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Fig. 5 | Fire Ecology

Fig. 5

From: A large database supports the use of simple models of post-fire tree mortality for thick-barked conifers, with less support for other species

Fig. 5

Model results for the Chamaecyparis lawsoniana Ryan and Amman (R-A) model. (A) Map shows locations of fires occurring from 1981 to 2016 within the USA from which data to evaluate the model was sampled. Fire locations are plotted over the species’ range (green polygons). Note the small samples size (n = 69), the small number of fires sampled (n = 2), and the small number of dead trees (n = 11; D). The small sample size in part reflects the relatively small natural range of this species. BTcoef = specific specific bark thickness coefficient. (B) The bi-plot shows where the observations used to evaluate models (orange points) fall within the species’ bioclimatic niche space (black points) in terms of temperature (x-axis) and precipitation (y-axis). (C) Model evaluation summary statistics including the AUC (area under the receiver operator characteristic curve) at 0.5 threshold for determining mortality, and confidence intervals (CI) around the AUC. Model evaluation statistics include accuracy, sensitivity (Sens.), specificity (Spec), positive predicted values (PPV), and negative predictive values (NPV), summarized over a range of probability thresholds (0.1 to 0.9; rows), with the commonly used threshold of 0.5 shown in bold. Warmer colors indicate greater values. The top three bold rows show model performance metrics for the “best” threshold, which optimizes sensitivity and specificity, the best threshold with sensitivity >0.8, and the best threshold with specificity >0.8. (D) The distributions of defense (diameter at breast height [DBH], as an interpretable representation of bark thickness) and injury (crown volume scorch) variables used in the model are shown with bi-plots. Box plots in the margins of (D) show median (bar), interquartile range (IQR; box; 25th and 75th percentiles), and whiskers show the minimum and maximum values that do not exceed a 1.5 × IQR. (E) and (F) Assessment of species-level error comparing the predicted probability of mortality using a 0.5 threshold (Pm; orange points show values and shading shows range) and the observed proportion of trees or stems killed (gray points) within binned observations of the primary injury variables (E), and the DBH (F). Despite the low values of the model accuracy statistics (C), the predicted mortality follows the expected mortality over both the range of percentage crown volume scorched and diameter at breast height (DBH; E and F). The small sample of dead trees, some of which were large-diameter trees with <25% crown volume scorch (D) likely caused the low observed sensitivity of the model. Qualitative ratings of data quality, model performance, and direction or error in model predictions are listed at the bottom of the figure

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