Resilience to Large, “Catastrophic” Wildfires in North America's Grassland Biome

Authors

Victoria M. Donovan, University of Nebraska, LincolnFollow
Dirac Twidwell, University of Nebraska, LincolnFollow
Daniel R. Uden, University of Nebraska - LincolnFollow
Tsegaye Tadesse, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Brian D. Wardlow, University of Nebraska - LincolnFollow
Christine H. Bielski, University of Nebraska, Lincoln
Matthew O. Jones, University of Montana, Missoula
Brady W. Allred, University of Montana, Missoula
David E. Naugle, University of Montana, Missoula
Craig R. Allen, University of Nebraska - LincolnFollow

ORCID IDs

Victoria M. Donovan https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2906-5268

Dirac Twidwell https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0280-3339

Tsegaye Tadesse http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4102-1137

Brian D. Wardlow https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4767-581X

Matthew O. Jones https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9262-8345

Date of this Version

5-2020

Citation

Donovan, V. M., Twidwell, D., Uden, D. R., Tadesse, T.,Wardlow, B. D., Bielski, C. H., et al. (2020). Resilience to large, “catastrophic” wildfires in North America's grassland biome. Earth's Future, 8, e2020EF001487. https://doi.org/10.1029/2020EF001487

Abstract

Wildfires are ecosystem‐level drivers of structure and function in many vegetated biomes. While numerous studies have emphasized the benefits of fire to ecosystems, large wildfires have also been associated with the loss of ecosystem services and shifts in vegetation abundance. The size and number of wildfires are increasing across a number of regions, and yet the outcomes of large wildfire on vegetation at large‐scales are still largely unknown. We introduce an exhaustive analysis of wildfire‐scale vegetation response to large wildfires across North America's grassland biome. We use 18 years of a newly released vegetation data set combined with 1,390 geospatial wildfire perimeters and drought data to detect large‐scale vegetation response among multiple vegetation functional groups. We found no evidence of persistent declines in vegetation driven by wildfire at the biome level. All vegetation functional groups exhibited relatively rapid recovery to pre wildfire ranges of variation across the Great Plains ecoregions, with the exception being a persistent decrease in the abundance of trees in the Northwestern Great Plains. Drought intensity magnified immediate vegetation response to wildfire. Persistent declines in vegetation cover were observed at the scale of single pixels (30 m), suggesting that these responses were localized and represent extreme cases within larger wildfires. Our findings echo over a century of research demonstrating a biome resilient to wildfire.