Climate Change Refugia, Fire Ecology and Management
Abstract
Early climate change ideas warned of widespread species extinctions. As scientists have probed more deeply into species responses, a more nuanced perspective emerged indicating that some species may persist in microrefugia (refugia), including in mountainous terrain. Refugia are habitats that buffer climate changes and allow species to persist in-and to potentially expand under-changing environmental conditions. While climate and species interactions in refugia have been noted as sources of uncertainty, land management practices and disturbances, such as wildland fire, should also be considered when assessing any given refugium. Our landscape scale study suggests that cold-air pools, an important type of small-scale refugia, have unique fire occurrence, frequency, and severity patterns in frequent-fire mixed conifer forests of California's Sierra Nevada: Cold-air pool refugia have less fire and if it occurs, it is lower severity. Therefore, individuals and small populations are less likely to be extirpated by fire. Active management, such as restoration and fuels treatments for climate change adaptation, may be required to maintain these distinctive and potentially important refugia.
- Authors:
-
- Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1579921
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC02-05CH11231
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Forests
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 7; Journal Issue: 12; Journal ID: ISSN 1999-4907
- Publisher:
- MDPI
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; mixed conifer forest; arid forest; fire ecology; fire management; refugia; climate change; vulnerability
Citation Formats
Wilkin, Kate, Ackerly, David, and Stephens, Scott. Climate Change Refugia, Fire Ecology and Management. United States: N. p., 2016.
Web. doi:10.3390/f7040077.
Wilkin, Kate, Ackerly, David, & Stephens, Scott. Climate Change Refugia, Fire Ecology and Management. United States. https://doi.org/10.3390/f7040077
Wilkin, Kate, Ackerly, David, and Stephens, Scott. Wed .
"Climate Change Refugia, Fire Ecology and Management". United States. https://doi.org/10.3390/f7040077. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1579921.
@article{osti_1579921,
title = {Climate Change Refugia, Fire Ecology and Management},
author = {Wilkin, Kate and Ackerly, David and Stephens, Scott},
abstractNote = {Early climate change ideas warned of widespread species extinctions. As scientists have probed more deeply into species responses, a more nuanced perspective emerged indicating that some species may persist in microrefugia (refugia), including in mountainous terrain. Refugia are habitats that buffer climate changes and allow species to persist in-and to potentially expand under-changing environmental conditions. While climate and species interactions in refugia have been noted as sources of uncertainty, land management practices and disturbances, such as wildland fire, should also be considered when assessing any given refugium. Our landscape scale study suggests that cold-air pools, an important type of small-scale refugia, have unique fire occurrence, frequency, and severity patterns in frequent-fire mixed conifer forests of California's Sierra Nevada: Cold-air pool refugia have less fire and if it occurs, it is lower severity. Therefore, individuals and small populations are less likely to be extirpated by fire. Active management, such as restoration and fuels treatments for climate change adaptation, may be required to maintain these distinctive and potentially important refugia.},
doi = {10.3390/f7040077},
journal = {Forests},
number = 12,
volume = 7,
place = {United States},
year = {Wed Mar 30 00:00:00 EDT 2016},
month = {Wed Mar 30 00:00:00 EDT 2016}
}
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