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Burn Severity: Ecological Change
Just after the Cooney Ridge Fire, near Missoula, MT. Photo by Andy Hudak
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Birch DS, Morgan P, Kolden CA,
Hudak AT, Smith AMS (2014)
Is proportion burned
severely related to daily area burned?
Environ Res Letters 9, 064011
doi:10.1088/1748-9326/9/6/064011
Photo by Bob Tincher
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• Even large fire runs leave a mosaic of fire effects (<13% area burned with high severity on most days; often <50% in largest “runs” (Birch et al. 2015)
• 75% of area burned in 21 large fires (2000 and 2007) were within “reach” of seed sources (Kemp et al. 2015)
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Birch et al. 2015. Ecosphere 6(1):17. http://dx.doi.org/10.1890/ES14-00213.1
Largest DABs >600 ha (~1500 ac), 0.5% of all
All 2697 DABs
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+ topography
+ vegetation
+ weather
By ecoregion
WFDSS, IFTDSS
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Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness
• 346K ha (855K acres)
• Historical aerial photographs 1880-2000
• Satellite imagery 1977-2012
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Morgan P et al. (2017) Multidecadal trends in area burned with high severity
in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness Area 1880-2012. Int. J. Wildland Fire 26(11), 930-943
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Prior wildfires influenceburn severity
Stevens-Rumann CS et al (2016) Prior wildfires influence burn severity of subsequent
fires. Can J For Res 46, 1375-1385 doi/10.1139/cjfr-2016-0185
Lower burn severity where
prior fires of any severity burned
in last 30 yr …
even under extreme fire weather
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Stevens-Rumann CS, Morgan P (2016) Repeated wildfires alter forest recovery of
mixed-conifer ecosystems. Ecol Applic doi: 10.1890/15-1521.1
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Post-fire tree regeneration
Stevens-Rumann CS et al (2018) Evidence for
declining forest resilience to wildfires
under climate change Ecology Letters 21, 243-
252 DOI: 10.1111/ele.12889
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Will future fires burn with high severity?
Climate? Fuels? Or Both?
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Parks, S. A., C. Miller, J. T. Abatzoglou, L. M. Holsinger, M.-A. Parisien, and S. Z. Dobrowski. 2016.
How will climate change affect wildland fire severity in the western US? Environmental Research Letters 11:035002.
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Burn severity • Do large fire “runs” burn with high severity?
• Has the proportion burned with high severity increased? Will it?
• Is burn severity influenced more by topography, vegetation or climate?
• How does burn severity influence tree regeneration?
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Thank you
Coauthors
Students
Funding
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