Skip to main content

Search by keywords, then use filters to narrow down results by type, year, topic, or ecosystem.

Displaying 1 - 20 of 30

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…
Author(s): Daniel C. Donato, Joshua S. Halofsky, Derek J. Churchill, Ryan D. Haugo, C. Alina Cansler, Annie Smith, Brian J. Harvey
Year Published:

Increasing area burned across western North America raises questions about the precedence and magnitude of changes in fire activity, relative to the historical range of variability (HRV) that ecosystems experienced over recent centuries and…
Author(s): Kyra Clark-Wolf, Philip E. Higuera, Bryan N. Shuman, Kendra K. McLauchlan
Year Published:

This paper aims to provide a better understanding of the transition towards a new paradigm of wildfire risk management in Victoria that incorporates Aboriginal fire knowledge. We show the suitability of cultural burning in the transformed landscapes…
Author(s): Amos Atkinson, Cristina Montiel-Molina
Year Published:

Historical logging practices and fire exclusion have reduced the proportion of pine in mixed-conifer forests of the western United States. To better understand pine’s decline, we investigate the impact of historical logging on the tree regeneration…
Author(s): Emily G. Brodie, Eric E. Knapp, Andrew Latimer, Hugh Safford, Marissa Vossmer, Sarah M. Bisbing
Year Published:

All wildfires in the United States are managed, but the strategies used to manage them vary by region and season. “Managed wildfire” is a response strategy to naturally ignited wildfires; it does not prioritize full suppression and allows the fire…
Author(s): Rachel Bean, Alexander M. Evans
Year Published:

The structure and fire regime of pre-industrial (historical) dry forests over ~26 million ha of the western USA is of growing importance because wildfires are increasing and spilling over into communities. Management is guided by current conditions…
Author(s): William L. Baker, Chad T. Hanson, Mark A. Williams, Dominick A. DellaSala
Year Published:

Anticipating consequences of disturbance interactions on ecosystem structure and function is a critical management priority as disturbance activity increases with warming climate. Across the Northern Hemisphere, extensive tree mortality from recent…
Author(s): Jenna E. Morris, Michele S. Buonanduci, Michelle Agne, Michael A. Battaglia, Daniel C. Donato, Brian J. Harvey
Year Published:

This study 1) identifies the seasons and biomes that exhibit significant (1980–2019) changes in fire danger potential, as quantified by the Canadian Fire Weather Index (FWI); 2) explores what types of fire behavior potentials may be contributing to…
Author(s): Janine A. Baijnath-Rodino, Phong V. V. Le, Efi Foufoula-Georgiou, Tirtha Banerjee
Year Published:

Indigenous land stewardship and mixed-severity fire regimes both promote landscape heterogeneity, and the relationship between them is an emerging area of research. In our study, we reconstructed the historical fire regime of Ne Sextsine, a 5900-ha…
Author(s): Kelsey Copes-Gerbitz, Lori D. Daniels, Shannon M. Hagerman
Year Published:

Background: Prairie-forest ecotones are ecologically important for biodiversity and ecological processes. While these ecotones cover small areas, their sharp gradients in land cover promote rich ecological interaction and high conservation value.…
Author(s): Penelope Morgan, Emily K. Heyerdahl, Eva K. Strand, Stephen C. Bunting, James P. Riser, John T. Abatzoglou, Max W. Nielsen-Pincus, Mara Johnson
Year Published:

Increases in burned area across the western US since the mid‐1980’s have been widely documented and linked partially to climate factors, yet evaluations of trends in fire severity are lacking. Here, we evaluate fire severity trends and their…
Author(s): Sean A. Parks, John T. Abatzoglou
Year Published:

Background: Prairie-forest ecotones are ecologically important for biodiversity and ecological processes. While these ecotones cover small areas, their sharp gradients in land cover promote rich ecological interaction and high conservation value.…
Author(s): Penelope Morgan, Emily K. Heyerdahl, Eva K. Strand, Stephen C. Bunting, James P. Riser, John T. Abatzoglou, Max W. Nielsen-Pincus, Mara Johnson
Year Published:

Climate-driven increases in disturbance frequency and extent augment the potential for compounded disturbances. Drawing on well-studied forests that experienced successive disturbances, we asked: (1) how does post-fire cover of litter, herbaceous…
Author(s): Nathan S. Gill, Daniel Jarvis, John Rogan, Dominik Kulakowski
Year Published:

The statistical analysis of wildland fire activity is integral to wildland fire planning, operations, and research across the globe. Historical fire records are inputs to fire danger rating applications, fire-potential forecast models, geospatial…
Author(s): Karen C. Short, Marty Ahrens, Sarah Harris, Jesus San-Miguel-Ayanz
Year Published:

Wildfire is a ubiquitous disturbance agent in subalpine forests in western North America. Lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta var. latifolia), a dominant tree species in these forests, is largely resilient to high-severity fires, but this resilience may…
Author(s): Barrie V. Chileen, Kendra K. McLauchlan, Philip E. Higuera, Meredith Parish, Bryan N. Shuman
Year Published:

Boreal forest and tundra biomes are key components of the Earth system because the mobilization of large carbon stocks and changes in energy balance could act as positive feedbacks to ongoing climate change. In Alaska, wildfire is a primary driver…
Author(s): Tyler J. Hoecker, Philip E. Higuera, Ryan Kelly, Feng Sheng Hu
Year Published:

Warm summer temperatures and longer fire seasons are promoting larger, and in some cases, more fires that are severe in low- and mid-elevation, dry mixed-conifer forests of the Northern Rocky Mountains (NRM). Long-term historical fire conditions and…
Author(s): Dave McWethy, Mio Alt, Elena Argiriadis, Dario Battistel, Richard G. Everett, Gregory T. Pederson
Year Published:

Fire refugia—locations that burn less severely or less frequently than surrounding areas—support late-successional and old-growth forest structure and function. This study investigates the influence of topography and fuels on the probability of…
Author(s): Garrett W. Meigs, Christopher J. Dunn, Sean A. Parks, Meg A. Krawchuk
Year Published:

Background: Ecological disturbance is a major driver of ecosystem structure and evolutionary selection, and theory predicts that the frequency and/or intensity of disturbance should determine its effects on communities. However, adaptations of…
Author(s): Jesse E. D. Miller, Hugh Safford
Year Published:

Increases in burned area across the western US since the mid‐1980’s have been widely documented and linked partially to climate factors, yet evaluations of trends in fire severity are lacking. Here, we evaluate fire severity trends and their…
Author(s): Sean A. Parks, John T. Abatzoglou
Year Published: