From 2002 to 2011, Sinead and Mark Borchert live-trapped small mammals in two grids across the 65‐m zone on either side of the perimeter of the 2002, 8,100‐ha Wolf Fire in Los Padres National Forest.
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This is a presentation from the Aspen Restoration and Ecology Workshop in 2015. The summary of this presentation is that pure, mature aspen are best for avian species richness and abundance. Specific characteristics of aspen stands that benefit avian species are also discussed.
Presenter: Will Richardson
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This 1952 study is a questionably designed attempt to measure wildlife survival during prescribed fire. The most dubious part of the project involves burying live-‐trapped animals in the path of a controlled burn.
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Between the 1940s and the 1970s, converting chaparral to grasslands had become acceptable and widely practiced in western states. How these type conversions affected vertebrate diversity were addressed in this study.
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In the interest of increasing browse for deer populations on California chaparral lands, a brush manipulation program was conducted by the California Department of Fish & Game (CDFG) from 1955 to 1960. The results of this project are discussed in this brief.
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A USGS study reports that after the 2003 fires, burned coastal sage scrub (CSS) plots displayed a significant shift in the overall community structure of ground foraging ant species.
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In southern California, the slopes are famous for producing high sediment yields following fires. The authors showed that large volumes of sediment are released when the “dams” are burned in wildfires in these ecosystems.
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Using a simple caging experiment, the researchers investigated impacts of herbivory on seedling establishment of two chaparral species after a prescribed fire.
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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.
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This paper investigates the effects of large-scale wildfires on entire bird communities across multiple vegetation types.
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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.
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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”.
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In 2003, Southern California experienced several large fires that burned thousands of hectares of wildlife habitats and conserved lands. A USGS study published in the Journal of Herpetology reports that after the fires, burned chaparral and coastal sage scrub (CSS) plots lost herpetological diversity and displayed a significant shift in overall community structure.
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A study that offers insight into the impacts of prescribed and wildfire on stream and riparian systems.
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Four decades after being type converted to a non native grassland, the soil and hydrology of the USFS San Dimas Experimental Forest in southern California was compared to the adjacent, natural chaparral.
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Cook used the 1953 wildfire in Berkeley, CAas an opportunity to research the effects of fire on rodent populations in California grasslands and “brushlands.”
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Models of fisher habitat selection and metapopulation dynamics in the southern Sierra Nevada suggest the negative effects of fuel treatments on fisher habitat suitability and population size are generally smaller than the long-‐term positive effects of fuel treatments that reduce wildfire risk and severity.
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With a mark-recapture study, individual walking sticks were observed to travel up to only 8m per week, validating the conclusion that the post-burn population was indeed a persistent population, rather than an immigrant one.
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An increase in the frequency and spatial extent of stand-replacing fires in western North America has prompted concern for California spotted owls and other sensitive species associated with late-successional forests.
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This research brief discusses the changes in soil moisture after chaparral was removed in the long and short term.
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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.
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This regional Fire Science Exchange is one of 15 regional fire science exchanges.
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