Dynamics and Risks
Dynamics and Risks
USGS scientists help identify the risk factors and likelihoods of fires throughout the United States. They also conduct studies to determine the dynamics of fires when they occur.
Filter Total Items: 38
Creating range-wide predictive maps of Greater Sage-Grouse seasonal habitats
Through a collaborative effort with multiple state and federal agencies, university researchers, and individual stakeholders, we are producing a set of predictive seasonal habitat maps for greater sage-grouse ( Centrocercus urophasianus ) spanning the entirety of the species’ U.S. distribution. This is the largest habitat modeling effort of its kind for the species and uses a large, compiled...
Pinyon-Juniper Disturbance Effects on Wildlife
Researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey are reviewing, summarizing, and analyzing what is currently known about changes happening in pinyon-juniper ecosystems in the western U.S. in response to tree removal treatments. Although tree removal can help restore sagebrush ecosystems, these treatments also impact wildlife, wildfire fuels, and invasive plants. This project will help identify key...
Fuel Break Science in the Great Basin
Researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey are developing a strategic framework for assessing and monitoring the impacts of fuel breaks in sagebrush ecosystems of the western U.S. Fuel breaks are increasingly being used to reduce the threat of wildfire, but more information on their efficacy and impacts on wildlife habitat and exotic annual grass invasion is needed.
Changes in Sagebrush Ecosystem Connectivity
Disturbances, management, and changing environmental conditions have reshaped the sagebrush biome within the western United States. As a result, sagebrush cover and configuration have varied over space and time, influencing ecological processes and species' use of the landscape. Characterizing changes in sagebrush ecosystem connectivity over time will help us understand the effects of those...
Quantifying Carbon Storage and Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Sagebrush Rangelands
Management partners have identified a major need to understand the short and long-term consequences of altered wildfire patterns, vegetation change, climate change, and management actions for the carbon cycle. This project aims to quantify carbon storage and greenhouse gas emissions in sagebrush rangelands. Researchers will link findings to the Sagebrush Conservation Design Framework and provide...
Economic assessment of addressing annual invasive grasses across the sagebrush biome
This interdisciplinary project combines expert judgment on treatment costs with spatially explicit ecological modeling to estimate the financial resources needed to address the threat of invasive annual grass across the entire sagebrush biome. Results of the assessment will provide economic insights that can inform cost-effective resource allocation to efficiently achieve sagebrush conservation...
Modeling Songbird Density-Habitat Relationships to Predict Population Responses to Environmental Change Within Pinyon-juniper and Sagebrush Ecosystems
Within areas of overlapping sagebrush and pinyon-juniper ecosystems, wildlife populations are declining due to habitat fragmentation and degradation, changing climate, and human development. However, management to bolster species associated with one ecosystem may result in negative consequences for species associated with the other. Thus, land managers are challenged with balancing which system to...
Prioritizing Restoration of Sagebrush Ecosystems Tool (PReSET): A USGS-facilitated Decision-support Tool for Sagebrush Ecosystem Conservation and Restoration Actions
Sagebrush ecosystems represent one of the most imperiled systems in North America and face continued and widespread degradation due to multiple factors including climate change, invasive species, and increased human development. Effective sagebrush management must consider how to best conserve and restore habitats to stem the decline of species that rely on them, especially given limited...
Actual evapotranspiration, flash droughts, water deficits, reduced vegetative growth, and wildfires: the effects of seasonally water-limited conditions in a changing climate
The Southeastern U.S. experiences recurring hydrologic droughts, which can reduce water availability for human consumption and ecosystem services, leading to plant stress and reduced plant growth. This project examines relationships between drought and the water cycle in the Southeast with data from the Panola Mountain Research Watershed (PMRW) near Atlanta, Georgia and other Southeastern sites...
Ecosystems on the Edge: Landscape and Fire Ecology of Forests, Deserts, and Tundra
Climate changes and interacting disturbances such as wildfires, insect and disease outbreaks, and erosion and flooding can perturb and reorganize ecosystems.
Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity
Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (MTBS) is an interagency program whose goal is to consistently map the burn severity and extent of large fires across all lands of the United States from 1984 to present. This includes all fires 1,000 acres or greater in the western United States and 500 acres or greater in the eastern Unites States. The extent of coverage includes the continental U.S., Alaska...
What role does prescribed fire play in managing annual bromes in Northern Great Plains grasslands?
Prescribed fire is used in grasslands throughout the Northern Great Plains National Park Service units (parks) to manage fuel loads, control nonnative species, and maintain a vital ecosystem process. Questions about its effects in areas with invasive annual brome grasses require answers to ensure its application produces desired results. Using an experimental approach at two parks in South Dakota...