Post-fire Forest Landscapes Less Likely to Recover as Fires Grow More Extreme

Larger, high-severity fire patches produced during extreme fire events pose a threat to forest regrowth and recovery, according to newly published research. In a recent publication, researchers funded in part by the Southwest CASC found that extreme fire spread events (which burn more than 12,250 acres in a day and disproportionately impact people and ecosystems) were associated with fires that burned more severely overall, and that exhibited larger and more continuous patches of high-severity damage. 

Using satellite fire detections to create daily burning maps, researchers found that these uniform burn scars tend to put more distance between sites with vital seed-providing trees, decreasing seed dispersal and severely limiting forest regrowth. Additionally, increased competition with other species within these patches makes it even more difficult for prefire forest types to recover and re-establish. Under future climate scenarios, these landscape outcomes are expected to continue and magnify, accelerating forest loss and ecological change. 

The findings from this research highlight the vast effects that extreme fires can have on how severely different parts of a landscape burn, especially in terms of forest resilience. Management interventions to reduce fuels and tamper fire severity may diminish these adverse effects and help managers prepare for an increasingly fire-prone future.

Read the full publication in Global Change Biology.