Fire simulation results using fuels characteristics of four sites in the southern Great Plains: Pyric herbivory study

This data publication includes fuels characteristics used to create dynamic fuel models and the resulting fire simulation outputs from the BehavePlus program from four sites across the southern Great Plains (Oklahoma and Texas). This large-scale experiment was established to compare prescribed fire treatments without grazing to those where grazing is allowed to interact through pyric herbivory at the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve, Packsaddle Wildlife Management Area, Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, and Attwater’s Prairie-Chicken National Wildlife Refuge. The study involved sampling fire-only treatment patches of various time since fire, and fire/grazing patches with various time since fire as available. Field data were obtained between June of 2014 and August of 2016. Fuel characteristics include average heights of wood and herbacdous vegetation, percent cover of live fuels (grasses, forbs, shrubs), and percent cover of both 1-hour and 10-hour fuels. Fire simulation output include flame length and rate of spread for simulations run under various wind speed (16 and 40 kilometers per hour) and fuel moisture (5 – 35%) conditions.
Data were collected to evaluate the impacts of two fuels management treatments (fire-only vs. pyric herbivory) on prairie-chicken habitat; evaluate the effects of time since fire and pyric herbivory on rangeland fuel loads and rate of fuel accumulation; and evaluate the impacts of fire-only and pyric herbivory on fire suppression capabilities.
For more information about this study and these data, see Elmore et al. (2017), Starns (2017), and Starns (2019).