Managing fire with fire in Alaskan black spruce forests: Impacts of fire severity on successional trajectory and future forest flammability

composition and soil conditions with patterns of burn severity and post-fire stand rehabilitation. The primary objective is to examine how variations in burn severity can influence patterns of post-fire rehabilitation and thereby direct future patterns of fuel accumulation and stand flammability. The research will make use of existing data on pre-fire vegetation collected across multiple stands and fires in black spruce forests of Interior Alaska. Post-fire data on soils and plant regeneration from field observations and remote sensing will be used to develop predictive relationships linking pre-fire community composition and burn severity to post-fire trajectories of ecosystem rehabilitation. These relationships can then be used by managers to assess, predict, and design fire effects on future stand flammability. This information will contribute to wildland fire management in Alaska, where a key ingredient t