The view that subalpine forest vegetation dynamics in western North America are "driven" by a particular disturbance type (i.e. fire) has shaped our understanding of their disturbance regimes.
Aim Wildfire is often considered more severe now than historically in dry forestsof the western United States. Tree-ring reconstructions, which suggest that historicaldry forests were park-like with large, old trees maintained by low-severity fires,are from small, scattered studies.
Understanding the causes and consequences of wildfires in forests of the western United States requires integrated information about fire, climate changes, and human activity on multiple temporal scales.
Episodic stand-replacing wildfire is a significant disturbance in mesic and moist Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco) forests of the Pacific Northwest.
Active 20th century fire suppression in western US forests, and a resultingincrease in stem density, is thought to account for a significant fraction of the NorthAmerican carbon sink. We compared California forest inventories from the 1930s withinventories from the 1990s to quantify changes in aboveground biomass.