Research Database

Displaying 1 - 6 of 6

Hazardous wildfire smoke events can alter dawn soundscapes in dry forests of central and eastern Washington, United States

Year: 2024

As global wildfire activity increases, wildlife are facing greater exposure to hazardous smoke pollution – with unknown consequences for biodiversity. Research on the effects of smoke on wild animals is extremely limited, in part due to the inherent logistical challenges of observing how animals respond to smoke in real time. Passive acoustic monitoring may be a powerful tool to safely and effectively monitor biodiversity before, during, and after major smoke events. In this study, we used data…

Fish and Wildlife Habitat, Smoke and Air Quality

wildlife

Publication Type: Journal Article

Forest pollinator richness declines with distance into burned areas

Year: 2024

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. We sought to address this by sampling bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea), butterflies (Lepidoptera), and hover flies (Diptera: Syrphidae) at different distances along 500 m transects into forests burned every three years in the southeastern United States. We found combined pollinator richness to decline significantly with distance, being about 23.9 % lower near the centers of burn…

Fish and Wildlife Habitat, Prescribed Burning

wildlife

Publication Type: Journal Article

Before the fire: predicting burn severity and potential post-fire debris-flow hazards to conservation populations of the Colorado River Cutthroat Trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii pleuriticus)

Year: 2024

Background: Colorado River Cutthroat Trout (CRCT; Oncorhynchus clarkii pleuriticus) conservation populations may be at risk from wildfire and post-fire debris flows hazards. Aim: To predict burn severity and potential post-fire debris flow hazard classifications to CRCT conservation populations before wildfires occur. Methods: We used remote sensing, spatial analyses, and machine learning to model 28 wildfire incidents (2016–2020) and spatially predict burn severity from pre-wildfire environmental factors to evaluate the likelihood…

Fire Effects and Fire Ecology, Soils and Woody Debris

post-fire, wildfire and water, wildlife, fire severity, remote sensing

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

wildlife, fire regimes

Publication Type: Journal Article

Accelerated forest restoration may benefit spotted owls through landscape complementation

Year: 2024

Animals often rely on the presence of multiple, spatially segregated cover types to satisfy their ecological needs; the juxtaposition of these cover types is called landscape complementation. In ecosystems that have been homogenized because of human land use, such as fire-suppressed forests, management activities have the potential to increase the heterogeneity of cover types and, therefore, landscape complementation. We modeled changes to California spotted owl (Strix occidentalis occidentalis) nesting/roosting habitat, foraging habitat and habitat co-occurrence (i.e. landscape…

Fish and Wildlife Habitat, Fuels and Fuel Treatments, Restoration and Hazardous Fuel Reduction

wildlife, forest structure

Publication Type: Journal Article

Synthesis of science to inform land management within the Northwest Forest Plan area: executive summary

Year: 2018

This is the executive summary of a three-volume science synthesis that addresses various ecological and social concerns regarding management of federal forests encompassed by the Northwest Forest Plan (NWFP). Land managers with the U.S. Forest Service provided questions that helped guide preparation of the synthesis. It builds on the 10-, 15-, and 20-year NWFP monitoring reports and synthesizes the vast body of relevant scientific literature that has accumulated in the 24 years since the NWFP was initiated. Here we summarize scientific findings and considerations for management that were…

Climate Change and Fire, Communicating about Fire, Fish and Wildlife Habitat, Restoration and Hazardous Fuel Reduction

management, wildlife

Publication Type: Report