JFSP Fire Science Exchange Network
This study finds that the usefulness of several fire severity metrics (Composite Burn Index, RdNBR) depends on whether the land had burned recently and how severely.
Read MoreThis paper provides statistical comparisons of wildfires and Rx burning in the three Sierra Nevada NPS parks and six adjacent USFS forests for the period from 1968 through 2017.
Read MoreThis Overview Article summarizes research relevant to understanding short- and longer-term effects of massive tree mortality in what were historically frequent fire forests of California, presents results on fire severity from a recent wildfire that burned through severe tree mortality, and makes management recommendations for reducing future tree mortality and increasing forest resilience and adaptation to climate change.
Read MoreWatch this short documentary on why fire is needed in the Sierra De San Pedro Mártir in Baja California with interviews from some familiar faces. (Spanish subtitles)
Read MoreIf the fire has characteristics that do not fit the historical fire regime with which the fire-adapted ecosystem has developed, then it may impact resilience and cause a shift in ecosystem characteristics.
Read MoreFuture climate-induced shifts in fire regimes and plant distributions could uncouple vegetation from the fire regimes for which they are adapted. The brief discusses changes to fire-adapted plant communities under modeled climate change scenarios and their implications on the Kaibab Plateau landscape.
Read MoreUsing a geodatabase, researchers found that the maximum elevation extent of wildfires and the probability of wildfire occurrence above 3000 m have increased over the last century in the Sierra Nevada. This trend may accelerate vegetation shifts towards upper montane forest types in current subalpine systems.
Photo courtesy of Sasha Berleman
Read MoreStudy results from arid regions in Southern California show how fire trends differ based on unique sets of circumstances. This brief discuses how combinations of direct drivers (like powerline and roadside ignitions), indirect drivers (like invasive grasses, air pollution, and landscape fragmentation terrestrial intactness) and unknown factors cause diversity in fire trends.
Read MoreThe authors assessed relative and absolute changes in wildfire area and severity in seven forest types arrayed along an elevational gradient in the Sierra Nevada and adjacent forested mountains. Findings suggest that there is a major fire “deficit” in the greater Sierra Nevada Region, across all major forest types. However, the nature of this deficit differs among forest types.
Read MoreResults from a 2016 study by Coppoletta and others suggests that in areas where fire regimes and forest structure have been dramatically altered, contemporary fires have the potential to set forests on a positive feedback trajectory with successive reburns, one in which extensive stand-replacing fire could promote more stand-replacing fire.
Read MoreIn a review article by Jon Keeley and Alex Syphard, examples from California show that fire regimes are sensitive to geographic and seasonal variation in the climate signal and that many factors will confound the ability to model future conditions.
Read MoreIn many past and present ecosystems, changes in animal, plant, and human communities have been more influential in rapid local fire regime disruption than climate. The good news is that, unlike climate change, these direct, proximate community causes can be practically addressed by fire and resource managers.
Read MoreThe soil characteristics and historical records of the Blue Canyon brush field were reviewed.
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An article provides an overview of key factors, concepts and tools to understand the ecological resistance to biological invasion and resilience to fire of desert shrublands of North America.
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A 2009 study by Collins et al. suggests that freely burning fires in upper elevation mixed-‐conifer forests of the Sierra Nevada may effectively regulate fire-‐induced effects across an entire landscape.
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Researchers studied the human influence on fire regimes at the WUI using California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CDF) data from a majority of counties in the state, coupled with associated housing and other human infrastructure data.
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The authors sought to determine how mixed conifer forests under an active fire regime differ from forests under fire suppression.
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It is concluded that there is a wealth of information on factors affecting fire size in southern California that make it unnecessary to base fire management in the region on questionable comparisons with Baja California.
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According to a recent statewide FRID (fire return interval departure) analysis for USFS and some NPS lands, there are two distinct California fire regimes.
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Temporal and spatial patterns of burning can affect the invasion risk and prevalence of alien plants in California as explained in a book chapter in The Landscape Ecology of Fire.
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The California Fire Science Consortium is divided into 4 geographic regions and 1 wildland-urban interface (WUI) team. Statewide coordination of this program is based at UC Berkeley.
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This regional Fire Science Exchange is one of 15 regional fire science exchanges sponsored by Joint Fire Science Program (JFSP).
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