Yocom fire data from El Diferencial, Sierra Madre Oriental, Nuevo León, Mexico - IMPD MXDI-001 Yocom, L.L.; Fulé, P.Z. Yocom, L.L. Fulé, P.Z. PIHR Pinus hartwegii Lindl. Mexican Mountain pine ABVE Abies vejarii Vejar's fir earth science/paleoclimate/fire history|tree ring (tree demographic and injury and fire event code,wood,null,null,null,fire history|tree ring,null,null,C,FHX2 data format; refer to IMPD documentation for description of codes) earth science/paleoclimate/fire history|tree ring (age,null,null,null,null,fire history|tree ring,null,null,N,null) earth science/paleoclimate/fire history (El Diferencial>LATITUDE 23.79>LONGITUDE -99.85) The El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is a climate-forcing mechanism that has been shown to affect precipitation and the occurrence of wildfires in many parts of the world. In the southern United States and northern Mexico, warm events (El Niño) are associated with moist winter conditions and fewer fires, while cool events (La Niña) tend to favor dry winters and more fires. We tested this relationship in a region of northeastern Mexico by characterizing the historical fire regime and climatic influences. Fire regimes were reconstructed from fire-scar samples collected from 100 trees in three high-elevation sites on Pena Nevada in southern Nuevo Leon. The sites were ~25 ha each, and the site centers were ~1 km apart. The earliest recorded fire occurred in 1521 and the time period we used for analysis was 1645-1929. The sites were characterized by frequent surface fires before the 1920s. In the three sites, mean fire intervals ranged from 8.6 to 9.6 years (all fires) and 11.9 to 18.6 years (fires that scarred >25% of recording trees). The per-tree mean fire return interval was 17 years, and all three sites burned in the same year seven times between 1774 and 1929. After 1929, fires were nearly eliminated in all sites, likely due to human causes. We found a temporal change in the association between ENSO events and fires; before the 1830s La Niña events were significantly associated with fire years, while after the 1830s this association was not significant. In 1998, when the most severe El Niño event of the past century occurred, the three sites experienced severe, stand-replacing fires that killed many trees that had survived multiple surface fires in the past. Prior to the 1830s, fires tended to occur during dry La Niña years, but since then both La Niña and El Niño have been associated with dry years in this region, especially during the last three decades. This result suggests that ENSO effects have changed over time in this location and that phases of ENSO are not consistent indicators of precipitation, fire occurrence, or fire behavior in this area of northeastern Mexico. STUDY NOTES: This site was sampled as part of a project to reconstruct historical fire regimes in northeastern Mexico. Ring-boundary fire scars were assigned to the subsequent calendar year. NCDC-Paleoclimatology https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/data-access/paleoclimatology-data - Bauer Bruce Investigator : Yocom, L.L. Investigator : Fulé, P.Z. 2017-03-03 ONLINE Files online, ASCII https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/study/21570 https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/firehistory/firescar/northamerica/fire-hist-graphs/mxdi-001-fire-hist-graph.pdf https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/firehistory/firescar/northamerica/mxdi-001.txt https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/firehistory/firescar/northamerica/mxdi-001.fhx https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/firehistory/firescar/northamerica/fire-hist-graphs/mxdi-001-fire-hist-graph.png https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/firehistory/firescar/northamerica/fire-hist-graphs/mxdi-001-fire-hist-graph.pdf https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/firehistory/firescar/northamerica/mxdi-001.txt https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/firehistory/firescar/northamerica/mxdi-001.fhx https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/firehistory/firescar/northamerica/fire-hist-graphs/mxdi-001-fire-hist-graph.png English https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/study/21570 https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/firehistory/firescar/northamerica/fire-hist-graphs/mxdi-001-fire-hist-graph.pdf https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/firehistory/firescar/northamerica/mxdi-001.txt https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/firehistory/firescar/northamerica/mxdi-001.fhx https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/firehistory/firescar/northamerica/fire-hist-graphs/mxdi-001-fire-hist-graph.png Yocom, L.L., P.Z. Fulé, P.M. Brown, J. Cerano, J. Villanueva-Díaz, D.A. Falk, and E. Cornejo-Oviedo2010El Niño-Southern Oscillation effect on a fire regime in northeastern Mexico has changed over timeEcology911660-1671http://www.jstor.org/stable/25680407 Yocom Kent, L.L., P.Z. Fulé, P.M. Brown, J. Cerano, E. Cornejo-Oviedo, C. Cortés Montaño, S.A. Drury, D.A. Falk, J. Meunier, H.M. Poulos, C.N. Skinner, S.L. Stephens, J. Villanueva-Díaz2017Climate drives fire synchrony but local factors control fire regime change in northern MexicoEcosphere38Article e01709 START YEAR: 1515 AD * END YEAR: 2006 AD -99.85 23.79 -99.85 23.79