Plot-level field data and model simulation results, archived to accompany Turner et al. manuscript; reports data from summer 2017 sampling of short-interval fires that burned during summer 2016 in Greater Yellowstone.

Subalpine forests in the northern Rocky Mountains have been resilient
to stand-replacing fires that historically burned at 100–300-yr
intervals. Fire intervals are projected to decline drastically as
climate warms, and forests that reburn before recovering from previous
fire may lose their ability to rebound. We studied recent fires in
Greater Yellowstone (Wyoming, USA) and asked whether short-interval
(less than 30 yrs) stand-replacing fires can erode lodgepole pine
(Pinus contorta var. latifolia) forest resilience via increased burn
severity, reduced early postfire tree regeneration, reduced carbon
stocks, and slower carbon recovery. During 2016, fires reburned young
lodgepole pine forests that regenerated after wildfires in 1988 and
2000. During 2017, we sampled 0.25-ha plots in stand-replacing reburns
(n=18) and nearby young forests that did not reburn (n=9). We also
simulated stand development with and without reburns to assess carbon
recovery trajectories. Nearly all prefire biomass was combusted
("crown fire plus") in some reburns in which prefire trees
were dense and small (≤ 4 cm basal diameter). Postfire tree seedling
density was reduced six-fold relative to the previous (long-interval)
fire, and high-density stands (greater than 40,000 stems ha-1) were
converted to sparse stands (less than 1,000 stems ha-1). In reburns,
coarse wood biomass and aboveground carbon stocks were reduced by 65%
and 62%, respectively, relative to areas that did not reburn.
Increased carbon loss plus sparse tree regeneration delayed simulated
carbon recovery by greater than 150 yrs. Forests did not transition to
nonforest, but extreme burn severity and reduced tree recovery
foreshadow an erosion of forest resilience.