A wildfire in the wetland-mosaic landscape of Big Cypress National Preserve, Florida, offers a sudden and time-critical opportunity to understand what happens to forested wetlands when drought and fire occur in quick succession. In this instance, an area that experienced wildfire during severe drought in 2009 burned again only four years later (March 2013) and also during regional drought conditions. A series of studies after the 2009 wildfire provide considerable pre-2013 fire data, making this opportunity highly unusual from the standpoint of fires in wetlands. By making measurements of fire severity, tree mortality and loss of soil, this project will provide critical information on the resilience of wetlands to fire and drought.
Cypress domes store water long into the region's annual dry season. They thus provide important habitat for wildlife; refugia that concentrate prey organisms; and a distributed network of recharge basins for the shallow aquifer that supplies southwestern Florida's growing human population. The combination of projected climate change and human-altered hydrology is likely to result in more frequent and severe wildfires. By understanding the combined effects of drought and repeated wildfires on these wetland-mosaic landscapes, the project is expected to inform fire management strategies.
