Disturbance refugia within mosaics of forest fire, drought, and insect outbreaks

Abstract

Disturbance refugia – locations that experience less severe or frequent disturbances than the surrounding landscape – provide a framework to highlight not only where and why these biological legacies persist as adjacent areas change but also the value of those legacies in sustaining biodiversity. Recent studies of disturbance refugia in forest ecosystems have focused primarily on fire, with a growing recognition of important applications to land management. Given the wide range of disturbance processes in forests, developing a broader understanding of disturbance refugia is important for scientists and land managers, particularly in the context of anthropogenic climate change. We illustrate the framework of disturbance refugia through the individual and interactive effects of three prominent forest disturbance agents: fire, drought, and insect outbreaks. We provide examples of disturbance refugia and related applications to natural resource management in western North America, demonstrate methods for characterizing refugia, identify research priorities, and discuss why a more comprehensive definition of disturbance refugia is relevant to conservation globally.

A changing climate is snuffing out post‐fire recovery in montane forests

“…Similar terrain variables also help to predict the locations in which trees are most likely to survive fire (Chapman et al 2020; Meigs et al, 2020). Thus, topographic variables such as TPI and HLI may aid in locating climate change refugia that are less vulnerable to future changes in fire regimes (Krawchuk et al, 2020; Morelli et al, 2020).…”

Climate‐change refugia in boreal North America: what, where, and for how long?

“…The extent to which mature forest stands can escape or withstand fire and other disturbances will therefore be a key factor in determining their near‐term climate‐change resilience (Krawchuk et al . ).…”

Forest Fire Probability Mapping in Eastern Serbia: Logistic Regression versus Random Forest Method

“…Aside from the direct damage in terms of wood loss, which is obvious and easy to quantify, many other risks may appear following forest fires, due to the slow process of regeneration, especially in conifer forests [15]. Secondary pests, such as bark (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae) and ambrosia beetles (Coleoptera: Buprestidae) and diseases, that attack physiologically weakened trees may reach an outbreak population level and affect a much larger area than forest fire alone [16]. To minimize the harmful effects of forest fires, it is necessary to create an effective protection system against fire.…”