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Displaying 1 - 20 of 1986
Scientists have spent decades trying to understand how to best promote resilient forests and reduce fuels. A golden endeavor certainly. Is the best approach using a series of prescribed burns? Or is it mechanically cutting trees? Or does the…
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The main population of ~5000 threatened Gunnison sage-grouse (GUSG; Centrocercus minimus) in Colorado depends on sagebrush plants that are killed by wildfires, with recovery taking decades, so frequent fire is a threat, but did it occur historically…
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Conifer forest resilience may be threatened by increasing wildfire activity and compound disturbances in western North America. Fire refugia enhance forest resilience, yet may decline over time due to delayed mortality—a process that remains poorly…
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We find that wildfire are part of a distinct temporal pattern of soil moisture, vegetation water content and atmospheric dryness dynamics that begin about 5 months before the incidents. We analyze anomalies in soil moisture, vegetation water…
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Background: Sagebrush ecosystems are experiencing increases in wildfire extent and severity. Most research on vegetation treatments that reduce fuels and fire risk has been short term (2–3 years) and focused on ecological responses. We review…
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Background
Wildfire is a major proximate cause of historical and ongoing losses of intact big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata Nutt.) plant communities and declines in sagebrush obligate wildlife species. In recent decades, fire return intervals have…
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Quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) stands throughout the western United States provide valuable ecosystem services but can be lost via succession from aspen to conifer. Forest managers are cutting conifers, but disposal of cut wood can be…
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Fuel treatments are commonly applied to increase resilience to wildfire in dry and historically frequent-fire forests of western North America. The long-term effects of fuel treatments on forest structure, fuel profiles (amount and configuration of…
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Invasions by non-native plant species after fire can negatively affect important ecosystem services and lead to invasion-fire cycles that further degrade ecosystems. The relationship between fire and plant invasion is complex, and the risk of…
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Wildfires in forested ecosystems are increasing in severity and extent. The adaptations many plants have acquired in response to their natural fire regime may not be sufficient to allow some species to persist. This could impact the forest…
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Sagebrush shrublands in the Great Basin, USA, are experiencing widespread increases in wildfire size and area burned resulting in new policies and funding to implement fuel treatments. However, we lack the spatial data needed to optimize the types…
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Standing dead tree stems (snags) become abundant following disturbances like bark beetle outbreaks and stand-replacing fire. Snags are an important element of wildlife habitat, and when they eventually fall can injure or damage people and…
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Many nations administer national forest inventory programs for unbiased estimation of forest attributes over broad spatial and temporal extents. However, management and conservation decisions often demand reliable estimates for finer spatiotemporal…
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The use of masticated tree debris to protect burned soil from post-fire erosion is not common and very little is known about its effectiveness in reducing the risk of erosion after fire. The main objective of this research was to assess the effects…
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Background
With the increase in forest fire emissions, an increasing amount of nitrogen is released from combustibles and taken up by plant leaves in the form of PM2.5 smoke deposition. Concurrently, the stress from PM2.5 also disrupts the…
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Background: Planting tree seedlings may help promote forest recovery after extensive high-severity wildfire. We evaluated the influence of growing environment characteristics on the performance of seedlings planted in the 2016 Cold Springs Fire…
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Climate warming, land use change, and altered fire regimes are driving ecological transformations that can have critical effects on Earth's biota. Fire refugia - locations that are burned less frequently or severely than their surroundings - may act…
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The concept of fire resilience has become increasingly relevant as society looks to understand and respond to recent wildfire events. In particular, the idea of a 'fire resilient landscape' is one which has been utilised to explore how society can…
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Temperate conifer forests stressed by climate change could be lost through tree regeneration decline in the interior of high-severity fires, resulting in type conversion to non-forest vegetation from seed-dispersal limitation, competition, drought…
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Wildfires and fire seasons are commonly rated largely on the simple metric of area burned (more hectares: bad). A seemingly paradoxical narrative frames large fire seasons as a symptom of a forest health problem (too much fire), while simultaneously…
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