Size requirements of intact forest landscapes for effective biodiversity conservation under regional fire regimes and climate change

Venier, Lisa A.; Pedlar, John H.; Higgins, Kellina L.; Lawrence, Kevin; Walton, Russ; Boulanger, Yan; McKenney, Daniel W.

doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2022.109790

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…Even though the wildlife corridor prohibited treatment in a large portion of the area of concern, our results showed a notable reduction in fire spread potential, even in the scenarios with limited treatable areas. The drawback of adding large geographical constraints (such as the wildlife corridor or protected areas), however, is that some parts of the area of concern remained exposed to a higher risk of wildfires (Salis et al, 2016), especially when the size of the area set aside for wildlife protection is large (Venier et al, 2022). Furthermore, the treatments, while spatially restricted to the portions of the area of concern that are outside of the caribou corridor, could serve as a fireguard for further tactical prescribed burning in the corridor to reduce the threat of an incoming fire (Agee et al, 2000;Collins et al, 2010).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Balancing wildlife protection and wildfire threat mitigation using a network optimization approach

Yemshanov,

Dawe,

Bakalarczyk

et al. 2023

Front. For. Glob. Change

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In boreal forests of North America, land managers often carry out preventive treatments of forest fuel for the protection of human infrastructure from wildfires. However, these treatments may negatively affect other ecosystem services, such as the capacity to sustain wildlife populations. Here, we examine the efficacy of a strategy aimed at preserving a critical movement corridor for boreal woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) in northern Québec, Canada, by raising high-voltage power line conductors above the forest canopy. To assess the interplay between the caribou protection objectives and a reduction in power line's exposure to wildfires, we developed an optimization model that combines the objectives of protecting the power line from wildfires via fuel treatments and maintaining a suitable movement corridor for caribou. The model combines a critical node detection (CND) problem with a habitat connectivity problem that allocates a minimum-resistance fixed-width habitat corridor between isolated wildlife refuges. Our results identify the best locations to perform fire fuel treatments to lessen the threat of fire damage to human infrastructure while maintaining a connectivity corridor for caribou in present and future climate scenarios. The selected fuel treatment locations aimed to mitigate wildfire exposure to a power line. In small-budget solutions, the exposure of power line infrastructure to wildfires was reduced by 36–39% in current climate conditions and by 20–31% in future climate, compared with no-treatment scenarios. Despite the detrimental effects of wildfire on both the industrial asset and caribou habitat, the approach provides strategies that help achieve a compromise between these two values. Such knowledge is timely to help mitigate the negative impacts of climate change on human livelihoods and natural ecosystems.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Balancing wildlife protection and wildfire threat mitigation using a network optimization approach

Yemshanov,

Dawe,

Bakalarczyk

et al. 2023

Front. For. Glob. Change

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“…Disturbances also generate ecologically valuable early‐successional stages and biological legacies, such as standing and downed deadwood, which have positive effects on biodiversity (Franklin et al., 2002; Hilmers et al., 2018; Swanson et al., 2011). However, disturbances can also have detrimental effects on wildlife populations, for example, via the fragmentation or loss of key habitat (Fischer & Lindenmayer, 2007; Venier et al., 2022). From a socioeconomic perspective, mountain forests provide numerous ecosystem services, among which the protection of human infrastructure against gravitational processes such as avalanches, rock fall, debris flows and landslides is of prime importance (Maroschek et al., 2015; Stritih, Bebi, et al., 2021; Vacchiano et al., 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantifying patch size distributions of forest disturbances in protected areas across the European Alps

Maroschek,

Seidl,

Poschlod

et al. 2023

Journal of Biogeography

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AimNatural disturbances are key drivers of forest ecosystem dynamics and are highly sensitive to global change. Despite their importance, central disturbance characteristics remain unknown for many forests worldwide. Here, we quantified an important component of the forest disturbance regime—the distribution of patch sizes—in strictly protected areas by asking: (i) How are patch sizes of naturally occurring disturbances distributed across the Alps and how can they best be quantified? (ii) Are patch size distributions stochastic or can they be explained by environmental drivers? (iii) What are the return periods of extreme disturbance events?LocationEuropean Alps.MethodsWe analysed satellite‐based disturbance maps for the period 1986–2020 across a network of 12 strictly protected areas, modelling patch sizes of all observed disturbance patches as well as of annual extreme events. We tested the influence of temperature, precipitation, topographic complexity and forest type on patch size distributions.ResultsDisturbance patch sizes across the Alps (median 0.36 ha, 5th percentile 0.18 ha and 95th percentile 1.71 ha) as well as their annual extremes (0.72 ha, 0.18–7.11 ha) are best described by a Fréchet distribution. The size of annual extreme events significantly increased with intra‐annual temperature amplitude (+0.98 ha with a one standard deviation increase) and the share of evergreen trees (+0.63 ha). On average, disturbance patches of 5.5 ha (95% credible interval 2.6–17.5 ha) occur once every 30 years, whereas patches of 2.6 ha (1.2–7.0 ha) occur once every 10 years.Main ConclusionsDisturbances caused by natural agents are generally small and stochastic across the Alps. Extreme events are driven by climate, suggesting sensitivity of disturbance patch sizes to climate change. Our results provide a baseline for monitoring climate‐induced changes in forest disturbance regimes, and provide important information for the management and conservation of forest ecosystems.

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Size requirements of intact forest landscapes for effective biodiversity conservation under regional fire regimes and climate change

Cited by 2 publications

References 53 publications

Balancing wildlife protection and wildfire threat mitigation using a network optimization approach

Balancing wildlife protection and wildfire threat mitigation using a network optimization approach

Quantifying patch size distributions of forest disturbances in protected areas across the European Alps

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