Evidence for widespread changes in the structure, composition, and fire regimes of western North American forests.

ABSTRACT: Implementation of wildfire- and climate-adaptation strategies in seasonally dry forests of western North America is impeded by numerous constraints and uncertainties. After more than a century of resource and land use change, some question the need for proactive management, particularly given novel social, ecological, and climatic conditions. To address this question, we first provide a framework for assessing changes in landscape conditions and fire regimes. Using this framework, we then evaluate evidence of change in contemporary conditions relative to those maintained by active fire regimes, i.e., those uninterrupted by a century or more of human-induced fire exclusion. The cumulative results of more than a century of research document a persistent and substantial fire deficit and wides

SUBMITTER: Hagmann RK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9285092 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature