After the Fire: Biodiversity on a Burning Planet
California Fire Science Consortium
March 13, 2pm ET
Abstract: Fire is a critical and natural part of many ecosystems, but the nature of fire is rapidly shifting due to climate change. From a biological perspective, fire is a regular disturbance that affects the distribution and abundance of species and has shaped evolution for millions of years. Nevertheless, we are entering an unprecedented period where the dominant nature of fire is rapidly changing, disrupting both human and animal lives. This disruption occurs primarily during active fires, when flames and smoke can impact animal lives and fitness, but fire leaves long-lasting imprints on the environment, impacting animal distributions and behavior for decades. In this lecture, Dr. Morgan Tingley will discuss the myriad ways that fire has shaped the ecology of animals, primarily birds, and how the shifting nature of fire – particularly pyrodiversity – is impacting biodiversity. By learning how species are currently responding to a rapidly changing world, we are offered a glimpse into what our increasingly flammable future will hold.
We use a range of data to quantify the past and future drivers of wildfire smoke across the US, the impacts of exposure to this smoke on a range of health outcomes, and the efficacy of proposed solutions to reduce smoke emissions and exposures. We find that smoke exposure is undoing decades of air quality improvements in the US and leading to tens of thousands of premature deaths across the US per year, a number that could double under future climate change. We find that efforts to limit smoke emissions and exposures through large-scale use of prescribed fire could meaningfully reduce these impacts, but would require at least a decade of sustained effort.
Presented by: Morgan Tingley, Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, UCLA
Morgan Tingley joined the faculty at the University of California, Los Angeles in 2020, after previously serving as an Assistant Professor at the University of Connecticut. He holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management from the University of California, Berkeley. He is a recipient of the “Wings across the Americas” conservation award from the U.S. Forest Service and is currently the President-Elect of the American Ornithological Society. His more than 100 research papers have been covered widely by the popular press, including features by The New York Times, LA Times, Audubon Magazine, NPR, and Washington Post.
