Fire Refugia: What Are They, and Why Do They Matter for Global Change?

Meddens, Arjan J. H.; Kolden, Crystal A.; Lutz, James A.; Smith, Alistair M. S.; Cansler, C. Alina; Abatzoglou, John T.; Meigs, Garrett W.; Downing, William M.; Krawchuk, Meg A.

doi:10.1093/biosci/biy103

Cited by 108 publications

(155 citation statements)

References 86 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

153

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…patch size, configuration) have important implications for ecosystem response (Bennett et al, ; Chia et al, ; Doerr et al, ; Smucker, Hutto, & Steele, ). Unburnt patches within large wildfires, here termed ‘fire refugia’, facilitate the persistence of fire‐sensitive plants and animals in forest ecosystems globally (Meddens, Kolden, Lutz, Smith, et al, ; Robinson et al, ). Fire refugia can enhance survival during a fire event, support the persistence of individuals and populations in the post‐fire environment, and promote the re‐establishment of populations in the long term (Robinson et al, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Fire refugia can enhance survival during a fire event, support the persistence of individuals and populations in the post‐fire environment, and promote the re‐establishment of populations in the long term (Robinson et al, ). Furthermore, areas that consistently remain unburnt over many fire events, here termed ‘persistent fire refugia’, preserve unique or high value habitat, increase ecosystem heterogeneity and beta‐diversity across landscapes, and are important carbon stores (Meddens, Kolden, Lutz, Smith, et al, ; Robinson et al, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Wildfire refugia in forests: Severe fire weather and drought mute the influence of topography and fuel age

Collins

Bennett

Leonard

et al. 2019

Global Change Biology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Wildfire refugia (unburnt patches within large wildfires) are important for the persistence of fire‐sensitive species across forested landscapes globally. A key challenge is to identify the factors that determine the distribution of fire refugia across space and time. In particular, determining the relative influence of climatic and landscape factors is important in order to understand likely changes in the distribution of wildfire refugia under future climates. Here, we examine the relative effect of weather (i.e. fire weather, drought severity) and landscape features (i.e. topography, fuel age, vegetation type) on the occurrence of fire refugia across 26 large wildfires in south‐eastern Australia. Fire weather and drought severity were the primary drivers of the occurrence of fire refugia, moderating the effect of landscape attributes. Unburnt patches rarely occurred under ‘severe’ fire weather, irrespective of drought severity, topography, fuels or vegetation community. The influence of drought severity and landscape factors played out most strongly under ‘moderate’ fire weather. In mesic forests, fire refugia were linked to variables that affect fuel moisture, whereby the occurrence of unburnt patches decreased with increasing drought conditions and were associated with more mesic topographic locations (i.e. gullies, pole‐facing aspects) and vegetation communities (i.e. closed‐forest). In dry forest, the occurrence of refugia was responsive to fuel age, being associated with recently burnt areas (<5 years since fire). Overall, these results show that increased severity of fire weather and increased drought conditions, both predicted under future climate scenarios, are likely to lead to a reduction of wildfire refugia across forests of southern Australia. Protection of topographic areas able to provide long‐term fire refugia will be an important step towards maintaining the ecological integrity of forests under future climate change.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wildfire refugia in forests: Severe fire weather and drought mute the influence of topography and fuel age

Collins

Bennett

Leonard

et al. 2019

Global Change Biology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Unburned islands may serve as refugia for wildlife populations because species can retreat to them during fire and repopulate burned areas after fire (Meddens, Kolden, Lutz, Smith, et al, ). Our results show that most leks located in unburned islands have stable or increasing attendance trends after fire.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Hence, habitat and landscape characteristics around leks will be relevant for population dynamics (see discussion below). Variation in environmental conditions during fires (e.g., amount of sagebrush cover, previously established cheatgrass, fuel moisture and wind speed/direction; Pyle & Crawford, ; Sapsis & Kauffmann, 1991) may influence the intensity of fires and consequently play an important role in determining the functionality of unburned islands as fire refugia for sage‐grouse (Baker, ; Meddens, Kolden, Lutz, Smith, et al, ). Four of the analyzed unburned island leks were situated within the same fire perimeter (Holloway Fire) which is known to be largely of moderate fire intensity (Foster, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, areas higher in elevation show higher plant productivity, longer growing seasons, and higher forb and insect abundance compared to areas of lower elevation (Drut, Crawford, & Gregg, ). Finally, fires at higher elevation may burn patchier than those at low elevation, resulting in greater proportions of remnant intact habitat (Meddens, Kolden, Lutz, Abatzoglou, et al, ; Meddens, Kolden, Lutz, Smith, et al, ). This may benefit the recovery and persistence of sage‐grouse populations after fire.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

The potential importance of unburned islands as refugia for the persistence of wildlife species in fire‐prone ecosystems

Steenvoorden

Meddens

Martinez

et al. 2019

Ecology and Evolution

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The persistence of wildlife species in fire‐prone ecosystems is under increasing pressure from global change, including alterations in fire regimes caused by climate change. However, unburned islands might act to mitigate negative effects of fire on wildlife populations by providing habitat in which species can survive and recolonize burned areas. Nevertheless, the characteristics of unburned islands and their role as potential refugia for the postfire population dynamics of wildlife species remain poorly understood. We used a newly developed unburned island database of the northwestern United States from 1984 to 2014 to assess the postfire response of the greater sage‐grouse ( Centrocercus urophasianus ), a large gallinaceous bird inhabiting the sagebrush ecosystems of North America, in which wildfires are common. Specifically, we tested whether prefire and postfire male attendance trends at mating locations (leks) differed between burned and unburned areas, and to what extent postfire habitat composition at multiple scales could explain such trends. Using time‐series of male counts at leks together with spatially explicit fire history information, we modeled whether male attendance was negatively affected by fire events. Results revealed that burned leks often exhibit sustained decline in male attendance, whereas leks within unburned islands or >1.5 km away from fire perimeters tend to show stable or increasing trends. Analyses of postfire habitat composition further revealed that sagebrush vegetation height within 0.8 km around leks, as well elevation within 0.8 km, 6.4 km, and 18 km around leks, had a positive effect on male attendance trends. Moreover, the proportion of the landscape with cheatgrass ( Bromus tectorum ) cover >8% had negative effects on male attendance trends within 0.8 km, 6.4 km, and 18 km of leks, respectively. Synthesis and applications . Our results indicate that maintaining areas of unburned vegetation within and outside fire perimeters may be crucial for sustaining sage‐grouse populations following wildfire. The role of unburned islands as fire refugia requires more attention in wildlife management and conservation planning because their creation, protection, and maintenance may positively affect wildlife population dynamics in fire‐prone ecosystems.

show abstract

The effect of species, size, and fire intensity on tree mortality within a catastrophic bushfire complex

Trouvé

Oborne

Baker

2021

Ecological Applications

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Infrequent, high‐intensity disturbances can have profound impacts on forested landscapes, changing forest structure and altering relative species abundance. However, due to their rarity and the logistical challenges of directly observing such extreme events, both the spatial variability of disturbance intensity and the species‐specific responses to this variability are poorly understood. We used observed patterns of mortality across a fire severity gradient following the 2009 Black Saturday fires in southeastern Australia to simultaneously estimate (1) species‐ and size‐specific susceptibility to fire‐induced mortality and (2) fire intensity. We found broad variation in patterns of fire susceptibility among the 10 tree species (five eucalypts and five non‐eucalypts) sufficiently abundant for analysis. Among the eucalypts, Eucalyptus obliqua was the most resistant to fire‐induced mortality, with trees of ~25 cm DBH having a 50% probability of surviving even the most intense fires. In contrast, E. regnans had 100% mortality across all size classes when subjected to high‐intensity fire. Basal resprouting occurred in six of the study species and, when accounted for, fundamentally changed the mortality profile of these species, highlighting the importance of resprouting as an adaptation to fire in these landscapes. In particular, the two iconic cool temperate rainforest species (Nothofagus cunninghami and Atherosperma moschatum) were strong resprouters (~45% of individuals were able to resprout after being top‐killed by fire). We also found evidence for compositional shifts in regeneration above threshold values of fire intensity in cool temperate rainforest and mixed forest sites, both of which have important conservation values within these landscapes. The observed patterns of species‐ and size‐specific susceptibility to fire‐induced mortality may be used to anticipate changes in forest structure and composition in the future. In addition, they may also help guide forest management strategies that reduce the length of time individual trees are exposed to potentially lethal fires, thereby increasing the resilience of these forests to future fires.

show abstract

Fire Refugia: What Are They, and Why Do They Matter for Global Change?

Cited by 108 publications

References 86 publications

Wildfire refugia in forests: Severe fire weather and drought mute the influence of topography and fuel age

Wildfire refugia in forests: Severe fire weather and drought mute the influence of topography and fuel age

The potential importance of unburned islands as refugia for the persistence of wildlife species in fire‐prone ecosystems

The effect of species, size, and fire intensity on tree mortality within a catastrophic bushfire complex

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About