DeSantis, RyanJobe, NolanHager, Sydny2025-04-072025-04-072025-04-22Jobe, N., Hager, S., DeSantis, R. (2025, April 22). Effects of eastern redcedar encroachment on forest fire dynamics in upland oak forests. Poster session presented at the Oklahoma State University Undergraduate Research Symposium, Stillwater, OK.https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14446/345869Before the 20th century, Native Americans maintained The Cross Timbers ecoregion, and frequent but low-intensity fires dominated it. During the 20th century, as land became increasingly occupied and sectioned off by settlers, fire exclusion and suppression became a common practice and due to this, a process called mesophication began to occur. Shade-tolerant tree species are able to outcompete the shade-intolerant and fire-adapted ones, eventually resulting in an altered, wetter soil composition, which will change the species present and completely alter or disrupt an ecosystem. Grassland researchers have recorded the impact of eastern redcedar on fire, but the effects on forested ecosystems are mostly unstudied. The rapid increase of eastern redcedar in the Cross Timbers has made it imperative to be wise to its functions and interactions on fire systems. Utilizing prescribed fire, our team studied how the increased frequency of eastern redcedar altered forest fire behavior. It was hypothesized a large factor at play would be fuel moisture. During the initial study, our team looked at the effect of eastern redcedar prominence and live crown ratio on fuel moisture. Data was collected in Cross Timbers forests on Oklahoma State University property adjacent to Lake Carl Blackwell. We used sixty-five 0.04-hectare plots, distributed throughout 8 hectares of total forested area. Data collected included fuel and duff depth; 1-, 10-, and 100-hour fuel loading; fuel moisture collected immediately before burning for live and dead 1-, 10-, and 100-hour fuels; tree species; DBH; height; crown height and distance measurements; and live crown ratio. Following preliminary data collection, plots were mechanically treated and subsequently burned in late August and early September. This analysis primarily points to relationships among tree diversity, fuel load, and fuel moisture. We neither found significant relationships between the percent eastern redcedar and tree species diversity, average eastern redcedar DBH and fuel moisture, nor total average DBH and fuel moisture. The team postulates the combined aspects of fuel loading, fuel architecture, and plot-scale limitations on how they may have been more impactful on fire behavior.application/pdfIn the Oklahoma State University Library's institutional repository this paper is made available through the open access principles and the terms of agreement/consent between the author(s) and the publisher. The permission policy on the use, reproduction or distribution of the article falls under fair use for educational, scholarship, and research purposes. Contact Digital Resources and Discovery Services at lib-dls@okstate.edu or 405-744-9161 for further information.Postercross timbersmesophicationprescribed firefuel moistureeastern redcedar