Citation: van Mantgem, Phillip J.; Stephenson, Nathan L.; Byrne, John C.; Daniels, Lori D.; Franklin, Jerry F.; Fulé, Peter Z.; Harmon, Mark E.; Larson, Andrew J.; Smith, Jeremy M.; Taylor, Alan H.; Veblen, Thomas T. 2009. Widespread increase of tree mortality rates in the western United States. Science 323(5913):521-524.
Summary: The authors assessed the widespread tree mortality that has occurred in coniferous forests in the western U.S. and Canada and identified possible causes of the increased mortality.
Citation: Weisz, Reuben; Triepke, Jack; Truman, Russ. 2009. Evaluating the ecological sustainability of a ponderosa pine ecosystem on the Kaibab Plateau in northern Arizona. Fire Ecology 5(1):100-114.
Summary: The authors created a process for evaluating the ecological sustainability of fire-adapted ecosystems in the face of climate change and analyzed a case study in ponderosa pine forests on the Kaibab Plateau within the Kaibab National Forest.
Citation: Haire, S. L., and K. McGarigal. 2008. Inhabitants of landscape scars: succession of woody plants after large, severe forest fires in Arizona and New Mexico. Southwestern Naturalist, v. 53, no. 2, p. 146-161.
Summary: The authors looked at the influence of the spatial heterogeneity of burn severity on the succession of the woody plant community burned at high severity across an elevational gradient and distance from unburned edge.
Citation: Huffman, David W.; Fulé, Peter Z.; Pearson, Kristen M.; Crouse, Joseph E. 2008. Fire history of pinyon-juniper woodlands at upper ecotones with ponderosa pine forests in Arizona and New Mexico. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 38(8):2097-2108.
Summary: The authors reconstructed the historical fire regime using dendrochronological and forest structure analysis techniques along the ecotonal boundary of pinyon-juniper woodlands and ponderosa pine forest.
Citation: Parmenter, Robert R. 2008. Long-term effects of a summer fire on desert grassland plant demographics in New Mexico. Rangeland Ecology & Management 61(2):156-168.
Summary: The authors examined the effects of a prescribed fire on desert short-grass steppe vegetation on plant mortality, survivorship, and regeneration as well as the effects on non-native species composition and shrub invations for 12 years post-fire.
Citation: Hurteau, Matthew D.; North, Malcom P. 2008. Mixed-conifer understory response to climate change, nitrogen, and fire. Global Change Biology 14(7):1543-1552.
Summary: The authors experimentally tested the effects of increasing and decreasing snowpack depth, increasing nitrogen, and prescribed fire on understory fuel diversity and biomass production in a mixed-conifer forest.
Citation: Roccaforte, John P.; Fulé, Peter Z.; Covington, W. Wallace. 2008. Landscape-scale changes in canopy fuels and potential fire behaviour following ponderosa pine restoration treatments. International Journal of Wildland Fire 17(2):293-303.
Summary: The authors evaluated the effects of a landscape-scale restoration treatment of thinning followed by prescribed fire on reducing crown fire hazard potential using FlamMap and NEXUS models with different fuel estimation approaches.
Citation: Abella, Scott R.; Fulé, Peter Z. 2008. Fire effects on Gambel oak in southwestern ponderosa pine-oak forests. Research Note RMRS-RN-34. Fort Collins, CO: USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. 6 p.
Summary: The authors summarize literature on the fire regime of Gambel oak, specifically, the frequency and timing of fire in these ecosystems historically, and the effects of prescribed fire on Gambel oak.
Citation: Fulé, Peter Z. 2008. Does it make sense to restore wildland fire in changing climate? Restoration Ecology 16(4):526-531.
Summary: This article discusses the relevance of reference conditions in the restoration of surface fire-adapted forests and possible alternative forest management strategies in the face of climate change.
Citation: White, J. D., K. J. Gutzwiller, W. C. Barrow, L. J. Randall, and P. Swint. 2008. Modeling mechanisms of vegetation change due to fire in a semi-arid ecosystem. Ecological Modelling, v. 214, no. 2-4, p. 181-200. 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2008.02.032.
Summary: The authors created and tested the accuracy of a model called the Landscape and Fire Simulator that simulates changes in vegetation cover due to fire disturbance for semi-arid landscapes.
Ecosystem Effects