How do plant communities differ between fire refugia and fire‐generated early‐seral vegetation?

Aims Wildfires in dry forest ecosystems in western North America are producing fire effects that are more severe than historical estimates, raising concerns about the resilience of these landscapes to contemporary disturbances. Despite increasing fire activity, relatively little is known about the structure and composition of fire refugia — unburned or low‐severity burned patches where trees survived fire — or the degree to which their...