Wildfires in the western US are increasing in frequency, size, and severity. These disturbances alter soil microbiome structure and function, with greater fire severity leading to more pronounced impacts to bacterial, archaeal, and fungal communities.
Our understanding of forest dynamics and successional pathways in coastal Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii var menziesii) forests with relatively frequent mixed-severity fires is limited by a lack of annually precise dendroecological reconstructions that combine records of historical fires and tree establishment.
Forest structural characteristics, the burning environment, and the choice of ignition pattern each influence prescribed fire behaviors and resulting fire effects; however, few studies examine the influences and interactions of these factors.
Changing climatic conditions are increasing overstory tree mortality in forests globally. This restructuring of the distribution of biomass is making already flammable forests more combustible, posing a major challenge for managing the transition to a lower biomass state.
Background. Characterisation of fuel consumption provides critical insights into fire behaviour, effects, and emissions. Stand-replacing prescribed fire experiments in central Utah offered an opportunity to generate consumption estimates in coordination with other research efforts.
The US faces multiple challenges in facilitating the safe, effective, and proactive use of fire as a landscape management tool. This intentional fire use exposes deeply ingrained communication challenges and distinct but overlapping strategies of prescribed fire, cultural burning, and managed wildfire.
As increasing wildfire activity puts pressure on wildland fire suppression resources both nationally and within the state of California, further development of programs and infrastructure that emphasize preventative fuels treatments, e.g. prescribed burning, is critical for mitigating the impacts of wildfire at large spatial scales.
The effects of prescribed fire on forest pollinator communities are complex and incompletely understood. One of the least-studied questions concerns how these organisms are affected by the size, or spatial scale, of fire.