Final Report: Predicting the Effects of Climate Change on the Spread of Fire-Promoting Plants in Hawai‘i: Assessing Emerging Threats to Rare Native Plants and Ecosystems
Dates
Acquisition
2024-04-19
Summary
This project aimed to identify non-native plants in Hawai‘i that are likely to pose a high wildfire risk now or in the future, and to create resources useful to conservation and fire managers in Hawai‘i regarding wildfire risk and highly flammable non-native and invasive plant species. To do this, a screening tool was developed to assess wildfire risk of any introduced plant in Hawai‘i, and wildfire risk scores were generated for over 360 plant species that have been introduced to Hawai‘i. To identify new plant introductions that may pose high wildfire risk in the future, botanical surveys were conducted across the Hawaiian Islands, and the distribution of fire-promoting species (principally grasses) were mapped, with a focus on identifying [...]
Summary
This project aimed to identify non-native plants in Hawai‘i that are likely to pose a high wildfire risk now or in the future, and to create resources useful to conservation and fire managers in Hawai‘i regarding wildfire risk and highly flammable non-native and invasive plant species. To do this, a screening tool was developed to assess wildfire risk of any introduced plant in Hawai‘i, and wildfire risk scores were generated for over 360 plant species that have been introduced to Hawai‘i. To identify new plant introductions that may pose high wildfire risk in the future, botanical surveys were conducted across the Hawaiian Islands, and the distribution of fire-promoting species (principally grasses) were mapped, with a focus on identifying new fire-promoting introduced plants. Over 51 person-days were spent in the field and two invasive grasses with very high fire-promoting risk were discovered, which had not previously been documented in Hawai‘i. These field data were combined with data from partners to create species spatial distribution models for predicted areas of spread for 12 species of management concern, based on current and projected future climate conditions. Maps of overall landscape level fire risk were also created for the entire archipelago based on climate, land-cover data and records of fire history in Hawai‘i.
