Five fire simulation models used from all over the world were compared: EMBYR, FIRESCAPE, LANDSUM, SEM-‐LAND, and LA-‐MOS(DS).
View Research Brief PDF >
The objective of this study was to investigate the influence of thinning treatments on fuel moisture and determine whether or not moisture patterns differ by treatment in mixed conifer stands in northern California.
View Research Brief PDF >
This paper examined the 20th century fire history of the San Francisco East Bay landscape to understand to what extent fire management activities could account for changes in landscape patterns.
View USGS Research Brief PDF >
The 2003 and the 2007 wildfires in San Diego County were remarkably similar in their causes, impacts and the human responses they elicited.
View USGS Research Brief PDF >
In a 2011 paper, researchers examined the short-term consequences of mechanical thinning for forest animal abundance and diversity by summarizing the results of 33 studies from throughout the continent.
View Research Brief PDF >
This paper investigates the effects of large-scale wildfires on entire bird communities across multiple vegetation types.
View USGS Research Brief PDF >
This 1993 paper followed an earlier study that showed repeated fire a short intervals in chaparral could kill fire-dependent native shrubs, alter pre-fire community structure, and favor alien annual grasses and forbs.
View Research Brief PDF >
An article provides an overview of key factors, concepts and tools to understand the ecological resistance to biological invasion and resilience to fire of desert shrublands of North America.
View Research Brief PDF >
In a study of three prescribed fires in a mixed-‐ conifer forest at Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, researchers found that the predicted probability of sugar pine survival was 60% for raked trees compared to 7% for un-‐raked trees when the total fuel depth was greater than 30cm.
View Research Brief PDF >
Through modeling, field experiments, and case studies, the author demonstrated that home ignitability is largely dependent on a structure’s exterior materials and design combined with its exposure to flames and firebrands.
View Research Brief PDF >
Three complementary studies reviewed here examine how forest structure and fire regimes have varied spatially and temporally in the Lake Tahoe Basin, CA and NV.
Read MoreThis paper examines the social, political, and ecological needs and challenges associated with the use of prescribed fire as a management tool in North America.
View Research Brief PDF >
This study was the first to sample early recolonization after fire at the scale of the large wildfires that account for the majority of area burned in southern California.
View Research Brief PDF >
Vegetation mosaics in coastal California are dynamic. Post-‐fire shifts in plant community distributions can be explained by considering the dominant species’ life history characteristics, dispersal ability, fire severity, land use history, and site characteristics.
View Research Brief PDF >
This study used highly detailed demographic data to investigate vegetation recovery during the first five years after fire in southern California chaparral and sage scrub.
View USGS Research Brief PDF >
This paper explored post-fire effects on small mammals in burned chaparral ecosystems from the 2003 Cedar fire. Their results “highlight the dramatic changes in rodent community composition and species abundance caused by fire in chaparral” and that “recovery is largely driven by previously known relationships between small mammals and habitat structure”.
View Research Brief PDF >
Previous researchers have advocated that to obtain maximum diversity one must position rectangular plots along the environmental gradient that generates the highest species turnover. In the ecosystems studied here there was no evidence of consistent trends along gradients either perpendicular or parallel to the slope contour.
View USGS Research Brief PDF >
Research by USGS scientist Dr. Jon Keeley and colleagues published recently in Ecology examined the utility of plant functional traits for global prediction in crown-fire ecosystems.
View USGS Research Brief PDF >
Three sites of "blackbrush vegetation type" were compared under unburned and burned (6–14 years postfire) sites for a variety of characteristics in the Mojave Desert.
View USGS Research Brief PDF >
In the 1940's California Division of Forestry (CDF) rangeland managers believed that the grazing capacity of the California foothills had decreased due to weedy herbs and invading chaparral. The most effective methods were explored to convert chaparral to rangeland.
View Research Brief PDF >
The California Fire Science Consortium is divided into 4 geographic regions and 1 wildland-urban interface (WUI) team. Statewide coordination of this program is based at UC Berkeley.
View the about page to learn more >
This regional Fire Science Exchange is one of 15 regional fire science exchanges.
Link to another exchange:
