regimes. LF uses BPS to depict reference conditions of vegetation across landscapes. ESP reflects the climate and soil potential of the site, and BPS modifies that with typical disturbance for the region. Map units are based on NatureServe's Ecological Systems classification and represent the natural plant communities that may have been present during the reference period. Each BPS map unit is matched with a model of vegetation succession. The actual time-period for this data set is a composite of both the modeled context provided by the fire regime and vegetation dynamics models and the more recent field and geospatial inputs used to create it. The Succession Classes (SClass) product characterizes current vegetation conditions with respect to the vegetation species composition (leaf-form and life-form, primarily), cover, and height ranges of the successional states that occur within each BPS. SClass can also represent uncharacteristic vegetation components, including exotic species, tree plantations, canopy cover, etc. These components are not found within the compositional or structural variability of successional states defined for a BPS. Succession Classes do not directly quantify fuel characteristics of the current vegetation, but rather represent vegetative states with unique succession or disturbance related dynamics, such as structural development or fire frequency. Vegetation Departure (VDep) indicates how different current vegetation on a landscape is from estimated past modeled conditions. VDep is based on changes to vegetation composition, structural stage, and canopy closure. VDep is based only on departure of current vegetation conditions from reference vegetation conditions and does not include departure from reference condition fire regimes (frequency and severity). Vegetation Condition Class (VCC) represents a simple categorization of the associated VDep and is a derivative of the VDep layer. It indicates the general level to which current vegetation is different from the estimated modeled vegetation based on past reference conditions. Full descriptions of the methods used can be found in the VDep product description. Note that the LF team feels it is very important for users to review the VDep methods before comparing VDep or VCC values across LF versions. Fire Regime Products The Fire Regime Groups (FRG) product characterizes the presumed historical fire regimes within landscapes based on interactions between vegetation dynamics, fire spread, fire effects, and spatial context. The Fire Return Interval (FRI) product quantifies the average period between fires under the presumed historical fire regime. FRI is intended to describe one component of historical fire regime characteristics in the context of the broader historical time-period represented by the LF BPS product and BpS Model documentation. Percent Fire Severity (PFS) is three products merged into one. It is a combination product of what was previously (LF 2014 and earlier) known as Percent of Low-severity Fire (PRC_SURFAC), Percent of Mixed-severity Fire (PRC_MIXED), and Percent of Replacement-severity Fire (PRC_REPLAC). Low severity is defined as less than 25 percent average top-kill within a typical fire perimeter for a given vegetation type. Mixed severity is defined as between 25 and 75 percent average top-kill within a typical fire perimeter for a given vegetation type. Replacement severity is defined as greater than 75 percent average top-kill within a typical fire perimeter for a given vegetation type.

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