Max Alan Moritz Ph.D.

Specialist in Cooperative Extension

Bren School of Environmental Science & Management
2400 Bren Hall
Santa Barbara, CA 93106-5131
805-893-8747
mmoritz@ucanr.edu

http://moritzfirelab.org

Also in:
Santa Barbara County

Specialty

Areas of Expertise (click to see all ANR academics with this expertise)

• Plants and Their Systems
• Pathogens and Nematodes Affecting Plants
• Human Nutrition, Food Safety, and Human Health and Well-Being
• Hazards To Human Health and Safety
• Natural Resources and Environment
• Management and Control of Forest and Range Fires
• Management and Sustainability of Forest Resources
• Weather and Climate
• Conservation of Biological Diversity

Bibliography

Peer Reviewed

• Moritz, M.A.; Hazard, R., et al.; Johnston, K.; Mayes, M.; Mowery, M.; Oran, K.; Parkinson, A.-M.; Schmidt, D.A.; Wesolowski, G. (2022). Beyond a Focus on Fuel Reduction in the WUI: The Need for Regional Wildfire Mitigation to Address Multiple Risks. Frontiers in Forests and Global Change. 5:848254.
• Ratcliff, F.; Rao, D., et al.; Barry, S.; Dewees, S.; Macaulay, L.; Larsen, R.; Shapero, M.; Peterson, R.; Moritz, M.; Forero, L. (2022). Cattle grazing reduces fuel and leads to more manageable fire behavior. California Agriculture. 76:2, 60-69.
• McLaughlin, J.P.; Schroeder, J.W., et al.; White, A.M.; Culhane, K.; Mirts, H.E.; Tarbill, G.L.; Sire, L.; Page, M.; Baker, E.J.; Moritz, M.; Brashares, J. (2022). Food webs for three burn severities after wildfire in the Eldorado National Forest, California. Scientific Data. 9:1, 1-20.
• Park, I.; Fauss, K., et al.; Moritz, M.A. (2022). Forecasting Live Fuel Moisture of Adenostema fasciculatum and Its Relationship to Regional Wildfire Dynamics across Southern California Shrublands. Fire. 5:4, 110.
• Parkinson, A.M.; D'antonio, C.M., et al.; Moritz, M.A. (2022). Influence of Topography, Vegetation, Weather, and Climate on Big-cone Douglas-Fir Fire Refugia and High Fire-Induced Mortality After Two Large Mixed-Severity Wildfires. Frontiers in Forests and Global Change. 5:995537.
• Post-Leon, A.; Dryak, M., et al.; Zhu, E.; De Guzman, M.; Salladay, R.; Moritz, M.; Parkinson, A.M.; Ramirez, A.R. (2022). Integration of landscape-level remote sensing and tree-level ecophysiology reveals drought refugia for a rare endemic, bigcone Douglas-fir. Frontiers in Forests and Global Change. 5:946728.
• Buchholz, T.; Gunn, J., et al.; Springsteen, B.; Marland, G.; Moritz, M.; Saah, D. (2022). Probability-based accounting for carbon in forests to consider wildfire and other stochastic events: Synchronizing science, policy, and carbon offsets. Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change. 27:1, 1-21.
• Juang, C.S.; Williams, A.P., et al.; Abatzoglou, J.T.; Balch, J.K.; Hurteau, M.D.; Moritz, M.A. (2022). Rapid Growth of Large Forest Fires Drives the Exponential Response of Annual Forest?Fire Area to Aridity in the Western United States. Geophysical Research Letters. 49:5, e2021GL097131.
• Boyer, E.W.; Moritz, M.A., et al.; Brown, M.G. (2022). Smoke deposition to water surfaces drives hydrochemical changes. Hydrological Processes. 36:6, e14626.
• K, Zigner; LMV, Carvalho, et al.; C, Jones; J, Benoit; G-J, Duine; D, Roberts; F, Fujioka; M, Moritz; N, Elmquist; R., Hazard (2022). Wildfire Risk in the Complex Terrain of the Santa Barbara Wildland–Urban Interface during Extreme Winds. Fire. 5:5, 138.
• Ma, W.; Zhai, L., et al.; Pivovaroff, A.; Shuman, J.; Buotte, P.; Ding, J.; Christoffersen, B.; Knox, R.; Moritz, M.; Fisher, R.A.; Koven, C.D. (2021). Assessing climate change impacts on live fuel moisture and wildfire risk using a hydrodynamic vegetation model. Biogeosciences. 18:13, 4005-4020.
• Chen, B.; Jin, Y., et al.; Scaduto, E.; Moritz, M.; Goulden, M.; Randerson, J (2021). Climate, fuel, and land use shaped the spatial pattern of wildfire in California’s Sierra Nevada. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences. e2020JG005786.
• Park, I.W.; Mann, M.L., et al.; Flint, L.E.; Flint, A.L.; Moritz, M. (2021). Relationships of climate, human activity, and fire history to spatiotemporal variation in annual fire probability across California. PLoS ONE. 16:11, e0254723.
• Burke, W.; Tague, C.N., et al.; Kennedy, M.; Moritz, M.A. (2021). Understanding how fuel treatments interact with climate and biophysical setting to affect fire, water, and forest health: A process-based modeling approach. Frontiers in Forests and Global Change. 3:3591162.
• Moritz, M.A.; Butsic, V. (2020). Building to Coexist with Fire: Community Risk Reduction Measures for New Development in California. UC ANR Publication 8680.
• Newman, E. A.; Wilber, M. Q., et al.; Kopper, K. E.; Moritz, M. A.; Falk, D. A.; McKenzie, D.; Harte, J. (2020). Disturbance macroecology: a comparative study of community structure metrics in a high‐severity disturbance regime. Ecosphere. 11:1, e03022.
• Zigner, K.; Carvalho, L., et al.; Peterson, S.; Fujioka, F.; Duine, G. J.; Jones, C.; Moritz, M.A. (2020). Evaluating the ability of FARSITE to simulate wildfires influenced by extreme, downslope winds in Santa Barbara, California. Fire. 3:3, 29.
• McLauchlan, KK; Higuera, PE, et al.; Miesel, J; al., et (2020). Fire as a fundamental ecological process. Journal of Ecology. 108:5, 2047-2069.
• Shapero, M.; Moritz, M. (2020). Preparing for Disaster: Establishing and Ag Pass Program in Your Community. UC ANR Publication 8685.
• Madakumbura, G.D.; Goulden, M.L., et al.; Hall, A.; Fu, R.: Moritz; Koven, C.D.; Kueppers, L.M.; Norlen, C.A.; Randerson, J.T. (2020). Recent California tree mortality portends future increase in drought-driven forest die-off. Environmental Research Letters. 15:12, 124040.
• Holsinger, L.; Parks, S.A., et al.; Parisien, M.A.; Miller, C.; Batllori, E.; Moritz, M.A. (2019). Climate change likely to reshape vegetation in North America's largest protected areas. Conservation Science and Practice. 1:7, e50. https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/csp2.50
• Batllori, E.; De Cáceres, M., et al.; Brotons, L.; Ackerly, D.D.; Moritz, M.A.; Lloret, F. (2019). Compound fire‐drought regimes promote ecosystem transitions in Mediterranean ecosystems. Journal of Ecology. 107:3, 1187-1198. https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1365-2745.13115
• Mansuy, N.; Miller, C., et al.; Parisien, M.A.; Parks, S.A.; Batllori, E.; Moritz, M.A. (2019). Contrasting human influences and macro-environmental factors on fire activity inside and outside protected areas of North America. Environmental Research Letters. 14:6, 064007. https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ab1bc5/meta
• McCullough, I.M.; Cheruvelil, K.S., et al.; Lapierre, J.F.; Lottig, N.R.; Moritz, M.A.; Stachelek, J.; Soranno, P.A. (2019). Do lakes feel the burn? Ecological consequences of increasing exposure of lakes to fire in the continental United States. Global Change Biology. 25:9, 2841-2854. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/gcb.14732
• Buma, B.; Batllori, E., et al.; Bisbing, S.; Holz, A.; Saunders, S.C.; Bidlack, A.L.; Creutzburg, M.K.; DellaSala, D.A.; Gregovich, D.; Hennon, P.; Krapek, J.; Moritz, M.A.; Zaret, K. (2019). Emergent freeze and fire disturbance dynamics in temperate rainforests. Austral Ecology. 44:5, 812-826. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/aec.12751
• Tague, C.L.; Moritz, M.A. (2019). Plant accessible water storage capacity and tree-scale root interactions determine how forest density reductions alter forest water use and productivity. Frontiers in Forests and Global Change. 2, 36. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/ffgc.2019.00036/full
• Tague, C.L.; Moritz, M., et al.; Hanan, E. (2019). The changing water cycle: The eco‐hydrologic impacts of forest density reduction in Mediterranean (seasonally dry) regions. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Water. 6:4, e1350. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/wat2.1350
• Syphard, A.D.; Rustigian-Romsos, H., et al.; Mann, M.; Conlisk, E.; Moritz, M.A.; Ackerly, D. (2019). The relative influence of climate and housing development on current and projected future fire patterns and structure loss across three California landscapes. Global Environmental Change. 56, 41-55. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959378018313293
• Moritz, M.A.; Odion, D.C., et al.; Davis, F.W. (2018). Characterizing chaparral fire regimes. Fire in California’s Ecosystems.J. van Wagtendonk, N. Sugihara, S. Stephens, A. Thode and K. Shaffer. UC Press. 72.
• Williams, A.P.; Gentine, P., et al.; Moritz, M.A.; Roberts, D.A.; Abatzoglou, J.T. (2018). Effect of reduced summer cloud shading on evaporative demand and wildfire in coastal southern California. Geophysical Research Letters. 45:11, 5653-5662. https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2018GL077319
• Moritz, M.A.; Batllori, E. (2018). Fire and climate change in mediterranean-type ecosystems. The Biology of Mediterranean-type Ecosystems.K. Esler, A. Jacobsen and R. Pratt. Oxford University Press. 310-312.
• Gibbons, P.; Gill, A.M., et al.; Shore, N.; Moritz, M.A.; Dovers, S.; Cary, G.J. (2018). Options for reducing house-losses during wildfires without clearing trees and shrubs. Landscape and Urban Planning. 174, 10-17. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169204618300598
• Dunham, J.B.; Angermeier, P.L., et al.; Crausbay, S.D.; Cravens, A.E.; Gosnell, H.; McEvoy, J.; Moritz, M.A.; Raheem, N.; Sanford, T. (2018). Rivers are social–ecological systems: time to integrate human dimensions into riverscape ecology and management. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Water. 5:4, e1291. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/wat2.1291
• Anderson, S.E.; Bart, R.R., et al.; Kennedy, M.C.; MacDonald, A.J.; Moritz, M.A.; Plantinga, A.J.; Tague, C.L.; Wibbenmeyer, M. (2018). The dangers of disaster-driven responses to climate change. Nature Climate Change. 8:8, 651-653. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-018-0208-8

Non-Peer Reviewed

• Programme, United Nations Environment (2022). Spreading like Wildfire – The Rising Threat of Extraordinary Landscape Fires. A UNEP Rapid Response Assessment.
• Moritz, M.A.; Topik, C., et al.; Allen, C.D.; Hessburg, P.F.; Morgan, P.; Odion, D.C.; Veblen, T.T.; McCullough, I.M. (2018). A Statement of Common Ground Regarding the Role of Wildfire in Forested Landscapes of the Western United States. Fire Research Consensus Working Group Final Report. https://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/news/fire-scientists-agree-about-wildfire-more-they-realize
• Kearns, F.; Moritz, M.A. (2018). How fierce fall winds help fuel California fires. The Conversation. 11/18/2018. https://theconversation.com/how-fierce-fall-and-winter-winds-help-fuel-california-fires-106985
• Moritz, M.A.; Tague, N., et al.; Anderson, S. (2018). Wildfires are inevitable – increasing home losses, fatalities and costs are not. The Conversation. 11/11/2018. https://theconversation.com/wildfires-are-inevitable-increasing-home-losses-fatalities-and-costs-are-not-101295

ANR Workgroup Associations

• Fire - Chair
• California Naturalist - Member
• Forest Ecosystems and Communities - Member
• Oak Woodland Conservation - Member

Return to Sustainable Natural Ecosystems Panel Members