Post-fire vegetative regrowth associated with mature tree stands and topography on Sofa Mountain

Abstract

Plant compositions are constantly changing in response to biotic and abiotic factors. Adaptability of these vegetative assemblages to change is a concern for land managers and ecologists in fire-prone montane regions of North America. In 1998, a holdover fire event burned 1521 ha of primarily coniferous forest on Sofa Mountain, located in Waterton Lakes National Park, southwestern Alberta, Canada. This was the first significant burn within the park in 130 years and offers a unique opportunity to study possible effects of topographic influences on the spatial relationship of residual mature tree stands within the burn and associated reestablished vegetation with these stands. A mixed-methods approach utilizing GIS, remote sensing, and statistical regressions determined that clustering of vegetation was influenced by topographic features slope and aspect. New growth was more likely to be a product of fallen trees and debris rather than associations with mature trees.