Socio-Ecological Problems of Fire in Rangelands Wrought by Global Change

A special issue of Land (ISSN 2073-445X). This special issue belongs to the section "Land Systems and Global Change".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 October 2023) | Viewed by 11213

Special Issue Editors

1. USDA Agricultural Research Service, Livestock & Range Research Laboratory, Miles City, MT 59301, USA
2. Environmental & Conservation Sciences, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND 58108, USA
Interests: sustainable agriculture; grazing; fire ecology; working landscapes; rangeland management
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
USDA Agricultural Research Service, Northern Plains Agricultural Research Laboratory, Sidney, MT 59270, USA
Interests: physiological effects of fire on rangeland plants; rangeland community responses to fire, and traits-based approaches to ecosystem restoration; social and policy dimensions of prescribed fire use in rangelands
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Instituto de Investigaciones en Biodiversidad y Medioambiente (INIBIOMA), CONICET, Bariloche 8400, Rio Negro, Argentina
Interests: fuels, and fire effects on vegetation in grasslands, including post-disturbance restoration; wildland-urban interfaces
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Rangelands are widely recognized as a varied and complex set of ecosystems that occur around the world. Many of these diverse ecosystems share three characteristics: They are working landscapes that support both biodiversity and rural livelihoods; wildland fire is an influential ecosystem process; myriad aspects of global change have the potential to disrupt or alter essential ecosystem functions. As in any ecosystem, the process of a disturbance like fire can be understood as a regime through the explicit description of factors such as the frequency, type, intensity, seasonality, and spatial pattern of vegetation combustion. Substantial changes to any aspect of a fire regime have the potential to alter the ecosystem’s capacity to function as required to deliver essential ecosystem services. In this Special Issue, we highlight efforts to understand the impacts of global change on rangeland fire regimes worldwide from both social and ecological perspectives. Authors are encouraged to identify “Wicked Problems” related to wildland fire at the interface of rangeland ecosystem integrity and human well-being, and address these problems by considering how aspects of fire regimes are altered by global change and how specific elements of the fire regime can be managed to mitigate these effects. “Global change” is considered broadly and can include but is not limited to the following: environmental changes such as average or extremes in temperature, precipitation, or nutrient inputs; invasive plant or animal species, woody plant encroachment, or changes in ecosystem management, that affect the amount, type, condition, and configuration of fuelbeds; land-use changes from agriculture, forestry, or energy development that contribute to landscape alterations such as fragmentation, settlement patterns, and broad vegetation types. A combination of both original social and ecological data is not required, but the socio-ecological context must be made clear. Reviews and case studies that meet these objectives are encouraged.

You may choose our Joint Special Issue in Fire.

Dr. Devan Allen McGranahan
Dr. Carissa L. Wonkka
Dr. Sofía Laura Gonzalez
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • Human dimensions of wildland fire
  • Fire ecology, management, and policy
  • Wildland fire regimes
  • Rural livelihoods on rangelands
  • Land-use change
  • Global change impacts on ecological function and ecosystem service delivery

Related Special Issue

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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14 pages, 2765 KiB  
Article
Heterogeneity-Based Management Restores Diversity and Alters Vegetation Structure without Decreasing Invasive Grasses in Working Mixed-Grass Prairie
by Cameron Duquette, Devan Allen McGranahan, Megan Wanchuk, Torre Hovick, Ryan Limb and Kevin Sedivec
Land 2022, 11(8), 1135; https://doi.org/10.3390/land11081135 - 24 Jul 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1835
Abstract
Non-native plants can reduce grassland biodiversity, degrade wildlife habitat, and threaten rural livelihoods. Management can be costly, and the successful eradication of undesirable species does not guarantee the restoration of ecosystem service delivery. An alternative to the eradication of invasive species in rangelands [...] Read more.
Non-native plants can reduce grassland biodiversity, degrade wildlife habitat, and threaten rural livelihoods. Management can be costly, and the successful eradication of undesirable species does not guarantee the restoration of ecosystem service delivery. An alternative to the eradication of invasive species in rangelands is to target the restoration of diversity and heterogeneous plant structure, which have direct links to ecosystem function. In this study, we evaluate patch-burn grazing (PBG) with one and two fires per year and variably stocked rotational grazing in Poa pratensis- and Bromus inermis-invaded grasslands using traditional (cover) and process-based (diversity and vegetation structural heterogeneity) frameworks in central North Dakota, USA. Within 3–4 years of initiating management, we found little evidence of decreased Poa pratensis and Bromus inermis cover compared to continuous grazing (Poa pratensis F3,12 = 0.662, p = 0.59; Bromus inermis F3,12 = 0.13, p = 0.13). However, beta diversity increased over time in all treatments compared to continuous grazing (tPBG1 = 2.71, tPBG2 = 3.45, tRotational = 3.72), and variably stocked rotational treatments had greater increases in spatial heterogeneity in litter depth and vegetation structure than continuously grazed pastures (tvisual obstruction= 2.42, p = 0.03; tlitter depth = 2.59, p = 0.02) over the same time period. Alternative frameworks that promote grassland diversity and heterogeneity support the restoration of ecological services and processes in invaded grasslands. Full article
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13 pages, 596 KiB  
Article
Factors Influencing County Commissioners’ Decisions about Burn Bans in the Southern Plains, USA
by Thomas W. McDaniel, Carissa L. Wonkka, Morgan L. Treadwell and Urs P. Kreuter
Land 2021, 10(7), 686; https://doi.org/10.3390/land10070686 - 30 Jun 2021
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1571
Abstract
Woody plant encroachment in North American rangelands has led to calls for greater use of prescribed fire to reduce fuel loads and restore grazing productivity and grassland biodiversity. However, the use of prescribed fire during periods when woody plant mortality is maximized has [...] Read more.
Woody plant encroachment in North American rangelands has led to calls for greater use of prescribed fire to reduce fuel loads and restore grazing productivity and grassland biodiversity. However, the use of prescribed fire during periods when woody plant mortality is maximized has often been limited by temporary restrictions on outdoor burning enacted by regional or local governmental entities. This study reports the results of a survey assessing the familiarity with and attitudes toward prescribed fire in Texas and Oklahoma, USA, of officials tasked with implementing restrictions on outdoor burning and how these attitudes influence their decisions. Most responding officials considered prescribed fire to be a safe and beneficial land management tool that should be used more frequently. Self-reported familiarity with prescribed fire was the most significant explanatory variable for this attitude. Further, familiarity with prescribed fire was influenced by respondent participation in or being invited to participate in a prescribed fire. Such invitations came mostly from private landowners. Landowners wishing to use prescribed fire may benefit from building trust with local officials by demonstrating they are qualified to conduct such fires safely. This could help reduce the frequency of burn restrictions and may increase the likelihood that officials will grant burn ban exemptions to qualified burn managers. Additionally, because officials’ primary sources of prescribed fire information were reported to be local fire departments and emergency services, educating those entities about the benefits of prescribed fire for reducing wildfire risks could help reduce pressure on officials to enact or maintain burning restrictions. These findings highlight opportunities for reducing the frequency of burning restrictions, increasing opportunities for land managers to effectively halt or reverse woody plant encroachment. Full article
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11 pages, 292 KiB  
Communication
Moderate Grazer Density Stabilizes Forage Availability More Than Patch Burning in Low-Stature Grassland
by Edward J. Raynor, Devan Allen McGranahan, James R. Miller, Diane M. Debinski, Walter H. Schacht and David M. Engle
Land 2021, 10(4), 395; https://doi.org/10.3390/land10040395 - 09 Apr 2021
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2648
Abstract
Spatially patchy fire creates landscape-level diversity that in turn stabilizes several rangeland ecosystem services, including forage production and habitat availability. To enhance biodiversity and livestock production, efforts are underway to restore fire regimes in rangelands throughout the Great Plains. However, invasive species such [...] Read more.
Spatially patchy fire creates landscape-level diversity that in turn stabilizes several rangeland ecosystem services, including forage production and habitat availability. To enhance biodiversity and livestock production, efforts are underway to restore fire regimes in rangelands throughout the Great Plains. However, invasive species such as tall fescue Schedonorus arundinaceus syn. Festuca arundinacea, initially introduced for forage production, hamper prescribed fire use. Grazer density, or stocking rate, modulates the effect of patchy fire regimes on ecological patterns in invaded, semi-natural rangeland pastures. We compare three diversity–stability responses—temporal variability in aboveground plant biomass, portfolio effects among plant functional groups, and beta diversity in plant functional group composition—in pastures managed with two different fire regimes through three periods of heavy, light, and moderate stocking rate in southern Iowa, USA. Pastures were either burned in patches, with one-third of the pasture burned each year, or completely burned every third year. The period of moderate grazer density had the least temporal variability in aboveground plant biomass, regardless of fire regime. We also found statistical evidence for a portfolio effect under moderate stocking, where diversification of plant communities through varying cover of functional groups can stabilize communities by reducing year-to-year variability. Beta diversity among plant functional groups was greatest during the moderate grazer density period as well. The short stature of tall fescue prevented the patch-burning regime to create contrast in vegetation structure among patches, and there was no difference in any diversity–stability mechanism response across the two different patterns of burning. Although longitudinal, these data suggest that temporal variability in aboveground plant biomass declines with diversity–stability mechanisms that underlie ecosystem function. Our results also support a decades-old principle of range management: moderate grazing intensity enhances diversity and stability, which has been shown to buffer forage shortfalls during drought. Full article
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Review

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13 pages, 1236 KiB  
Review
Barriers to Prescribed Fire in the US Great Plains, Part II: Critical Review of Presently Used and Potentially Expandable Solutions
by Autumn S. Clark, Devan Allen McGranahan, Benjamin A. Geaumont, Carissa L. Wonkka, Jacqueline P. Ott and Urs P. Kreuter
Land 2022, 11(9), 1524; https://doi.org/10.3390/land11091524 - 09 Sep 2022
Viewed by 1756
Abstract
This is the second paper of a two-part series on the barriers to prescribed fire use in the Great Plains of the USA. While the first part presented a systematic review of published papers on the barriers to prescribed fire use, specifically regarding [...] Read more.
This is the second paper of a two-part series on the barriers to prescribed fire use in the Great Plains of the USA. While the first part presented a systematic review of published papers on the barriers to prescribed fire use, specifically regarding perceptions and attitudes of land managers, this second part reviews the solutions that are employed to increase prescribed fire use by land managers in the Great Plains. First, the review compiled the solutions currently and ubiquitously employed to promote fire use and how they have been documented to address barriers. Second, potentially expandable solutions used in similar natural resource fields and communities were reviewed as possible solutions to the unaddressed aspects of remaining barriers that limit fire use. Full article
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16 pages, 1755 KiB  
Review
Barriers to Prescribed Fire in the US Great Plains, Part I: Systematic Review of Socio-Ecological Research
by Autumn S. Clark, Devan Allen McGranahan, Benjamin A. Geaumont, Carissa L. Wonkka, Jacqueline P. Ott and Urs P. Kreuter
Land 2022, 11(9), 1521; https://doi.org/10.3390/land11091521 - 09 Sep 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1611
Abstract
Prescribed fire is increasingly being considered as a viable management tool by public and private land managers. Fully expanding prescribed fire use in a land management context, where it is an ecologically effective but not commonly applied tool, requires a comprehensive understanding of [...] Read more.
Prescribed fire is increasingly being considered as a viable management tool by public and private land managers. Fully expanding prescribed fire use in a land management context, where it is an ecologically effective but not commonly applied tool, requires a comprehensive understanding of barriers that limit prescribed fire, especially in working rangelands of the North American Great Plains. While there is an emerging body of work on the perceptions of prescribed fire, there has yet to be a compilation of the research. We present a systematic review of the published literature on the perceptions and attitudes of land managers towards prescribed fire in the Great Plains in an effort to provide a social-ecological perspective on the issue. The aim is to share the methods used to assess social perceptions of prescribed fire in the Great Plains and regional distribution of these studies as well as to identify perceived barriers and limitations that restrict the use of prescribed fire by reviewing studies primarily located in the Great Plains ecoregion and focused on perceptions of fire. Surveys were the most commonly used method to assess social perceptions, with most research concentrated in the southern Great Plains. Barriers included a range of social, informational, practical, and regulatory concerns. This compilation of research synthesizes the current knowledge regarding social perceptions of and potential barriers to prescribed fire use so that fire practitioners and communities considering prescribed fire use for rangeland management have the most current information to make sound decisions. Full article
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