Wildfire refugia in forests: Severe fire weather and drought mute the influence of topography and fuel age

Abstract

Wildfire refugia (unburnt patches within large wildfires) are important for the persistence of fire-sensitive species across forested landscapes globally. A key challenge is to identify the factors that determine the distribution of fire refugia across space and time. In particular, determining the relative influence of climatic and landscape factors is important in order to understand likely changes in the distribution of wildfire refugia under future climates. Here, we examine the relative effect of weather (i.e. fire weather, drought severity) and landscape features (i.e. topography, fuel age, vegetation type) on the occurrence of fire refugia across 26 large wildfires in south-eastern Au..