by Rachel M. Gregg, EcoAdapt, and Laura A. Marshall, University of Arizona
Increasingly common large and severe fires in the Southwest are now often followed by vegetation type conversions (VTC) where once-dominant vegetation fails to return to its pre-fire state. Case studies have documented abrupt transitions from forests to shrublands or from shrublands to grasslands. In some cases, these transitions may be persistent, and are associated with potential losses in biodiversity, ecosystem services, and cultural values. Forests in the southwestern United States are in a state of flux as the ecological effects of climate, anthropogenic, and natural disturbance factors play out across multiple scales (Keeley et al. 2019). VTC is the lasting consequence following a disturbance… Read more by downloading a PDF of the summary paper here.
