Climate change, fire management, and ecological services in the southwestern US

Hurteau, Matthew D.; Bradford, John B.; Fulé, Peter Z.; Taylor, Alan H.; Martin, Katherine L.

doi:10.1016/j.foreco.2013.08.007

Cited by 139 publications

(109 citation statements)

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“…For more than a century, fire suppression practices in the western US have changed forest composition and made them more susceptible to severe burning. These practices, combined with the increased temperatures attributed to climate change are expected to make fires seasons longer and more severe in the future (Hurteau, Bradford, Fule, Taylor, & Martin, 2014).…”

Section: Fuel Treatmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Despite this uncertainty in long-term carbon mitigation potential, more than a century of fire exclusion has increased the susceptibility of some forests to wildfire, and fuel treatments can be a useful management tool to reduce the intensity of fires, increase understory species diversity, nutrient cycling, and improve resilience to climate change including drought tolerance (Deal et al, 2009;Hurteau et al, 2014).…”

Section: Fuel Treatmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

US Forest Sector Greenhouse Mitigation Potential and Implications for Nationally Determined Contributions

Winkle¹,

Baker²,

Lapidus³

et al. 2017

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This PDF document was made available from www.rti.org as a public service of RTI International. More information about RTI Press can be found at http://www.rti.org/rtipress. RTI International is an independent, nonprofit research organization dedicated to improving the human condition by turning knowledge into practice. The RTI Press mission is to disseminate information about RTI research, analytic tools, and technical expertise to a national and international audience. RTI Press publications are peerreviewed by at least two independent substantive experts and one or more Press editors.

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Section: Fuel Treatmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Fuel Treatmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

US Forest Sector Greenhouse Mitigation Potential and Implications for Nationally Determined Contributions

Winkle¹,

Baker²,

Lapidus³

et al. 2017

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show abstract

“…A n increase in the extent of forest fires in the American West since the mid-1980s (1) has enhanced risks to lives, property, water quality, biodiversity, carbon sequestration, and other ecosystem services (2). This increasing wildfire trend has become even steeper during the past decade, with a higher number of large wildfires (>100 km 2 ) each year in each Western state compared with the annual average from 1980 to 2000 (3).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Socioecological transitions trigger fire regime shifts and modulate fire–climate interactions in the Sierra Nevada, USA, 1600–2015 CE

Taylor

Trouet

Skinner³

et al. 2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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176

158

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Large wildfires in California cause significant socioecological impacts, and half of the federal funds for fire suppression are spent each year in California. Future fire activity is projected to increase with climate change, but predictions are uncertain because humans can modulate or even override climatic effects on fire activity. Here we test the hypothesis that changes in socioecological systems from the Native American to the current period drove shifts in fire activity and modulated fire-climate relationships in the Sierra Nevada. We developed a 415-y record (1600-2015 CE) of fire activity by merging a treering-based record of Sierra Nevada fire history with a 20th-century record based on annual area burned. Large shifts in the fire record corresponded with socioecological change, and not climate change, and socioecological conditions amplified and buffered fire response to climate. Fire activity was highest and fire-climate relationships were strongest after Native American depopulation-following mission establishment (ca. 1775 CE)-reduced the self-limiting effect of Native American burns on fire spread. With the Gold Rush and EuroAmerican settlement (ca. 1865 CE), fire activity declined, and the strong multidecadal relationship between temperature and fire decayed and then disappeared after implementation of fire suppression (ca. 1904 CE). The amplification and buffering of fire-climate relationships by humans underscores the need for parameterizing thresholds of human-vs. climate-driven fire activity to improve the skill and value of fire-climate models for addressing the increasing fire risk in California.anthropogenic landscapes | fire ecology | land use | regime shifts | climate variability A n increase in the extent of forest fires in the American West since the mid-1980s (1) has enhanced risks to lives, property, water quality, biodiversity, carbon sequestration, and other ecosystem services (2). This increasing wildfire trend has become even steeper during the past decade, with a higher number of large wildfires (>100 km 2 ) each year in each Western state compared with the annual average from 1980 to 2000 (3). The fire problem is particularly acute in California, where a history of fire suppression (4), climate change (1, 5), more extreme fire weather (6), expanding development (7), and massive wildfires (e.g., 2013 Rim Fire, 1,042 km 2 ) have caused significant socioecological impacts. Future area burned in California is projected to further increase with anthropogenic warming (8). With more than half of the annual federal firefighting budget already being spent suppressing fires in California (4), a sustainable system of fire management requires approaches beyond active fire suppression (9). Predicting future fire activity is challenging because humans can alter fire regimes and fire-climate relationships even if climate becomes more conducive to fire (10). Changes in socioecological systems (SESs) can modulate or even override climatic effects on fire regimes through changing land use, igniti...

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“…Due to the long rotation periods of forest stands, and because of the many benefits people derive from forests (Quine et al 2011), it has been recognised that climate change will have a considerable impact on the provision of ecosystem goods and services from forests (Hurteau et al 2013;Lindner et al 2010;Steenberg et al 2011). Consequently, resilient forest adaptation should be considered, including counter measures (Hanewinkel et al 2013;Rist and Moen 2013) to maintain the continued long-term delivery of ecosystem goods and services from wooded landscapes (Fürstenau et al 2007;Rasche et al 2013;Stein et al 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Climate change uncertainty and the implications for land management decision-making has been widely discussed in the literature (Berkhout et al 2013;Courbaud et al 2010;Hurteau et al 2013;Millar et al 2007;Petr et al 2014;Seidl and Lexer 2013;Yousefpour et al 2012). In the UK, climate change uncertainty is represented by the probabilistic United Kingdom Climate Projections (UKCP 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparing the provision of ecosystem services in plantation forests under alternative climate change adaptation management options in Wales

et al. 2014

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To compare the provision of ecosystem services in plantation forests under alternative climate change adaptation management trajectories, we interpolated climatic variables from the UK 11-member regional climate models to use at high resolution in forest management situations. We used expert opinion to derive the links between coarse-scaled UK National Ecosystem Assessment scenarios and forest management alternatives (FMA) in a simulation of forest planning and management under climate change uncertainty. Nine indicators were used to compare the provision of forest ecosystem services from four alternative management trajectories based on FMA types under a changing climate. These show that by 2080 a 'business as usual' form of forest management at both Clocaenog and Gwydyr forests will become unsuitable under the two warmest and driest climate variants, marginal under four variants, and borderline suitable under the remaining five variants. This implies that if future forest policy requires the continued delivery of a wide range of ecosystem services, including, home grown timber, biodiversity, and the carbon mitigation benefit from woodlands, then there is 20-50 % chance of failing to deliver on some of these services, unless some adaptation measures to climatic impacts occurs, such as transformation to more diverse species forests managed using low-impact silviculture systems. We show that the benefits of achieving this will be to minimise most of the impacts that climate change would otherwise have on the delivery of ecosystem services from forests.

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Climate change, fire management, and ecological services in the southwestern US

Cited by 139 publications

References 138 publications

US Forest Sector Greenhouse Mitigation Potential and Implications for Nationally Determined Contributions

US Forest Sector Greenhouse Mitigation Potential and Implications for Nationally Determined Contributions

Socioecological transitions trigger fire regime shifts and modulate fire–climate interactions in the Sierra Nevada, USA, 1600–2015 CE

Comparing the provision of ecosystem services in plantation forests under alternative climate change adaptation management options in Wales

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