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Prescribed fall burning is commonly used worldwide on rangeland sites to enhance vegetation resources and restore disturbed ecosystems, but little is known about how it may alter microbial communities and insect activities. We used two site…
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Lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta var. latifolia) has a reputation for indestructibility, but recent events in the Southern Rockies may have pushed even this stalwart species to the edge. Research by Rocky Mountain Research Station (RMRS) scientist…
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An extreme drought from 2012–2016 and concurrent bark beetle outbreaks in California, USA resulted in widespread tree mortality. We followed changes in tree mortality, stand structure, and surface and canopy fuels over four years after the peak of…
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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…
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The concurrent impacts of fire suppression, climate-warming, and industrial forestry have dramatically altered the spatio-temporal patterns of fire across the globe. Pyrophilic insects are among the species most threatened by these changes due to…
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Bark beetle outbreaks and wildfires are two of the most prevalent disturbances that influence tree mortality, regeneration, and successional trajectories in western North American forests. Subboreal forests have experienced broad overlaps in these…
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Background: Mountain pine beetle (MPB) is a native disturbance agent across most pine forests in the western US. Climate changes will directly and indirectly impact frequencies and severities of MPB outbreaks, which can then alter fuel…
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In fire-adapted ponderosa pine forests of western North America, fire suppression policies during much of the 19th century gradually resulted in high stem densities undesirable for fire risk management. To restore desirable forest structures,…
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Spatial variation in species interactions (interaction β-diversity) and its ecological drivers are poorly understood, despite their relevance to community assembly, conservation and ecosystem functioning. We investigated effects of wildfire severity…
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Fire is a key determinant of vegetation structure and composition in ecosystems worldwide and is therefore an important management tool. The “pyrodiversity hypothesis”, which postulates that biodiversity will increase as fire diversity increases,…
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Warming temperatures and changing weather patterns are causing more frequent and severe disturbances in western North American forests. The increasing length and severity of recent wildfire seasons have annually caused widespread injury to millions…
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Insect pollinators, especially bees, are an essential component ecosystem function. Native bees provide key ecosystem services and shape the structure and composition of plant communities. However, recent research suggests a large-scale decline in…
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Forests store significant quantities of carbon, and accurate quantification of the fate of this carbon after fire is necessary for global carbon accounting. Pyrogenic carbon (PyC) encompasses various carbonaceous products of incomplete combustion…
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Understanding how abiotic disturbance and biotic interactions determine pollinator and flowering‐plant diversity is critically important given global climate change and widespread pollinator declines. To predict responses of pollinators and…
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Although ecological disturbances can have a strong influence on pollinators through changes in habitat, virtually no studies have quantified how characteristics of wildfire influence the demography of essential pollinators. Nevertheless, evaluating…
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Because fire retardant can enter streams and harm aquatic species including endangered fish, agencies such as the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) must estimate the downstream extent of toxic effects every time fire retardant enters streams (denoted as an…
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The spatial overlap of multiple ecological disturbances in close succession has the capacity to alter trajectories of ecosystem recovery. Widespread bark beetle outbreaks and wildfire have affected many forests in western North America in the past…
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The ecosystem response to fire is often linked to fire severity and recurrence, with potentially larges consequences on both above- and below-ground processes. Understanding the fire impact has become increasing important in the light of recent…
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Many studies have defined the interrelationships between climate, forest disturbance, and runoff at small scales (<100 km2), but few have translated these relationships to large watersheds (>500 km2). In this study, we explore the relationship…
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Mountain pine beetles (MPB) are a constant presence in the Rocky Mountain Region, with a long history of periodic outbreaks. The latest beetle epidemic, which lasted from the late 1990s until about 2012, was particularly impactful in Colorado, where…
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