Black spruce (Picea mariana (Mill) B.S.P) is the dominant forest cover type in interior Alaska and is prone to frequent, stand-replacing wildfires. Through impacts on tree recruitment, the degree of fire consumption of soil organic layers can act as an important determinant of whether black spruce forests regenerate to a forest composition similar to the prefire forest, or to a new forest composition dominated by deciduous hardwoods. Here we present a simple, rule-based framework for predicting fire-initiated changes in forest cover within Alaska's black spruce forests. Four components are presented: (1) a key to classifying potential site moisture, (2) a summary of conditions that favor black spruce self-replacement, (3) a key to predicting postfire forest recovery in recently burned stands, and (4) an appendix of photos to be used as a visual reference tool. This report should be useful to managers in designing fire management actions and predicting the effects of recent and future fires on postfire forest cover in black spruce forests of interior Alaska.

"In interior Alaska black spruce forest succession and vegetation properties are tightly linked to fire disturbance, partly due to the functional properties of species. Climatically induced changes in the fire regime could negatively affect some functional groups and potentially lower the functional diversity of stands through changes in fire severity and site moisture. In addition, there is little information regarding the relationship between pre- and post-fire community composition in black spruce communities of interior Alaska. To contribute to our knowledge regarding post-fire plant community dynamics, I investigated how post-fire community properties in relation to fire severity and site moisture: 1) species composition, in which pre- and post- fire community composition was compared to determine changes in species richness and functional diversity and 2) the functional traits of species. Pre- fire species composition in black spruce forests was dominated by late successional understory species and was most similar in species composition to low severity burned sites (regardless of stand age). Site moisture did not appear to affect the change in species composition post-fire in the first two years following fire. Functional groups that showed significant changes post-fire were bryophytes, lichen and evergreen shrubs. When each species was deconstructed into a set of functional traits, I observed that these traits were tightly linked to fire severity. These results have large implications under projected climate scenarios that predict increasing fire extent and severity in the boreal forest because high severity fire changes the species composition and associated functional traits of black spruce post-fire communities in interior Alaska"--Leaf iii.

"As the climate changes, Alaska's boreal forest faces the simultaneous threats of rising invasive plant abundances and increasing area burned by wildfire. Highly flammable and widespread black spruce forest represents a boreal habitat that may be increasingly susceptible to non-native plant invasion. In other biomes, non-native plant invasions are generally greatest in high severity burns that are only a few years old. The relationship between fire and non-native plant invasion has not been investigated in the northern boreal forest. To assess the invasibility of burned black spruce forests, I used burned field sites that spanned a gradient of burn severities, moisture levels, and burn ages. I conducted both field surveys and a greenhouse experiment using soil taken from burn sites. Contrary to generalizations from other biomes, I found soils from low severity burns and burns between 10 and 20 years old support greater invasive plant growth in black spruce forests than do high severity and more recent burns. In addition, regional differences between burn complexes outweighed burn severity and site moisture in determining the invasibility of burned black spruce sites. Finally, rebounding native vegetation appears to offer burned areas a level of resistance to invasive plant establishment"--Leaf iii.

A review and evaluation of methods to measure in quantitative economic terms the resource values typically lost and gained as a result of wildfires in Alaska.