AUTHORS: Monica G. Turner*, Department of Integrative Biology, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Brian J. Harvey, School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, University of Washington; Winslow D. Hansen, Department of Integrative Biology, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Kristin H. Braziunas, Department of Integrative Biology, University of Wisconsin-Madison
ABSTRACT: Novel fire regimes have the potential to erode forest resilience (ability to tolerate disturbance without shifting to a new state) in fire-prone forest landscapes. In Greater Yellowstone (Wyoming, USA), lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta var. latifolia) forests have been highly resilient to large, stand-replacing fires that historically burned at 100 to 300-yr intervals. However, fire-return intervals (FRI) are projected to decline substantially by mid-century as climate warms, increasing the likelihood that forests will re-burn prior to recovery from previous fire. Opportunities to study ecological effects of short-interval fires remain rare in any landscape, but the Yellowstone fires of 2016 included >18,000 ha of short-interval (70,000 stems/ha) to sparse (