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Wildfires constitute a serious threat for both the environment and human well-being. The US fire policy aims to tackle this problem, devoting a sizeable amount of resources and resorting extensively to fire suppression strategies. The theoretical…
Author(s): Massimiliano Agovino, Massimiliano Cercielo, Aniello Ferraro, Antonio Garofalo
Year Published:

No single factor produces wildfires; rather, they occur when fire thresholds (ignitions, fuels, and drought) are crossed. Anomalous weather events may lower these thresholds and thereby enhance the likelihood and spread of wildfires. Climate change…
Author(s): Juli G. Pausas, Jon E. Keeley
Year Published:

Recent dramatic and deadly increases in global wildfire activity have increased attention on the causes of wildfires, their consequences, and how risk from wildfire might be mitigated. Here we bring together data on the changing risk and societal…
Author(s): Marshall Burke, Anne Driscoll, Sam Heft-Neal, Jiani Xue, Jennifer Burney, Michael Wara
Year Published:

For over 20 years, forest fuel reduction has been the dominant management action in western US forests. These same actions have also been associated with the restoration of highly altered frequent-fire forests. Perhaps the vital element in the…
Author(s): Scott L. Stephens, Michael A. Battaglia, Derek J. Churchill, Brandon M. Collins, Michelle Coppoletta, Chad M. Hoffman, Jamie M. Lydersen, Malcolm P. North, Russell A. Parsons, Scott M. Ritter, Jens T. Stevens
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Widespread fire activity taxes suppression resources and can compound wildfire hazards. We examine the geographic synchronicity of fire danger across western United States forests as a proxy for the strain on fire suppression resource availability.…
Author(s): John T. Abatzoglou, Caroline S. Juang, A. Park Williams, Crystal A. Kolden, Anthony L. Westerling
Year Published:

Recent wildfires in the western United States have led to substantial economic losses and social stresses. There is a great concern that the new climatic state may further increase the intensity, duration, and frequency of wildfires. To examine…
Author(s): Emily K. Brown, Jiali Wang, Yan Feng
Year Published:

Increases in burned area and large fire occurrence are widely documented over the western United States over the past half century. Here, we focus on the elevational distribution of forest fires in mountainous ecoregions of the western United States…
Author(s): Mohammad Reza Alizadeha, John T. Abatzoglou, Charles H. Luce, Jan F. Adamowski, Arvin Farid, Mojtaba Sadegh
Year Published:

We review science-based adaptation strategies for western North American (wNA) forests that include restoring active fire regimes and fostering resilient structure and composition of forested landscapes. As part of the review, we address common…
Author(s): Susan J. Prichard, Paul F. Hessburg, R. Keala Hagmann, Nicholas A. Povak, Solomon Z. Dobrowski, Matthew D. Hurteau, Van R. Kane, Robert E. Keane, Leda N. Kobziar, Crystal A. Kolden, Malcolm P. North, Sean A. Parks, Hugh Safford, Jens T. Stevens, Larissa L. Yocom, Derek J. Churchill, Robert W. Gray, David W. Huffman, Frank K. Lake, Pratima Khatri-Chhetri
Year Published:

Ongoing changes in fire regimes have the potential to drive widespread shifts in Earth’s vegetation. Plant traits and vital rates provide insight into vulnerability to fire‐driven vegetation shifts because they can be indicators of the ability of…
Author(s): Kyle Rodman, Thomas T. Veblen, Robert A. Andrus, Neal J. Enright, Joseph B. Fontaine, Angela D. Gonzalez, Miranda Redmond, Andreas P. Wion
Year Published:

Projected warming of global surface air temperatures will further exacerbate droughts, wildfires, and other agents of ecosystem stress. We use latewood blue intensity from high‐elevation Picea engelmannii to reconstruct late‐summer maximum air…
Author(s): Karen J. Heeter, Maegen L. Rochner, Grant Harley
Year Published:

We review science-based adaptation strategies for western North American (wNA) forests that include restoring active fire regimes and fostering resilient structure and composition of forested landscapes. As part of the review, we address common…
Author(s): Susan J. Prichard, Paul F. Hessburg, R. Keala Hagmann, Nicholas A. Povak, Solomon Z. Dobrowski, Matthew D. Hurteau, Van R. Kane, Robert E. Keane, Leda N. Kobziar, Crystal A. Kolden, Malcolm P. North, Sean A. Parks, Hugh Safford, Jens T. Stevens, Larissa L. Yocom, Derek J. Churchill, Robert W. Gray, David W. Huffman, Frank K. Lake, Pratima Khatri-Chhetri
Year Published:

Climate change and human activities have drastically altered the natural wildfire balance in the Western US and increased population health risks due to exposure to pollutants from fire smoke. Using dynamically downscaled climate model projections,…
Author(s): Jennifer D. Stowell, Cheng-En Yang, Joshua S. Fu, Noah Scovronick, Matthew J. Strickland, Yang Liu
Year Published:

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…
Author(s): Joseph A. LaManna, Laura A. Burkle, R. Travis Belote, Jonathan A. Myers
Year Published:

Western North American fires have been increasing in magnitude and severity over the last few decades. The complex coupling of fires with the atmospheric energy budget and meteorology creates short-term feedbacks on regional weather altering the…
Author(s): Diana N. Bernstein, Douglas S. Hamilton, Rosalie Krasnoff, Natalie M. Mahowald, David S. Connelly, Simone Tilmes, Peter G. M. Hess
Year Published:

The National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy (hereafter: Cohesive Strategy) mandates the restoration and maintenance of landscapes, with the goal that “landscapes across all jurisdictions are resilient to fire-related disturbances in…
Author(s): Sharon M. Hood, Donald A. Falk, Martin Nie
Year Published:

Changing climatic conditions prompt concerns about vegetation response to disturbance under future compared to past conditions. In this long‐term study, we examined soil climate and vegetation differences at lower, mid, and upper elevations in two…
Author(s): Bruce A. Roundy, Jeanne C. Chambers
Year Published:

Determining whether forest landscapes can maintain their resilience to fire – that is, their ability to rebound and sustain – given rapid climate change and increasing fire activity is a pressing challenge throughout the American West. Many western…
Author(s): Monica G. Turner
Year Published:

Forest landscapes across western North America (wNA) have experienced extensive changes over the last two centuries, while climatic warming has become a global reality over the last 4 decades. Resulting interactions between historical increases in…
Author(s): Paul F. Hessburg, Susan J. Prichard, R. Keala Hagmann, Nicholas A. Povak, Frank K. Lake
Year Published:

This feature explores topics of enduring ecological concern – fire regimes, climate change, and forest management of the North American West. The authors describe the dual challenges of past forest management legacies and fire exclusion confronted…
Author(s): David S. Schimel, Juan C. Corley
Year Published:

The public health emergency associated with the 2019–20 bushfires in Australia was a wake-up call to increase the resilience of our health systems to respond to climate extremes. We must combine our understanding of predictions of extreme weather…
Author(s): Aparna Lal, Mahomed Patel, Arnagretta Hunter, Christine Phillips
Year Published: