Citation: Stoddard, Michael T.; Sánchez Meador, Andrew; Fulé, Peter Z.; Korb, Julie E. 2015. Five-year post-restoration conditions and simulated climate-change trajectories in a warm/dry mixed-conifer forest, southwestern Colorado, USA. Forest Ecology and Management 356:253-261.
Summary: The authors quantitatively compared restoration treatments: prescribed fire only, thinning followed by prescribed fire, and an untreated control, to test each treatment’s effect on forest structure and composition five years post treatment. They also projected potential forest trajectories using the Climate-Forest Vegetation Simulator under various climate scenarios.
Citation: Higgins, Anna M.; Waring, Kristen M.; Thode, Andrea E. 2015. The effects of burn entry and burn severity on ponderosa pine and mixed conifer forests in Grand Canyon National Park. International Journal of Wildland Fire 24(4):495-506.
Summary: The authors investigated the effects of multiple burn entries and burn severity on stand structure, composition and regeneration on a dry mixed-conifer stand and a ponderosa pine stand with white fir encroachment.
Citation: Shryock, Daniel F.; Esque, Todd C.; Chen, Felicia C. 2015. Topography and climate are more important drivers of long-term, post-fire vegetation assembly than time-since-fire in the Sonoran desert, US. Journal of Vegetation Science 26(6):1134-1147.
Summary: The authors used a chronosequence to evaluate the effects of time-since-fire on post-fire regeneration across a gradient of topography and climate conditions.
Citation: Parks, Sean A.; Holsinger, Lisa M.; Miller, Carol L.; Nelson, Cara R. 2015. Wildland fire as a self-regulating mechanism: the role of previous burns and weather in limiting fire progression. Ecological Applications 25(6):1478-1492.
Summary: The authors’ objective was to research the ability of wildfire to limit the spread of a subsequent fire based on the time between the two, and also to see how weather at the time of the fire alters this effect.
Citation: O'Connor, Christopher D.; Lynch, Ann M.; Falk, Donald A.; Swetnam, Thomas W. 2015. Post-fire forest dynamics and climate variability affect spatial and temporal properties of spruce beetle outbreaks on a Sky Island mountain range. Forest Ecology and Management 336:148-162.
Summary: The authors reconstructed the species composition and structure of Engelmann spruce forest stand populations over a 319-year period between stand-replacing fire to determine how changes in the stand structure of spruce over time affect the size and severity of spruce beetle outbreaks.
Citation: Abella, Scott R.; Fornwalt, Paula J. 2015. Ten years of vegetation assembly after a North American mega-fire. Global Change Biology 21(2):789-802.
Summary: This paper examines the post-fire recovery, resistance and resilience, of understory vegetation after a mega fire along a gradient of fire severities.
Citation: Huffman, David W.; Zegler, Thomas J.; Fulé, Peter Z. 2015. Fire history of a mixed conifer forest on the Mogollon Rim, northern Arizona, USA. International Journal of Wildland Fire 24(5):680-689.
Summary: The authors reconstructed the fire regime characteristics of a warm-dry mixed conifer forest to evaluate potential changes to the fire regime since Euro-American settlement and examine the extent of high- or mixed-severity fire in these ecosystems historically.
Citation: Hood, Sharon M.; Sala, Anna; Heyerdahl, Emily K.; Boutin, Marion. 2015. Low-severity fire increases tree defense against bark beetle attacks. Ecology 96(7):1846-1855.
Summary: The authors tested the theory that frequent, low severity wildfire confers a heightened defense response to ponderosa pine against future bark beetle attack.
Citation: Ouzts, Jessi; Kolb, Thomas E.; Huffman, David W.; Sánchez Meador, Andrew. 2015. Post-fire ponderosa pine regeneration with and without planting in Arizona and New Mexico. Forest Ecology and Management 354:281-290.
Summary: The authors measured ponderosa pine seedling recovery of planted and unplanted areas after severe wildfire.
Citation: Dugan, Alexa J.; Baker, William L. 2015. Sequentially contingent fires, droughts and pluvials structured a historical dry forest landscape and suggest future contingencies. Journal of Vegetation Science 26(4):697-710.
Summary: The authors examined the effects of potential contingent influences of drought, fire, pluvial and/or fire quiescent periods on post-disturbance recruitment and dry forest structure.
Ecosystem Effects