Fire Effects and Fire Ecology

Record blazes swept across parts of the US in 2015, burning more than 10 million acres. The four biggest fire seasons since 1960 have all occurred in the last 10 years, leading to fears of a ‘new normal’ for wildfire. Fire fighters and forest managers are overwhelmed, and it is clear that the policy and management approaches of the past will not suffice under this new era of western wildfires.

Changes in the climate and in key ecological processes are prompting increased debate about ecological restoration and other interventions in wilderness. The prospect of intervention in wilderness raises legal, scientific, and values-based questions about the appropriateness of possible actions. In this article, we focus on the role of science to elucidate the potential need for intervention.

The environmental effect of extreme soil heating, such as occurs with the complete combustion of large downed wood during wildfires, is a post-fire management concern to forest managers.

This study presents an alternative approach to developing severity assessments. A synthesis of challenges using current approaches is presented. The proposed approach links heat transfer dose–response experimental treatments with plant physiology response metrics. The potential of this new approach is demonstrated via a case study.

A recent study by Davies et al. sought to test whether winter grazing could reduce wildfire size, fire behaviourand intensity metrics, and fire-induced plant mortality in shrub–grasslands. The authors concluded that ungrazedrangelands may experience fire-induced mortality of native perennial bunchgrasses.

A recent commentary by Smith et al. (2016) argues that our study (Davies et al. 2016) containedmethodological errors and lacked data necessary to support our conclusions, in particular that winter grazing may reducethe probability of fire-induced mortality of bunchgrasses. Carefully reading Davies et al. (2016) and relevant literatureprovides strong evidence that the comments of Smith et al.

We present a case study of the Las Conchas Fire (2011) to explore the role of previously burned areas (wildfires and prescribed fires) on suppression effectiveness and avoided exposure.

Morel mushrooms are globally distributed, socially and economically important reproductive structures produced by fungi of the genus Morchella. Morels are highly prized edible mushrooms and significant harvests are collected throughout their range, especially in the first year after fire, when some morel species fruit prolifically.

Many recent wildfires in ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa Lawson & C. Lawson) - dominated forests of the western United States have burned more severely than historical ones, generating concern about forest resilience. This concern stems from uncertainty about the ability of ponderosa pine and other co-occurring conifers to regenerate in areas where no surviving trees remain.

As wildland fire activity continues to surge across the western US, it is increasingly important that we understand and quantify the environmental drivers of fire and how they vary across ecosystems. At daily to annual timescales, weather, fuels, and topography are known to influence characteristics such as area burned and fire severity.