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Past Research 1996-2002 P-IA. Historical Fire Regimes Summary: We are building on analyses that examine temporal and geographic variability in fire importance, from relatively low intensity cultural influences of pre-Cherokee times to the present. Fire may have long been an important control on vegetation composition, structure, and ecosystem function (e.g. Carbon storage) in southeastern forests. Fire suppression is believed responsible for large changes in forest composition in the southern Appalachians, including the expansion of rhododendron that appears to have affected tree recruitment patterns (see Coweeta rhododendron research). Before this research, we had little more than anecdotal evidence of historical fire importance because fire scars on trees have limited extent. It is thus impossible to assess how recent fire differs from that of the past and how sensitive fire regimes may be to climate variability. Paleoecological analysis of fossilized pollen led to insights to vegetation in pre-European forests highlighting temporal shifts of dominant species in 20th century secondary forests (Lynch and Clark, in prep.). The fossil pollen and other evidence support this shift by indicating human use of fire before AD 800 which probably altered forest composition in favor of oaks. This and other work in preparation (e.g., Gragson and Jurgelski in prep) provide some of the first systematic retrospective insights on land use in the southern Appalachian Mountains.
The paleo component of our research is motivated by recognition
that modern vegetation and ecosystem dynamics play out against a backdrop of
frequent and intense change throughout history. Climate and human influences
have altered the importance of fire across time for this region. The
southern Appalachians have been subjected to broad scale climate changes since
the
Pleistocene era. The long
history of cultural exploitation includes low impact agriculture of DeSoto's
time. The Cherokee had penetrated and rapidly expanded to become one the
largest and most important North American tribes with a capital town situated
just north of Coweeta at the mouth of the Little Tennessee. Eighteenth century
accounts describe the Little Tennessee Valley and surrounding areas as highly
impacted by agriculture and autumn burning for
game. Regional upheaval of the 18th and early 19th centuries were
followed by increasingly intense agriculture, employing methods borrowed from
Europeans. Census data and descriptions indicate broad-based agriculture shortly
before the Cherokee removal by the government in 1838. After Cherokee removal, subsistence agriculture
followed by logging was done mostly by Europeans. The 20th century has allowed for forest recovery, the
"wooded setting home market" and fire suppression. GIS Metadata Data:
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