Climate change poses a grave threat to human health with disparate impacts across society. While populations with high social vulnerability generally bear a larger burden of exposure to and impact from environmental hazards; such patterns and trends are less explored at the confluence of social vulnerability and rural–urban gradients.

Aim: Increasing aridity has driven widespread synchronous fire occurrence in recent decades across North America. The lack of historical (pre-1880) fire records limits our ability to understand long-term continental fire-climate dynamics.

Background: Wildfires can significantly impact water quality and supply. However logistical difficulties and high variability in in situ data collection have limited previous analyses.

Aims: We simulated wildfire and rainfall effects at varying terrain slopes in a controlled setting to isolate driver-response relationships.

Background: Wildfire simulation models are used to derive maps of burn probability (BP) based on fuels, weather, topography and ignition locations, and BP maps are key components of wildfire risk assessments.

Background: The increased interest in why and how trees die from fire has led to several syntheses of the potential mechanisms of fire-induced tree mortality. However, these generally neglect to consider experimental methods used to simulate fire behaviour conditions.

Background: Buildings in communities near wildlands, in the wildland–urban interface (WUI), can experience wildfire damage.

As climate warms, trees are expected to track their ideal climate, referred to as ‘range shifts’; however, lags in tree range shifts are currently common.

Background

In this review, we discuss current research on forest carbon risk from natural disturbance under climate change for the United States, with emphasis on advancements in analytical mapping and modeling tools that have potential to drive research for managing future long-term stability of forest carbon.

Forest management activities that are intended to improve forest health and reduce the risk of catastrophic fire generate low-value woody biomass, which is often piled and open-burned for disposal. This leads to greenhouse gas emissions, long-lasting burn scars, air pollution, and increased risk of escaped prescribed fire.