Research Database
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Combining ecophysiology and combustion traits to predict conifer live fuel moisture content: a pyro-ecophysiological approach
Year: 2025
Background Fuel moisture content is a key driver of fuel flammability and subsequent fire activity and behavior worldwide. Dead fuels passively exchange moisture with the atmosphere while live fuel moisture is confounded by a mixture of seasonal carbon and water cycle dynamics. Despite the significance of live fuel moisture content (LFMC) on wildland fire potential, attempts to model its variations seasonally and between species are often inconclusive or unsuccessful.ResultsHere we present a mechanistic LFMC model that uses easily measured live fuel…
Publication Type: Journal Article
Intensifying Fire Season Aridity Portends Ongoing Expansion of Severe Wildfire in Western US Forests
Year: 2025
Area burned by wildfire has increased in western US forests and elsewhere over recent decades coincident with warmer and drier fire seasons. However, high–severity fire—fire that kills all or most trees—is arguably a more important metric of fire activity given its destabilizing influence on forest ecosystems and direct and indirect impacts to human communities. Here, we quantified area burned and area burned severely in western US forests from 1985 to 2022 and evaluated trends through time. We also assessed key relationships between area burned, extent and proportion burned severely…
Publication Type: Journal Article