Wildfire Dynamics in the Eastern Temperate Forests

Wildfires have been increasing across the United States. In Eastern Temperate Forests, an extensive Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) combined with signals of increasing wildfire activity highlight the need for an early understanding of shifting wildfire dynamics and wildfire outcomes. We are using remotely sensed information to track patterns, drivers, and outcomes of large wildfire to support fire management and planning across the Eastern Temperate Forest region.

Specific Projects:

• Determining how woody cover and climate impact  large wildfire risk in the eastern U.S.
  
• Identifying interactions between the WUI and increasing large wildfire in the eastern U.S.
  

Pyrodiversity Impacts on the Forest Resilience

Fire is a fundamental ecosystem process that has shaped terrestrial landscapes for millions of year. Following over a century of wide-spread fire suppression, land managers are increasingly turning to prescribed fire management to restore this fundamental process in ecosystems. However, there is still much that western science does not understand about the complexity of fire outcomes that shape ecosystem structure and function across scales. We are using a combination of field and remotely sensed data to determine the drivers and characteristics of heterogenous fire outcomes like fire refugia and varying burn severity to inform fire management. 

Specific Projects:

• Assessing the impacts of prescribed fire characteristics on refugia formation and spatial structure
  
• Assessing the impacts of fire refugia on longleaf pine savanna diversity
  

Predicting Invasive Species Impacts on Ecosystem Service Outcomes

Invasive species pose a serious threat to ecosystem services and ecological resilience, costing billions of dollars each year in damages, lost production, and control efforts in agroecosystems. Early intervention can greatly reduce socio-ecological impacts and is far more cost effective than controlling established invasions.  With collaborators from across the country, we are working to improve predictive modelling efforts for invasive species spread and their corresponding impacts on ecosystem services to help support early detection and rapid response to invasive species.

Specific Projects:

• Predicting the impacts of cogongrass invasion on wildfire risk and biodiversity loss across southeastern forests
• Determining characteristics that enhance ecosystem resilience to cogongrass invasion.
  

The Contribution of Conservation Reserve Program Lands to Fire Resilient Agricultural Landscapes

CRP lands have large potential to protect watersheds, increase habitat availability and quality, and enhance air quality. However, as wildfire numbers continue to increase,  it is unclear if and how CRP lands may contribute to large wildfire occurrence nor how they can be integrated into attempts to build fire resilient agricultural landscapes. We are working with collaborators to quantify CRP’s contribution to wildfires and fire resilience, understand how landowners make decisions regarding CRP enrollment  and model types of policies and conservation practices that allow CRP to enhance the fire resilience of landscapes surrounding rural communities.

Specific Projects:

• Generate large-scale models of large wildfire risk on or adjacent to CRP lands.
  
• Model how spatial arrangement and management of CRP lands can be used to enhance resilience to large wildfire
  

Drivers and Indicators of Wildlife Population Resilience

Biodiversity is rapidly declining in the face of global change. There is increasing recognition that preventative conservation is more economical and effective than conservation that targets species already experiencing rapid or large-scale decline. We are working on developing early warning indicators of losses in species resilience to support species conservation and restoration efforts. 

Specific Projects:

• Determine whether monitoring long-term population productivity provides early warning for population decline and collapse in game species