Articles

Large California wildfires: 2020 fires in historical context

California in the year 2020 experienced a record breaking number of large fires. Here, we place this and other recent years in a historical context by examining records of large fire events in the state back t...

Authors: Jon E. Keeley and Alexandra D. Syphard

Correction to: A review of fire effects across South American ecosystems: the role of climate and time since fire

Authors: Melisa A. Giorgis, Sebastian R. Zeballos, Lucas Carbone, Heike Zimmermann, Henrik von Wehrden, Ramiro Aguilar, Ana E. Ferreras, Paula A. Tecco, Esteban Kowaljow, Fernando Barri, Diego E. Gurvich, Pablo Villagra and Pedro Jaureguiberry

Frequent burning in chir pine forests, Uttarakhand, India

Subtropical coniferous forests of the lesser Himalaya provide critical ecosystem services but fire regimes have received limited scientific attention. We reconstructed fire regimes using tree-ring methods in a...

Authors: Peter Z. Fulé, Satish C. Garkoti and Rajeev L. Semwal

Fire, land cover, and temperature drivers of bat activity in winter

Understanding the effects of disturbance events, land cover, and weather on wildlife activity is fundamental to wildlife management. Currently, in North America, bats are of high conservation concern due to wh...

Authors: Marcelo H. Jorge, Sara E. Sweeten, Michael C. True, Samuel R. Freeze, Michael J. Cherry, Elina P. Garrison, Hila Taylor, Katherine M. Gorman and W. Mark Ford

Predicting wildfire impacts on the prehistoric archaeological record of the Jemez Mountains, New Mexico, USA

Wildfires of uncharacteristic severity, a consequence of climate changes and accumulated fuels, can cause amplified or novel impacts to archaeological resources. The archaeological record includes physical fea...

Authors: Megan M. Friggens, Rachel A. Loehman, Connie I. Constan and Rebekah R. Kneifel

Fuel load, stand structure, and understory species composition following prescribed fire in an old-growth coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) forest

With the prevalence of catastrophic wildfire increasing in response to widespread fire suppression and climate change, land managers have sought methods to increase the resiliency of landscapes to fire. The ap...

Authors: David Cowman and Will Russell

Are fire temperatures and residence times good predictors of survival and regrowth for resprouters in Florida, USA, scrub?

Fire is a dominant ecological disturbance in many ecosystems. Post-fire resprouting is a widespread response to fire, but resprouting vigor varies with many components of the fire regime, including fire intens...

Authors: Eric S. Menges, Stacy A. Smith, Gretel L. Clarke and Stephanie M. Koontz

Large-scale wildfire reduces population growth in a peripheral population of sage-grouse

Drastic increases in wildfire size and frequency threaten western North American sagebrush (Artemisia L. spp.) ecosystems. At relatively large spatial scales, wildfire facilitates type conversion of sagebrush-dom...

Authors: Ian F. Dudley, Peter S. Coates, Brian G. Prochazka, Shawn T. O’Neil, Scott Gardner and David J. Delehanty

Moisture and vegetation cover limit ponderosa pine regeneration in high-severity burn patches in the southwestern US

Fire regimes are shifting in ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa Lawson & C. Lawson)-dominated forests, raising concern regarding future vegetation patterns and forest resilience, particularly within high-severity bu...

Authors: Megan P. Singleton, Andrea E. Thode, Andrew J. Sánchez Meador and Jose M. Iniguez

Correction to: Spatial scale in prescribed fire regimes: an understudied aspect in conservation with examples from the southeastern United States

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via the original article.

Authors: David S. Mason and Marcus A. Lashley

Forest fire and law: an analysis of Turkish forest fire legislation based on Food and Agriculture Organization criteria

Because of climate and forest vegetation, Turkey has regions (particularly the Mediterranean and Aegean regions) that are vulnerable to forest fires. Approximately 2000 forest fires have occurred every year fo...

Authors: Osman Devrim Elvan, Üstüner Birben, Ulaş Yunus Özkan, Hasan Tezcan Yıldırım and Yavuz Özhan Türker

A review of fire effects across South American ecosystems: the role of climate and time since fire

Fire is an important driver of ecosystem dynamics worldwide. However, knowledge on broad-scale patterns of ecosystem and organism responses to fires is still scarce. Through a systematic quantitative review of...

Authors: Melisa A. Giorgis, Sebastian R. Zeballos, Lucas Carbone, Heike Zimmermann, Henrik von Wehrden, Ramiro Aguilar, Ana E. Ferreras, Paula A. Tecco, Esteban Kowaljow, Fernando Barri, Diego E. Gurvich, Pablo Villagra and Pedro Jaureguiberry

Prescribed fire alters structure and composition of a mid-Atlantic oak forest up to eight years after burning

Prescribed fire in Eastern deciduous forests has been understudied relative to other regions in the United States. In Pennsylvania, USA, prescribed fire use has increased more than five-fold since 2009, yet fo...

Authors: Cody L. Dems, Alan H. Taylor, Erica A. H. Smithwick, Jesse K. Kreye and Margot W. Kaye

Introduction to the article by Harold Biswell: Prescribed Burning in Georgia and California Compared

Harold Biswell first learned about the benefits of prescribed fire in forest management when he was a Forest Service researcher in Georgia, USA. After he accepted a professorship in the School of Forestry at t...

Authors: Scott L. Stephens, Jan W. van Wagtendonk, James K. Agee and Ronald H. Wakimoto

Fire history and dendroecology of Catoctin Mountain, Maryland, USA, with newspaper corroboration

Our study was designed to reveal a detailed forest fire history at Catoctin Mountain Park, Maryland, USA. We compared the ages of living trees to known fire dates in the dendrochronological record. Seasonality...

Authors: Lauren F. Howard, Gabriel D. Cahalan, Kristyn Ehleben, Baaqeyah Amala Muhammad El, Hope Halza and Stephen DeLeon

Understory community shifts in response to repeated fire and fire surrogate treatments in the southern Appalachian Mountains, USA

Decades of fire exclusion in the southern Appalachian Mountains, USA, has led to changing forest structure and species composition over time. Forest managers and scientists recognize this and are implementing ...

Authors: Emily C. Oakman, Donald L. Hagan, Thomas A. Waldrop and Kyle Barrett

Revitalized Karuk and Yurok cultural burning to enhance California hazelnut for basketweaving in northwestern California, USA

Karuk and Yurok tribes in northwestern California, USA, are revitalizing the practice of cultural burning, which is the use of prescribed burns to enhance culturally important species. These cultural burns are...

Authors: Tony Marks-Block, Frank K. Lake, Rebecca Bliege Bird and Lisa M. Curran

Detecting shrub recovery in sagebrush steppe: comparing Landsat-derived maps with field data on historical wildfires

The need for basic information on spatial distribution and abundance of plant species for research and management in semiarid ecosystems is frequently unmet. This need is particularly acute in the large areas ...

Authors: Cara Applestein and Matthew J. Germino

A reconstruction of the recent fire regimes of Majete Wildlife Reserve, Malawi, using remote sensing

Fire is an important process that shapes the structure and functioning of African savanna ecosystems, and managers of savanna protected areas use fire to achieve ecosystem goals. Developing appropriate fire ma...

Authors: Willem A. Nieman, Brian W. van Wilgen and Alison J. Leslie

Spatial scale in prescribed fire regimes: an understudied aspect in conservation with examples from the southeastern United States

The idea that not all fire regimes are created equal is a central theme in fire research and conservation. Fire frequency (i.e., temporal scale) is likely the most studied fire regime attribute as it relates to c...

Authors: David S. Mason and Marcus A. Lashley

Exploring the use of spectral indices to assess alterations in soil properties in pine stands affected by crown fire in Spain

Forest fires have increased in extent and intensity in the Mediterranean area in recent years, threatening forest ecosystems through loss of vegetation, changes in soil properties, and increased soil erosion r...

Authors: Cristina Fernández, José Mª Fernández-Alonso, José A. Vega, Teresa Fontúrbel, Rafael Llorens and José A. Sobrino

Impacts of increasing fine fuel loads on acorn germination and early growth of oak seedlings

Prescribed fire is increasingly used to restore and maintain upland oak (Quercus L. spp.) ecosystems in the central and eastern US. However, little is known about how prescribed fire affects recently fallen acorn...

Authors: Rachel E. Nation, Heather D. Alexander, Geoff Denny, Jennifer K. McDaniel and Alison K. Paulson

Determinants of fire intensity in working landscapes of an African savanna

An often cited rule of savanna fire ecology is that early dry-season fires burn less intensely than late dry-season ones; however, few studies base their experimental design on the practices of fire managers i...

Authors: Paul Laris, Rebecca Jacobs, Moussa Koné, Fadiala Dembélé and Christine M. Rodrigue

Correction to: Revealing historical fire regimes of the Cumberland Plateau, USA, through remnant fire-scarred shortleaf pines (Pinus echinata Mill.)

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via the original article.

Authors: Michael C. Stambaugh, Joseph M. Marschall and Erin R. Abadir

A large database supports the use of simple models of post-fire tree mortality for thick-barked conifers, with less support for other species

Predictive models of post-fire tree and stem mortality are vital for management planning and understanding fire effects. Post-fire tree and stem mortality have been traditionally modeled as a simple empirical ...

Authors: C. Alina Cansler, Sharon M. Hood, Phillip J. van Mantgem and J. Morgan Varner

Revealing historical fire regimes of the Cumberland Plateau, USA, through remnant fire-scarred shortleaf pines (Pinus echinata Mill.)

Vegetation of the Cumberland Plateau (USA) has undergone dramatic transitions since the last glaciation and particularly since the onset of widespread logging and twentieth century fire exclusion. Shortleaf pi...

Authors: Michael C. Stambaugh, Joseph M. Marschall and Erin R. Abadir

Do early trends in oak barrens fire treatment predict later outcomes? Insights from three decades of vegetation monitoring

Vegetation structure, species diversity, and composition have been monitored at a fire-treatment and a fire-free control unit of a dry oak barrens and woodland complex in southern Illinois, USA, over a 29-year...

Authors: John B. Taft

The distribution of woody species in relation to climate and fire in Yosemite National Park, California, USA

The effects of climate on plant species ranges are well appreciated, but the effects of other processes, such as fire, on plant species distribution are less well understood. We used a dataset of 561 plots 0.1...

Authors: Jan W. van Wagtendonk, Peggy E. Moore, Julie L. Yee and James A. Lutz

An added boost in pyrogenic carbon when wildfire burns forest with high pre-fire mortality

Wildfires produce pyrogenic carbon (PyC) through the incomplete combustion of organic matter, and its chemical characterization is critical to understanding carbon (C) budgets and ecosystem functions in forest...

Authors: Anna C. Talucci, Lauren M. Matosziuk, Jeff A. Hatten and Meg A. Krawchuk

The effects of oak (Quercus) restoration on forest trajectory and small mammal use in the southern Cumberland Plateau, USA

Thinning and prescribed fire are increasingly used to promote oak (Quercus L. spp.) regeneration in forest restoration projects across the eastern United States. In addition to monitoring the response of vegetati...

Authors: C. Ken Smith, Amy J. Turner, J. Kevin Hiers, Julie Garai, W. Nate Wilson and A. Nicole Nunley

Integrating art and science to communicate the social and ecological complexities of wildfire and climate change in Arizona, USA

This paper describes Fires of Change, a collaborative art exhibit designed to communicate about the shifting fire regimes of the United States Southwest through the lens of multimedia art. The Southwest Fire Scie...

Authors: Melanie Colavito, Barbara Satink Wolfson, Andrea E. Thode, Collin Haffey and Carolyn Kimball

Restoration applications of resource objective wildfires in western US forests: a status of knowledge review

Frequent-fire forests of the western United States have undergone remarkable changes in structure, composition, and function due to historical exclusion of naturally occurring fire. Mechanized tree thinning to...

Authors: David W. Huffman, John Paul Roccaforte, Judith D. Springer and Joseph E. Crouse

Litter to glitter: promoting herbaceous groundcover and diversity in mid-southern USA oak forests using canopy disturbance and fire

In oak-dominated communities throughout eastern North America, fire exclusion and subsequent woody encroachment has replaced the “glitter” of once robust and diverse wildflower and grass layers with leaf-litte...

Authors: Andrew L. Vander Yacht, Patrick D. Keyser, Seth A. Barrioz, Charles Kwit, Michael C. Stambaugh, Wayne K. Clatterbuck and Ryan Jacobs

Changes to the Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity program mapping production procedures and data products

The Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (MTBS) program has been providing the fire science community with large fire perimeter and burn severity data for the past 14 years. As of October 2019, 22 969 fires have...

Authors: Joshua J. Picotte, Krishna Bhattarai, Danny Howard, Jennifer Lecker, Justin Epting, Brad Quayle, Nate Benson and Kurtis Nelson

Fire and distance from unburned forest influence bird assemblages in Southern Andean Yungas of Northwest Argentina: a case study

Wildfires affect vegetation structure, functions, and other attributes of forest ecosystems. Among these attributes, bird assemblages may be influenced by the distance from undisturbed to fire-disturbed forest...

Authors: Adriana Marisel Morales, Natalia Politi, Luis Osvaldo Rivera, Constanza Guadalupe Vivanco and Guillermo Emilio Defossé

Effects of fire on native columnar and globular cacti of Puerto Rico: a case study of El Faro, Cabo Rojo

Many Puerto Rican ecosystems evolved without a regular fire regime. As such, many native plants lack adaptations necessary to survive even low-intensity fires. Human-caused fires are increasing in frequency, i...

Authors: Roberto Carrera-Martínez, Jorge Ruiz-Arocho, Laura Aponte-Díaz, David A. Jenkins and Joseph J. O’Brien

Retrospective analysis of burn windows for fire and fuels management: an example from the Lake Tahoe Basin, California, USA

In fire-adapted ecosystems of the western USA, prescribed fire is an essential restoration and fuel reduction tool. There is general concern that, as the fire season lengthens, the window for conducting prescr...

Authors: Randy Striplin, Stephanie A. McAfee, Hugh D. Safford and Michael J. Papa

Smoke in the Great Plains, USA: an increasing phenomenon with potential policy and health implications

In recent decades, as wildland fire occurrence has increased in the United States, concern about the emissions produced by wildland fires has increased as well. This growing concern is evidenced by an increase...

Authors: Heath D. Starns, Douglas R. Tolleson, Robert J. Agnew, Elijah G. Schnitzler and John R. Weir

Prescribed fire science: the case for a refined research agenda

The realm of wildland fire science encompasses both wild and prescribed fires. Most of the research in the broader field has focused on wildfires, however, despite the prevalence of prescribed fires and demons...

Authors: J. Kevin Hiers, Joseph J. O’Brien, J. Morgan Varner, Bret W. Butler, Matthew Dickinson, James Furman, Michael Gallagher, David Godwin, Scott L. Goodrick, Sharon M. Hood, Andrew Hudak, Leda N. Kobziar, Rodman Linn, E. Louise Loudermilk, Sarah McCaffrey, Kevin Robertson…

Effects of frequent fire and mowing on resprouting shrubs of Florida scrub, USA

Resprouting is an effective strategy for persistence of perennial plants after disturbances such as fire. However, can disturbances be so frequent that they limit resprouting? We examined the effects of fire a...

Authors: Eric S. Menges, Stacy A. Smith, Jose M. Olano, Jennifer L. Schafer, Gretel Clarke and Kevin Main

The effect of scale in quantifying fire impacts on species habitats

Fire size and severity have increased in the western United States in recent decades, and are expected to continue to increase with warming climate. Habitats for many species are threatened by large and high-s...

Authors: Ho Yi Wan, Samuel A. Cushman and Joseph L. Ganey

Radiant heating rapidly increases litter flammability through impacts on fuel moisture

Litter is the predominant fuel that drives surface fire behavior in most fire-prone forest and woodland ecosystems. The flammability of litter is driven by fuel characteristics, environmental factors, and the ...

Authors: Jesse K. Kreye, Jeffrey M. Kane, J. Morgan Varner and J. Kevin Hiers

Correction to: Fuels, vegetation, and prescribed fire dynamics influence ash production and characteristics in a diverse landscape under active pine barrens restoration

Following publication of the original article Quigley et al. 2019, the authors reported that an incorrect version of Additional 1 has been published. The corrected version of Additional file 1 is attached to t...

Authors: K. M. Quigley, R. E. Wildt, B. R. Sturtevant, R. K. Kolka, M. B. Dickinson, C. C. Kern, D. M. Donner and J. R. Miesel

The influence of repeated prescribed fire on decomposition and nutrient release in uneven-aged loblolly–shortleaf pine stands

Repeated use of prescribed fire in Southern US pine stands has the potential to alter litter quality as well as forest floor mineralization, which may reduce nutrient availability. There are few studies that h...

Authors: Hal O. Liechty and Michele Reinke

Wildfire and fire mosaic effects on bird species richness and community composition in south-western Australia

A fire management strategy of deliberate patch-mosaic burning (PMB) is postulated to promote biodiversity by providing a range of habitat patches with different fire histories, habitat qualities, and vegetatio...

Authors: Allan J. Wills, Graeme Liddelow and Verna Tunsell

Changing wildfire, changing forests: the effects of climate change on fire regimes and vegetation in the Pacific Northwest, USA

Wildfires in the Pacific Northwest (Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and western Montana, USA) have been immense in recent years, capturing the attention of resource managers, fire scientists, and the general public...

Authors: Jessica E. Halofsky, David L. Peterson and Brian J. Harvey

Fire-associated reptile mortality in Tembe Elephant Park, South Africa

Even though fire has been used extensively as part of conservation management in South Africa, its impact on the life history and mortality of fossorial reptiles is poorly documented. We conducted post-fire tr...

Authors: Philip R. Jordaan, Johan C. A. Steyl, Catharine C. Hanekom and Xander Combrink

Fire and land cover change in the Palouse Prairie–forest ecotone, Washington and Idaho, USA

Prairie–forest ecotones are ecologically important for biodiversity and ecological processes. While these ecotones cover small areas, their sharp gradients in land cover promote rich ecological interaction and...

Authors: Penelope Morgan, Emily K. Heyerdahl, Eva K. Strand, Stephen C. Bunting, James P. Riser II, John T. Abatzoglou, Max Nielsen-Pincus and Mara Johnson

Factors influencing the persistence of reindeer lichens (Cladonia subgenus Cladina) within frequent-fire environments of the Mid-Atlantic Coastal Plain, USA

Prescribed fire is increasingly used to accomplish management goals in fire-adapted systems, yet our understanding of effects on non-target organisms remains underdeveloped. Terricolous lichens in the genus Clado...

Authors: David G. Ray, Gabriel D. Cahalan and James C. Lendemer

Fuel dynamics and reburn severity following high-severity fire in a Sierra Nevada, USA, mixed-conifer forest

High-severity fire in forested landscapes often produces a post-fire condition of high shrub cover and large loads of dead wood. Given the increasing patch size of high-severity fire and the tendency for these...

Authors: Jamie M. Lydersen, Brandon M. Collins, Michelle Coppoletta, Melissa R. Jaffe, Hudson Northrop and Scott L. Stephens