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Wildfire area is predicted to increase with global warming. Empirical statistical models and process-based simulations agree almost universally. The key relationship for this unanimity, observed at multiple spatial and temporal scales, is between…
Author(s): Donald McKenzie, Jeremy S. Littell
Year Published:

A longer growing season with climate change is expected to increase net primary productivity of many rangeland types, especially those dominated by grasses, although responses will depend on local climate and soil conditions. Elevated atmospheric…
Author(s): Matthew C. Reeves, Mary Manning, Jeff P. DiBenedetto, Kyle Palmquist, William Lauenroth, John Bradford, Daniel Schlaepfer
Year Published:

The area burned annually by wildfires is expected to increase worldwide due to climate change. Burned areas increase soil erosion rates within watersheds, which can increase sedimentation in downstream rivers and reservoirs. However, which…
Author(s): Joel B. Sankey, Jason Kreitler, Todd J. Hawbaker, Jason L. McVay, Mary Ellen Miller, Erich R. Mueller, Nicole M. Vaillant, Scott E. Lowe, Temuulen T. Sankey
Year Published:

The rates of anthropogenic climate change substantially exceed those at which forest ecosystems – dominated by immobile, long-lived organisms – are able to adapt. The resulting maladaptation of forests has potentially detrimental effects on…
Author(s): Dominik Thom, Werner Rammer, Rupert Seidl
Year Published:

Predicting wildfire under future conditions is complicated by complex interrelated drivers operating across large spatial scales. Annual area burned (AAB) is a useful index of global wildfire activity. Current and antecedent seasonal climatic…
Author(s): Thomas Kitzberger, Donald A. Falk, Anthony L. Westerling, Thomas W. Swetnam
Year Published:

Trembling aspen covers a large geographic range in North America, and previous studies reported that a better understanding of its singular influence on soil properties and processes is of high relevance for global change questions. Here we…
Author(s): Jérôme Laganière, Antra Boča, Helga Van Miegroet, David Paré
Year Published:

The effects of climate oscillations on spatial and temporal variations in wildland fire potential in the continental U.S. are examined from 1979 to 2015 using cyclostationary empirical orthogonal functions (CSEOFs). The CSEOF analysis isolates…
Author(s): Shelby A. Mason, Peter E. Hamlington, Benjamin D. Hamlington, William Matt Jolly, Chad M. Hoffman
Year Published:

We present landscape simulation results contrasting effects of changing climates on forest vegetation and fire regimes in Yellowstone National Park, USA, by mid-21st century. We simulated potential changes to fire dynamics and forest characteristics…
Author(s): Jason A. Clark, Rachel A. Loehman, Robert E. Keane
Year Published:

Climate change is expected to result in substantial ecological impacts across the globe. These impacts are uncertain but there is strong consensus that they will almost certainly affect fire regimes and vegetation. In this study, we evaluated how…
Author(s): Sean A. Parks, Lisa M. Holsinger, Carol Miller, Marc-Andre Parisien
Year Published:

Climate change is disrupting historical patterns of adaptation in temperate and boreal tree species, causing local populations to become maladapted. Tree improvement programs typically utilise local base populations and manage adaptation using…
Author(s): Ian R. MacLachlan, Tongli Wang, Andreas Hamann, Pia Smets, Sally N. Aitken
Year Published:

Diana Six has been studying pine bark beetles for 25 years, and still can’t say she completely understands them. Lately, she’s been diving into a topic she has always found even more confounding - forest management. This article describes an…
Year Published:

We examined relationships between monthly Arctic sea-ice extent (ASIE) and annual wildfire activity for seven regions in the western United States during 1980-2015 to determine if spatio-temporal linkages exist between ASIE, upper-level flow, and…
Author(s): Paul A. Knapp, Peter T. Soulé
Year Published:

Fire is returning to many conifer-dominated forests where species composition and structure have been altered by fire exclusion. Ecological effects of these fires are influenced strongly by the degree of forest change during the fire-free period.…
Author(s): Christopher D. O'Connor, Donald A. Falk, Ann M. Lynch, Thomas W. Swetnam, Craig P. Wilcox
Year Published:

Across the globe, rising temperatures and altered precipitation patterns have caused persistent regional droughts, lengthened fire seasons, and increased the number of weather-driven extreme fire events. Because wildfires currently impact an…
Author(s): Susan J. Prichard, Camille Stevens-Rumann, Paul F. Hessburg
Year Published:

Wildfires across western North America have increased in number and size over the past three decades, and this trend will continue in response to further warming. As a consequence, the wildland–urban interface is projected to experience…
Author(s): Tania L. Schoennagel, Jennifer Balch, Hannah Brenkert-Smith, Philip E. Dennison, Brian J. Harvey, Meg A. Krawchuk, Nathan Mietkiewicz, Penelope Morgan, Max A. Moritz, Ray Rasker, Monica G. Turner, Cathy L. Whitlock
Year Published:

We modeled the normal fire environment for occurrence of large forest wildfires (>40 ha) for the Pacific Northwest Region of the United States. Large forest wildfire occurrence data from the recent climate normal period (1971–2000) was used as…
Author(s): Raymond J. Davis, Zhiqiang Yang, Andrew Yost, Cole Belongie, Warren B. Cohen
Year Published:

The Constitution of the State of Montana, ratified in 1972, affirms Montanans’ inalienable “right to a clean and healthful environment” (State of Montana 1972). Since the signing of the constitution, that declaration has galvanized Montanans to…
Author(s): Cathy L. Whitlock, Wyatt Cross, Bruce D. Maxwell, Nick Silverman, Alisa A. Wade
Year Published:

Wildland fire is a disturbance that can profoundly impact the environment and human health and welfare. While climate is generally a critical driving factor shaping the occurrence and impacts of fire, fire can also play a role in shaping climate.…
Author(s): Anping Chen, Richard A. Birdsey
Year Published:

Mechanical site preparation is assumed to reduce soil C stocks by increasing the rate at which the displaced organic material decomposes, but the evidence is equivocal. We measured rates of C loss of forest-floor material in mesh bags either placed…
Author(s): Cindy E. Prescott, Anya Reid, Shu Yao Wu, Marie-Charlotte Nilsson
Year Published:

In recent years, warming climate and increased fire activity have raised concern about post-fire recovery of western U.S. forests. We assessed relationships between climate variability and tree establishment after fire in dry ponderosa pine forests…
Author(s): Monica T. Rother, Thomas T. Veblen
Year Published: