Wally Covington, a forest ecologist at Northern Arizona University, says it's crucial not to make too much of the Biscuit findings, in part because this study only covers a few years.

NPR: Study: Salvage Logging Boosts Forest-Fire Threat

Our guide has been Roy Rankin, who's a forest ecologist.

NPR: Yellowstone Preview: The Dynamics Of Fire

"If extreme droughts like these become more frequent, the days of the Amazon rainforest acting as a natural buffer to man-made carbon emissions may be numbered, " forest ecologist Simon Lewis, from University College London, has said.

CNN: Drought-stressed trees face race to adapt