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Changes in wildfire frequency and severity are altering conifer forests and pose threats to biodiversity and natural climate solutions. Where and when feedbacks between vegetation and fire could mediate forest transformation are unresolved. Here,…
Author(s): Tyler J. Hoecker, Sean A. Parks, Meade Krosby, Solomon Z. Dobrowski
Year Published:

Dry conifer forests in the western US historically experienced frequent fire prior to European American colonization. Mean fire return interval ranged from about 5-35 years, with the majority of fires burning at low-to-moderate severity. The arrival…
Author(s): Sean A. Parks, Lisa M. Holsinger, Kori Blankenship, Gregory K. Dillon, Sara A. Goeking, Randy Swaty
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Background Increases in fire activity and changes in fire regimes have been documented in recent decades across the western United States. Climate change is expected to continue to exacerbate impacts to forested ecosystems by increasing the…
Author(s): Tzeidle N. Wasserman, Stephanie E. Mueller
Year Published:

High-severity fires and short-interval reburns strongly influence forest structure and composition and may overwhelm forest ecosystem resilience and catalyze persistent shifts to non-forest conditions. Recent increases in annual area burned and…
Author(s): Melissa Jaffe, Mark R. Kreider, David L.R. Affleck, Philip E. Higuera, Carl A. Seielstad, Sean A. Parks, Andrew J. Larson
Year Published:

Recent increases in fire frequency and severity across the western US are triggering abrupt changes in ecosystem structure and composition, especially in lower montane forests, but consequences of fire-regime change for mesic, mixed-conifer forests…
Author(s): Tyler J. Hoecker, Monica G. Turner
Year Published:

Fire regimes are shifting under climate change. Decadal-scale shifts in fire regime can disrupt the biogeochemical cycling of carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P) within forest ecosystems, but the full extent of these disruptions is unknown…
Author(s): Orpheus M. Butler, Tom Lewis, Sarah C. Maunsell, Mehran Rezaei Rashti, James J. Elser, Brendan Mackey, Chengrong Chen
Year Published:

Large, high‐severity wildfires are an important component of disturbance regimes around the world and can influence the structure and function of forest ecosystems. Climatic changes and anthropogenic disturbances have altered global disturbance…
Author(s): Elle J. Bowd, David Blair, David B. Lindenmayer
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Subalpine forests that historically burned every 100–300 yr are expected to burn more frequently as climate warms, perhaps before trees reach reproductive maturity or produce a serotinous seedbank. Tree regeneration after short‐interval (<30‐yr)…
Author(s): Nathan S. Gill, Tyler J. Hoecker, Monica G. Turner
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The idea that not all fire regimes are created equal is a central theme in fire research and conservation. Fire frequency (i.e., temporal scale) is likely the most studied fire regime attribute as it relates to conservation of fireadapted ecosystems…
Author(s): David Mason, Marcus A. Lashley
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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:

Wildfires are a significant agent of disturbance in forests and highly sensitive to climate change. Short-interval fires and high severity (mortality-causing) fires in particular, may catalyze rapid and substantial ecosystem shifts by eliminating…
Author(s): Brian Buma, Shelby A. Weiss, Kathy Geier-Hayes, Melissa S. Lucash
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:

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:

Assessing wildfire regimes and their environmental drivers is critical for effective land management and conservation. We used Landsat imagery to describe the wildfire regime of the north-eastern Simpson Desert (Australia) between 1972 and 2014, and…
Author(s): Elise M. Verhoeven, Brad R. Murray, Christopher R. Dickman, Glenda M. Wardle, Aaron C. Greenville
Year Published:

In the last decades, land-use changes have made Mediterranean forests highly susceptible to wildfires, which can cause several impacts not only on burnt areas, but also on adjacent aquatic ecosystems. Post-fire runoff from burnt areas may transport…
Author(s): Francisco Carvalho, Arunava Pradhan, Nelson Abrantes, Isabel Campos, Jan J. Keizer, Fernanda Cássio, Cláudia Pascoal
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Wildfires have increased in frequency, duration, and intensity worldwide. Climate change, drought, and other factors have not only increased susceptibility to wildfires, but have also increased the duration of the season. There are a number of…
Author(s): Setrige W. Crawford, Kamran Eftekhari Shahroudi
Year Published:

Background: Forest management, especially restoration, is informed by understanding the dominant natural disturbance regime. In many western North American forests, the keystone disturbance is fire, and a plethora of research exists characterizing…
Author(s): Shawn T. McKinney
Year Published:

Altered fire regimes can drive major and enduring compositional shifts or losses of forest ecosystems. In western North America, ponderosa pine and dry mixed‐conifer forest types appear increasingly vulnerable to uncharacteristically extensive, high…
Author(s): Jonathan D. Coop, Timothy J. DeLory, William M. Downing, Sandra L. Haire, Meg A. Krawchuk, Carol Miller, Marc-Andre Parisien, Ryan B. Walker
Year Published:

The combination of direct human influences and the effects of climate change are resulting in altered ecological disturbance regimes, and this is especially the case for wildfires. Many regions that historically experienced low–moderate severity…
Author(s): Clark Richter, Marcel Rejmánek, Jesse E. D. Miller, Kevin R. Welch, JonahMaria Weeks, Hugh Safford
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Predicting the efficacy of fuel treatments aimed at reducing high severity fire in dry-mixed conifer forests in the western US is a challenging problem that has been addressed in a variety of ways using both field observations and wildfire…
Author(s): Ana M. G. Barros, Alan A. Ager, Michelle A. Day, Palaiologos Palaiologou
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