Publications
The USGS fire science mission is to produce and deliver the best available scientific information, tools, and products to support land and emergency management by individuals and organizations at all levels. Below are USGS publications associated with our fire science portfolio.
Filter Total Items: 301
It matters when you measure it: Using snow-cover Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) to isolate post-fire conifer regeneration
Landsat Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) is commonly used to monitor post-fire green-up; however, most studies do not distinguish new growth of conifer from deciduous or herbaceous species, despite potential consequences for local climate, carbon and wildlife. We found that dual season (growing and snow cover) NDVI improved our ability to distinguish conifer tree presence and density.
Authors
Melanie K. Vanderhoof, Todd Hawbaker
Adapting management to a changing world: Warm temperatures, dry soil, and interannual variability limit restoration success of a dominant woody shrub in temperate drylands
Restoration and rehabilitation of native vegetation in dryland ecosystems, which encompass over 40% of terrestrial ecosystems, is a common challenge that continues to grow as wildfire and biological invasions transform dryland plant communities. The difficulty in part stems from low and variable precipitation, combined with limited understanding about how weather conditions influence restoration o
Authors
Robert K. Shriver, Caitlin M. Andrews, David S. Pilliod, Robert Arkle, Justin L. Welty, Matthew J. Germino, Michael C. Duniway, David A. Pyke, John B. Bradford
Resiliency of biological soil crusts and vascular plants varies among morphogroups with disturbance intensity
Background and aimsDisturbance affects the ability of organisms to persist on a site, and disturbance history acts as a filter of community composition. This is true for vascular plants and morphological groups of biocrusts, which respond differently to disturbance. Although functioning arid ecosystems include both groups, filtering of morphological groups of biocrusts has not previously been comp
Authors
Lea A. Condon, David A. Pyke
On the development of a magnetic susceptibility‐based tracer for aeolian sediment transport research
Aeolian processes — the erosion, transport, and deposition of sediment by wind — play important geomorphological and ecological roles in drylands. These processes are known to impact the spatial patterns of soil, nutrients, plant‐available water, and vegetation in many dryland ecosystems. Tracers, such as rare earth elements and stable isotopes have been successfully used to quantify the transport
Authors
Sujith Ravi, Howell B. Gonzales, Ilya V. Buynevich, Junran Li, Joel B. Sankey, David Dukes, Guan Wang
Using remote sensing to quantify ecosystem site potential community structure and deviation in the Great Basin, United States
The semi-arid Great Basin region in the Northwest U.S. is impacted by a suite of change agents including fire, grazing, and climate variability to which native vegetation can have low resilience and resistance. Assessing ecosystem condition in relation to these change agents is difficult due to a lack of a consistent and objective Site Potential (SP) information of the conditions biophysically pos
Authors
Matthew B. Rigge, Collin G. Homer, Bruce K. Wylie, Yingxin Gu, Hua Shi, George Z. Xian, Debra K. Meyer, Brett Bunde
Fire, vegetation, and Holocene climate in a southeastern Tibetan lake: a multi-biomarker reconstruction from Paru Co
The fire history of the Tibetan Plateau over centennial to millennial timescales is not well known. Recent ice core studies reconstruct fire history over the past few decades but do not extend through the Holocene. Lacustrine sedimentary cores, however, can provide continuous records of local environmental change on millennial scales during the Holocene through the accumulation and preservation of
Authors
Alice Callergaro, Dario Battistel, Natalie M. Kehrwald, Felipe Matsubara Pereira, Torben Kirchgeorg, Maria del Carmen Villoslada Hidalgo, Broxton W. Bird, Carlo Barbante
Drought and fire in the western USA: Is climate attribution enough?
Purpose of ReviewI sought to review the contributions of recent literature and prior foundational papers to our understanding of drought and fire. In this review, I summarize recent literature on drought and fire in the western USA and discuss research directions that may increase the utility of that body of work for twenty-first century application. I then describe gaps in the synthetic knowledge
Authors
Jeremy Littell
Fuels guide and database for intact and invaded big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) ecological sites—User manual
The Fuels Guide and Database (FGD) is intended to provide fuel loading and vegetation information for big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) ecological sites in the Morley Nelson Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area (hereinafter the NCA) in southern Idaho. Sagebrush ecosystems in the NCA and throughout much of the Great Basin are highly influenced by non-native plants that alter succ
Authors
Douglas J. Shinneman, Justin L. Welty, Robert S. Arkle, David S. Pilliod, Nancy F. Glenn, Susan K. McIlroy, Anne S. Halford
2018 hurricane and wildfire supplemental funding: USGS recovery activities
The Additional Supplemental Appropriations for Disaster Relief Requirements Act, 2018 (P.L. 115-123), was signed by the President on February 9, 2018. This funding provided $42.2 million to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) for equipment repair and replacement, high-resolution elevation data collection in both hurricane- and wildfire-impacted areas, and scientific studies and assessments that will
Authors
Jo Ellen Hinck, Joseph Stachyra
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, Natural Hazards Mission Area, Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Columbia Environmental Research Center, Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center, Supplemental Appropriations for Disaster Recovery Activities, Hurricane Harvey, Hurricane Irma, Hurricane Maria, Wildland Fire Science
Estimating forest canopy cover dynamics in Valles Caldera National Preserve, New Mexico, using LiDAR and Landsat data
Increasing tree canopy cover has led to increasing wildfire activity in conifer dominated areas of the southwestern United States. Estimating historical changes in the spatial distribution of tree canopy cover can provide further insights into the dynamics of forest and fuel conditions in these landscapes and help prioritize areas for restoration to mitigate wildfire risks and restore biological f
Authors
James W. Cain III, Kamal Humagain1, Carlos Portillo-Quintero1, Robert D. Cox1
Vegetative community response to landscape-scale post-fire herbicide (imazapic) application
Disturbances such as wildfire create time-sensitive windows of opportunity for invasive plant treatment, and the timing of herbicide application relative to the time course of plant community development following fire can strongly influence herbicide effectiveness. We evaluated the effect of herbicide (imazapic) applied in the first winter or second fall after the 113,000 ha Soda wildfire on the
Authors
Cara Applestein, Matthew J. Germino, Matthew Fisk
Time series of high-resolution images enhances efforts to monitor post-fire condition and recovery, Waldo Canyon fire, Colorado, USA
Interpretations of post-fire condition and rates of vegetation recovery can influence management priorities, actions and perception of latent risks from landslides and floods. In this study, we used the Waldo Canyon fire (2012, Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA) as a case study to explore how a time series (2011–2016) of high-resolution images can be used to delineate burn extent and severity, as we
Authors
Melanie K. Vanderhoof, Clifton Burt, Todd Hawbaker