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Background Traits of mature trees, such as bark thickness and texture, have been documented to promote resistance or resilience to heating in fire-prone forests. These traits often assist managers as they plan and promote prescribed fire management to accomplish specific land management objectives. Species are often grouped together as pyrophobes or pyrophytes as a result of these features. Nonetheless, little is known about species-specific traits of other structures, such as bud diameter, length, mass, moisture content, and surface area, that might be related to heat tolerance. Many prescribed fires are utilized in the eastern United States to control regeneration of less desired species, which could apply a more mechanistic understanding of energy doses that result in topkilling mid-story stems. In this study, we investigated potential relationships between terminal bud mortality from lateral branches of midstory stems and species-specific bud features of six eastern US deciduous trees. Characterized at maturity as either pyrophytes or pyrophobes, each was exposed to different heat dosages in a laboratory setting. Results Bud diameter, length, mass, moisture content, and surface area differed by species. Bud percent mortality at the first heat flux density (0.255–0.891MJm−2) was highest for two pyrophobes, chestnut oak (Quercus montana Willd.) and scarlet oak (Quercus coccinea Münchh). For the second heat flux density (1.275–1.485MJm−2), bud percent mortality was highest for these species and red maple (Acer rubrum L.). Principal component analysis suggested that bud surface area and length differentiated species. Red maple, chestnut oak, and scarlet oak produced clusters of buds, which may explain their more pronounced bud mortality. Yellow-poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera L.) was also present in that cluster, suggesting that its unique bud architecture of pre-emergent leaves may have elicited responses most similar to those of the clustered buds. Conclusions Con

Background Traits of mature trees, such as bark thickness and texture, have been documented to promote resistance or resilience to heating in fire-prone forests. These traits often assist managers as they plan and promote prescribed fire management to accomplish specific land management objectives. Species are often grouped together as pyrophobes or pyrophytes as a result of these features. Nonetheless, little is known about species-specific traits of other structures, such as bud diameter, length, mass, moisture content, and surface area, that might be related to heat tolerance. Many prescribed fires are utilized in the eastern United States to control regeneration of less desired species, which could apply a more mechanistic understanding of energy doses that result in topkilling mid-story stems. In this study, we investigated potential relationships between terminal bud mortality from lateral branches of midstory stems and species-specific bud features of six eastern US deciduous trees. Characterized at maturity as either pyrophytes or pyrophobes, each was exposed to different heat dosages in a laboratory setting. Results Bud diameter, length, mass, moisture content, and surface area differed by species. Bud percent mortality at the first heat flux density (0.255–0.891MJm−2) was highest for two pyrophobes, chestnut oak (Quercus montana Willd.) and scarlet oak (Quercus coccinea Münchh). For the second heat flux density (1.275–1.485MJm−2), bud percent mortality was highest for these species and red maple (Acer rubrum L.). Principal component analysis suggested that bud surface area and length differentiated species. Red maple, chestnut oak, and scarlet oak produced clusters of buds, which may explain their more pronounced bud mortality. Yellow-poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera L.) was also present in that cluster, suggesting that its unique bud architecture of pre-emergent leaves may have elicited responses most similar to those of the clustered buds. Conclusions Con

Wildland fire management has reached a crossroads. Current perspectives are not capable of answering interdisciplinary adaptation and mitigation challenges posed by increases in wildfire risk to human populations and the need to reintegrate fire as a vital landscape process. Fire science has been, and continues to be, performed in isolated "silos," including institutions (e.g., agencies versus universities), organizational structures (e.g., federal agency mandates versus local and state procedures for responding to fire), and research foci (e.g., physical science, natural science, and social science). These silos tend to promote research, management, and policy that focus only on targeted aspects of the "wicked" wildfire problem. In this article, we provide guiding principles to bridge diverse fire science efforts to advance an integrated agenda of wildfire research that can help overcome disciplinary silos and provide insight on how to build fire-resilient communities.

Wildland fire management has reached a crossroads. Current perspectives are not capable of answering interdisciplinary adaptation and mitigation challenges posed by increases in wildfire risk to human populations and the need to reintegrate fire as a vital landscape process. Fire science has been, and continues to be, performed in isolated "silos," including institutions (e.g., agencies versus universities), organizational structures (e.g., federal agency mandates versus local and state procedures for responding to fire), and research foci (e.g., physical science, natural science, and social science). These silos tend to promote research, management, and policy that focus only on targeted aspects of the "wicked" wildfire problem. In this article, we provide guiding principles to bridge diverse fire science efforts to advance an integrated agenda of wildfire research that can help overcome disciplinary silos and provide insight on how to build fire-resilient communities.