We rely on readers like you to uphold a free press. Survival of these young trees is not guaranteed, as they are starting out in a much warmer world. “That was astonishing.”. In each area, they compared to areas that burned in 1988 or 2000 but did not burn again in 2016. Research on the 1988 fires now provides a reference for assessing effects of more recent fires. I have studied the recovery of Yellowstone’s forests since 1989, watching landscapes of charred trees transition into lush young forests. “Crown fires” burn through the forest canopy, killing the trees while triggering a flush of new growth. Get your team aligned with all the tools you need on one secure, reliable video platform. Browse and buy exceptional, royalty-free stock clips, handpicked by the best. In New Mexico, researchers are examining whether smoke from the fires might have played a role in the unusual deaths of thousands of birds found scattered on the ground. In a study published this week [May 20, 2019] in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Turner and her team describe what happens when Yellowstone —  adapted to recurring fires every 100 to 300 years — instead burns twice in fewer than 30 years. Severe fires have burned in Yellowstone at 100- to 300-year intervals for the past 10,000 years. Native species steadily filled in the bare spots. Historically, fires burn in Yellowstone only every 100 to 300 years. Leeds, Leeds, Food policy at a time of crisis: what should the future look like? These pieces of dead wood were carbon sinks, storing carbon that the tree took up while alive. Today the burned landscape is dominated by thriving young lodgepole pine trees. Lodgepole pine trees are known for their serotinous cones, which are adapted to open in fire and release their seeds, replenishing the forest with a thick blanket of new trees once the blaze has fizzled. Surface fires leave dead needles on trees. Earlier that summer, a severe drought triggered the largest fires the region had seen in two centuries, and by the time the fires abated, over one-third of the park had been consumed by the flames. Extreme climate change has arrived in America, and it burns. Food policy at a time of crisis: what should the future look like? DellaSala, however, is one researcher who disagrees with that analysis. Two weeks ago, conservation scientist Dominick DellaSala was at his home in Talent, Oregon, writing an opinion column warning that the hotter, drier weather that had sparked devastating wildfires in California could soon catalyze blazes across the western United States. Dr. Monica Turner, a 29-year-old staff scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, flew out to Yellowstone National Park to start an experiment in forest ecology. For the English ornithologist, see Monica Turner (ornithologist). biology, fire, forestry, research, Feedback or questions? Extreme weather conditions drove the 1988 fires, as they have fostered many recent fires across the West. In some areas, fire burned so severely that nothing but the stumps of young trees remained. Because Yellowstone’s forests were remarkably resilient, the 1988 fires were not an ecological catastrophe. In 2011, modeling work by Turner’s group challenged pre-existing notions that young forests lack enough fuel in the form of trees and downed logs to sustain severe fire. It’s too soon to say how many species the fires have put in jeopardy, researchers say. Monica Turner, CC BY-ND Heat, drought and wind. UW–Madison video, Tags: After flames swept through habitat of the endangered spotted owl, many of the birds abandoned nesting sites, biologists Gavin Jones of the Rocky Mountain Research Station and M. Zachariah Peery from the University of Wisconsin (UW), Madison, found.