OOS 17 - Shared Challenges: Characterizing and Forecasting Ecosystem Responses to Change in Historically Climate-limited Fire Regimes

Organizer(s)

• BH

  Brian Harvey

  Assistant Professor
  University of Washington
  Seattle, Washington, United States

Co-Organizer(s)

• MT

  Monica Turner, Ph.D.

  Professor
  Department of Integrative Biology, University of Wisconsin-Madison
  Madison, Wisconsin, United States
• MB

  Michele Buonanduci

  University of Washington
  Seattle, Washington, United States
• JM

  Jenna Morris

  PhD student
  School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
  Seattle, Washington, United States

Warming climate is a key factor contributing to increasing fire activity in forest ecosystems worldwide. With increasing fire potential, some of the largest increases in area burned are expected to occur in forests where cool and wet climate conditions historically limited fire activity. In these historically climate-limited systems where fuels are abundant, fire regimes are often characterized by very infrequent but high-severity fire. The infrequent nature of fire in these ecosystems poses challenges that are unique compared to more frequent-fire ecosystems, in part due to the inherent scarcity of data available to understand the fundamental characteristics of fire activity. This session features researchers studying various dimensions of fire activity in climate-limited fire regimes spanning both North America and Australia. This session will include a range of current studies focused on characterizing and forecasting potential changes in fire intervals, spatial patterns of burn severity, and post-fire forest trajectories in climate-limited fire regimes, using a range of approaches from observational to simulation modeling. As fire activity continues to increase, the need to understand the nature and consequences of fire events that were once considered too rare and large to incorporate into planning efforts will only increase in importance. We will conclude this session by considering the implications of the 2020 fire season for changing fire activity in climate-limited fire regimes.

Presentations:

• 8:00 AM – 8:15 AM PDT

  Characteristics, drivers, and implications of burn severity heterogeneity in a temperate maritime forest ecosystem
  

  Presenting Author: Brian J. Harvey – University of Washington

  Co-author: Michele S. Buonanduci – University of Washington

  Co-author: Daniel C. Donato – Washington State Department of Natural Resources

  Co-author: Joshua S. Halofsky, PhD – Washington State Department of Natural Resources

  Co-author: Matthew J. Reilly – USDA Forest Service
• 8:15 AM – 8:30 AM PDT

  Scaling burn severity patterns across regions and fire regimes yields insights into historically climate-limited fire regimes
  

  Presenting Author: Michele S. Buonanduci – University of Washington

  Co-author: Daniel C. Donato – Washington State Department of Natural Resources

  Co-author: Joshua S. Halofsky, PhD – Washington State Department of Natural Resources

  Co-author: Maureen C. Kennedy – University of Washington, Tacoma

  Co-author: Brian J. Harvey – University of Washington
• 8:30 AM – 8:45 AM PDT

  Measuring and modeling post-fire forest trajectories in northwestern Cascadia
  

  Presenting Author: Jenna E. Morris – School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA

  Co-author: Sofia Saenz Kruszka – School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA

  Co-author: Madison M. Laughlin – University of Washington

  Co-author: Liliana K. Rangel-Parra – University of Washington

  Co-author: Daniel C. Donato – Washington State Department of Natural Resources

  Co-author: Joshua S. Halofsky, PhD – Washington State Department of Natural Resources

  Co-author: Brian J. Harvey – University of Washington
• 8:45 AM – 9:00 AM PDT

  Spatial predictions of future regeneration failure in obligate seeding Eucalypt forests
  

  Presenting Author: Sarah McColl-Gausden – University of Melbourne

  Co-author: Lauren Bennett – The University of Melbourne

  Co-author: Hamish Clarke – The University of Melbourne

  Co-author: Tom Fairman – School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne

  Co-author: Dan Ababei – The University of Melbourne

  Co-author: Trent Penman – University of Melbourne
• 9:00 AM – 9:15 AM PDT

  Can managing for fire refugia slow 21st century forest change? A simulation study in Greater Yellowstone
  

  Presenting Author: Timon T. Keller – Department of Integrative Biology, University of Wisconsin-Madison

  Co-author: Monica G. Turner, Ph.D. – Department of Integrative Biology, University of Wisconsin-Madison

  Co-author: Kristin H. Braziunas, Ph.D. – TUM School of Life Sciences, Technical University of Munich, Freising, Germany

  Co-author: Christina E. Dollinger – Technical University of Munich
• 9:15 AM – 9:30 AM PDT

  When the Black Swan shows up: the unprecedented but also totally precedented 2020 Labor Day fire event in the West Cascades
  

  Presenting Author: Daniel C. Donato – Washington State Department of Natural Resources

  Co-author: Joshua S. Halofsky, PhD – Washington State Department of Natural Resources

  Co-author: Brian J. Harvey – University of Washington

  Co-author: Matthew J. Reilly – USDA Forest Service