SS 35 - Integrating Experimental, Modeling, and Management Approaches to Understand and Mitigate Fire Impacts to Western US Forests

Session Description: Drought and fire are endemic in western North America; however, increases in intensity and frequency in recent decades, caused by a combination of excessive fuels from fire suppression, soil and atmospheric aridity, and human ignitions, threatens forest survival in the region. Yet, this region is not a monolith; resilience to changing drought and fire regimes is highly variable amongst tree and microbial species, and across soils, topography, and disturbance history. As a result, integrated approaches are needed to decipher mechanisms and processes that are transferable and scalable to move beyond uniqueness-of-place problems. We need to understand and predict how the mechanisms controlling forest structure and function are impacted by increasing drought and fire, from molecular to biome scales. Many studies have identified impacts of drought and fire on forests, but we continue to make incremental progress through reductionist approaches within subdisciplines. To transform and accelerate research progress, we must address questions that cut across disciplines and spatiotemporal scales to unearth critical knowledge for policy and management decisions. This session is well-suited to meeting theme of “For All Ecologists” – bringing together ecologists from the public and private sectors as well as academia. The group will be discussing ecological changes -- future impacts of climate-driven fire in forests across the western US – and policy and management changes of how to drive innovation to foster desired outcomes of forest resilience in light of these challenges. The session will begin with a short introduction of discussion topics, followed by a world café event. All participants will have the opportunity to engage with the expert panelists through the rotating, prompted discussion section. The prompts will be precursors to sections in a perspective, blueprint manuscript on successful integration of experimental, modeling, and management approaches.