In previous studies we found that a mild thermal burn of the vitamin A-deficient rat cornea caused collagenase release into the medium of corneas placed in culture media 72 hr after applying the burn. Collagenase was released only on day 1 of culture and was not released from identically burned corneas of control rats. We now demonstrate that in deficient corneas, this collagenase release on da...

Climate change is causing an intensification in tundra fires across the Arctic, including unprecedented 2015 Yukon-Kuskokwim (YK) Delta. The YK Delta contains extensive surface waters (?33% cover) and significant quantities of organic carbon, much which stored vulnerable permafrost. Inland aquatic ecosystems act as hot-spots for landscape CO2 CH4 emissions likely represent a component Arctic ca...

Pinus massoniana forests bordering South China are often affected by wildfires. Fires cause major changes in soil properties in many forest types but little is known about the effects of fire on soil properties in these P. massoniana forests. Such knowledge is important for providing a comprehensive understanding of wildfire effects on soil patterns and for planning appropriate long-term forest...

Boreal ecosystems contain a substantial fraction of the earth’s soil carbon stores and are prone to frequent and severe wildfires. In this study, we examine changes in element and organic matter stocks due to a 1999 wildfire in Alaska. One year after the wildfire, burned soils contained between 1071 and 1420 g/m2 less carbon than unburned soils. Burned soils had lower nitrogen than unburned soi...

Biological invaders can alter ecosystem processes via multiple pathways, yet few studies have compared the relative importance of these pathways. We assessed the impacts of exotic, invasive grasses on ecosystem nitrogen (N) cycling in the seasonal submontane woodlands of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, where native grasses have been historically rare. Exotic grasses have become abundant over th...

Reproductive phenology is likely to vary spatially with environmental conditions that alter microclimate, in particular temperature. We hypothesized that within the same plant community type, environmental changes produced by recent burning would alter plant phenological patterns and temporal structure of the plant community. Specifically, we predicted accelerated flowering and fruiting dates i...

Throughout the Sierra Nevada, nearly a century of fire suppression has altered the tree species composition, forest structure, and fire regimes that were previously characteristic of montane forests. Species composition is fundamentally important because species differ in their tolerances to fire and environmental stressors, and these differences dictate future forest structure and influence fi...

This Letter presents field-based evidence of the perturbing effects of surface anisotropy on the remote sensing of burned savannah. The analysis is based on bidirectional spectral reflectance data collected at different solar illumination angles and convolved to Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) reflective bands. Results from a grass savannah site show that burning reduces t...