Ignition and fire behaviour of Juniperus virginiana in response to live fuel moisture and fire temperature in the southern Great Plains

Fire is the most effective tool for managing Juniperus virginiana encroachment and associated fire risk, but its application has been limited. In a laboratory experiment we assessed a critical knowledge gap: how fire temperature and live fuel moisture (LFM) influences ignitability, sustainability, combustibility and consumability of J. virginiana. Percentage occurrence of ignition rose as fire temperature increased. The time to ignition increased while the occurrence of ignition decreased with increasing LFM. LFM and fire temperature each had a significant effect on all measured dependent variables (P ≤ 0.05) as was their interaction, except in the case of sustainability. As expected, time to flaming was shortest and flame lengths were the highest under the hottest fire and lowest LFM scenarios. Flame…