Geological Survey

Description

The USGS is offering a funding opportunity to a CESU partner to facilitate general cooperation between USGS and the recipient in the analysis fire-driven Vegetation Type Conversion (VTC) in coniferous forests of the western US. Fire size, frequency, overall area burned, and severity are increasing across many vegetation types in the southwestern US. Species are adapted to a particular fire regime (the typical size, frequency, seasonality, and severity of fire), and communities likewise reflect the prevailing fire regime and climate. As a consequence, disrupting the fire regime often leads to significant ecosystem change. The underlying hazards that lead to increasing fire impacts in historically high frequency/low-severity coniferous forests in the Southwest include increased fuel loading and connectivity, weather conditions that increase flammability and promote and accelerated fire spread, land use legacies of excessive grazing and fire exclusion, and the direct impacts of increasing temperatures and vapor pressure deficit (VPD).

Who can apply

• Others

Contact

Faith Graves 703-648-7356 <br/>fgraves@usgs.gov
fgraves@usgs.gov