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Forests
Special Issues
Ecological Response to Wildfire
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Ecological Response to Wildfire

A special issue of Forests (ISSN 1999-4907). This special issue belongs to the section "Forest Ecology and Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 January 2022) | Viewed by 4538

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Mark R. Lesser

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Center for Earth and Environmental Science, State University of New York at Plattsburgh, Plattsburgh, NY, USA
Interests: plant ecology; forest ecology; forest management; tree ecology; dendrochronology; dendroecology; dendrology

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In fire-dependent systems wildfire disturbance events are critical for maintaining ecosystem function, resetting successional pathways, and creating/maintaining suitable wildlife habitat. However, wildfires are becoming more severe, frequent, and larger in extent across many ecosystems then populations and communities have evolved to be adapted for. These novel disturbance regimes can have direct effects on species presence, community structure, and wildlife population dynamics, but also have the potential to significantly change species interactions (i.e., competition, predator-prey relationships) over both short and long-term time scales. Moreover, recovery of systems towards their former state may be exacerbated by climate change, habitat fragmentation, and forest management practices. In this issue we seek to explore the resilience and recovery of plant and animal communities affected by wildfire. Particularly, this issue will focus on how changing disturbance regimes affect material legacies related to community assemblage, structure, forage availability, predation-risk, and other habitat characteristics that affect the success, or failure, of plant and wildlife populations. We encourage studies that explore linkages between changing disturbance regimes, environmental conditions, and land-use practices on species success or failure.

Dr. Mark R. Lesser
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Forests is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • community structure
  • habitat resilience
  • forage availability
  • predation-risk
  • severity
  • extent
  • frequency
  • climate change

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

23 pages, 2187 KiB  
Article
Avian Response to Wildfire Severity in a Northern Boreal Region
by Michelle Knaggs, Samuel Haché, Scott E. Nielsen, Rhiannon F. Pankratz and Erin Bayne
Forests 2020, 11(12), 1330; https://doi.org/10.3390/f11121330 - 14 Dec 2020
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 3846
Abstract
Research Highlights: The effects of fire on birds in the most northern parts of the boreal forest are understudied. We found distinct differences in bird communities with increasing fire severity in two vegetation types with naturally different burn severity. The highest severity burns [...] Read more.
Research Highlights: The effects of fire on birds in the most northern parts of the boreal forest are understudied. We found distinct differences in bird communities with increasing fire severity in two vegetation types with naturally different burn severity. The highest severity burns tended to have communities dominated by generalist species, regardless of the original vegetation type. Background and Objectives: Wildfire is the primary natural disturbance in the boreal ecosystems of northwestern Canada. Increased wildfire frequency, extent, and severity are expected with climate change in this region. In particular, the proportion of burns that are high severity and the area of peatlands burned are increasing, and how this influences birds is poorly understood. Materials and Methods: We quantified the effects of burn severity (low, moderate, and high severity) in uplands and peatlands on occupancy, density, richness, community composition, and functional diversity using point counts (n = 1158) from the first two years post-fire for two large fires in the Northwest Territories, Canada. Results: Burn severity had a significant effect on the occupancy and density of 86% of our focal species (n = 20). Responses to burn severity depended on vegetation type for four of the 18 species using occupancy and seven of the 18 using density, but were typically in a similar direction. Species richness and functional diversity were lower in areas of high severity burns than unburned areas and low severity burns in peatlands. Richness was not related to severity in uplands, but functional diversity was. Peatlands had higher species richness than uplands in all burn severities, but as burn severity increased the upland and peatland communities became more similar. Conclusions: Our results suggest that high severity burns in both vegetation types support five generalist species and two fire specialists that may benefit from alterations in vegetation structure as a result of climate induced changes to fire regimes. However, eight species avoided burns, particularly birds preferring peatlands, and are likely to be more susceptible to fire-driven changes to their habitat caused by climate change. Understanding the long-term risks to these species from climate change requires additional efforts that link fire to bird populations. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ecological Response to Wildfire)
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