Publications
The USGS fire science mission is to produce and deliver the best available scientific information, tools, and products to support land and emergency management by individuals and organizations at all levels. Below are USGS publications associated with our fire science portfolio.
Filter Total Items: 306
Semi-arid grassland bird responses to patch-burn grazing and drought
As grassland birds of central North America experience steep population declines with changes in land use, management of remaining tracts becomes increasingly important for population viability. The integrated use of fire and grazing may enhance vegetation heterogeneity and diversity in breeding birds, but the subsequent effects on reproduction are unknown. We examined the influence of patch-burn
Authors
Susan K. Skagen, David J. Augustine, Justin D. Derner
Improving ecological restoration to curb biotic invasion - A practical guide
Common practices for invasive species control and management include physical, chemical, and biological approaches. The first two approaches have clear limitations and may lead to unintended (negative) consequences, unless carefully planned and implemented. For example, physical removal rarely completely eradicates the targeted invasive species and can cause disturbances that facilitate new invasi
Authors
Qinfeng Guo, Dale G. Brockway, Diane L. Larson, Deli Wang, Hai Ren
Grasslands
Key findings:Total grassland carbon stocks in the conterminous United States, estimated to be about 7.4 petagrams of carbon (Pg C) in 2005, are projected to increase to about 8.2 Pg C by 2050. Although U.S. grasslands are expected to remain carbon sinks over this period, the uptake rate is projected to decline by about half. In the U.S. Great Plains, land-use and land-cover changes are expected to
Authors
Elise Pendall, Dominique Bachelet, Richard T. Conant, Bassil El Masri, Lawrence B. Flanagan, Alan K. Knapp, Jinxun Liu, Shuguang Liu, Sean M. Schaeffer
Southeast
The Southeast includes vast expanses of coastal and inland low-lying areas, the southern portion of the Appalachian Mountains, numerous high-growth metropolitan areas, and large rural expanses. These beaches and bayous, fields and forests, and cities and small towns are all at risk from a changing climate. While some climate change impacts, such as sea level rise and extreme downpours, are being a
Authors
Lynne Carter, Adam J. Terando, Kirstin Dow, Kevin Hiers, Kenneth E. Kunkel, Aranzazu R. Lascurain, Doug Marcy, Michael J. Osland, Paul Schramm
Quantifying postfire aeolian sediment transport using rare earth element tracers
Grasslands, which provide fundamental ecosystem services in many arid and semiarid regions of the world, are undergoing rapid increases in fire activity and are highly susceptible to postfire-accelerated soil erosion by wind. A quantitative assessment of physical processes that integrates fire-wind erosion feedbacks is therefore needed relative to vegetation change, soil biogeochemical cycling, ai
Authors
David Dukes, Howell B. Gonzales, Sujith Ravi, David E. Grandstaff, R. Scott Van Pelt, Junran Li, Guan Wang, Joel B. Sankey
The role of driving factors in historical and projected carbon dynamics of upland ecosystems in Alaska
It is important to understand how upland ecosystems of Alaska, which are estimated to occupy 84% of the state (i.e., 1,237,774 km2), are influencing and will influence state‐wide carbon (C) dynamics in the face of ongoing climate change. We coupled fire disturbance and biogeochemical models to assess the relative effects of changing atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2), climate, logging and fire regim
Authors
Hélène Genet, Yujie He, Zhou Lyu, A. David McGuire, Qianlai Zhuang, Joy S. Clein, David D'Amore, Alec Bennett, Amy Breen, Frances Biles, Eugénie S. Euskirchen, Kristofer Johnson, Tom Kurkowski, Svetlana (Kushch) Schroder, Neal J. Pastick, T. Scott Rupp, Bruce K. Wylie, Yujin Zhang, Xiaoping Zhou, Zhiliang Zhu
Erratum: Understanding interaction effects of climate change and fire management on bird distributions through combined process and habitat models
This article corrects:
Understanding Interaction Effects of Climate Change and Fire Management on Bird Distributions through Combined Process and Habitat Models
Volume 25, Issue 3, 536–546, Article first published online: 28 April 2011
Authors
Kevin J. Gutzwiller, Joseph D. White, Wylie Barrow, Lori A. Randall
Snowshoe hare multi-level habitat use in a fire-adapted ecosystem
Prescribed burning has the potential to improve habitat for species that depend on pyric ecosystems or other early successional vegetation types. For species that occupy diverse plant communities over the extent of their range, response to disturbances such as fire might vary based on post-disturbance vegetation dynamics among plant communities. Although responses of snowshoe hares (Lepus american
Authors
Laura C. Gigliotti, Benjamin C. Jones, Matthew J. Lovallo, Duane R. Diefenbach
Fuel-reduction management alters plant composition, carbon and nitrogen pools, and soil thaw in Alaskan boreal forest
Increasing wildfire activity in Alaska's boreal forests has led to greater fuel-reduction management. Management has been implemented to reduce wildfire spread, but the ecological impacts of these practices are poorly known. We quantified the effects of hand-thinning and shearblading on above- and belowground stand characteristics, plant species composition, carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) pools, and
Authors
April M. Melvin, Gerardo Celis, Jill F. Johnstone, A. David McGuire, Helene Genet, Edward A.G. Schuur, T. Scott Rupp, Michelle C. Mack
Post-wildfire landscape change and erosional processes from repeat terrestrial lidar in a steep headwater catchment, Chiricahua Mountains, Arizona, USA
Flooding and erosion after wildfires present increasing hazard as climate warms, semi-arid lands become drier, population increases, and the urban interface encroaches farther into wildlands. We quantify post-wildfire erosion in a steep, initially unchannelized, 7.5 ha headwater catchment following the 2011 Horseshoe 2 Fire in the Chiricahua Mountains of southeastern Arizona. Using time-lapse came
Authors
Stephen B. DeLong, Ann M. Youberg, Whitney M. DeLong, Brendan P. Murphy
Everglades Depth Estimation Network (EDEN)—A decade of serving hydrologic information to scientists and resource managers
IntroductionThe Everglades Depth Estimation Network (EDEN) provides scientists and resource managers with regional maps of daily water levels and depths in the freshwater part of the Greater Everglades landscape. The EDEN domain includes all or parts of five Water Conservation Areas, Big Cypress National Preserve, Pennsuco Wetlands, and Everglades National Park. Daily water-level maps are interpol
Authors
Eduardo Patino, Paul Conrads, Eric D. Swain, James M. Beerens
Historical cover trends in a sagebrush steppe ecosystem from 1985 to 2013: Links with climate, disturbance, and management
Understanding the causes and consequences of component change in sagebrush steppe is crucial for evaluating ecosystem sustainability. The sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) steppe ecosystem of the northwest USA has been impacted by the invasion of exotic grasses, increasing fire return intervals, changing land management practices, and fragmentation, often lowering the overall resilience to change. We uti
Authors
Hua Shi, Matthew B. Rigge, Collin G. Homer, George Z. Xian, Debbie Meyer, Brett Bunde