Wildfire regimes have been increasing in frequency and severity, which has dire implications for California’s rich biodiversity, even in fire-adapted systems. Ecological restoration including fungal additions may prove very successful in assisting degraded systems in functionally recovering. Soil fungi perform a variety of ecosystem functions, but their functional role in ecosystems may be hindered after catastrophic wildfires.
We aim to obtain a more holistic understanding of the factors influencing soil bacterial and fungal post-fire resilience in Southern California forests and grasslands, including timing, severity, and size of fire. In addition, we will test a variety of post-fire fungal and bacterial soil amendments to improve post-fire ecosystem multifunctionality and native plant regeneration. We will examine the viability and resilience of our inoculum types (mycorrhizal spores and soil from reference ecosystems) to fire within a controlled “pyrocosm” experiment). Overall this work will improve native plant regeneration after wildfires in Southern California and will have applications for many aspects of ecosystem restoration throughout California. This research has global implications, especially for those in fire-affected Mediterranean ecosystems, for improving ecosystem health and resilience to wildfires.
We aim to obtain a more holistic understanding of the factors influencing soil bacterial and fungal post-fire resilience in Southern California forests and grasslands, including timing, severity, and size of fire. In addition, we will test a variety of post-fire fungal and bacterial soil amendments to improve post-fire ecosystem multifunctionality and native plant regeneration. We will examine the viability and resilience of our inoculum types (mycorrhizal spores and soil from reference ecosystems) to fire within a controlled “pyrocosm” experiment). Overall this work will improve native plant regeneration after wildfires in Southern California and will have applications for many aspects of ecosystem restoration throughout California. This research has global implications, especially for those in fire-affected Mediterranean ecosystems, for improving ecosystem health and resilience to wildfires.
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Our research goal is to evaluate how fire affects fungi and fungal communities, and to investigate how fungi could be leveraged to support or accelerate post-fire ecosystem regeneration. Furthermore, we will expand and develop our collaborative network, conduct education and outreach with affected communities, disseminate our findings, and refine our recommendations for applying these methods to support ecological regeneration.
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Judy Chung sampling soil at a burned site
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Our research allies include the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), for site selection and conducting research following their prescribed burns, and with Sydney Glassman’s Fungal Ecology lab at UC Riverside. With the combined support of the BLM and Metabolic Studios, we will collect samples at fire-prone ecosystems and at sites of controlled (prescribed) burns to characterize bacterial and fungal diversity (species richness) and composition before and after prescribed burns. This work will provide valuable data to test if microbial diversity and community composition is linked to plant regeneration and soil biogeochemical cycling after fires, and to investigate various types of soil amendments to determine if they will speed ecosystem restoration and native plant regeneration after prescribed burns. Soil microbial complexity may be higher or return faster in amended soils. Moreover, the native plant growth trajectory may differ with various soil and microbial amendments. Likewise, prescribed fires can likely be manipulated (heat, size, timing of fire) to promote desired ecosystem functions. Additionally, our team will sample and archive soils from lands with a strong fire history where imminent wildfires are expected in anticipation of being able to have rare pre and post-fire soil microbial data from wildfires. Overall, these data will support our efforts to ultimately identify, conserve and restore priority habitats.