Skip to main content
Author(s):
Camille Stevens-Rumann, Kerry Kemp, Philip E. Higuera, Brian J. Harvey, Monica T. Rother, Daniel C. Donato, Penelope Morgan, Thomas T. Veblen
Year Published:

Cataloging Information

Topic(s):
Fire Effects
Ecological - Second Order
Soils
Vegetation
Fire & Climate

NRFSN number: 16189
FRAMES RCS number: 25469
Record updated:

Forest resilience to climate change is a global concern given the potential effects of increased disturbance activity, warming temperatures and increased moisture stress on plants. We used a multi-regional dataset of 1485 sites across 52 wildfires from the US Rocky Mountains to ask if and how changing climate over the last several decades impacted post-fire tree regeneration, a key indicator of forest resilience. Results highlight significant decreases in tree regeneration in the 21st century. Annual moisture deficits were significantly greater from 2000 to 2015 as compared to 1985–1999, suggesting increasingly unfavourable post-fire growing conditions, corresponding to significantly lower seedling densities and increased regeneration failure. Dry forests that already occur at the edge of their climatic tolerance are most prone to conversion to non-forests after wildfires. Major climate-induced reduction in forest density and extent has important consequences for a myriad of ecosystem services now and in the future.

Citation

Stevens-Rumann, Camile S.; Kemp, Kerry B.; Higuera, Phil E.; Harvey, Brian J.; Rother, Monica T.; Donato, Daniel C.; Morgan, Penelope; Veblen, Thomas T. 2018. Evidence for declining forest resilience to wildfires under climate change. Ecology Letters 21(2):243-252. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.12889

Access this Document

Related Events

Feb 23 2018, All day
Mar 6 2018, All day
Mar 7 2018, All day

Treesearch

publication access with no paywall

Check to see if this document is available for free in the USDA Forest Service Treesearch collection of publications. The collection includes peer reviewed publications in scientific journals, books, conference proceedings, and reports produced by Forest Service employees, as well as science synthesis publications and other products from Forest Service Research Stations.