Wildlife Response to Megafire
Megafires (uncharacteristically large and severe fires with dramatic socio-ecological impacts) have become an annual occurrence in California. Unfortunately, the response of wildlife community interactions to this type of extreme environmental shock are not well understood.
To resolve this knowledge gap, researchers are currently studying post-fire ecological recovery at HREC in various ways. For example, part of this work examines the role of different animal taxa in vegetation recovery by limiting what functional groups (deer, small mammals, etc.) can forage on oaks and shrubs. Animal movement and behavior is being studied through the use of camera traps and GPS telemetry. Researchers are also monitoring community composition over time to determine how groups respond differently to megafire.
Researcher Spotlight: Kendall Calhoun and Dr. Justin Brashares
Kendall's research focuses on understanding the impacts of recent shifts in California's fire regimes on native wildlife communities. He is a PhD candidate and National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow at UC Berkeley within the Brashares Lab Group. Justin is a Professor and G.R. & W.M. Goertz Chair of Environmental Science and his work aims to understand how human consumption of wild animals and conversion of natural habitats affects the dynamics and persistence of animal communities.
Learn more!
Watch Kendall in the field at HREC as he describes how he tracks deer using telemetry and what the study has learned so far about deer response to fire. You can also read more details about Justin and Kendall's work in Berkeley's online magazine, or in one of their recent publications.
