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Before and after the Flames: An Ecological Examination of the...
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Before and after the Flames: An Ecological Examination of the Factors That Influence Forest Fire Effects and Post-fire Recovery and Resilience

A special issue of Forests (ISSN 1999-4907). This special issue belongs to the section "Forest Ecology and Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 August 2025 | Viewed by 2686

Special Issue Editor

Dr. John N. Williams

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Environmental Science and Policy, University of California, Davis 95616, CA, USA
Interests: fire ecology; tropical ecology; community ecology; natural resource management; mediterranean-type ecosystems; biogeography; biodiversity and conservation; climate change

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Fire-adapted and fire-prone forests are found across the globe, and the incidence of fire in these systems affects and is affected by the people and societies living in their midst. From Indigenous cultural burns and prescribed fire to natural ignitions and human-caused wildfire, the effects of burning can have rejuvenating or devastating effects on ecological communities, forest resources and ecosystem services. While integrated long-term forest strategies and management plans can restore and support sustainable forests, climate change, fire-suppression policies and misguided resource extraction can degrade, fragment or cause lasting harm to productivity, native species and forest ecosystems.

For this Special Issue, we invite contributions from researchers whose work explores and offers insight into how forests respond to natural or human-caused fire and which factors play important roles in determining post-fire forest recovery and resilience. We encourage research that examines these issues across a wide breadth of geographies and contexts—from the boreal forests to the tropics and from remote wilderness areas to heavily managed forest systems and those at the agricultural frontier and wildland-urban interface, or WUI. We welcome studies that employ a range of research techniques, from on-the-ground data collection and monitoring to remote sensing and modeling. With the collection of studies published in this Special Issue, we aim to highlight (1) the commonalities and idiosyncrasies of how pre- and post-fire conditions lead to or detract from post-fire resilience; (2) generalized or system-specific recommendations for preparing for, managing and adapting to future fire regimes; and (3) promising quantitative techniques for studying, monitoring and informing how we ensure the integrity and function of fire-adapted forests.

Dr. John N. Williams
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Forests is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • disturbance regime
  • ecosystem function
  • fire return interval
  • fuels
  • prescribed fire
  • regeneration
  • severity
  • species composition
  • stand dynamics
  • wildfire

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

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29 pages, 4900 KiB  
Article
Forest Fire Severity and Koala Habitat Recovery Assessment Using Pre- and Post-Burn Multitemporal Sentinel-2 Msi Data
by Derek Campbell Johnson, Sanjeev Kumar Srivastava and Alison Shapcott
Forests 2024, 15(11), 1991; https://doi.org/10.3390/f15111991 - 11 Nov 2024
Viewed by 532
Abstract
Habitat loss due to wildfire is an increasing problem internationally for threatened animal species, particularly tree-dependent and arboreal animals. The koala (Phascolartos cinereus) is endangered in most of its range, and large areas of forest were burnt by widespread wildfires in [...] Read more.
Habitat loss due to wildfire is an increasing problem internationally for threatened animal species, particularly tree-dependent and arboreal animals. The koala (Phascolartos cinereus) is endangered in most of its range, and large areas of forest were burnt by widespread wildfires in Australia in 2019/2020, mostly areas dominated by eucalypts, which provide koala habitats. We studied the impact of fire and three subsequent years of recovery on a property in South-East Queensland, Australia. A classified Differenced Normalised Burn Ratio (dNBR) calculated from pre- and post-burn Sentinel-2 scenes encompassing the local study area was used to assess regional impact of fire on koala-habitat forest types. The geometrically structured composite burn index (GeoCBI), a field-based assessment, was used to classify fire severity impact. To detect lower levels of forest recovery, a manual classification of the multitemporal dNBR was used, enabling the direct comparison of images between recovery years. In our regional study area, the most suitable koala habitat occupied only about 2%, and about 10% of that was burnt by wildfire. From the five koala habitat forest types studied, one upland type was burnt more severely and extensively than the others but recovered vigorously after the first year, reaching the same extent of recovery as the other forest types. The two alluvial forest types showed a negligible fire impact, likely due to their sheltered locations. In the second year, all the impacted forest types studied showed further, almost equal, recovery. In the third year of recovery, there was almost no detectable change and therefore no more notable vegetative growth. Our field data revealed that the dNBR can probably only measure the general vegetation present and not tree recovery via epicormic shooting and coppicing. Eucalypt foliage growth is a critical resource for the koala, so field verification seems necessary unless more-accurate remote sensing methods such as hyperspectral imagery can be implemented. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Before and after the Flames: An Ecological Examination of the Factors That Influence Forest Fire Effects and Post-fire Recovery and Resilience)
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Review

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21 pages, 4723 KiB  
Review
Research Trends in Wildland Fire Prediction Amidst Climate Change: A Comprehensive Bibliometric Analysis
by Mingwei Bao, Jiahao Liu, Hong Ren, Suting Liu, Caixia Ren, Chen Chen and Jianxiang Liu
Forests 2024, 15(7), 1197; https://doi.org/10.3390/f15071197 - 10 Jul 2024
Viewed by 1733
Abstract
Wildfire prediction plays a vital role in the management and conservation of forest ecosystems. By providing detailed risk assessments, it contributes to the reduction of fire frequency and severity, safeguards forest resources, supports ecological stability, and ensures human safety. This study systematically reviews [...] Read more.
Wildfire prediction plays a vital role in the management and conservation of forest ecosystems. By providing detailed risk assessments, it contributes to the reduction of fire frequency and severity, safeguards forest resources, supports ecological stability, and ensures human safety. This study systematically reviews wildfire prediction literature from 2003 to 2023, emphasizing research trends and collaborative trends. Our findings reveal a significant increase in research activity between 2019 and 2023, primarily driven by the United States Forest Service and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The majority of this research was published in prominent journals such as the International Journal of Wildland Fire, Forest Ecology and Management, Remote Sensing, and Forests. These publications predominantly originate from Europe, the United States, and China. Since 2020, there has been substantial growth in the application of machine learning techniques in predicting forest fires, particularly in estimating fire occurrence probabilities, simulating fire spread, and projecting post-fire environmental impacts. Advanced algorithms, including deep learning and ensemble learning, have shown superior accuracy, suggesting promising directions for future research. Additionally, the integration of machine learning with cellular automata has markedly improved the simulation of fire behavior, enhancing both efficiency and precision. The profound impact of climate change on wildfire prediction also necessitates the inclusion of extensive climate data in predictive models. Beyond conventional studies focusing on fire behavior and occurrence probabilities, forecasting the environmental and ecological consequences of fires has become integral to forest fire management and vital for formulating more effective wildfire strategies. The study concludes that significant regional disparities in knowledge exist, underscoring the need for improved research capabilities in underrepresented areas. Moreover, there is an urgent requirement to enhance the application of artificial intelligence algorithms, such as machine learning, deep learning, and ensemble learning, and to intensify efforts in identifying and leveraging various wildfire drivers to refine prediction accuracy. The insights generated from this field will profoundly augment our understanding of wildfire prediction, assisting policymakers and practitioners in managing forest resources more sustainably and averting future wildfire calamities. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Before and after the Flames: An Ecological Examination of the Factors That Influence Forest Fire Effects and Post-fire Recovery and Resilience)
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