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Displaying 161 - 180 of 342

Wildfire in western U.S. federally managed forests has increased substantially in recent decades, with large (>1000 acre) fires in the decade through 2012 over five times as frequent (450 percent increase) and burned area over ten times as great…
Author(s): Anthony L. Westerling, Timothy J. Brown, Tania L. Schoennagel, Thomas W. Swetnam, Monica G. Turner, Thomas T. Veblen
Year Published:

We used a database capturing large wildfires (> 405 ha) in the western U.S. to document regional trends in fire occurrence, total fire area, fire size, and day of year of ignition for 1984-2011. Over the western U.S. and in a majority of…
Author(s): Philip E. Dennison, Simon C. Brewer, James D. Arnold, Max A. Moritz
Year Published:

Mick Harrington and Steve Arno, retired research foresters with the USFS Rocky Mountain Research Station, took participants of the May 2014 Large Wildland Fires Conference through a 300-year-old stand of ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) and western…
Author(s): Corey L. Gucker
Year Published:

We demonstrated the utility of digital fire atlases by analyzing forest fire extent across cold, dry, and mesic forests, within and outside federally designated wilderness areas during three different fire management periods: 1900 to 1934, 1935 to…
Author(s): Penelope Morgan, Emily K. Heyerdahl, Carol Miller, Aaron M. Wilson, Carly E. Gibson
Year Published:

Recent work in model systems has demonstrated significant effects of rapid evolutionary change on ecological processes (eco-evolutionary dynamics). Fewer studies have addressed whether eco-evolutionary dynamics structure natural ecosystems. We…
Author(s): Matt V. Talluto, Craig W. Benkman
Year Published:

Quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) is the most widespread tree species in North America, and it is found throughout much of the Mountain West (MW) across a broad range of bioclimatic regions. Aspen typically regenerates asexually and…
Author(s): Douglas J. Shinneman, William L. Baker, Paul C. Rogers, Dominik Kulakowski
Year Published:

Whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis Engelm.) is in serious decline across its range, largely due to the combined effects of Cronartium ribicola J. C. Fisch (an introduced fungal pathogen that causes white pine blister rust), replacement by late…
Author(s): Lauren Fins, Ben Hoppus
Year Published:

Western larch is one of the most fire-adapted conifers in western North America. Its historical perpetuation depended upon regular fire disturbances, which creates open stand conditions and mineral seedbeds. A stand of 200- to 500-year-old larch in…
Author(s): Michael G. Harrington
Year Published:

Sagebrush landscapes provide habitat for Sage-Grouse and other sagebrush obligates, yet historical fire regimes and the structure of historical sagebrush landscapes are poorly known, hampering ecological restoration and management. To remedy this,…
Author(s): Beth E. Bukowski, William L. Baker
Year Published:

A warming climate may increase the frequency and severity of stand-replacing wildfires, reducing carbon (C) storage in forest ecosystems. Understanding the variability of postfire C cycling on heterogeneous landscapes is critical for predicting…
Author(s): Daniel M. Kashian, William H. Romme, Daniel B. Tinker, Monica G. Turner, Michael G. Ryan
Year Published:

In many U.S. federally designated wilderness areas, wildfires are likely to burn of their own accord due to favorable management policies and remote location. Previous research suggested that limitations on fire size can result from the evolution of…
Author(s): Sandra L. Haire, Kevin McGarigal, Carol Miller
Year Published:

Until recently, most contemporary ecologists have ignored or diminished anecdotal historical accounts and anthropologists' reports about aboriginal fire in the Great Basin. Literature review shows that Indians practiced regular use of fire for…
Author(s): Kent J. McAdoo, Brad W. Schultz, Sherman R. Swanson
Year Published:

A series of environmental changes from late-glacial ice recession through the early Holocene are revealed in a 7000-yr-long record of pollen, charcoal, geochemistry, and stable isotopes from Blacktail Pond, a closed-basin lake in Yellowstone…
Author(s): Teresa R. Krause, Cathy L. Whitlock
Year Published:

Bowman et al. (Journal of Biogeography, 2011, 38, 2223–2236) attempt a synthesis of the current status of study into human use of fire as an ecosystem management tool and provide a framework for guiding research on the human dimensions of global…
Author(s): Michael R. Coughlan, Aaron M. Petty
Year Published:

We examined a set of five proxy reconstructions of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) to test whether the choice of reconstruction affected the association between the PDO and widespread forest fires in the western United States. Exact binomial…
Author(s): Kurt F. Kipfmueller, Evan R. Larson, Scott St. George
Year Published:

Understanding the causes and consequences of wildfires in forests of the western United States requires integrated information about fire, climate changes, and human activity on multiple temporal scales. We use sedimentary charcoal accumulation…
Author(s): Jennifer R. Marlon, Patrick J. Bartlein, Daniel G. Gavin, Colin J. Long, R. Scott Anderson, Christy E. Briles, Kendrick J. Brown, Daniele Colombaroli, Douglas J. Hallett, Mitchell J. Power, Elizabeth A. Scharf, Megan K. Walsh
Year Published:

A 9400-yr-old record from Crevice Lake, a semi-closed alkaline lake in northern Yellowstone National Park, was analyzed for pollen, charcoal, geochemistry, mineralogy, diatoms, and stable isotopes to develop a nuanced understanding of Holocene…
Author(s): Cathy L. Whitlock, Walter E. Dean, Sherilyn C. Fritz, Lora R. Stevens, Jeffery R. Stone, Mitchell J. Power, Joseph R. Rosenbaum, Kenneth L. Pierce, Brandi B. Bracht-Flyr
Year Published:

The interaction of fires, where one fire burns into another recently burned area, is receiving increased attention from scientists and land managers wishing to describe the role of fire scars in affecting landscape pattern and future fire spread.…
Author(s): Casey Teske, Carl A. Seielstad, Lloyd P. Queen
Year Published:

Aim: Wildfire is often considered more severe now than historically in dry forests of the western United States. Tree-ring reconstructions, which suggest that historical dry forests were park-like with large, old trees maintained by low-severity…
Author(s): William L. Baker, Mark A. Williams
Year Published:

Fire is a natural component of earth's ecosystems. Fire has impacted most landscapes of the Americas, having left evidence of its passing in trees, soils, fossils, and cultural artifacts (Andreae 1991; Benton and Reardon 2006; Biswell 1989; Bowman…
Author(s): Kevin C. Ryan, Cassandra L. Koerner
Year Published: