Reserve West Seedling Establishment and Growth after Fire 1988 - 2009

In 1983 an 8,600 acre human-caused wildfire, the Rosie Creek Fire, burned through about 1/3 of the Bonanza Creek Experimental Forest unit of the Bonanza Creek LTER in central Alaska. The stand that burned was a productive white spruce dominated stand about 200 years old. This study of tree regeneration was initiated in 1989 in a 100m by 100m reference hectare at the perimeter of the Rosie Creek Burn, located between 100m and 200m from the surviving stand edge. The Reserve West reference hectare was reserved from salvage logging and artificial reforestation. All regenerating white spruce trees in the hectare have been mapped and seedling survival and height elongation have been measured annually since 1989 (1988 and 1987 tree heights were back calculated from internodes). Seedlings are tracked by a subdivision of the hectare into 100 cells of 10m by 10m. The total number of trees that have been tracked in the database is 2,527. This is one of the largest and longest complete data series examining forest regeneration in the boreal region.1983年，一场占地8600英亩的人为野火——罗斯溪火灾（Rosie Creek Fire），焚毁了阿拉斯加中部邦纳兹克里克长期生态研究站（Bonanza Creek LTER）所辖邦纳兹克里克实验林区约三分之一的面积。此次过火的林分为一片树龄约200年、以白云杉为优势种的高生产力林分。本项森林更新研究于1989年启动，选址于罗斯溪火灾迹地周边一处100m×100m的对照样地，该样地距存活林分边缘100至200米，总面积为1公顷。其中的西侧对照样地未被纳入灾后打捞采伐（salvage logging）与人工造林（artificial reforestation）作业范畴。研究人员已对该样地内所有更新萌生的白云杉个体完成空间定位，并自1989年起每年测定幼苗存活率与高生长量（height elongation）；其中1987年与1988年的树高数据通过节间（internode）长度回溯计算得到。研究团队将该1公顷样地划分为100个10m×10m的网格单元，以实现单株幼苗的动态追踪。本数据库累计收录追踪记录的树木个体共计2527株。该数据集是北方针叶林区域（boreal region）森林更新研究领域中规模最大、观测时长最长的完整序列之一。