Biodiversity Research Seminar Series (BRS)
BRS Meg Krawchuk: Fire refugia: What are they, where are they, and why do they matter for forest ecosystems and fire ecology in a time of global change
January 11, 2023, 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm
Zoom webinar recording:
Passcode: F$+?@6T0
host: Jason Pither
Title: Fire refugia: What are they, where are they, and why do they matter for forest ecosystems and fire ecology in a time of global change
Abstract:
Recent stand-replacing wildfires in older forests of the Pacific Northwest (PNW) and globally have increased land manager and scientific interest in fire refugia that can provide important ecosystem services during a time of rapid change. Fire refugia are locations that burn less severely or less frequently than the surrounding landscape and contribute critical heterogeneity to forest ecosystems. These living legacies can be truly unburned or have burned as surface fire through forests with low severity, and contribute to the heterogeneity in fire effects critical to the social and ecological role fire plays in diverse ecosystems.
I will talk about the concept of fire refugia within a broader framework of disturbance refugia, showcase a suite of fire refugia models and products developed from research on moister and drier forests of the PNW region, and discuss how this science aims to inform regional conservation planning efforts, and project-level planning where old and mature forests and habitat of olde- forest associated species are high priorities. I hope these ideas will facilitate open discussions about the geography of fire and forests, and their coexistence, as fire activity accelerates with climate warming.
Dr. Meg A. Krawchuk is an Associate Professor of Landscape Fire, Ecology, and Conservation Science in the Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society, College of Forestry, at Oregon State University. Krawchuk works at scales from local to global, addressing the causes and effects of ecological disturbances, with a particular interest in landscape fire. She generally thinks of herself as a pyrogeographer (such a great word that integrates ecological and social components of fire): studying biotic and abiotic conditions responsible for the spatial distribution of fire, the fire ecology that results within burn mosaics, and the land management and cultural decisions that sets this all in play historically, now, and in future times.
Details on work and ideas Dr. Krawchuk and her lab group are pursuing can be found by perusing the Landscape Fire and Conservation Science Research Group webpage. Krawchuk is happy to talk about her work on overlapping disturbances, invasive grasses and fire, early seral biodiversity, conservation planning, fire and forest management, historical ecology, collaborative governance and wildfire ecology including ITEK, as well as her work on fire refugia.