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Background: Wildfires in the Pacific Northwest (Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and western Montana, USA) have been immense in recent years, capturing the attention of resource managers, fire scientists, and the general public. This paper synthesizes…
Author(s): Jessica E. Halofsky, David L. Peterson, Brian J. Harvey
Year Published:

Developing standardised classification of post-fire responses is essential for globally consistent comparisons of woody vegetation communities. Existing classification systems are based on responses of species growing in fire-prone environments. To…
Author(s): Lynda D. Prior, David M. J. S. Bowman
Year Published:

Following a wildfire, regeneration to forest can take decades to centuries and is no longer assured in many western U.S. environments given escalating wildfire severity and warming trends. After large fire years, managers prioritize where to…
Author(s): Nicholas A. Povak, Derek J. Churchill, C. Alina Cansler, Paul F. Hessburg, Van R. Kane, Jonathan T. Kane, James A. Lutz, Andrew J. Larson
Year Published:

Increasing the pace and scale of fuel treatments to protect social and ecological values from severe wildfire is a major initiative of numerous land management agencies, organizations, and collaborative groups throughout the western United States,…
Author(s): Rob Addington, Brian G. Tavernia, Michael D. Caggiano, Matthew P. Thompson, Jason D. Lawhon, John S. Sanderson
Year Published:

Changing disturbance regimes and climate can overcome forest ecosystem resilience. Following high-severity fire, forest recovery may be compromised by lack of tree seed sources, warmer and drier postfire climate, or short-interval reburning. A…
Author(s): Jonathan D. Coop, Sean A. Parks, Camille Stevens-Rumann, Shelley Crausbay, Philip E. Higuera, Matthew D. Hurteau, Alan J. Tepley, Ellen Whitman, Timothy J. Assal, Brandon M. Collins, Kimberley T. Davis, Solomon Z. Dobrowski, Donald A. Falk, Paula J. Fornwalt, Peter Z. Fule, Brian J. Harvey, Van R. Kane, Caitlin E. Littlefield, Ellis Q. Margolis, Malcolm P. North, Marc-Andre Parisien, Susan J. Prichard, Kyle Rodman
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:

Globally, savanna ecosystems are shifting outside of “safe operating spaces” due to removal of their primary self-reinforcing feedback—fire—and subsequent erosion of disturbance legacies. Restoring savannas will require reinstating fire feedbacks.…
Author(s): Caleb P. Roberts, Victoria M. Donovan, Sarah M. Nodskov, Emma C. Keele, Craig D. Allen, David A. Wedin, Dirac Twidwell
Year Published:

Recent changes in fire regimes, with more frequent, extensive, and severe fires, are modifying soil characteristics. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of burn severity on the resistance of some physical, chemical, and biochemical soil…
Author(s): Sara Huerta, Víctor Fernández-García, Leonor Calvo, Elena Marcos
Year Published:

Fire severity assessment is crucial for predicting ecosystem response and prioritizing post-fire forest management strategies. Although a variety of remote sensing approaches have been developed, more research is still needed to improve the accuracy…
Author(s): Raquel Montorio Llovería, Fernando Pérez-Cabello, Daniel Borini Alves, Alberto García-Martín
Year Published:

Background: A fire management strategy of deliberate patch-mosaic burning (PMB) is postulated to promote biodiversity by providing a range of habitat patches with different fire histories, habitat qualities, and vegetation ages at a given scale. We…
Author(s): Allan J. Wills, Graeme Liddelow, Verna Tunsell
Year Published:

Given the recent history of frequent and extensive late dry season wildfire in Australia’s fire-prone northern savannas, regional conservation-based fire management programs typically aim to mitigate wildfire through the use of strategic prescribed…
Author(s): Jay Evans, Jeremy Russell-Smith
Year Published:

Climate change is transforming forest structure and function by altering the timing, frequency, intensity, and spatial extent of episodic disturbances. Wildland fire regimes in western U.S. coniferous forests are now characterized by longer fire…
Author(s): Elizabeth R. Pansing, Diana F. Tomback, Michael B. Wunder
Year Published:

Research Highlights: This experiment compares a range of combinations of harvest, prescribed fire, and wildfire. Leveraging a 30-year-old forest management-driven experiment, we explored the recovery of woody species composition, regeneration of the…
Author(s): R. Kasten Dumroese, Martin F. Jurgensen, Deborah S. Page-Dumroese
Year Published:

Multiple, simultaneous environmental changes, in climatic/abiotic factors, interacting species, and direct human influences, are impacting natural populations and thus biodiversity, ecosystem services, and evolutionary trajectories. Determining…
Author(s): William F. Morris, Johan Ehrlén, Johan P. Dahlgren, Alexander K. Loomis, Allison M. Louthan
Year Published:

Disturbance refugia – locations that experience less severe or frequent disturbances than the surrounding landscape – provide a framework to highlight not only where and why these biological legacies persist as adjacent areas change but also the…
Author(s): Meg A. Krawchuk, Garrett W. Meigs, Jennifer Cartwright, Jonathan D. Coop, Raymond J. Davis, Andrés Holz, Crystal A. Kolden, Arjan J. H. Meddens
Year Published:

Background: Fire size and severity have increased in the western United States in recent decades, and are expected to continue to increase with warming climate. Habitats for many species are threatened by large and high-severity fires, but the…
Author(s): Ho Yi Wan, Samuel A. Cushman, Joseph L. Ganey
Year Published:

It is sometimes assumed the sparse and low statured vegetation in arid systems would limit the effectiveness of two remote-sensing derived indices of burn severity: the difference Normalised Burn Ratio (dNBR) and relativised difference Normalised…
Author(s): Robert C. Klinger, Randy McKinley, Matthew L. Brooks
Year Published:

Fires shape the biogeochemistry and functioning of many ecosystems, and fire frequencies are changing across much of the globe. Frequent fires can change soil carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) storage by altering the quantity and chemistry of plant inputs…
Author(s): Adam F. A. Pellegrini, Sarah E. Hobbie, Peter B. Reich, Ari A. Jumpponen, E.N. Jack Brookshire, Anthony C. Caprio, Corli Coetsee, Robert B. Jackson
Year Published:

Prescribed fire can result in significant benefits to ecosystems and society. Examples include improved wildlife habitat, enhanced biodiversity, reduced threat of destructive wildfire, and enhanced ecosystem resilience. Prescribed fire can also come…
Author(s): Molly E. Hunter, Marcos D. Robles
Year Published:

This review is focused on tree seedling regeneration for several reasons. First, a high mortality event, like a high- severity wildfire, kills the mature trees needed to maintain forest cover. When fire-caused mortality is minimal, we are less…
Author(s): Camille Stevens-Rumann, Penelope Morgan, Kimberley T. Davis, Kerry Kemp, Jarod Blades
Year Published: