Published In
Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2020
Subjects
Forest management -- Environmental aspects, Forests and forestry
Abstract
Disturbance refugia – locations that experience less severe or frequent disturbances than the surrounding landscape – provide a framework to highlight not only where and why these biological legacies persist as adjacent areas change but also the value of those legacies in sustaining biodiversity. Recent studies of disturbance refugia in forest ecosystems have focused primarily on fire, with a growing recognition of important applications to land management. Given the wide range of disturbance processes in forests, developing a broader understanding of disturbance refugia is important for scientists and land managers, particularly in the context of anthropogenic climate change. We illustrate the framework of disturbance refugia through the individual and interactive effects of three prominent forest disturbance agents: fire, drought, and insect outbreaks. We provide examples of disturbance refugia and related applications to natural resource management in western North America, demonstrate methods for characterizing refugia, identify research priorities, and discuss why a more comprehensive definition of disturbance refugia is relevant to conservation globally.
Locate the Document
DOI
10.1002/fee.2190
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/33225
Citation Details
Krawchuk, M. A., Meigs, G. W., Cartwright, J. M., Coop, J. D., Davis, R., Holz, A., ... & Meddens, A. J. (2020). Disturbance refugia within mosaics of forest fire, drought, and insect outbreaks. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 18(5), 235-244.
Description
© 2020 The Authors. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of the Ecological Society of America.
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.