Topic: Fire Effects and Fire Ecology

In the mountainous regions of the Western United States, increasing wildfire activity and climate change are putting forests at risk of regeneration failure and conversion to non-forests. During periods with unfavorable climatic conditions, locations that are suitable for post-fire tree…

Background

Despite recent advances in understanding the drivers of tree-level delayed mortality, we lack a method for mapping delayed mortality at landscape and regional scales. Consequently, the extent, magnitude, and effects of delayed mortality on post-fire landscape patterns of…

Fire frequency in boreal forests has increased via longer burning seasons, drier conditions, and higher temperatures. However, fires have historically self-regulated via fuel limitations, mediating the effects of changes in climate and fire weather. Early post-fire boreal forests (10–15 years…

Fires release large pulses of nitrogen (N), which can be taken up by recovering plants and microbes or exported to streams where it can threaten water quality. The amount of N exported depends on the balance between N mineralisation and rates of N uptake after fire. Burn severity and soil…

Forest restoration treatments primarily aimed at reducing fuel load and preventing high-severity wildfires can also influence resilience to other disturbances. Many pine forests in temperate regions are subject to tree-killing bark beetle outbreaks (e.g., Dendroctonus, Ips),…

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…

The 2023 wildfire season in Canada was unprecedented in its scale and intensity, spanning from mid-April to late October and across much of the forested regions of Canada. Here, we summarize the main causes and impacts of this exceptional season. The record-breaking total area burned (~15 Mha)…

The 2023 Canadian forest fires have been extreme in scale and intensity with more than seven times the average annual area burned compared to the previous four decades. Here, we quantify the carbon emissions from these fires from May to September 2023 on the basis of inverse modelling of…

Managing fire ignitions for resource benefit decreases fuel loads and reduces the risk of high-severity fire in fire-suppressed dry conifer forests. However, the reintroduction of low-severity wildfire can injure trees, which may decrease their growth after fire. Post-fire growth responses could…

Background

In fire-prone environments, some species store their seeds in canopy cones (serotiny), which provides seeds protection from the passage of fire before stimulating seed release. However, the capacity of serotinous cones to protect seeds under high intensity fire is…