Climate-fire interactions on forest carbon in the Lake Tahoe Basin: Research Brief
/Loudermilk et al. investigated the influence of climate change and wildfire activity on carbon dynamics within the Lake Tahoe Basin.
Read MoreA Tale of Two Fire Syndromes: Recruiters vs. Resisters: Research Brief
/Chaparral species can be sorted into two life history types: those with dormant seed banks that germinate after fire and those with very short-‐lived seeds and these species survive fire by resprouting.
Read MoreResprouting Chaparral Dies from Postfire Drought: Research Brief
/Drought following fire can cause increased mortality in some resprouting chaparral shrub species and cause shifts in relative abundance compared to prefire levels.
Read MoreA Shifting Mosaic of Grasslands and Shrublands: Research Brief
/To better understand vegetation succession in the Los Angeles, California basin, modern aerial photos (1980) were measured and compared to older aerial photos (1928 & 1936), spanning roughly 50 years of vegetation change. Through this comparison, the authors found that shrublands and grasslands formed a dynamic mosaic.
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Fire Suppression Impacts on Postfire Recovery of Sierra Nevada Chaparral Shrublands: USGS Research Brief
/These researchers did extensive studies of postfire recovery following the 2002 McNally Fire in Sequoia National Forest and compared ancient stands of chaparral with younger stands.
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Fire-Driven Alien Plant Invasion in a Fire-Prone Community: USGS Research Brief
/This study showed that fire-adapted shrublands are vulnerable to changes in fire regime, leading to loss of native diversity and setting the community on a trajectory towards type conversion from a woody to an herbaceous system.
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Read MorePrescribed fires do not reduce future area burned in central and southern California: USGS Research Brief
/Researchers used 29 years of historical fire mapping to quantify the relationship between annual wildfire area and previous fire area in seven California counties to address the question of prescribed fire effectiveness in these counties.
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The Built Environment Is More Influential Than Fuel Breaks in Exposure to Wind-Driven Chaparral Fire: USGS Research Brief
/A Bayesian Network model was used to evaluate the relative importance of fuel and fuel treatments compared to weather and variables of the built and natural environment on wildfire risk at the wildland-urban interface (WUI) in San Diego County.
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Trees already stressed by drought may be more likely to die from fire: USGS Research Brief
/A study published in Ecology Letters suggests that the effects of drought and fire work in combination, such that forests experiencing drought will see more dead trees in the aftermath of wildfires.
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Social Constraints to Mitigation in a WUI Community: Research Brief
/The author examines social perceptions of risk of home ignition in the community of Forest Ranch, which is located in the Sierra-Cascade foothills near Chico in Butte County.
Read MoreHistorical Fire-Climate Patterns in Sierra Nevada Foothills and Montane Landscapes: Research Brief
/These authors utilized annual fire data from the early 20th century to 2010 to evaluate historical changes in fires and the extent to which annual variations in climate were correlated with fires.
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The Riskiest Ignition Sources in Southern California: Research Brief
/This study focuses on reducing fire ignition, specifically on discerning the most destructive ignition sources so that they might be targeted by managers.
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Resource Objective Wildfires Benefit Forests: Research Brief
/A 2015 study by Meyer showed that the natural range of variation (NRV) concept and key fire severity indicators could be used to quantitatively evaluate the landscape-scale effects of large wildfires managed for resource objectives.
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Constraints on Mechanical Treatment in the Sierra Nevada: Research Brief
/The authors evaluated current USFS standards and guidelines, input from forest management practitioners, and geospatial data to develop a hierarchy of biological (i.e., nonproductive forest), legal (i.e., wilderness), operational (i.e., equipment access), and administrative (i.e., sensitive species and riparian areas) constraints on mechanical treatments.
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Yikes! An Old-school Wildlife “Experiment” Involving Fire: Research Brief
/This 1952 study is a questionably designed attempt to measure wildlife survival during prescribed fire. The most dubious part of the project involves burying live-‐trapped animals in the path of a controlled burn.
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Wildland Fire in Ecosystems: Fire and Nonnative Invasive Plants: USGS Research Brief
/Presented here is scientific information regarding wildland fire and nonnative invasive plant species, identifies the nonnative invasive species currently of greatest concern in major bioregions of the United States, and describes emerging fire-invasive issues in each bioregion and throughout the nation.
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Wildfire trends in northwestern California forests: Research Brief
/The authors used spatial analyses to describe major wildfire patterns across a 5.8 million acre area of northwestern California.
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Wildfire Management on a Human-Dominated Landscape: USGS Research Brief
/California leads the nation in fire losses and the explanation for this is that with more than 33 million people, California has a fire regime that is dominated by human ignitions.
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What limits flexible fire management—public or agency pressure? Research Brief
/This study investigated internal and external influences on fire management through case studies of two wildfires in the summer of 2008.
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Vulnerability of Chaparral Shrubs to Fire Intervals: Research Brief
/This review article summarizes the biological risks to chaparral species depending on fire return interval.
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