OOS 28: Fire-Vegetation Interactions and Ecosystem Resilience in a Warmer World

Session Organizer(s)

• Xanthe Walker

  Center for Ecosystem Science and Society, Northern Arizona University
  Flagstaff, AZ, USA

Moderator(s)

• Xanthe Walker

  Center for Ecosystem Science and Society, Northern Arizona University
  Flagstaff, AZ, USA

Volunteer(s)

• Molly Reichenborn

  New Mexico State University

Moderator(s)

• Michelle Mack

  Northern Arizona University

Wildfires are a common and natural disturbance occurring across almost every biome on Earth. Feedbacks between fire and vegetation are a fundamental ecosystem property of fire-adapted ecosystems. Fire-induced changes in vegetation can modify the patterns and severity of subsequent fires and it is these stabilizing feedbacks between vegetation and fire that act to promote ecosystem resilience. However, recent increases in temperature and drought occurrence have dramatically increased wildfire disturbance in many parts of the world and could disrupt these key stabilizing feedbacks. Currently, empirical data identifying fire-vegetation feedbacks is limited to a few ecosystems. This session will evaluate how these feedbacks can promote resilience or drive state change in the face of altered fire-regimes across a range of spatial and temporal scales and a diversity of ecosystems experiencing different fire regimes.

Presentations:

• ON DEMAND

  A new dynamic fire and forest model for diagnosing the causes and consequences of increased burning in the western United States
  

  Presenting Author: Winslow D. Hansen – Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies
• ON DEMAND

  Factors controlling tree establishment following a fire-induced state change from forest to non-forest
  

  Presenting Author: Matthew Hurteau – Biology, University of New Mexico
• ON DEMAND

  Rocky Mountain subalpine forests now burning more than any time in recent millennia
  

  Presenting Author: Philip Higuera – Ecosystem and Conservation Sciences, University of Montana
• ON DEMAND

  The magnitude, direction and tempo of forest change in Greater Yellowstone in a warmer world with more fire
  

  Presenting Author: Monica G. Turner – Department of Integrative Biology, University of Wisconsin-Madison
• ON DEMAND

  Vulnerability of soil carbon to changing fire regimes increases with aridity
  

  Presenting Author: Adam F. A Pellegrini – Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge
• ON DEMAND

  Wildfire-catalyzed forest conversion and metrics of regeneration failure
  

  Presenting Author: Camille Stevens-Rumann – Department of Forest, Rangeland, and Fire Sciences, Colorado State University