Publication
A possible role for river restoration enhancing biodiversity through interaction with wildfire
Publisher:
Wiley
Date:
14-06-2022
DOI:
10.1111/GEB.13555
Abstract: Historically, wildfire regimes produced important landscape‐scale disturbances in many regions globally. The “pyro ersity begets bio ersity” hypothesis suggests that wildfires that generate temporally and spatially heterogeneous mosaics of wildfire severity and post‐burn recovery enhance bio ersity at landscape scales. However, river management has often led to channel incision that disconnects rivers from their floodplains, desiccating floodplain habitats and depleting groundwater. In conjunction with predicted increases in frequency, intensity and extent of wildfires under climate change, this increases the likelihood of deep, uniform burns that reduce bio ersity. Recent focus on floodplain re‐wetting and restoration of successional floodplain habitat mosaics, developed for river management and flood prevention, could reduce wildfire intensity in restored floodplains and make the burns less uniform, increasing climate‐change resilience an important synergy. According to theory, this would also enhance bio ersity. However, this possibility is yet to be tested empirically. We suggest potential research avenues. We illustrate the interaction between wildfire and river restoration using a restoration project in Oregon, USA. A project to reconnect the South Fork McKenzie River and its floodplain suffered a major burn (“Holiday Farm” wildfire, 2020), offering a rare opportunity to study the interaction between this type of river restoration and wildfire specifically, the predicted increases in pyro ersity and bio ersity. Given the importance of river and wetland ecosystems for bio ersity globally, a research priority should be to increase our understanding of potential mechanisms for a “triple win” of flood reduction, wildfire alleviation and bio ersity promotion.