Treesearch

Anticipating plausible future ecosystem states is necessary for effective ecosystem management. We use climate analog-based impact models and a co-production process with land managers to project future vegetation changes for the state of Oregon, United States, (2041–2070, RCP 8.5) at a management-relevant spatial resolution (270-m). We explore multiple analog-based methodologies, evaluate analog model performance with contemporary validation, and leverage climate analogs to assess projection uncertainty by quantifying areas where multiple vegetation trajectories are plausible under a...

Quantifying fuel moisture content accurately is critical for understanding global vegetation flammability. While models representing changes in dead fuel moisture are relatively advanced, the mechanisms driving fluctuations in live fuel moisture content (LFMC) have been difficult to capture. Living plants make up a large proportion of the fuel complex for wildfires, yet linking plant and combustion science to advance our understanding of wildfire risk has, to date, been limiting. Developing mechanistic approaches to link these two disciplines will confer greater understanding and capacity...

Wildfire regimes of the western United States (US) have changed dramatically since the 1980s but our understanding of the causes and effects of these changes is limited by a lack of a quality-controlled, publicly available wildfire database that (1) spans from the 1980s to present, (2) represents wildfires across a wide range of sizes, and (3) includes mapped fire perimeters and the areas burned within. Here we present an updated and improved Western US MTBS-Interagency database (WUMI2024a) of wildfire occurrences, perimeters, and burned-area maps, covering the period 1984–2024 and the...

The North Cascades National Park Complex (NOCA Complex) encompasses some of the most rugged and wild alpine terrain in the lower 48. It spans 684,000 acres across three units: North Cascades National Park, Lake Chelan National Recreation Area, and Ross Lake National Recreation Area. In 1988, congress designated approximately 94% of the NOCA Complex (642,340 acres) as the Stephen Mather Wilderness (SMW), making it one of the largest wilderness areas in the continental United States.

Visitor use in the NOCA Complex has increased in the last few years, driven in part by the COVID-19...

Semantic segmentation of point clouds using deep learning (DL) has been the subject of research in forestry in recent years due to its potential applications. Several scientific and management disciplines, such as biodiversity monitoring, ecosystem carbon assessments, or forest management could benefit from this technique. However, it requires manual segmentation of point clouds to be used as training data. This process is highly labour-intensive and time-consuming, and there is a notable lack of publicly available datasets to support the development of accurate DL semantic segmentation...

Effective estimation of fuel load is critical for mitigating wildfire risks. Here, we evaluate the performance of mobile laser scanning (MLS) and terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) to estimate fuel loads across multiple vegetation layers. Data were collected in two forest regions: the North Kaibab (NK) Plateau in Arizona and Monroe Mountain (MM) in Utah. We used random forest models to predict vegetation attributes, evaluating the performance of full models and transferred models using R2, RMSE, and bias. The MLS consistently outperformed the TLS system, particularly for canopy-related...

Background. Dead fine fuel moisture content (FMC) is critical for predicting fire behavior and effects. Spatiotemporal variation in FMC occurs due to to variability in atmospheric conditions at the fuel interface, which is influenced by interacting factors including local forest structure and topography. Previous research has primarily examined these patterns over coarse spatial scales and relied on few factors to explain variability. Aims. In this study, we monitored the spatiotemporal variability in FMC and characterized how controls of FMC vary over a fire season. FMC was sampled at 80...

Background. Recent studies looking to advance knowledge of fire-effects on trees have used both heated water baths and experimental laboratory fires to apply heat to plant tissues. Aims. We assessed whether heated water baths and experimental laboratory fires caused xylem cell wall deformation and increased vulnerability to embolism. Methods. Using Pinus ponderosa and Pinus monticola saplings, we measured impacts using both heated water bath treatments and experimental laboratory fires, with parameters elucidated by prior studies that observed effects associated with lethal outcomes. Key...

Mapping surface and ground fuels is key to supporting wildland fire research and management. Fuel loading, structure, distribution, and continuity, along with other factors, strongly influence fire spread and consumption. It is, therefore, essential to understand drivers of fuel accumulation such as the aboveground tree inputs from abscission, dispersion, decomposition, disturbances, and management practices (e.g., prescribed fire), particularly in fire-dependent forest ecosystems such as longleaf flatwoods savannas of the southeastern US. In 2022, we collected and measured litter load,...

Southern pine forests play a key role in the ecological function and economic vitality of the southeastern United States. High-resolution terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) has become an indispensable tool for advancing tree structural research and monitoring. A critical challenge in this field is the accurate segmentation of leaf and wood components, which directly impacts the reliability of Quantitative Structure Models (QSMs). Segmentation techniques have progressed, but most existing methods are tailored for broadleaf species, with limited exploration for coniferous species such as...