Wildland Fire Science
Publications
Bioclimatic modeling of potential vegetation types as an alternative to species distribution models for projecting plant species shifts under changing climates
Land managers need new tools for planning novel futures due to climate change. Species distribution modeling (SDM) has been used extensively to predict future distributions of species under different climates, but their map products are often too coarse for fine-scale operational use. In this study we developed a flexible, efficient, and robust...
Keane, Robert; Holsinger, Lisa M.; Loehman, Rachel A. Management of remnant tallgrass prairie by grazing or fire: Effects on plant communities and soil properties
Tallgrass prairie is a disturbance‐dependent ecosystem that has suffered steep declines in the midwestern United States. The necessity of disturbance, typically fire or grazing, presents challenges to managers who must apply them on increasingly small and fragmented parcels. The goal of this study was to compare effects of management using cattle...
Larson, Diane L.; Hernández, Daniel L.; Larson, Jennifer L.; Leone, Julia B.; Pennarola, Nora P. Landslides after wildfire: Initiation, magnitude, and mobility
In the semiarid Southwestern USA, wildfires are commonly followed by runoff-generated debris flows because wildfires remove vegetation and ground cover, which reduces soil infiltration capacity and increases soil erodibility. At a study site in Southern California, we initially observed runoff-generated debris flows in the first year following...
Rengers, Francis K.; McGuire, Luke; Oakley, Nina S.; Kean, Jason W.; Staley, Dennis M.; Tang, Hui Boreal blazes: Biomass burning and vegetation types archived in the Juneau Icefield
The past decade includes some of the most extensive boreal forest fires in the historical record. Warming temperatures, changing precipitation patterns, the desiccation of thick organic soil layers, and increased ignition from lightning all contribute to a combustive combination. Smoke aerosols travel thousands of kilometers, before blanketing the...
Kehrwald, Natalie; Jasmann, Jeramy Roland; Dunham, Melissa E.; Ferris, David G.; Osterburg, Erich C.; Kennedy, Joshua; Havens, Jeremy; Barber, Larry; Fortner, Sarah K. Generalized models to estimate carbon and nitrogen stocks of organic soil horizons in Interior Alaska
Boreal ecosystems comprise one tenth of the world’s land surface and contain over 20 % of the global soil carbon (C) stocks. Boreal soils are unique in that its mineral soil is covered by what can be quite thick layers of organic soil. These organic soil layers, or horizons, can differ in their state of decomposition, source vegetation, and...
Manies, Kristen L.; Waldrop, Mark; Harden, Jennifer W. A guidebook to spatial datasets for conservation planning under climate change in the Pacific Northwest
This guidebook provides user-friendly overviews of a variety of spatial datasets relevant to conservation and management of natural resources in the face of climate change in the Pacific Northwest, United States. Each guidebook chapter was created using a standardized template to summarize a spatial dataset or a group of closely related datasets....
Cartwright, Jennifer M.; Belote, Travis; Blasch, Kyle W.; Campbell, Steve; Cartwright, Jennifer M.; Chambers, Jeanne C.; Davis, Raymond J.; Dobrowski, Solomon; Dunham, Jason B.; Gergel, Diana; Isaak, Daniel; Jaeger, Kristin; Krosby, Meade; Langdon, Jesse; Lawler, Joshua J.; Littlefield, Caitlin E; Luce, Charles H; Maestas, Jeremy D; Martinez, Anthony; Meddens, Arjan J.H.; Michalak, Julia; Parks, Sean A.; Peterman, Wendy; Popper, Ken; Ringo, Chris; Sando, Thomas R.; Schindel, Michael; Stralberg, Diana; Theobald, David M.; Walker, Nathan; Wilsey, Chad; Yang, Zhiqiang; Yost, Andrew
Biological assessment of a proposed vegetation management program to benefit tribes in eastern Oklahoma
Tribal communities may benefit from land management activities that enhance their use of resources on tribal lands. The Bureau of Indian Affairs is implementing a 5-year vegetation management program to provide support for projects that develop and use natural and cultural resources and improve opportunities for agricultural activities to benefit...
Harms, Benjamin R.; Bencin, Heidi L.; Carr, Natasha B. Prioritizing river basins for intensive monitoring and assessment by the US Geological Survey
The US Geological Survey (USGS) is currently (2020) integrating its water science programs to better address the nation’s greatest water resource challenges now and into the future. This integration will rely, in part, on data from 10 or more intensively monitored river basins from across the USA. A team of USGS scientists was convened to develop...
Van Metre, Peter C.; Qi, Sharon L.; Deacon, Jeffrey R.; Dieter, Cheryl A.; Driscoll, Jessica M.; Fienen, Michael N.; Kenney, Terry A.; Lambert, Patrick M.; Lesmes, David; Mason, Christopher Allen; Mueller-Solger, Anke; Musgrove, MaryLynn; Painter, Jaime A.; Rosenberry, Donald O.; Sprague, Lori A.; Tesoriero, Anthony J.; Windham-Myers, Lisamarie; Wolock, David M. Climate-change refugia in boreal North America: What, where, and for how long?
TThe vast boreal biome plays an important role in the global carbon cycle but is experiencing particularly rapid climate warming, threatening the integrity of valued ecosystems and their component species. We developed a framework and taxonomy to identify climate‐change refugia potential in the North American boreal region, summarizing current...
Stralberg, Diana; Arseneault, Dominique; Baltzer, Jennifer; Barber, Quinn; Bayne, Erin; Boulanger, Yan; Brown, Carissa; Cooke, Hilary; Devito, Kevin; Edwards, Jason; Estevo, Cesar; Flynn, Nadele; Frelich, Lee; Hogg, E. H. (T.); Johnston, Mark; Logan, Travis; Matsuoka, Steven M.; Moore, Paul; Morelli, Toni Lyn; Morissette, Julienne; Nelson, Elizabeth; Nenzén, Hedvig; Nielsen, Scott; Parisien, Marc-André; Pedlar, John; Price, David; Schmiegelow, Fiona; Slattery, Stuart; Sonnentag, Oliver; Thompson, Daniel; Whitman, Ellen Wildfire-driven changes in hydrology mobilize arsenic and metals from legacy mine waste
Wildfires burning in watersheds that have been mined and since revegetated pose unique risks to downstream water supplies. A wildfire near Boulder, Colorado that burned a forested watershed recovering from mining disturbance that occurred 80-160 years ago allowed us to 1) assess arsenic and metal contamination in streams draining the burned area...
Murphy, Sheila F.; McCleskey, R. Blaine; Martin, Deborah A.; Holloway, JoAnn; Writer, Jeffrey H. Development of a new open-source tool to map burned area and burn severity
Accurate and complete geospatial fire occurrence records are important in determining postfire effects, emissions, hazards, and fuel loading inventories. Currently, the Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (MTBS) project maps the fire perimeter and burn severity of all large fires on public lands. Although the MTBS project maps a large proportion of...
Picotte, Joshua J. Wildfire-driven forest conversion in western North American landscapes
Changing disturbance regimes and climate can overcome forest ecosystem resilience. Following high-severity fire, forest recovery may be compromised by lack of tree seed sources, warmer and drier postfire climate, or short-interval reburning. A potential outcome of the loss of resilience is the conversion of the prefire forest to a different forest...
Coop, Jonathan D.; Parks, Sean A.; Stevens-Rumann, Camile S; Crausbay, Shelley D.; Higuera, Philip E.; Hurteau, Matthew D; Tepley, Alan J.; Whitman, Ellen; Assal, Timothy J; Collins, Brandon M.; Davis, Kimberley T; Dobrowski, Solomon; Falk, Donald A.; Fornwalt, Paula J.; Fulé, Peter Z; Harvey, Brian J.; Kane, Van R.; Littlefield, Caitlin E; Margolis, Ellis; North, Malcolm; Parisien, Marc-André; Prichard, Susan; Rodman, Kyle C