Soil temperatures under ponderosa pines, Jeffrey pines, sugar pines and giant sequoias during prescribed burns

In 1988, a study was initiated to measure soil temperatures of mature sugar pines and giant sequoias in Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Parks, California, during prescribed burns. The purpose was to investigate tree mortality observed after fire was reintroduced into sequoia groves. This work expanded to other National Park Service and USDA Forest Service locations in California to measure soil temperatures under large ponderosa and Jeffrey pines. These additional sites include Yosemite National Park, Eldorado National Forest, Blacks Mountain Experimental Forest in Lassen National Forest, San Bernardino National Forest, and Toiyabe National Forest. This data publication contains the hourly temperatures of heated soil measured with Type K sheathed thermocouples at various depths below the O2-A1 soil subhorizon interface during prescribed burns between 1988 and 2003. Also included are the linear depths of organic material (forest floor) above the temperature probe site pre-fire and the amount of fuel consumption measured post-fire; fuel moisture content (dry weight basis) of the litter, fermentation, and humus layers measured pre-fire; and soil moisture content (dry weight basis) measured pre- and post-fire at the depth of the thermocouples. The soil moisture, fuel moisture and forest floor depth data are linked to the temperature data by the SOIL_ID variable. The dates of collection for the other measurements corresponds to the date that soil temperature measurement commenced.
The purpose of these studies was to determine the extent of heating in the soil under the canopies of mature conifers during prescribed fires.