Effects of Climate Change on Ecological Disturbance in the Northern Rockies

Loehman, Rachel A.; Bentz, Barbara; DeNitto, Gregg A.; Keane, Robert E.; Manning, Mary E.; Duncan, Jacob P.; Egan, Joel M.; Jackson, Marcus B.; Kegley, Sandy; Lockman, I. Blakey; Pearson, Dean E.; Powell, James A.; Shelly, Steve; Steed, Brytten E.; Zambino, Paul J.

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-56928-4_7

Cited by 13 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 98 publications

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“…Pulse events, defined as abrupt changes in ecological parameters, are ubiquitous in ecosystems and include a wide array of phenomena, such as heat waves, marine upwelling, mass reproductive and mortality events, and biomass-altering disturbances (Yang and Naeem 2008). Understanding pulse events is important because of this ubiquity and because the frequencies and magnitudes of such events as droughts, fires, floods, windstorms, and pest outbreaks, are changing because of human influences including, most importantly, climate change, land-use change, and species invasions (Franklin et al 2016, Seidl et al 2017, Loehman et al 2018, McDowell et al 2018. In turn, pulse events can affect the responses of ecosystems to these influences, e.g., increasing invasion rates (Hobbs and Huenneke 1992) and accelerating or otherwise affecting responses to climate warming (DeFrenne et al 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A theory of pulse dynamics and disturbance in ecology

Jentsch

White

2019

Ecology

198

143

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We propose four postulates as the minimum set of logical propositions necessary for a theory of pulse dynamics and disturbance in ecosystems: (1) resource dynamics characterizes the magnitude, rate, and duration of resource change caused by pulse events, including the continuing changes in resources that are the result of abiotic and biotic processes; (2) energy flux characterizes the energy flow that controls the variation in the rates of resource assimilation across ecosystems; (3) patch dynamics characterizes the distribution of resource patches over space and time, and the resulting patterns of biotic diversity, ecosystem structure, and cross‐scale feedbacks of pulses processes; and (4) biotic trait diversity characterizes the evolutionary responses to pulse dynamics and, in turn, the way trait diversity affects ecosystem dynamics during and after pulse events. We apply the four postulates to an important class of pulse events, biomass‐altering disturbances, and derive seven generalizations that predict disturbance magnitude, resource trajectory, rate of resource change, disturbance probability, biotic trait diversification at evolutionary scales, biotic diversity at ecological scales, and functional resilience. Ultimately, theory must define the variable combinations that result in dynamic stability, comprising resistance, recovery, and adaptation.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A theory of pulse dynamics and disturbance in ecology

Jentsch

White

2019

Ecology

198

143

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“…Severe wildfires are predicted to increase substantially in the next few decades due to warming climate (Kitzberger et al 2017). Managers and policymakers in the southwestern United States face grave challenges in seeking forest management alternatives that conserve natural resources (Loehman et al 2018). The reintroduction of fire in the landscape does have demonstrable effect in reducing the risk of severe wildfires and its adverse consequences (Walker et al 2018).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatiotemporal variability of fire regimes in adjacent Native American and public forests, New Mexico, USA

et al. 2018

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Statistical descriptions of reconstructed fire regimes are often extrapolated from a composite of small forest stands to represent extensive geographical areas. However, statistical properties of fire regimes are scale‐dependent, thus causing some extrapolations from fine scale to coarse scale and comparisons between fire‐scar‐based reconstructions to be inappropriate. We assessed landscape fire regimes of the Sacramento Mountains, in southern New Mexico, using dendrochronological methods and a variety of fire statistics and analysis filters. We reconstructed historical and recent fire regimes for the Mescalero Apache Tribal Lands (MATL) at tree and site scale (25 ha). We then estimated the Sacramento Mountains historical and recent fire regimes by combining paleo fire data from this study with published data from the adjacent Lincoln National Forest (LNF). We applied filters to provide fire statistics that are relatively unbiased to the different spatial measurement extent of the studies. This is the first study to assess fire regime in the MATL over multiple spatial and temporal scales. The results show that frequent surface fires occurred at all scales in the Sacramento Mountains until fire was excluded from the landscape in the early 1900s. Historical fires were found to be synchronous with drought years, typically La Niña events, and often preceded by wet years. We did not find evidence supporting differences in fire regimes between the MATL and the LNF, suggesting that fire cessation following intensive Euro‐American settlement was widespread. The interruption of frequent surface fires, together with other changes in forest structure and climate, pose a significant threat to sustainability of forest ecosystems on Native American tribal lands.

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“…Fire frequency, length of the fire season, and area burned will likely increase with climate change in our focal regions (Rogers et al 2011, Mote et al 2014, Loehman et al 2018. The Rocky Mountain region is characterized by more continental climate than the Pacific Northwest, particularly east of the Continental Divide.…”

Section: Scopementioning

confidence: 95%

“…, Loehman et al. ). The Rocky Mountain region is characterized by more continental climate than the Pacific Northwest, particularly east of the Continental Divide.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The nature of the beast: examining climate adaptation options in forests with stand‐replacing fire regimes

et al. 2018

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Building resilience to natural disturbances is a key to managing forests for adaptation to climate change. To date, most climate adaptation guidance has focused on recommendations for frequent‐fire forests, leaving few published guidelines for forests that naturally experience infrequent, stand‐replacing wildfires. Because most such forests are inherently resilient to stand‐replacing disturbances, and burn severity mosaics are largely indifferent to manipulations of stand structure (i.e., weather‐driven, rather than fuel‐driven fire regimes), we posit that pre‐fire climate adaptation options are generally fewer in these regimes relative to others. Outside of areas of high human value, stand‐scale fuel treatments commonly emphasized for other forest types would undermine many of the functions, ecosystem services, and other values for which these forests are known. For stand‐replacing disturbance regimes, we propose that (1) managed wildfire use (e.g., allowing natural fires to burn under moderate conditions) can be a useful strategy as in other forest types, but likely confers fewer benefits to long‐term forest resilience and climate adaptation, while carrying greater socio‐ecological risks; (2) reasoned fire exclusion (i.e., the suppression component of a managed wildfire program) can be an appropriate strategy to maintain certain ecosystem conditions and services in the face of change, being more ecologically justifiable in long‐interval fire regimes and producing fewer of the negative consequences than in frequent‐fire regimes; (3) low‐risk pre‐disturbance adaptation options are few, but the most promising approaches emphasize fundamental conservation biology principles to create a safe operating space for the system to respond to change (e.g., maintaining heterogeneity across scales and minimizing stressors); and (4) post‐disturbance conditions are the primary opportunity to implement adaptation strategies (such as protecting live tree legacies and testing new regeneration methods), providing crucial learning opportunities. This approach will provide greater context and understanding of these systems for ecologists and resource managers, stimulate future development of adaptation strategies, and illustrate why public expectations for climate adaptation in these forests will differ from those for frequent‐fire forests.

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Effects of Climate Change on Ecological Disturbance in the Northern Rockies

Cited by 13 publications

References 98 publications

A theory of pulse dynamics and disturbance in ecology

A theory of pulse dynamics and disturbance in ecology

Spatiotemporal variability of fire regimes in adjacent Native American and public forests, New Mexico, USA

The nature of the beast: examining climate adaptation options in forests with stand‐replacing fire regimes

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