Max A Moritz
Biographic Data
| ID | 1340629 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Max A Moritz |
| GIVEN NAMES | Max A |
| FAMILY NAME | Moritz |
| SIGNATURE | MORITZ M A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of California, Berkeley |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-8995-8893 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 7 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 15 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2009 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Landscaping defensible space
The wildland urban interface (WUI) presents a unique planning challenge. Landscaped residential properties intersect with wild, fire-prone vegetation; however, WUI residents lack clear guidance on which plants pose higher or lower risk and how to manage vegetation to reduce fire hazard while also prioritizing landscaping design. This is largely due to the lack of information regarding how landscaping plants burn. This study provided a community-l…
Geographic Fire Response Standards Emerging from Human–Environment Interactions
Natural and man-made disasters are generally characterized in terms of their human–environment interactions. Wildfire, or simply fire, is something that has naturally occurred over millions of years, but it is the interaction, disruption, and impact on humans that often generates much interest and concern. The growth of the built environment and human reliance on fire in everyday life can be a dangerous combination, putting people and property at…
Recent California tree mortality portends future increase in drought-driven forest die-off
Vegetation tolerance to drought depends on an array of site-specific environmental and plant physiological factors. This tolerance is poorly understood for many forest types despite its importance for predicting and managing vegetation stress. We analyzed the relationships between precipitation variability and forest die-off in California’s Sierra Nevada and introduce a new measure of drought tolerance that emphasizes plant access to subsurface m…
Contrasting human influences and macro-environmental factors on fire activity inside and outside protected areas of North America
Human activities threaten the effectiveness of protected areas (PAs) in achieving their conservation goals across the globe. In this study, we contrast the influence of human and macro-environmental factors driving fire activity inside and outside PAs. Using area burned between 1984 and 2014 for 11 ecoregions in Canada and the United States, we built and compared statistical models of fire likelihood using the MaxEnt software and a set of 11 key …
The relative influence of climate and housing development on current and projected future fire patterns and structure loss across three California landscapes
Climate and land use patterns are expected to change dramatically in the coming century, raising concern about their effects on wildfire patterns and subsequent impacts to human communities. The relative influence of climate versus land use on fires and their impacts, however, remains unclear, particularly given the substantial geographical variability in fire-prone places like California. We developed a modeling framework to compare the importan…
Adapt to more wildfire in western North American forests as climate changes
Wildfires across western North America have increased in number and size over the past three decades, and this trend will continue in response to further warming. As a consequence, the wildland–urban interface is projected to experience substantially higher risk of climate-driven fires in the coming decades. Although many plants, animals, and ecosystem services benefit from fire, it is unknown how ecosystems will respond to increased burning and …
Coexisting with Wildfire
A minimal model of fire-vegetation feedbacks and disturbance stochasticity generates alternative stable states in grassland–shrubland–woodland systems
Altered disturbance regimes in the context of global change are likely to have profound consequences for ecosystems. Interactions between fire and vegetation are of particular interest, as fire is a major driver of vegetation change, and vegetation properties (e.g., amount, flammability) alter fire regimes. Mediterranean-type ecosystems (MTEs) constitute a paradigmatic example of temperate fire-prone vegetation. Although these ecosystems may be h…
Learning to coexist with wildfire
Large wildfire trends in the western United States, 1984–2011
We used a database capturing large wildfires (> 405 ha) in the western U.S. to document regional trends in fire occurrence, total fire area, fire size, and day of year of ignition for 1984–2011. Over the western U.S. and in a majority of ecoregions, we found significant, increasing trends in the number of large fires and/or total large fire area per year. Trends were most significant for southern and mountain ecoregions, coinciding with trends to…
Modeling residential development in California from 2000 to 2050
Between 1940 and 2000, nearly 10 million housing units were constructed throughout California. This increased interaction between human and natural communities creates a number of significant socio-ecological challenges. Here we present a novel spatially explicit model that allows better characterization of the extent and intensity of future housing settlements using three development scenarios between 2000 and 2050. We estimate that California's…
The human dimension of fire regimes on Earth
Humans and their ancestors are unique in being a fire-making species, but 'natural' (i.e. independent of humans) fires have an ancient, geological history on Earth. Natural fires have influenced biological evolution and global biogeochemical cycles, making fire integral to the functioning of some biomes. Globally, debate rages about the impact on ecosystems of prehistoric human-set fires, with views ranging from catastrophic to negligible. Unders…
Global Pyrogeography
Climate change is expected to alter the geographic distribution of wildfire, a complex abiotic process that responds to a variety of spatial and environmental gradients. How future climate change may alter global wildfire activity, however, is still largely unknown. As a first step to quantifying potential change in global wildfire, we present a multivariate quantification of environmental drivers for the observed, current distribution of vegetat…
Fire in the Earth System
Burn, Baby, Burn Wildfires can have dramatic and devastating effects on landscapes and human structures and are important agents in environmental transformation. Their impacts on nonanthropocentric aspects of the environment, such as ecosystems, biodiversity, carbon reserves, and climate, are often overlooked. Bowman et al. (p. 481 ) review what is known and what is needed to develop a holistic understanding of the role of fire in the Earth syste…
Urban–wildland fires
Most urban-wildland interface (UWI) fires in California and the other regions of the US are managed in a similar fashion: fire agencies anticipate the spread of fire, mandatory evacuations are ordered, and professional fire services move in and attempt to suppress the fires. This approach has not reduced building losses in California. Conversely, losses and the associated suite of environmental impacts, including reduced air quality, have dramati…
The relative influence of climate and housing development on current and projected future fire patterns and structure loss across three California landscapes
Climate and land use patterns are expected to change dramatically in the coming century, raising concern about their effects on wildfire patterns and subsequent impacts to human communities. The relative influence of climate versus land use on fires and their impacts, however, remains unclear, particularly given the substantial geographical variability in fire-prone places like California. We developed a modeling framework to compare the importan…
Geographic Fire Response Standards Emerging from Human–Environment Interactions
Natural and man-made disasters are generally characterized in terms of their human–environment interactions. Wildfire, or simply fire, is something that has naturally occurred over millions of years, but it is the interaction, disruption, and impact on humans that often generates much interest and concern. The growth of the built environment and human reliance on fire in everyday life can be a dangerous combination, putting people and property at…
Modeling residential development in California from 2000 to 2050
Between 1940 and 2000, nearly 10 million housing units were constructed throughout California. This increased interaction between human and natural communities creates a number of significant socio-ecological challenges. Here we present a novel spatially explicit model that allows better characterization of the extent and intensity of future housing settlements using three development scenarios between 2000 and 2050. We estimate that California's…
Global Pyrogeography
Climate change is expected to alter the geographic distribution of wildfire, a complex abiotic process that responds to a variety of spatial and environmental gradients. How future climate change may alter global wildfire activity, however, is still largely unknown. As a first step to quantifying potential change in global wildfire, we present a multivariate quantification of environmental drivers for the observed, current distribution of vegetat…
Fire in the Earth System
Burn, Baby, Burn Wildfires can have dramatic and devastating effects on landscapes and human structures and are important agents in environmental transformation. Their impacts on nonanthropocentric aspects of the environment, such as ecosystems, biodiversity, carbon reserves, and climate, are often overlooked. Bowman et al. (p. 481 ) review what is known and what is needed to develop a holistic understanding of the role of fire in the Earth syste…
Urban–wildland fires
Most urban-wildland interface (UWI) fires in California and the other regions of the US are managed in a similar fashion: fire agencies anticipate the spread of fire, mandatory evacuations are ordered, and professional fire services move in and attempt to suppress the fires. This approach has not reduced building losses in California. Conversely, losses and the associated suite of environmental impacts, including reduced air quality, have dramati…
The human dimension of fire regimes on Earth
Humans and their ancestors are unique in being a fire-making species, but 'natural' (i.e. independent of humans) fires have an ancient, geological history on Earth. Natural fires have influenced biological evolution and global biogeochemical cycles, making fire integral to the functioning of some biomes. Globally, debate rages about the impact on ecosystems of prehistoric human-set fires, with views ranging from catastrophic to negligible. Unders…
Learning to coexist with wildfire
Large wildfire trends in the western United States, 1984–2011
We used a database capturing large wildfires (> 405 ha) in the western U.S. to document regional trends in fire occurrence, total fire area, fire size, and day of year of ignition for 1984–2011. Over the western U.S. and in a majority of ecoregions, we found significant, increasing trends in the number of large fires and/or total large fire area per year. Trends were most significant for southern and mountain ecoregions, coinciding with trends to…
Modeling residential development in California from 2000 to 2050
Between 1940 and 2000, nearly 10 million housing units were constructed throughout California. This increased interaction between human and natural communities creates a number of significant socio-ecological challenges. Here we present a novel spatially explicit model that allows better characterization of the extent and intensity of future housing settlements using three development scenarios between 2000 and 2050. We estimate that California's…
A minimal model of fire-vegetation feedbacks and disturbance stochasticity generates alternative stable states in grassland–shrubland–woodland systems
Altered disturbance regimes in the context of global change are likely to have profound consequences for ecosystems. Interactions between fire and vegetation are of particular interest, as fire is a major driver of vegetation change, and vegetation properties (e.g., amount, flammability) alter fire regimes. Mediterranean-type ecosystems (MTEs) constitute a paradigmatic example of temperate fire-prone vegetation. Although these ecosystems may be h…
Coexisting with Wildfire
Adapt to more wildfire in western North American forests as climate changes
Wildfires across western North America have increased in number and size over the past three decades, and this trend will continue in response to further warming. As a consequence, the wildland–urban interface is projected to experience substantially higher risk of climate-driven fires in the coming decades. Although many plants, animals, and ecosystem services benefit from fire, it is unknown how ecosystems will respond to increased burning and …
Contrasting human influences and macro-environmental factors on fire activity inside and outside protected areas of North America
Human activities threaten the effectiveness of protected areas (PAs) in achieving their conservation goals across the globe. In this study, we contrast the influence of human and macro-environmental factors driving fire activity inside and outside PAs. Using area burned between 1984 and 2014 for 11 ecoregions in Canada and the United States, we built and compared statistical models of fire likelihood using the MaxEnt software and a set of 11 key …
The relative influence of climate and housing development on current and projected future fire patterns and structure loss across three California landscapes
Climate and land use patterns are expected to change dramatically in the coming century, raising concern about their effects on wildfire patterns and subsequent impacts to human communities. The relative influence of climate versus land use on fires and their impacts, however, remains unclear, particularly given the substantial geographical variability in fire-prone places like California. We developed a modeling framework to compare the importan…
Recent California tree mortality portends future increase in drought-driven forest die-off
Vegetation tolerance to drought depends on an array of site-specific environmental and plant physiological factors. This tolerance is poorly understood for many forest types despite its importance for predicting and managing vegetation stress. We analyzed the relationships between precipitation variability and forest die-off in California’s Sierra Nevada and introduce a new measure of drought tolerance that emphasizes plant access to subsurface m…
Landscaping defensible space
The wildland urban interface (WUI) presents a unique planning challenge. Landscaped residential properties intersect with wild, fire-prone vegetation; however, WUI residents lack clear guidance on which plants pose higher or lower risk and how to manage vegetation to reduce fire hazard while also prioritizing landscaping design. This is largely due to the lack of information regarding how landscaping plants burn. This study provided a community-l…
Geographic Fire Response Standards Emerging from Human–Environment Interactions
Natural and man-made disasters are generally characterized in terms of their human–environment interactions. Wildfire, or simply fire, is something that has naturally occurred over millions of years, but it is the interaction, disruption, and impact on humans that often generates much interest and concern. The growth of the built environment and human reliance on fire in everyday life can be a dangerous combination, putting people and property at…
Environmental Science (15 works) · Fire effects on ecosystems (14 works) · Geography (13 works) · Ecosystem (9 works) · Environmental resource management (9 works) · Biology (7 works) · Climate change (7 works) · Ecology (6 works) · Ecology (6 works) · Fire regime (6 works)