Brian Buma has manuscript accepted on IOPscience website

Published: Jan. 20, 2020

Wildland fire reburning trends across the US West suggest only short-term negative feedback and differing climatic effects

Brian Buma1, Shelby Weiss2, Katherine Hayes3 and Melissa Lucash2

Accepted Manuscript online 16 January 2020 • © 2019 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd

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Abstract

Wildfires are a significant agent of disturbance in forests and highly sensitive to climate change. Short-interval fires and high severity (mortality-causing) fires in particular, may catalyze rapid and substantial ecosystem shifts by eliminating woody species and triggering conversions from forest to shrub or grassland ecosystems. Modeling and fine-scale observations suggest negative feedbacks between fire and fuels should limit reburn prevalence as overall fire frequency rises.  Read the full manuscript here.