Early Successional Changes Following Fire in California Chaparral: Research Brief
/Post-fire fundamentals of the recovery process in California chaparral and sage scrub.
View USGS Research Brief PDF >
Read MoreEarly Stages of Remote Sensing of Burn Severity September 2012: Research Brief
/Satellite imagery has potential for assessing fire severity across broad landscapes and diverse vegetation types.
View Research Brief PDF >
Early 20th Century Perspective on California Chaparral: Research Brief
/This brief is based on a turn-‐of-‐the-century publication which is the first and most complete natural history of chaparral and its relationship to fire.
View Research Brief PDF >
Do 1% of Fires Cause 99% of the Acres Burned? Research Brief
/Empirical analysis of fire history data by David Strauss and colleagues confirmed that a relatively small number of forest fires are responsible for a very high proportion of the total area burned.
View Research Brief PDF>
Differences in Postfire Recovery of California and Arizona Chaparral Plant Diversity: USGS Research Brief
/Chaparral plant communities recover after fire quite differently in Mediterranean-type climates versus non-Mediterranean-type climates.
View USGS Research Brief PDF >
Current Approaches & Research Needs in the WUI: Research Brief
/To better inform managers, there is a need for research to better explore many facets of WUI fires, including: hazard and risk assessment at small (e.g. community) scales; WUI fire behavior, including structure-to-structure spread; Structure exposure and vulnerability to both firebrands and heat; and Economic cost-benefit analyses of mitigation activities.
View Research Brief PDF >
Converting Chaparral to Grassland in 1944: Research Brief
/A major emphasis of the review is the techniques for converting chaparral to grassland using different methods and their related effectiveness.
View Research Brief PDF >
Convergent Life Histories and Fire-Driven Speciation: Research Brief
/Wells contended that fire was the selective force behind the convergent evolution of the obligate seeding strategy in Arctostaphylos and Ceanothus, and was accompanied by prolific speciation, due in part to a much greater number of sexual generations for seeders than for resprouters.
View Research Brief PDF >
Comparison of Natural and Type-converted Chaparral: Research Brief
/The ability of chaparral species to persist following drastic removal treatments is a function of their life history characteristics and pre-‐treatment abundance.
View Research Brief PDF >
Climate, Human and Fire Effects on PORE Vegetation: Research Brief
/In this paleoecology study of sediments at Point Reyes National Seashore (PORE), Scott Anderson documented changes in vegetation resulting from climate, people and fire over the past 15,000 years.
View Research Brief PDF >
Climate change in California: vegetation, wildfire, and carbon dynamics: Research Brief
/Climate change in California is likely to lead to a decline in alpine/subalpine and conifer forest, woodland, and shrubland extent while promoting grassland dominance.
Read MoreCharcoal Evidence that Big SoCal Fires Are Natural: Research Brief
/Large fire events were a normal part of southern California’s natural history based on charcoal evidence.
Read MoreCharacteristics of stand-replacing patches: Research Brief
/Stand-replacing patch size was highly variable in a high elevation mixed conifer forest in the Sierra Nevada with a range of variation dominated by many small patches < 10 acres (4 ha) and few large patches >148 acres (60 ha).
View Research Brief PDF >
Chaparral Removal Increases Soil Moisture: Research brief
/This research brief discusses the changes in soil moisture after chaparral was removed in the long and short term.
View Research Brief PDF >
Causes of Large Shrubland Wildfires: USGS Research Brief
/Large, high-intensity wildfires are a natural feature of southern California landscapes and are not directly the result of past fire suppression activities.
View Research Brief PDF >
Burning and Damming to Type-convert Chaparral: Research Brief
/This report presents a model for manipulating chaparral sites to be more productive for wildlife.
View Research Brief PDF >
Behavior and effects of prescribed fire in masticated fuelbeds: Research Brief
/The authors conducted prescribed burns in two masticated areas in northern California to assess fire effects in treated stands, compare fire behavior and effects with outputs from commonly used models, and evaluate the ability of mastication to increase stand resilience under a range of hypothetical wildfire scenarios.
Read MoreBasic principles of forest fuel reduction treatments: Research Brief
/In this paper, Agee and Skinner reviewed related literature, simulated fire behavior in different treatment types, and considered five real-‐world examples of fuels treatments and wildfire. Using these methods, they distilled a set of basic principles underlying effective treatments that reduce fuels and limit wildfire severity and extent.
View Research Brief PDF >
Bark Beetle Responses to Differences in Forest Structure and the Application of Prescribed Fire in Interior Ponderosa Pine: Research Brief
/This study assessed the effects of both prescribed burning and stand structure management through thinning on bark beetle activity and associated levels of tree mortality.
Read MoreBalancing the Carbon Costs and Benefits of Fuels Management: Research Synthesis
/This 2011 review synthesizes the growing body of scientific literature on the carbon balance of fuel treatments (i.e. the ability of treatments to achieve net carbon offsets.) The purpose of this synthesis is to highlight research relevant to forest managers and policymakers interested in the potential for forest management to contribute to climate change solutions.
View Synthesis PDF >
