Organic layer data from burned black spruce stands for the effects of variations in post-fire organic layer thickness studies in the Delta Junction region, 1995-2003

This database contains data on the total depth of the surface organic layer remaining after fire for the study plots used in an analysis of variations in the depths of surface organic layers found in burned and unburned black spruce stands, and the effects of variations in depth of burning on soil temperature and moisture, and organic layer carbon stocks. Data for the overall study were collected between 1995 and 2003 by Eric Kasischke (University of Maryland), Kathy O?Neill (Duke University), and Jill Johnstone (University of Alaska Fairbanks). Sites were located in burned black spruce stands within the perimeters of three recent fires (1987, 1994, and 1999), unburned black spruce stands adjacent to the burned stands, and within one black spruce stand that burned in 1956. The three fires were: (a) the 1987 Granite Creek fire located 15 km to the east of Delta Junction, Alaska USA, bordering the Alaska Highway on the North and Jarvis Creek on the south; the 1994 Hajdukovich Creek fire located 45 km southeast of Delta Junction Alaska, USA, bordering the Alaska Highway to the North and the Gerstle River to the West, and the 1999 Donnelly Flats fire, located 8 km south of Delta Junction, bordering Jarvis Creek to the east and the Richardson Highway on the west. Data that were collected and are in databases associated with this project include: (1) organic layer depths in burned stands; (2) organic layer depths in unburned stands; (3) basal diameters of overstory trees in unburned stands and distance measures that can be used to estimate stand density; (4) mineral soil temperature and moisture data in burned stands; (5) mineral soil temperature and moisture data in unburned stands; and (6) bulk density and percent carbon data from different organic layers in unburned stands.