Research Database

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Showy dragonflies are being driven extinct by warming and wildfire

Year: 2025

Rising temperatures may disrupt reproduction before becoming lethal; thus mating traits could define species vulnerability to warming. Here, using >1,600 estimates of local extinction for 60 dragonfly species, we show that species with mating-associated wing ornamentation experienced more extinctions and lost more habitat under warming and following wildfire burn than non-ornamented species. By contrast, sensitivity was not affected by ecological traits, such as thermal limits, habitat specialization or body size.

Fire Effects and Fire Ecology, Fish and Wildlife Habitat

habitat, biodiversity

Publication Type: Journal Article

Finding floral and faunal species richness optima among active fire regimes

Year: 2025

Changing fire regimes have important implications for biodiversity and challenge traditional conservation approaches that rely on historical conditions as proxies for ecological integrity. This historical-centric approach becomes increasingly tenuous under climate change, necessitating direct tests of environmental impacts on biodiversity. At the same time, widespread departures from historical fire regimes have limited the ability to sample diverse fire histories. We examined 2 areas in California's Sierra Nevada (USA) with active fire regimes to study the responses of bird, plant, and bat…

Fire History, Fish and Wildlife Habitat

fire regimes, biodiversity, fire severity, wildlife

Publication Type: Journal Article

Wildlife and invertebrate response to fuel reduction treatments in dry coniferous forests of western US

Year: 2006

This paper synthesizes available information on the effects of hazardous fuel reduction treatments on terrestrial wildlife and invertebrates in dry coniferous forest types in the West. We focused on thinning and/or prescribed fire studies in ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) and dry-type Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii ), lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta), and mixed coniferous forests. Overall, there are tremendous gaps in information needed to evaluate the effects of fuel reduction on the majority of species found in our focal area. Differences among studies in location, fuel treatment type…

Fish and Wildlife Habitat, Fuels and Fuel Treatments, Mixed-Conifer Management

modeling, synthesis, biodiversity

Publication Type: Report