Shifting social-ecological fire regimes explain increasing structure loss from Western wildfires

Higuera, Philip E.; Cook, Maxwell C.; Balch, Jennifer K.; Stavros, E. Natasha; Mahood, Adam L.; Denis, Lise A. St.

doi:10.1093/pnasnexus/pgad005

Cited by 26 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…Wildfire awareness of homeowners, as well as community involvement and actions, can be strengthened through outreach programs such as Firewise USA ( 37 ). Outreach, combined with enforcement, could also reduce unwanted ignitions, which cause most of the fires that lead to home losses ( 15 , 38 ). At the landscape scale, vegetation management, including fuel breaks, can reduce the potential for wildfires that have high intensity or that spread rapidly.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rising wildfire risk to houses in the United States, especially in grasslands and shrublands

Radeloff,

Mockrin,

Helmers

et al. 2023

Science

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Wildfire risks to homes are increasing, especially in the wildland-urban interface (WUI), where wildland vegetation and houses are in close proximity. Notably, we found that more houses are exposed to and destroyed by grassland and shrubland fires than by forest fires in the United States. Destruction was more likely in forest fires, but they burned less WUI. The number of houses within wildfire perimeters has doubled since the 1990s because of both housing growth (47% of additionally exposed houses) and more burned area (53%). Most exposed houses were in the WUI, which grew substantially during the 2010s (2.6 million new WUI houses), albeit not as rapidly as before. Any WUI growth increases wildfire risk to houses though, and more fires increase the risk to existing WUI houses.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rising wildfire risk to houses in the United States, especially in grasslands and shrublands

Radeloff,

Mockrin,

Helmers

et al. 2023

Science

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“…For example, due to low annual burn probabilities in infrequent-fire forests, our estimates showed carbon in western Colorado, Oregon, and Washington to be less exposed to wildfire relative to other regions in the western US. However, infrequentfire forests in these regions are already experiencing the overlap of extreme climate conditions [34, 78,79], extreme weather events [80], and unplanned human ignitions [81]-resulting in historic wildfire seasons. Such scenarios are expected to increase under climate change [82], which will likely heighten the risk of wildfire-caused carbon loss-especially without human intervention.…”

Section: Where Is Carbon Most Exposed and Sensitive To Wildfire?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Identifying opportunity hot spots for reducing the risk of wildfire-caused carbon loss in western US conifer forests

Peeler,

McCauley,

Metlen

et al. 2023

Environ. Res. Lett.

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The escalating climate and wildfire crises have generated worldwide interest in using proactive forest management (e.g. forest thinning, prescribed fire, cultural burning) to mitigate the risk of wildfire-caused carbon loss in forests. To estimate the risk of wildfire-caused carbon loss in western United States (US) conifer forests, we used a generalizable framework to evaluate interactions among wildfire hazard and carbon exposure and vulnerability. By evaluating where high social adaptive capacity for proactive forest management overlaps with carbon most vulnerable to wildfire-caused carbon loss, we identified opportunity hot spots for reducing the risk of wildfire-caused carbon loss. We found that relative to their total forest area, California, New Mexico, and Arizona contained the greatest proportion of carbon highly vulnerable to wildfire-caused loss. We also observed widespread opportunities in the western US for using proactive forest management to reduce the risk of wildfire-caused carbon loss, with many areas containing opportunities for simultaneously mitigating the greatest risk from wildfire to carbon and human communities. Finally, we highlighted collaborative and equitable processes that provide pathways to achieving timely climate- and wildfire-mitigation goals at opportunity hot spots.

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“…In contrast, fire frequency has often increased in the wildland‐urban interface (WUI), where human‐caused ignitions (e.g. powerlines, cars, cigarettes and camp fires) are plentiful (Fusco et al., 2022; Higuera et al., 2023; Syphard et al., 2017). In some regions, low‐severity fire has been reintroduced in the form of prescribed fire to emulate the historic fire regime (Miller et al., 2017).…”

Section: Pyrodiversity and Shifting Fire Regimesmentioning

confidence: 99%

A roadmap for pyrodiversity science

Steel,

Miller,

Ponisio

et al. 2023

Journal of Biogeography

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BackgroundContemporary and projected shifts in global fire regimes highlight the importance of understanding how fire affects ecosystem function and biodiversity across taxa and geographies. Pyrodiversity, or heterogeneity in fire history, is often an important driver of biodiversity, though it has been largely overlooked until relatively recently. In this paper, we synthesise previous research to develop a theoretical framework on pyrodiversity–biodiversity relationships and propose future research and conservation management directions.Theoretical FrameworkPyrodiversity may affect biodiversity by diversifying available ecological niches, stabilising community networks and/or supporting diverse species pools available for post‐fire colonisation. Further, pyrodiversity's effects on biodiversity vary across different spatial, temporal and organismal scales depending on the mobility and other life history traits of the organisms in question and may be mediated by regional eco‐evolutionary factors such as historical fire regimes. Developing a generalisable understanding of pyrodiversity effects on biodiversity has been challenging, in part because pyrodiversity can be quantified in various ways.Applying the Pyrodiversity ConceptExclusion of Indigenous fire stewardship, fire suppression, increased unplanned ignitions and climate change have led to dramatic shifts in fire regimes globally. Such shifts include departures from historic levels of pyrodiversity and add to existing challenges to biodiversity conservation in fire‐prone landscapes. Managers navigating these challenges can be aided by targeted research into observed contemporary pyrodiversity–biodiversity relationships as well as knowledge of historical reference conditions informed by both Indigenous and local ecological knowledge and western science.Future Research DirectionsSeveral promising avenues exist for the advancement of pyrodiversity science to further both theoretical and practical goals. These lines of investigation include but are not limited to (1) testing the increasing variety of pyrodiversity metrics and analytical approaches; (2) assessing the spatial and temporal scale‐dependence of pyrodiversity's influence; (3) reconstructing historical pyrodiversity patterns and developing methods for predicting and/or promoting future pyrodiversity; and (4) expanding the focus of pyrodiversity science beyond biodiversity to better understand its influence on ecosystem function and processes more broadly.

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Shifting social-ecological fire regimes explain increasing structure loss from Western wildfires

Cited by 26 publications

References 47 publications

Rising wildfire risk to houses in the United States, especially in grasslands and shrublands

Rising wildfire risk to houses in the United States, especially in grasslands and shrublands

Identifying opportunity hot spots for reducing the risk of wildfire-caused carbon loss in western US conifer forests

A roadmap for pyrodiversity science

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