Treesearch

There is growing consensus that spatial variability in fuel loading at scales down to 0.5 m may govern fire behaviour and effects. However, there remains a lack of understanding of how fuels vary through space in wildland settings. This study quantifies surface fuel loading and its spatial variability in ponderosa pine sites before and after fuels treatment in the southern Rocky Mountains, USA. We found that spatial semivariance for 1- and 100-h fuels, litter and duff following thin-and-burn treatments differed from untreated sites, and was lower than thin-only sites for all fuel components...

Climate dynamics at diurnal, seasonal and inter-annual scales shape global fire activity, although difficulties of assembling reliable fire and meteorological data with sufficient spatio-temporal resolution have frustrated quantification of this variability. Using Australia as a case study, we combine data from 4760 meteorological stations with 12 years of satellite-derived active fire detections to determine day and night time fire activity, fire season start and end dates, and inter-annual variability, across 61 objectively defined climate regions in three climate zones (monsoon tropics,...

Fire injury can increase tree susceptibility to some bark beetles (Curculionidae, Scolytinae), but whether wildfires can trigger outbreaks of species such as mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins) is not well understood. We monitored 1173 lodgepole (Pinus contorta var. latifolia Doug.) and 599 ponderosa (Pinus ponderosa Doug. ex Law) pines for three years post-wildfire in the Uinta Mountains of northeastern Utah in an area with locally endemic mountain pine beetle. We examined how the degree and type of fire injury influenced beetle attacks, brood production, and subsequent...

Pyrogenic carbon (PyC) constitutes a significant fraction of organic carbon in most soils. However, PyC soil stocks are generally smaller than what is expected from estimates of PyC produced from fire and decomposition losses, implying that other processes cause PyC loss from soils. Surface erosion has been previously suggested as one such process. To address this, following a large wildfire in the Rocky Mountains (CO, USA), we tracked PyC from the litter layer and soil, through eroded, suspended, and dissolved solids to alluvial deposits along riversides. We separated deposited sediment...

The Bureau of Land Management manages 246 million surface acres (100 million hectares) across the United States for multiple uses and sustained yield. Ensuring protection of ecological systems in the context of multiple, and often conflicting, resource uses and values is a challenge. Ecological integrity and land health are terms used by the Bureau of Land Management to describe the condition of ecological systems. Ecological integrity refers to the ability of ecological systems to support and maintain a community of organisms that is similar in composition, structure, and function to...

The lecto- and a paralectotype of Arachnocoris alboannulatus Costa Lima, 1927 are designated to enhance nomenclatural stability. A redescription based on the type material from Rio de Janeiro deposited in the Entomological Collection of the Oswaldo Cruz Institute, Brazil, is presented. Specimens are illustrated and measured in detail for the first time.

Sharing fire engines and crews between fire suppression dispatch zones may help improve the utilisation of fire suppression resources. Using the Resource Ordering and Status System, the Predictive Services’ Fire Potential Outlooks and the Rocky Mountain Region Preparedness Levels from 2010 to 2013, we tested a simulation and optimisation procedure to transfer crews and engines between dispatch zones in Colorado (central United States) and into Colorado from out-of-state. We used this model to examine how resource transfers may be influenced by assignment shift length, resource demand...

Premise of the study: Bromus tectorum (Poaceae) is an annual grass species that is invasive in many areas of the world but most especially in the U.S. Intermountain West. Single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers were developed for use in investigating the geospatial and ecological diversity of B. tectorum in the Intermountain West to better understand the mechanisms behind its successful invasion. Methods and Results: Normalized cDNA libraries from six diverse B. tectorum individuals were pooled and sequenced using 454 sequencing. Ninety-five SNP assays were developed for use on 96.96...

In southwest Montana, near the town of Three Forks, Milligan Creek cuts a small and seemingly mundane notch through dry limestone hills. Milligan Creek is unassuming and small enough to be effortlessly stepped over in most places. In fact, it flows underground for much of its 4-5 mile journey to the Jefferson River. Incredibly, forty-nine species of long-legged flies (Dolichopodidae) - fully 61% of the 81 species recorded to occur in Montana (Pollet et al. 2004) - have been collected along a very short stretch of this creek (see list below). These species were found during eight short...

Mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae) (MPB), a native insect to western North America, caused extensive tree mortality in pine ecosystems during a recent warm and dry period. More than 24 million acres were affected, including in the relatively low elevation lodgepole (Pinus contorta) and ponderosa (P. ponderosa) pines, and the high-elevation whitebark (P. albicaulis) and limber (P. flexilis) pines.