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Restoring frequent fire to dry conifer forests delays the decline of subalpine forests in the southwest United States under projected climate

Year: 2024
  1. In southwestern US forests, the combined impact of climate change and increased fuel loads due to more than a century of human-caused fire exclusion is leading to larger and more severe wildfires. Restoring frequent fire to dry conifer forests can mitigate high-severity fire risk, but the effects of these treatments on the vegetation composition and structure under projected climate change remain uncertain.
  2. We used a forest landscape model to assess the impact of thinning and prescribed burns in dry conifer forests across an elevation gradient, encompassing low-elevation…
Fire Effects and Fire Ecology, Fire History, Prescribed Burning, Restoration and Hazardous Fuel Reduction
dry coniferous forests, subalpine conifer forest, Elevation, modelling, prescribed burning
Publication Type: Journal Article

Changing fire regimes and nuanced impacts on a critically imperiled species

Year: 2024
Wildfire activity throughout western North America is increasing which can have important consequences for species persistence. Native species have evolved disturbance-adapted traits that confer resilience to natural disturbance provided disturbances operate within their historical range of variability. This resilience can erode as disturbance regimes change and begin operating outside this range. We assessed wildfire impacts during 1987–2018 on the northern spotted owl, an imperiled species with complex relationships with late and early seral forest in the Pacific Northwest, USA. We analyzed…
Fire Effects and Fire Ecology, Fire History, Fish and Wildlife Habitat
northern spotted owl, wildlife habitat, disturbance regime
Publication Type: Journal Article