Sample records for accelerating forest fire

  1. Forest-fire models

    Treesearch

    Haiganoush Preisler; Alan Ager

    2013-01-01

    For applied mathematicians forest fire models refer mainly to a non-linear dynamic system often used to simulate spread of fire. For forest managers forest fire models may pertain to any of the three phases of fire management: prefire planning (fire risk models), fire suppression (fire behavior models), and postfire evaluation (fire effects and economic models). In...

  2. Fire risk and adaptation strategies in Northern Eurasian forests

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Shvidenko, Anatoly; Schepaschenko, Dmitry

    2013-04-01

    On-going climatic changes substantially accelerate current fire regimes in Northern Eurasian ecosystems, particularly in forests. During 1998-2012, wildfires enveloped on average ~10.5 M ha year-1 in Russia with a large annual variation (between 3 and 30 M ha) and average direct carbon emissions at ~150 Tg C year-1. Catastrophic fires, which envelope large areas, spread in usually incombustible wetlands, escape from control and provide extraordinary negative impacts on ecosystems, biodiversity, economics, infrastructure, environment, and health of population, become a typical feature of the current fire regimes. There are new evidences of correlation between catastrophic fires and large-scale climatic anomalies at a continental scale. While current climatic predictions suggest the dramatic warming (at the average at 6-7 °C for the country and up to 10-12°C in some northern continental regions), any substantial increase of summer precipitation does not expected. Increase of dryness and instability of climate will impact fire risk and severity of consequences. Current models suggest a 2-3 fold increase of the number of fires by the end of this century in the boreal zone. They predict increases of the number of catastrophic fires; a significant increase in the intensity of fire and amount of consumed fuel; synergies between different types of disturbances (outbreaks of insects, unregulated anthropogenic impacts); acceleration of composition of the gas emissions due to enhanced soil burning. If boreal forests would become a typing element, the mass mortality of trees would increase fire risk and severity. Permafrost melting and subsequent change of hydrological regimes very likely will lead to the degradation and destruction of boreal forests, as well as to the widespread irreversible replacement of forests by other underproductive vegetation types. A significant feedback between warming and escalating fire regimes is very probable in Russia and particularly in the

  3. Real time forest fire warning and forest fire risk zoning: a Vietnamese case study

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chu, T.; Pham, D.; Phung, T.; Ha, A.; Paschke, M.

    2016-12-01

    Forest fire occurs seriously in Vietnam and has been considered as one of the major causes of forest lost and degradation. Several studies of forest fire risk warning were conducted using Modified Nesterov Index (MNI) but remaining shortcomings and inaccurate predictions that needs to be urgently improved. In our study, several important topographic and social factors such as aspect, slope, elevation, distance to residential areas and road system were considered as "permanent" factors while meteorological data were updated hourly using near-real-time (NRT) remotely sensed data (i.e. MODIS Terra/Aqua and TRMM) for the prediction and warning of fire. Due to the limited number of weather stations in Vietnam, data from all active stations (i.e. 178) were used with the satellite data to calibrate and upscale meteorological variables. These data with finer resolution were then used to generate MNI. The only significant "permanent" factors were selected as input variables based on the correlation coefficients that computed from multi-variable regression among true fire-burning (collected from 1/2007) and its spatial characteristics. These coefficients also used to suggest appropriate weight for computing forest fire risk (FR) model. Forest fire risk model was calculated from the MNI and the selected factors using fuzzy regression models (FRMs) and GIS based multi-criteria analysis. By this approach, the FR was slightly modified from MNI by the integrated use of various factors in our fire warning and prediction model. Multifactor-based maps of forest fire risk zone were generated from classifying FR into three potential danger levels. Fire risk maps were displayed using webgis technology that is easy for managing data and extracting reports. Reported fire-burnings thereafter have been used as true values for validating the forest fire risk. Fire probability has strong relationship with potential danger levels (varied from 5.3% to 53.8%) indicating that the higher

  4. Forest fires in Missouri.

    Treesearch

    Donald A. Haines; William A. Main; John S. Crosby

    1973-01-01

    Describes factors that contribute to forest fires on two of the State of Missouri's Protection Districts and the Clark National Forest. Includes an analysis of fire cause, annual distribution, weather, and activity by day of week; also discusses multiple-fire day.

  5. Climate change and forest fires.

    PubMed

    Flannigan, M D; Stocks, B J; Wotton, B M

    2000-11-15

    This paper addresses the impacts of climate change on forest fires and describes how this, in turn, will impact on the forests of the United States. In addition to reviewing existing studies on climate change and forest fires we have used two transient general circulation models (GCMs), namely the Hadley Centre and the Canadian GCMs, to estimate fire season severity in the middle of the next century. Ratios of 2 x CO2 seasonal severity rating (SSR) over present day SSR were calculated for the means and maximums for North America. The results suggest that the SSR will increase by 10-50% over most of North America; although, there are regions of little change or where the SSR may decrease by the middle of the next century. Increased SSRs should translate into increased forest fire activity. Thus, forest fires could be viewed as an agent of change for US forests as the fire regime will respond rapidly to climate warming. This change in the fire regime has the potential to overshadow the direct effects of climate change on species distribution and migration.

  6. Forest Fire Mapping

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    1990-01-01

    The Fire Logistics Airborne Mapping Equipment (FLAME) system, mounted in a twin-engine and airplane operated by the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), is an airborne instrument for detecting and pinpointing forest fires that might escape ground detection. The FLAME equipment rack includes the operator interface, a video monitor, the system's control panel and film output. FLAME's fire detection sensor is an infrared line scanner system that identifies fire boundaries. Sensor's information is correlated with the aircraft's position and altitude at the time the infrared imagery is acquired to fix the fire's location on a map. System can be sent to a fire locale anywhere in the U.S. at the request of a regional forester. USFS felt a need for a more advanced system to deliver timely fire information to fire management personnel in the decade of the 1990s. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) conducted a study, jointly sponsored by NASA and USDA, on what advanced technologies might be employed to produce an end-to-end thermal infrared fire detection and mapping system. That led to initiation of the Firefly system, currently in development at JPL and targeted for operational service beginning in 1992. Firefly will employ satellite-reference position fixing and provide performance superior to FLAME.

  7. Measurements of forest fire danger

    Treesearch

    Leo Shames

    1938-01-01

    Although the annual destruction of life and property attributable to forest fires is enormous, scientific methods of forest fire control in the United States are of comparatively recent origin. In one important phase of control, that of determining how large a network of observers is necessary for the purpose of discovering forest fires in their infancy, accurate means...

  8. The impact of boreal forest fire on climate warming

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Randerson, J.T.; Liu, H.; Flanner, M.G.; Chambers, S.D.; Jin, Y.; Hess, P.G.; Pfister, G.; Mack, M.C.; Treseder, K.K.; Welp, L.R.; Chapin, F.S.; Harden, J.W.; Goulden, M.L.; Lyons, E.; Neff, J.C.; Schuur, E.A.G.; Zender, C.S.

    2006-01-01

    We report measurements and analysis of a boreal forest fire, integrating the effects of greenhouse gases, aerosols, black carbon deposition on snow and sea ice, and postfire changes in surface albedo. The net effect of all agents was to increase radiative forcing during the first year (34 ?? 31 Watts per square meter of burned area), but to decrease radiative forcing when averaged over an 80-year fire cycle (-2.3 ?? 2.2 Watts per square meter) because multidecadal increases in surface albedo had a larger impact than fire-emitted greenhouse gases. This result implies that future increases in boreal fire may not accelerate climate warming.

  9. The impact of boreal forest fire on climate warming.

    PubMed

    Randerson, J T; Liu, H; Flanner, M G; Chambers, S D; Jin, Y; Hess, P G; Pfister, G; Mack, M C; Treseder, K K; Welp, L R; Chapin, F S; Harden, J W; Goulden, M L; Lyons, E; Neff, J C; Schuur, E A G; Zender, C S

    2006-11-17

    We report measurements and analysis of a boreal forest fire, integrating the effects of greenhouse gases, aerosols, black carbon deposition on snow and sea ice, and postfire changes in surface albedo. The net effect of all agents was to increase radiative forcing during the first year (34 +/- 31 Watts per square meter of burned area), but to decrease radiative forcing when averaged over an 80-year fire cycle (-2.3 +/- 2.2 Watts per square meter) because multidecadal increases in surface albedo had a larger impact than fire-emitted greenhouse gases. This result implies that future increases in boreal fire may not accelerate climate warming.

  10. Synergy between land use and climate change increases future fire risk in Amazon forests

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Le Page, Yannick; Morton, Douglas; Hartin, Corinne; Bond-Lamberty, Ben; Cardoso Pereira, José Miguel; Hurtt, George; Asrar, Ghassem

    2017-12-01

    Tropical forests have been a permanent feature of the Amazon basin for at least 55 million years, yet climate change and land use threaten the forest's future over the next century. Understory forest fires, which are common under the current climate in frontier forests, may accelerate Amazon forest losses from climate-driven dieback and deforestation. Far from land use frontiers, scarce fire ignitions and high moisture levels preclude significant burning, yet projected climate and land use changes may increase fire activity in these remote regions. Here, we used a fire model specifically parameterized for Amazon understory fires to examine the interactions between anthropogenic activities and climate under current and projected conditions. In a scenario of low mitigation efforts with substantial land use expansion and climate change - Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 8.5 - projected understory fires increase in frequency and duration, burning 4-28 times more forest in 2080-2100 than during 1990-2010. In contrast, active climate mitigation and land use contraction in RCP4.5 constrain the projected increase in fire activity to 0.9-5.4 times contemporary burned area. Importantly, if climate mitigation is not successful, land use contraction alone is very effective under low to moderate climate change, but does little to reduce fire activity under the most severe climate projections. These results underscore the potential for a fire-driven transformation of Amazon forests if recent regional policies for forest conservation are not paired with global efforts to mitigate climate change.

  11. Forest fires in Pennsylvania.

    Treesearch

    Donald A. Haines; William A. Main; Eugene F. McNamara

    1978-01-01

    Describes factors that contribute to forest fires in Pennsylvania. Includes an analysis of basic statistics; distribution of fires during normal, drought, and wet years; fire cause, fire activity by day-of-week; multiple-fire day; and fire climatology.

  12. Fire intensity impacts on post-fire temperate coniferous forest net primary productivity

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sparks, Aaron M.; Kolden, Crystal A.; Smith, Alistair M. S.; Boschetti, Luigi; Johnson, Daniel M.; Cochrane, Mark A.

    2018-02-01

    Fire is a dynamic ecological process in forests and impacts the carbon (C) cycle through direct combustion emissions, tree mortality, and by impairing the ability of surviving trees to sequester carbon. While studies on young trees have demonstrated that fire intensity is a determinant of post-fire net primary productivity, wildland fires on landscape to regional scales have largely been assumed to either cause tree mortality, or conversely, cause no physiological impact, ignoring the impacted but surviving trees. Our objective was to understand how fire intensity affects post-fire net primary productivity in conifer-dominated forested ecosystems on the spatial scale of large wildland fires. We examined the relationships between fire radiative power (FRP), its temporal integral (fire radiative energy - FRE), and net primary productivity (NPP) using 16 years of data from the MOderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) for 15 large fires in western United States coniferous forests. The greatest NPP post-fire loss occurred 1 year post-fire and ranged from -67 to -312 g C m-2 yr-1 (-13 to -54 %) across all fires. Forests dominated by fire-resistant species (species that typically survive low-intensity fires) experienced the lowest relative NPP reductions compared to forests with less resistant species. Post-fire NPP in forests that were dominated by fire-susceptible species were not as sensitive to FRP or FRE, indicating that NPP in these forests may be reduced to similar levels regardless of fire intensity. Conversely, post-fire NPP in forests dominated by fire-resistant and mixed species decreased with increasing FRP or FRE. In some cases, this dose-response relationship persisted for more than a decade post-fire, highlighting a legacy effect of fire intensity on post-fire C dynamics in these forests.

  13. Fire Patterns and Drivers of Fires in the West African Tropical Forest

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dwomoh, F. K.; Wimberly, M. C.

    2015-12-01

    The West African tropical forest (referred to as the Upper Guinean forest, UGF), is a global biodiversity hotspot providing vital ecosystem services for the region's socio-economic and environmental wellbeing. It is also one of the most fragmented and human-modified tropical forest ecosystems, with the only remaining large patches of original forests contained in protected areas. However, these remnant forests are susceptible to continued fire-mediated degradation and forest loss due to intense climatic, demographic and land use pressures. We analyzed human and climatic drivers of fire activity in the sub-region to better understand the spatial and temporal patterns of these risks. We utilized MODIS active fire and burned area products to identify fire activity within the sub-region. We measured climatic variability using TRMM rainfall data and derived indicators of human land use from a variety of geospatial datasets. We used a boosted regression trees model to determine the influences of predictor variables on fire activity. Our analyses indicated that the spatial and temporal variability of precipitation is a key driving factor of fire activity in the UGF. Anthropogenic effects on fire activity in the area were evident through the influences of agriculture and low-density populations. These human footprints in the landscape make forests more susceptible to fires through forest fragmentation, degradation, and fire spread from agricultural areas. Forested protected areas within the forest savanna mosaic experienced frequent fires, whereas the more humid forest areas located in the south and south-western portions of the study area had fewer fires as these rainforests tend to offer some buffering against fire encroachment. These results improve characterization of UGF fire regime and expand our understanding of the spatio-temporal dynamics of tropical forest fires in response to human and climatic pressures.

  14. Amazon rain-forest fires.

    PubMed

    Sanford, R L; Saldarriaga, J; Clark, K E; Uhl, C; Herrera, R

    1985-01-04

    Charcoal is common in the soils of mature rain forests within 75 kilometers of San Carlos de Rio Negro in the north central Amazon Basin. Carbon-14 dates of soil charcoal from this region indicate that numerous fires have occurred since the mid-Holocene epoch. Charcoal is most common in tierra firme forest Oxisols and Ultisols and less common in caatinga and igapo forest soils. Climatic changes or human activities, or both, have caused rain-forest fires.

  15. Airborne forest fire research

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Mattingly, G. S.

    1974-01-01

    The research relating to airborne fire fighting systems is reviewed to provide NASA/Langley Research Center with current information on the use of aircraft in forest fire operations, and to identify research requirements for future operations. A literature survey, interview of forest fire service personnel, analysis and synthesis of data from research reports and independent conclusions, and recommendations for future NASA-LRC programs are included.

  16. Fire risk in east-side forests.

    Treesearch

    Valerie. Rapp

    2002-01-01

    Wildfire was a natural part of ecosystems in east-side Oregon and Washington before the 20th century. The fire regimes, or characteristic patterns of fire—how often, how hot, how big, what time of year—helped create and maintain various types of forests.Forests are dynamic, and fire interacts with other ecological processes. Fires, forests...

  17. Shifts in functional traits elevate risk of fire-driven tree dieback in tropical savanna and forest biomes.

    PubMed

    Pellegrini, Adam F A; Franco, Augusto C; Hoffmann, William A

    2016-03-01

    Numerous predictions indicate rising CO2 will accelerate the expansion of forests into savannas. Although encroaching forests can sequester carbon over the short term, increased fires and drought-fire interactions could offset carbon gains, which may be amplified by the shift toward forest plant communities more susceptible to fire-driven dieback. We quantify how bark thickness determines the ability of individual tree species to tolerate fire and subsequently determine the fire sensitivity of ecosystem carbon across 180 plots in savannas and forests throughout the 2.2-million km(2) Cerrado region in Brazil. We find that not accounting for variation in bark thickness across tree species underestimated carbon losses in forests by ~50%, totaling 0.22 PgC across the Cerrado region. The lower bark thicknesses of plant species in forests decreased fire tolerance to such an extent that a third of carbon gains during forest encroachment may be at risk of dieback if burned. These results illustrate that consideration of trait-based differences in fire tolerance is critical for determining the climate-carbon-fire feedback in tropical savanna and forest biomes. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  18. Synergy between land use and climate change increases future fire risk in Amazon forests

    DOE PAGES

    Le Page, Yannick; Morton, Douglas; Hartin, Corinne; ...

    2017-12-20

    Tropical forests have been a permanent feature of the Amazon basin for at least 55 million years, yet climate change and land use threaten the forest's future over the next century. Understory forest fires, which are common under the current climate in frontier forests, may accelerate Amazon forest losses from climate-driven dieback and deforestation. Far from land use frontiers, scarce fire ignitions and high moisture levels preclude significant burning, yet projected climate and land use changes may increase fire activity in these remote regions. Here, we used a fire model specifically parameterized for Amazon understory fires to examine the interactionsmore » between anthropogenic activities and climate under current and projected conditions. In a scenario of low mitigation efforts with substantial land use expansion and climate change – Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 8.5 – projected understory fires increase in frequency and duration, burning 4–28 times more forest in 2080–2100 than during 1990–2010. In contrast, active climate mitigation and land use contraction in RCP4.5 constrain the projected increase in fire activity to 0.9–5.4 times contemporary burned area. Importantly, if climate mitigation is not successful, land use contraction alone is very effective under low to moderate climate change, but does little to reduce fire activity under the most severe climate projections. These results underscore the potential for a fire-driven transformation of Amazon forests if recent regional policies for forest conservation are not paired with global efforts to mitigate climate change.« less

  19. Synergy between land use and climate change increases future fire risk in Amazon forests

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Le Page, Yannick; Morton, Douglas; Hartin, Corinne

    Tropical forests have been a permanent feature of the Amazon basin for at least 55 million years, yet climate change and land use threaten the forest's future over the next century. Understory forest fires, which are common under the current climate in frontier forests, may accelerate Amazon forest losses from climate-driven dieback and deforestation. Far from land use frontiers, scarce fire ignitions and high moisture levels preclude significant burning, yet projected climate and land use changes may increase fire activity in these remote regions. Here, we used a fire model specifically parameterized for Amazon understory fires to examine the interactionsmore » between anthropogenic activities and climate under current and projected conditions. In a scenario of low mitigation efforts with substantial land use expansion and climate change – Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 8.5 – projected understory fires increase in frequency and duration, burning 4–28 times more forest in 2080–2100 than during 1990–2010. In contrast, active climate mitigation and land use contraction in RCP4.5 constrain the projected increase in fire activity to 0.9–5.4 times contemporary burned area. Importantly, if climate mitigation is not successful, land use contraction alone is very effective under low to moderate climate change, but does little to reduce fire activity under the most severe climate projections. These results underscore the potential for a fire-driven transformation of Amazon forests if recent regional policies for forest conservation are not paired with global efforts to mitigate climate change.« less

  20. Fire and forest history at Mount Rushmore.

    PubMed

    Brown, Peter M; Wienk, Cody L; Symstad, Amy J

    2008-12-01

    Mount Rushmore National Memorial in the Black Hills of South Dakota is known worldwide for its massive sculpture of four of the United States' most respected presidents. The Memorial landscape also is covered by extensive ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) forest that has not burned in over a century. We compiled dendroecological and forest structural data from 29 plots across the 517-ha Memorial and used fire behavior modeling to reconstruct the historical fire regime and forest structure and compare them to current conditions. The historical fire regime is best characterized as one of low-severity surface fires with occasional (> 100 years) patches (< 100 ha) of passive crown fire. We estimate that only approximately 3.3% of the landscape burned as crown fire during 22 landscape fire years (recorded at > or = 25% of plots) between 1529 and 1893. The last landscape fire was in 1893. Mean fire intervals before 1893 varied depending on spatial scale, from 34 years based on scar-to-scar intervals on individual trees to 16 years between landscape fire years. Modal fire intervals were 11-15 years and did not vary with scale. Fire rotation (the time to burn an area the size of the study area) was estimated to be 30 years for surface fire and 800+ years for crown fire. The current forest is denser and contains more small trees, fewer large trees, lower canopy base heights, and greater canopy bulk density than a reconstructed historical (1870) forest. Fire behavior modeling using the NEXUS program suggests that surface fires would have dominated fire behavior in the 1870 forest during both moderate and severe weather conditions, while crown fire would dominate in the current forest especially under severe weather. Changes in the fire regime and forest structure at Mount Rushmore parallel those seen in ponderosa pine forests from the southwestern United States. Shifts from historical to current forest structure and the increased likelihood of crown fire justify the need for

  1. Lightning fires in southwestern forests

    Treesearch

    Jack S. Barrows

    1978-01-01

    Lightning is the leading cause of fires in southwestern forests. On all protected private, state and federal lands in Arizona and New Mexico, nearly 80 percent of the forest, brush and range fires are ignited by lightning. The Southwestern region leads all other regions of the United States both in total number of lightning fires and in the area burned by these fires...

  2. Southwestern Oregon's Biscuit Fire: An Analysis of Forest Resources, Fire Severity, and Fire Hazard

    Treesearch

    David L. Azuma; Glenn A. Christensen

    2005-01-01

    This study compares pre-fire field inventory data (collected from 1993 to 1997) in relation to post-fire mapped fire severity classes and the Fire and Fuels Extension of the Forest Vegetation Simulator growth and yield model measures of fire hazard for the portion of the Siskiyou National Forest in the 2002 Biscuit fire perimeter of southwestern Oregon. Post-fire...

  3. Mexican forest fires and their decadal variations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Velasco Herrera, Graciela

    2016-11-01

    A high forest fire season of two to three years is regularly observed each decade in Mexican forests. This seems to be related to the presence of the El Niño phenomenon and to the amount of total solar irradiance. In this study, the results of a multi-cross wavelet analysis are reported based on the occurrence of Mexican forest fires, El Niño and the total solar irradiance for the period 1970-2014. The analysis shows that Mexican forest fires and the strongest El Niño phenomena occur mostly around the minima of the solar cycle. This suggests that the total solar irradiance minima provide the appropriate climatological conditions for the occurrence of these forest fires. The next high season for Mexican forest fires could start in the next solar minimum, which will take place between the years 2017 and 2019. A complementary space analysis based on MODIS active fire data for Mexican forest fires from 2005 to 2014 shows that most of these fires occur in cedar and pine forests, on savannas and pasturelands, and in the central jungles of the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.

  4. Effects of forest fire and logging on forest degradation in Mongolia

    Treesearch

    Yeong Dae Park; Don Koo Lee; Jamsran Tsogtbaatar; John A. Stanturf

    2010-01-01

    Forests in Mongolia have been severely degraded by forest fire and exploitive logging. This study investigate changes in vegetation and soil properties after forest fire or clearfelling. Microclimate conditions such as temperature and relative humidity (RH) changed drastically after forest fire or logging; temperature increased 1.6-1.7 ºC on average, whereas...

  5. Managing forests after fires

    Treesearch

    Rhonda. Mazza

    2007-01-01

    Fire is a part of the forest ecosystem, and its effects have been well documented in the scientific literature. But controversy remains about the effects of management options in a burned forest, and the scientific basis for decisionmaking about postfire management is uncertain and has not been effectively articulated. Management concerns after a fire...

  6. Assessing fire impacts on the carbon stability of fire-tolerant forests.

    PubMed

    Bennett, Lauren T; Bruce, Matthew J; Machunter, Josephine; Kohout, Michele; Krishnaraj, Saravanan Jangammanaidu; Aponte, Cristina

    2017-12-01

    The carbon stability of fire-tolerant forests is often assumed but less frequently assessed, limiting the potential to anticipate threats to forest carbon posed by predicted increases in forest fire activity. Assessing the carbon stability of fire-tolerant forests requires multi-indicator approaches that recognize the myriad ways that fires influence the carbon balance, including combustion, deposition of pyrogenic material, and tree death, post-fire decomposition, recruitment, and growth. Five years after a large-scale wildfire in southeastern Australia, we assessed the impacts of low- and high-severity wildfire, with and without prescribed fire (≤10 yr before), on carbon stocks in multiple pools, and on carbon stability indicators (carbon stock percentages in live trees and in small trees, and carbon stocks in char and fuels) in fire-tolerant eucalypt forests. Relative to unburned forest, high-severity wildfire decreased short-term (five-year) carbon stability by significantly decreasing live tree carbon stocks and percentage stocks in live standing trees (reflecting elevated tree mortality), by increasing the percentage of live tree carbon in small trees (those vulnerable to the next fire), and by potentially increasing the probability of another fire through increased elevated fine fuel loads. In contrast, low-severity wildfire enhanced carbon stability by having negligible effects on aboveground stocks and indicators, and by significantly increasing carbon stocks in char and, in particular, soils, indicating pyrogenic carbon accumulation. Overall, recent preceding prescribed fire did not markedly influence wildfire effects on short-term carbon stability at stand scales. Despite wide confidence intervals around mean stock differences, indicating uncertainty about the magnitude of fire effects in these natural forests, our assessment highlights the need for active management of carbon assets in fire-tolerant eucalypt forests under contemporary fire regimes

  7. Forest-fire model with natural fire resistance.

    PubMed

    Yoder, Mark R; Turcotte, Donald L; Rundle, John B

    2011-04-01

    Observations suggest that contemporary wildfire suppression practices in the United States have contributed to conditions that facilitate large, destructive fires. We introduce a forest-fire model with natural fire resistance that supports this theory. Fire resistance is defined with respect to the size and shape of clusters; the model yields power-law frequency-size distributions of model fires that are consistent with field observations in the United States, Canada, and Australia.

  8. Fire ecology of western Montana forest habitat types

    Treesearch

    William C. Fischer; Anne F. Bradley

    1987-01-01

    Provides information on fire as an ecological factor for forest habitat types in western Montana. Identifies Fire Groups of habitat types based on fire's role in forest succession. Describes forest fuels and suggests considerations for fire management.

  9. Modeling Forest Understory Fires in an Eastern Amazonian Landscape

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Alencar, A. A. C.; Solorzano, L. A.; Nepstad, D. C.

    2004-01-01

    Forest understory fires are an increasingly important cause of forest impoverishment in Ammonia, but little is known of the landscape characteristics and climatic phenomena that determine their occurrence. We developed empirical functions relating the occurrence of understory fires to landscape features near Paragominas, a 35- yr-old ranching and logging center in eastern Ammonia. An historical sequence of maps of forest understory fire was created based on field interviews With local farmers and Landsat TM images. Several landscape features that might explain spatial variations in the occurrence of understory fires were also mapped and co-registered for each of the sample dates, including: forest fragment size and shape, forest impoverishment through logging and understory fires, source of ignition (settlements and charcoal pits), roads, forest edges, and others. The spatial relationship between forest understory fire and each landscape characteristic was tested by regression analyses. Fire probability models were then developed for various combinations of landscape characteristics. The analyses were conducted separately for years of the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO), which are associated with severe drought in eastern Amazonia, and non-ENS0 years. Most (91 %) of the forest area that burned during the 10-yr sequence caught fire during ENSO years, when severe drought may have increased both forest flammability and the escape of agricultural management fires. Forest understory fires were associated with forest edges, as reported in previous studies from Ammonia. But the strongest predictor of forest fire was the percentage of the forest fragment that had been previously logged or burned. Forest fragment size, distance to charcoal pits, distance to agricultural settlement, proximity to forest edge, and distance to roads were also correlated with forest understory fire. Logistic regression models using information on fragment degradation and distance to ignition

  10. Fire ecology of forests and woodlands in Utah

    Treesearch

    Anne F. Bradley; Nonan V. Noste; William C. Fischer

    1992-01-01

    Provides information on fire as an ecological factor in forest habitat types, and in pinyon-juniper woodland and oak-maple brushland communities occurring in Utah. Identifies Fire Groups based on fire's role in forest succession. Describes forest fuels and suggests considerations for fire management.

  11. Forest fire risk zonation mapping using remote sensing technology

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chandra, Sunil; Arora, M. K.

    2006-12-01

    Forest fires cause major losses to forest cover and disturb the ecological balance in our region. Rise in temperature during summer season causing increased dryness, increased activity of human beings in the forest areas, and the type of forest cover in the Garhwal Himalayas are some of the reasons that lead to forest fires. Therefore, generation of forest fire risk maps becomes necessary so that preventive measures can be taken at appropriate time. These risk maps shall indicate the zonation of the areas which are in very high, high, medium and low risk zones with regard to forest fire in the region. In this paper, an attempt has been made to generate the forest fire risk maps based on remote sensing data and other geographical variables responsible for the occurrence of fire. These include altitude, temperature and soil variations. Key thematic data layers pertaining to these variables have been generated using various techniques. A rule-based approach has been used and implemented in GIS environment to estimate fuel load and fuel index leading to the derivation of fire risk zonation index and subsequently to fire risk zonation maps. The fire risk maps thus generated have been validated on the ground for forest types as well as for forest fire risk areas. These maps would help the state forest departments in prioritizing their strategy for combating forest fires particularly during the fire seasons.

  12. Effects of fire on small mammal communities in frequent-fire forests in California

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Roberts, Susan L.; Kelt, Douglas A.; Van Wagtendonk, Jan W.; Miles, A. Keith; Meyer, Marc D.

    2015-01-01

    Fire is a natural, dynamic process that is integral to maintaining ecosystem function. The reintroduction of fire (e.g., prescribed fire, managed wildfire) is a critical management tool for protecting many frequent-fire forests against stand-replacing fires while restoring an essential ecological process. Understanding the effects of fire on forests and wildlife communities is important in natural resource planning efforts. Small mammals are key components of forest food webs and essential to ecosystem function. To investigate the relationship of fire to small mammal assemblages, we live trapped small mammals in 10 burned and 10 unburned forests over 2 years in the central Sierra Nevada, California. Small mammal abundance was higher in unburned forests, largely reflecting the greater proportion of closed-canopy species such as Glaucomys sabrinus in unburned forests. The most abundant species across the entire study area was the highly adaptable generalist species, Peromyscus maniculatus. Species diversity was similar between burned and unburned forests, but burned forests were characterized by greater habitat heterogeneity and higher small mammal species evenness. The use and reintroduction of fire to maintain a matrix of burn severities, including large patches of unburned refugia, creates a heterogeneous and resilient landscape that allows for fire-sensitive species to proliferate and, as such, may help maintain key ecological functions and diverse small mammal assemblages.

  13. Accelerated weathering of fire-retardant-treated wood for fire testing

    Treesearch

    Robert H. White

    2009-01-01

    Fire-retardant-treated products for exterior applications must be subjected to actual or accelerated weathering prior to fire testing. For fire-retardant-treated wood, the two accelerated weathering methods have been Method A and B of ASTM D 2898. The rain test is Method A of ASTM D 2898. Method B includes exposures to ultraviolet (UV) sunlamps in addition to water...

  14. Prescribed fire in upland harwood forests

    Treesearch

    T.L. Keyser; C.H. Greenberg; H. McNab

    2014-01-01

    In upland hardwood forests of the Southeastern U.S.,prescribed fire is increasingly used by land managers citing objectives that include hazardous fuels reduction, wildlife habitat improvement, promoting oak regeneration, or restoring forest composition or structure to an historic condition. Research suggests that prescribed fire effects on hardwood forests and...

  15. Meteorological factors in the Quartz Creek forest fire

    Treesearch

    H. T. Gisborne

    1927-01-01

    It is not often that a large forest fire occurs conveniently near a weather station specially equipped for measuring forest-fire weather. The 13,000-acre Quartz Creek fire on the Kaniksu National Forest during the summer of 1936 was close enough to the Priest River Experimental Forest of the Northern Rocky Mountain Forest Experiment Station for the roar of the flumes...

  16. Amazon Forest Responses to Drought and Fire

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Morton, D. C.

    2015-12-01

    Deforestation and agricultural land uses provide a consistent source of ignitions along the Amazon frontier during the dry season. The risk of understory fires in Amazon forests is amplified by drought conditions, when fires at the forest edge may spread for weeks before rains begin. Fire activity also impacts the regional response of intact forests to drought through diffuse light effects and nutrient redistribution, highlighting the complexity of feedbacks in this coupled human and natural system. This talk will focus on recent advances in our understanding of fire-climate feedbacks in the Amazon, building on research themes initiated under NASA's Large-scale Biosphere-Atmosphere Experiment in Amazonia (LBA). NASA's LBA program began in the wake of the 1997-1998 El Niño, a strong event that exposed the vulnerability of Amazon forests to drought and fire under current climate and projections of climate change. With forecasts of another strong El Niño event in 2015-2016, this talk will provide a multi-scale synthesis of Amazon forest responses to drought and fire based on field measurements, airborne lidar data, and satellite observations of fires, rainfall, and terrestrial water storage. These studies offer new insights into the mechanisms governing fire season severity in the southern Amazon and regional variability in carbon losses from understory fires. The contributions from remote sensing to our understanding of drought and fire in Amazon forests reflect the legacy of NASA's LBA program and the sustained commitment to interdisciplinary research across the Amazon region.

  17. Temporal scaling behavior of forest and urban fires

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wang, J.; Song, W.; Zheng, H.; Telesca, L.

    2009-04-01

    It has been found that many natural systems are characterized by scaling behavior. In such systems natural factors dominate the event dynamics. Forest fires in different countries have been found to exhibit frequency-size power law over many orders of magnitude and with similar value of parameters. But in countries with high population density such as China and Japan, more than 95% of the forest fire disasters are caused by human activities. Furthermore, with the development of society, the wildland-urban interface (WUI) area is becoming more and more populated, and the forest fire is much connected with urban fire. Therefore exploring the scaling behavior of fires dominated by human-related factors is very challenging. The present paper explores the temporal scaling behavior of forest fires and urban fires in Japan with mathematical methods. Two factors, Allan factor (AF) and Fano factor (FF) are used to investigate time-scaling of fire systems. It is found that the FF for both forest fires and urban fires increases linearly in log-log scales, and this indicates that it behaves as a power-law for all the investigated timescales. From the AF plot a 7 days cycle is found, which indicates a weekly cycle. This may be caused by human activities which has a weekly periodicity because on weekends people usually have more outdoor activities, which may cause more hidden trouble of fire disasters. Our findings point out that although the human factors are the main cause, both the forest fires and urban fires exhibit time-scaling behavior. At the same time, the scaling exponents for urban fires are larger than forest fires, signifying a more intense clustering. The reason may be that fires are affected not only by weather condition, but also by human activities, which play a more important role for urban fires than forest fires and have a power law distribution and scaling behavior. Then some work is done to the relative humidity. Similar distribution law characterizes the

  18. Forest Fire Finder - DOAS application to long-range forest fire detection

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Valente de Almeida, Rui; Vieira, Pedro

    2017-06-01

    Fires are an important factor in shaping Earth's ecosystems. Plant and animal life, in almost every land habitat, are at least partially dependent on the effects of fire. However, their destructive force, which has often proven uncontrollable, is one of our greatest concerns, effectively resulting in several policies in the most important industrialised regions of the globe. This paper aims to comprehensively characterise the Forest Fire Finder (FFF), a forest fire detection system based mainly upon a spectroscopic technique called differential optical absorption spectroscopy (DOAS). The system is designed and configured with the goal of detecting higher-than-the-horizon smoke columns by measuring and comparing scattered sunlight spectra. The article covers hardware and software, as well as their interactions and specific algorithms for day mode operation. An analysis of data retrieved from several installations deployed in the course of the last 5 years is also presented. Finally, this paper features a discussion on the most prominent future improvements planned for the system, as well as its ramifications and adaptations, such as a thermal imaging system for short-range fire seeking or environmental quality control.

  19. Fire and forest meteorology

    Treesearch

    SA Ferguson; T.J. Brown; M. Flannigan

    2005-01-01

    The American Meteorological Society symposia series on Fire and Forest Meteorology provides biennial forums for atmospheric and fire scientists to introduce and discuss the latest and most relevant research on weather, climate and fire. This special issue highlights significant work that was presented at the Fifth Symposium in Orlando, Florida during 16-20 November...

  20. Seed invasion filters and forest fire severity

    Treesearch

    Tom R. Cottrell; Paul F. Hessburg; Jonathan A. Betz

    2008-01-01

    Forest seed dispersal is altered after fire. Using seed traps, we studied impacts of fire severity on timing of seed dispersal, total seed rain, and seed rain richness in patches of high and low severity fire and unburned Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) forests in the Fischer and Tyee fire complexes in the eastern Washington Cascades. Unburned...

  1. Natural phenomena exhibited by forest fires

    Treesearch

    J. S. Barrows

    1961-01-01

    Forest fire phenomena are presented through a series of motion pictures and 35 mm slides. These films have been taken by the staffs of the Southeastern, Pacific Southwest, and Intermountain Forest and Range Experiment Stations of the U. S. Forest Service and by Dr. Vincent J. Schaefer during the course of fire research activities. Both regular speed and time-lapse...

  2. Disturbance-mediated accelerated succession in two Michigan forest types

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Abrams, Marc D.; Scott, Michael L.

    1989-01-01

    In northern lower Michigan, logging accelerated sugar maple (Acer saccharum) dominance in a northern white cedar (Thuja occidentals) community, and clear-cutting and burning quickly converted certain sites dominated by mature jack pine (Pinus banksiana) to early-succesional hardwoods, including Prunus, Populus, and Quercus. In both forest types the succeeding hardwoods should continue to increase in the future at the expense of the pioneer conifer species. In the cedar example, sugar maple was also increasing a an undisturbed, old-growth stand, but at a much reduced rate than in the logged stand. Traditionally, disturbance was through to set back succession to some earlier stage. However, out study sites and at least several other North American forest communities exhibited accelerated succession following a wide range of disturbances, including logging fire, ice storms, wind-throw, disease, insect attack, and herbicide spraying.

  3. Comment on "Fire-derived charcoal causes loss of forest humus".

    PubMed

    Lehmann, Johannes; Sohi, Saran

    2008-09-05

    Wardle et al. (Brevia, 2 May 2008, p. 629) reported that fire-derived charcoal can promote loss of forest humus and belowground carbon (C). However, C loss from charcoal-humus mixtures can be explained not only by accelerated loss of humus but also by loss of charcoal. It is also unclear whether such loss is related to mineralization to carbon dioxide or to physical export.

  4. Fighting forest fires in Brazil

    Treesearch

    José Carlos Mendes de Morais

    2013-01-01

    Fire has been used in Brazil for many years, but the increased use of this tool, combined with natural events and the presence of large forest and agricultural areas, has led to a significant jump in the number of forest fires, most of them caused by accident. To optimize existing resources and to cope with growing demand, action levels were adopted according to the...

  5. A Drought Index for Forest Fire Control

    Treesearch

    John J. Keetch; George M. Byram

    1968-01-01

    The moisture content of the upper soil, as well as that of the covering layer of duff, has an important effect on the fire suppression effort in forest and wildland areas. In certain forested areas of the United States, fires in deep duff fuels are of particular concern to the fire control manager. When these fuels are dry, fires burn deeply, dam-age is excessive, and...

  6. Fire in southern forest landscapes

    Treesearch

    John A. Stanturf; Dale D. Wade; Thomas A. Waldrop; Deborah K. Kennard; Gary L. Achtemeier

    2002-01-01

    Other than land clearing for urban development (Wear and others 1998), no disturbance is more common in southern forests than fire. The pervasive role of fire predates human activity in the South (Komarek 1964, 1974), and humans magnified that role. Repeating patterns of fire behavior lead to recognizable fire regimes, with temporal and spatial dimensions....

  7. Severe fire weather and intensive forest management increase fire severity in a multi-ownership landscape.

    PubMed

    Zald, Harold S J; Dunn, Christopher J

    2018-04-26

    Many studies have examined how fuels, topography, climate, and fire weather influence fire severity. Less is known about how different forest management practices influence fire severity in multi-owner landscapes, despite costly and controversial suppression of wildfires that do not acknowledge ownership boundaries. In 2013, the Douglas Complex burned over 19,000 ha of Oregon & California Railroad (O&C) lands in Southwestern Oregon, USA. O&C lands are composed of a checkerboard of private industrial and federal forestland (Bureau of Land Management, BLM) with contrasting management objectives, providing a unique experimental landscape to understand how different management practices influence wildfire severity. Leveraging Landsat based estimates of fire severity (Relative differenced Normalized Burn Ratio, RdNBR) and geospatial data on fire progression, weather, topography, pre-fire forest conditions, and land ownership, we asked (1) what is the relative importance of different variables driving fire severity, and (2) is intensive plantation forestry associated with higher fire severity? Using Random Forest ensemble machine learning, we found daily fire weather was the most important predictor of fire severity, followed by stand age and ownership, followed by topographic features. Estimates of pre-fire forest biomass were not an important predictor of fire severity. Adjusting for all other predictor variables in a general least squares model incorporating spatial autocorrelation, mean predicted RdNBR was higher on private industrial forests (RdNBR 521.85 ± 18.67 [mean ± SE]) vs. BLM forests (398.87 ± 18.23) with a much greater proportion of older forests. Our findings suggest intensive plantation forestry characterized by young forests and spatially homogenized fuels, rather than pre-fire biomass, were significant drivers of wildfire severity. This has implications for perceptions of wildfire risk, shared fire management responsibilities, and developing

  8. Effects of Climate Variability and Accelerated Forest Thinning on Watershed-Scale Runoff in Southwestern USA Ponderosa Pine Forests

    PubMed Central

    Robles, Marcos D.; Marshall, Robert M.; O'Donnell, Frances; Smith, Edward B.; Haney, Jeanmarie A.; Gori, David F.

    2014-01-01

    The recent mortality of up to 20% of forests and woodlands in the southwestern United States, along with declining stream flows and projected future water shortages, heightens the need to understand how management practices can enhance forest resilience and functioning under unprecedented scales of drought and wildfire. To address this challenge, a combination of mechanical thinning and fire treatments are planned for 238,000 hectares (588,000 acres) of ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) forests across central Arizona, USA. Mechanical thinning can increase runoff at fine scales, as well as reduce fire risk and tree water stress during drought, but the effects of this practice have not been studied at scales commensurate with recent forest disturbances or under a highly variable climate. Modifying a historical runoff model, we constructed scenarios to estimate increases in runoff from thinning ponderosa pine at the landscape and watershed scales based on driving variables: pace, extent and intensity of forest treatments and variability in winter precipitation. We found that runoff on thinned forests was about 20% greater than unthinned forests, regardless of whether treatments occurred in a drought or pluvial period. The magnitude of this increase is similar to observed declines in snowpack for the region, suggesting that accelerated thinning may lessen runoff losses due to warming effects. Gains in runoff were temporary (six years after treatment) and modest when compared to mean annual runoff from the study watersheds (0–3%). Nonetheless gains observed during drought periods could play a role in augmenting river flows on a seasonal basis, improving conditions for water-dependent natural resources, as well as benefit water supplies for downstream communities. Results of this study and others suggest that accelerated forest thinning at large scales could improve the water balance and resilience of forests and sustain the ecosystem services they provide. PMID

  9. Effects of climate variability and accelerated forest thinning on watershed-scale runoff in southwestern USA ponderosa pine forests.

    PubMed

    Robles, Marcos D; Marshall, Robert M; O'Donnell, Frances; Smith, Edward B; Haney, Jeanmarie A; Gori, David F

    2014-01-01

    The recent mortality of up to 20% of forests and woodlands in the southwestern United States, along with declining stream flows and projected future water shortages, heightens the need to understand how management practices can enhance forest resilience and functioning under unprecedented scales of drought and wildfire. To address this challenge, a combination of mechanical thinning and fire treatments are planned for 238,000 hectares (588,000 acres) of ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) forests across central Arizona, USA. Mechanical thinning can increase runoff at fine scales, as well as reduce fire risk and tree water stress during drought, but the effects of this practice have not been studied at scales commensurate with recent forest disturbances or under a highly variable climate. Modifying a historical runoff model, we constructed scenarios to estimate increases in runoff from thinning ponderosa pine at the landscape and watershed scales based on driving variables: pace, extent and intensity of forest treatments and variability in winter precipitation. We found that runoff on thinned forests was about 20% greater than unthinned forests, regardless of whether treatments occurred in a drought or pluvial period. The magnitude of this increase is similar to observed declines in snowpack for the region, suggesting that accelerated thinning may lessen runoff losses due to warming effects. Gains in runoff were temporary (six years after treatment) and modest when compared to mean annual runoff from the study watersheds (0-3%). Nonetheless gains observed during drought periods could play a role in augmenting river flows on a seasonal basis, improving conditions for water-dependent natural resources, as well as benefit water supplies for downstream communities. Results of this study and others suggest that accelerated forest thinning at large scales could improve the water balance and resilience of forests and sustain the ecosystem services they provide.

  10. A second-order impact model for forest fire regimes.

    PubMed

    Maggi, Stefano; Rinaldi, Sergio

    2006-09-01

    We present a very simple "impact" model for the description of forest fires and show that it can mimic the known characteristics of wild fire regimes in savannas, boreal forests, and Mediterranean forests. Moreover, the distribution of burned biomasses in model generated fires resemble those of burned areas in numerous large forests around the world. The model has also the merits of being the first second-order model for forest fires and the first example of the use of impact models in the study of ecosystems.

  11. Economic vulnerability of timber resources to forest fires.

    PubMed

    y Silva, Francisco Rodríguez; Molina, Juan Ramón; González-Cabán, Armando; Machuca, Miguel Ángel Herrera

    2012-06-15

    The temporal-spatial planning of activities for a territorial fire management program requires knowing the value of forest ecosystems. In this paper we extend to and apply the economic valuation principle to the concept of economic vulnerability and present a methodology for the economic valuation of the forest production ecosystems. The forest vulnerability is analyzed from criteria intrinsically associated to the forest characterization, and to the potential behavior of surface fires. Integrating a mapping process of fire potential and analytical valuation algorithms facilitates the implementation of fire prevention planning. The availability of cartography of economic vulnerability of the forest ecosystems is fundamental for budget optimization, and to help in the decision making process. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

  12. Avian community responses to post-fire forest structure: implications for fire management in mixed conifer forests

    Treesearch

    Angela White; Patricia Manley; Gina Tarbill; T. W. Richardson; R. E. Russell; H. D. Safford; S. Z. Dobrowski

    2016-01-01

    Fire is a natural process and the dominant disturbance shaping plant and animal communities in many coniferous forests of the western US. Given that fire size and severity are predicted to increase in the future, it has become increasingly important to understand how wildlife responds to fire and post-fire management. The Angora Fire...

  13. Assessment of forest fire impacts and emissions in the European Union based on the European forest fire information system

    Treesearch

    Paulo Barbosa; Andrea Camia; Jan Kucera; Giorgio Libertá; Ilaria Palumbo; Jesus San-Miguel-Ayanz; Guido Schmuck

    2009-01-01

    An analysis on the number of forest fires and burned area distribution as retrieved by the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) database is presented. On average, from 2000 to 2005 about...

  14. [Relationships of forest fire with lightning in Daxing' anling Mountains, Northeast China].

    PubMed

    Lei, Xiao-Li; Zhou, Guang-Sheng; Jia, Bing-Rui; Li, Shuai

    2012-07-01

    Forest fire is an important factor affecting forest ecosystem succession. Recently, forest fire, especially forest lightning fire, shows an increasing trend under global warming. To study the relationships of forest fire with lightning is essential to accurately predict the forest fire in time. Daxing' anling Mountains is a region with high frequency of forest lightning fire in China, and an important experiment site to study the relationships of forest fire with lightning. Based on the forest fire records and the corresponding lightning and meteorological observation data in the Mountains from 1966 to 2007, this paper analyzed the relationships of forest fire with lightning in this region. In the period of 1966-2007, both the lightning fire number and the fired forest area in this region increased significantly. The meteorological factors affecting the forest lighting fire were related to temporal scales. At yearly scale, the forest lightning fire was significantly correlated with precipitation, with a correlation coefficient of -0.489; at monthly scale, it had a significant correlation with air temperature, the correlation coefficient being 0.18. The relationship of the forest lightning fire with lightning was also related to temporal scales. At yearly scale, there was no significant correlation between them; at monthly scale, the forest lightning fire was strongly correlated with lightning and affected by precipitation; at daily scale, a positive correlation was observed between forest lightning fire and lightning when the precipitation was less than 5 mm. According to these findings, a fire danger index based on ADTD lightning detection data was established, and a forest lightning fire forecast model was developed. The prediction accuracy of this model for the forest lightning fire in Daxing' anling Mountains in 2005-2007 was > 80%.

  15. Measuring forest-fire danger in northern Idaho

    Treesearch

    H. T. Gisborne

    1928-01-01

    In most of the forest regions of the United States the fire problem is the greatest forest problem. Wasteful methods of logging and lumbering may result in the loss of a large proportion of the remaining forest growth, but the land will usually produce a new crop of timber without undue delay, unless fire occurs.

  16. Post-fire reconstructions of fire intensity from fire severity data: quantifying the role of spatial variability of fire intensity on forest dynamics

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Baker, Patrick; Oborne, Lisa

    2015-04-01

    Large, high-intensity fires have direct and long-lasting effects on forest ecosystems and present a serious threat to human life and property. However, even within the most catastrophic fires there is important variability in local-scale intensity that has important ramifications for forest mortality and regeneration. Quantifying this variability is difficult due to the rarity of catastrophic fire events, the extreme conditions at the time of the fires, and their large spatial extent. Instead fire severity is typically measured or estimated from observed patterns of vegetation mortality; however, differences in species- and size-specific responses to fires often makes fire severity a poor proxy for fire intensity. We developed a statistical method using simple, plot-based measurements of individual tree mortality to simultaneously estimate plot-level fire intensity and species-specific mortality patterns as a function of tree size. We applied our approach to an area of forest burned in the catastrophic Black Saturday fires that occurred near Melbourne, Australia, in February 2009. Despite being the most devastating fire in the past 70 years and our plots being located in the area that experienced some of the most intense fires in the 350,000 ha fire complex, we found that the estimated fire intensity was highly variable at multiple spatial scales. All eight tree species in our study differed in their susceptibility to fire-induced mortality, particularly among the largest size classes. We also found that seedling height and species richness of the post-fire seedling communities were both positively correlated with fire intensity. Spatial variability in disturbance intensity has important, but poorly understood, consequences for the short- and long-term dynamics of forests in the wake of catastrophic wildfires. Our study provides a tool to estimate fire intensity after a fire has passed, allowing new opportunities for linking spatial variability in fire intensity to

  17. Alternative characterization of forest fire regimes: incorporating spatial patterns

    Treesearch

    Brandon M. Collins; Jens T. Stevens; Jay D. Miller; Scott L. Stephens; Peter M. Brown; Malcolm P. North

    2017-01-01

    ContextThe proportion of fire area that experienced stand-replacing fire effects is an important attribute of individual fires and fire regimes in forests, and this metric has been used to group forest types into characteristic fire regimes. However, relying on proportion alone ignores important spatial characteristics...

  18. Thermocouples for forest fire research

    Treesearch

    Erwin H. Breuer

    1965-01-01

    Thermocouples have proved valuable in research conducted by the Fire Physics Project at the Northern Forest Fire Laboratory because they can measure several important fire variables besides flame and convection column temperatures. These include rate of spread and flame residence time. Describes a simple, rapid method of fabrication and reports useful and diverse...

  19. Assessment of Post Forest Fire Landslides in Uttarakhand Himalaya, India

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sharma, N.; Singh, R. B.

    2017-12-01

    According to Forest Survey of India-State Forest Report (2015), the total geographical area of Uttarakhand is 53, 483 covers km2 out of which 24,402 km2 area covers under total forest covers. As noticed during last week of April, 2016 forest of Uttarakhand mountains was gutted down due to major incidences of fire. This incident caused huge damage to different species of flora-fauna, human being, livestock, property and destruction of mountain ecosystem. As per media reports, six people were lost their lives and recorded several charred carcasses of livestock's due to this incident. The forest fire was affected the eleven out of total thirteen districts which roughly covers the 0.2% (approx.) of total vegetation covers.The direct impact of losses are easy to be estimated but indirect impacts of this forest fire are yet to be occurred. The threat of post Forest fire induced landslides during rainfall is themain concern. Since, after forest fire top soil and rocks are loose due to loss of vegetation as binding and protecting agent against rainfall. Therefore, the pore water pressure and weathering will be very high during rainy season which can cause many landslides in regions affected by forest fire. The demarcation of areas worse affected by forest fire is necessary for issuing alerts to habitations and important infrastructures. These alerts will be based upon region specific probable rainfall forecasting through Indian Meteorological Department (IMD). The main objective is to develop a tool for detecting early forest fire and to create awareness amongst mountain community, researchers and concerned government agencies to take an appropriate measures to minimize the incidences of Forest fire and impact of post forest fire landslides in future through implementation of sustainable mountain strategy.

  20. Predicting Fire Susceptibility in the Forests of Amazonia

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Nepstad, Daniel C.; Brown, I. Foster; Setzer, Alberto

    2000-01-01

    Although fire is the single greatest threat to the ecological integrity of Amazon forests, our ability to predict the occurrence of Amazon forest fires is rudimentary. Part of the difficulty encountered in making such predictions is the remarkable capacity of Amazon forests to tolerate drought by tapping moisture stored in deep soil. These forests can avoid drought-induced leaf shedding by withdrawing moisture to depths of 8 meters and more. Hence, the absorption of deep soil moisture allows these forests to maintain their leaf canopies following droughts of several months duration, thereby maintaining the deep shade and high relative humidity of the forest interior that prevents these ecosystems from burning. But the drought- and fire-avoidance that is conferred by this deep-rooting phenomenon is not unlimited. During successive years of drought, such as those provoked by El Nino episodes, deep soil moisture can be depleted, and drought-induced leaf shedding begins. The goal of this project was to incorporate this knowledge of Amazon forest fire ecology into a predictive model of forest flammability.

  1. Fire regime in a Mexican forest under indigenous resource management.

    PubMed

    Fulé, Peter Z; Ramos-Gómez, Mauro; Cortés-Montaño, Citlali; Miller, Andrew M

    2011-04-01

    The Rarámuri (Tarahumara) people live in the mountains and canyons of the Sierra Madre Occidental of Chihuahua, Mexico. They base their subsistence on multiple-use strategies of their natural resources, including agriculture, pastoralism, and harvesting of native plants and wildlife. Pino Gordo is a Rarámuri settlement in a remote location where the forest has not been commercially logged. We reconstructed the forest fire regime from fire-scarred trees, measured the structure of the never-logged forest, and interviewed community members about fire use. Fire occurrence was consistent throughout the 19th and 20th centuries up to our fire scar collection in 2004. This is the least interrupted surface-fire regime reported to date in North America. Studies from other relict sites such as nature reserves in Mexico or the USA have all shown some recent alterations associated with industrialized society. At Pino Gordo, fires recurred frequently at the three study sites, with a composite mean fire interval of 1.9 years (all fires) to 7.6 years (fires scarring 25% or more of samples). Per-sample fire intervals averaged 10-14 years at the three sites. Approximately two-thirds of fires burned in the season of cambial dormancy, probably during the pre-monsoonal drought. Forests were dominated by pines and contained many large living trees and snags, in contrast to two nearby similar forests that have been logged. Community residents reported using fire for many purposes, consistent with previous literature on fire use by indigenous people. Pino Gordo is a valuable example of a continuing frequent-fire regime in a never-harvested forest. The Rarámuri people have actively conserved this forest through their traditional livelihood and management techniques, as opposed to logging the forest, and have also facilitated the fire regime by burning. The data contribute to a better understanding of the interactions of humans who live in pine forests and the fire regimes of these

  2. Gis-Based Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis for Forest Fire Risk Mapping

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Akay, A. E.; Erdoğan, A.

    2017-11-01

    The forested areas along the coastal zone of the Mediterranean region in Turkey are classified as first-degree fire sensitive areas. Forest fires are major environmental disaster that affects the sustainability of forest ecosystems. Besides, forest fires result in important economic losses and even threaten human lives. Thus, it is critical to determine the forested areas with fire risks and thereby minimize the damages on forest resources by taking necessary precaution measures in these areas. The risk of forest fire can be assessed based on various factors such as forest vegetation structures (tree species, crown closure, tree stage), topographic features (slope and aspect), and climatic parameters (temperature, wind). In this study, GIS-based Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) method was used to generate forest fire risk map. The study was implemented in the forested areas within Yayla Forest Enterprise Chiefs at Dursunbey Forest Enterprise Directorate which is classified as first degree fire sensitive area. In the solution process, "extAhp 2.0" plug-in running Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method in ArcGIS 10.4.1 was used to categorize study area under five fire risk classes: extreme risk, high risk, moderate risk, and low risk. The results indicated that 23.81 % of the area was of extreme risk, while 25.81 % was of high risk. The result indicated that the most effective criterion was tree species, followed by tree stages. The aspect had the least effective criterion on forest fire risk. It was revealed that GIS techniques integrated with MCDA methods are effective tools to quickly estimate forest fire risk at low cost. The integration of these factors into GIS can be very useful to determine forested areas with high fire risk and also to plan forestry management after fire.

  3. Fire effects in southwestern forests: Proceedings of the Second La Mesa Fire symposium

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Allen, Craig D.

    1996-01-01

    In 1977, the La Mesa Fire burned across 15,444 acres of ponderosa pine forests on the adjoining lands of Bandelier National Monument, the Santa Fe National Forest, and Los Alamos National Laboratory. Following this event, several fire effects studies were initiated. The 16 papers herein document longer-term knowledge gained about the ecological effects of the fire and about Southwestern fire ecology in general. The presentations are also designed to give resource managers practical information for managing fire in local landscapes. Studies presented range from fire histories and avifauna to geomorphology and arthropods.

  4. Short-term responses of birds to prescribed fire in fire-suppressed forests of California

    Treesearch

    Bagne Karen; Kathryn Purcell

    2011-01-01

    Prescribed fire is one tool for restoring fire-suppressed forests, but application of fire during spring coincides with breeding and arrival of migrant birds. We examined effects of low-severity prescribed fires on counts of birds in a managed forest in the Sierra Nevada of California immediately, 1 year, and 3–6 years after fire was applied in spring. Of 26 species...

  5. Forest fires in the insular Caribbean

    Treesearch

    A.M.J. Robbins; C.M. Eckelmann; M. Quinones

    2008-01-01

    This paper presents a summary of the forest fire reports in the insular Caribbean derived from both management reports and an analysis of publicly available Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrodiometer (MODIS) satellite active fire products from the region. A vast difference between the amount of fires reported by land managers and fire points in the MODIS Fire...

  6. Fire forbids fifty-fifty forest

    PubMed Central

    Staal, Arie; Hantson, Stijn; Holmgren, Milena; Pueyo, Salvador; Bernardi, Rafael E.; Flores, Bernardo M.; Xu, Chi; Scheffer, Marten

    2018-01-01

    Recent studies have interpreted patterns of remotely sensed tree cover as evidence that forest with intermediate tree cover might be unstable in the tropics, as it will tip into either a closed forest or a more open savanna state. Here we show that across all continents the frequency of wildfires rises sharply as tree cover falls below ~40%. Using a simple empirical model, we hypothesize that the steepness of this pattern causes intermediate tree cover (30‒60%) to be unstable for a broad range of assumptions on tree growth and fire-driven mortality. We show that across all continents, observed frequency distributions of tropical tree cover are consistent with this hypothesis. We argue that percolation of fire through an open landscape may explain the remarkably universal rise of fire frequency around a critical tree cover, but we show that simple percolation models cannot predict the actual threshold quantitatively. The fire-driven instability of intermediate states implies that tree cover will not change smoothly with climate or other stressors and shifts between closed forest and a state of low tree cover will likely tend to be relatively sharp and difficult to reverse. PMID:29351323

  7. Fire forbids fifty-fifty forest.

    PubMed

    van Nes, Egbert H; Staal, Arie; Hantson, Stijn; Holmgren, Milena; Pueyo, Salvador; Bernardi, Rafael E; Flores, Bernardo M; Xu, Chi; Scheffer, Marten

    2018-01-01

    Recent studies have interpreted patterns of remotely sensed tree cover as evidence that forest with intermediate tree cover might be unstable in the tropics, as it will tip into either a closed forest or a more open savanna state. Here we show that across all continents the frequency of wildfires rises sharply as tree cover falls below ~40%. Using a simple empirical model, we hypothesize that the steepness of this pattern causes intermediate tree cover (30‒60%) to be unstable for a broad range of assumptions on tree growth and fire-driven mortality. We show that across all continents, observed frequency distributions of tropical tree cover are consistent with this hypothesis. We argue that percolation of fire through an open landscape may explain the remarkably universal rise of fire frequency around a critical tree cover, but we show that simple percolation models cannot predict the actual threshold quantitatively. The fire-driven instability of intermediate states implies that tree cover will not change smoothly with climate or other stressors and shifts between closed forest and a state of low tree cover will likely tend to be relatively sharp and difficult to reverse.

  8. WebGIS Platform Adressed to Forest Fire Management Methodologies

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    André Ramos-Simões, Nuno; Neto Paixão, Helena Maria; Granja Martins, Fernando Miguel; Pedras, Celestina; Lança, Rui; Silva, Elisa; Jordán, António; Zavala, Lorena; Soares, Cristina

    2015-04-01

    Forest fires are one of the natural disasters that causes more damages in nature, as well as high material costs, and sometimes, a significant losses in human lives. In summer season, when high temperatures are attained, fire may rapidly progress and destroy vast areas of forest and also rural and urban areas. The forest fires have effect on forest species, forest composition and structure, soil properties and soil capacity for nutrient retention. In order to minimize the negative impact of the forest fires in the environment, many studies have been developed, e.g. Jordán et al (2009), Cerdà & Jordán (2010), and Gonçalves & Vieira (2013). Nowadays, Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographic Information System (GIS) technologies are used as support tools in fire management decisions, namely during the fire, but also before and after. This study presents the development of a user-friendly WebGIS dedicated to share data, maps and provide updated information on forest fire management for stakeholders in Iberia Peninsula. The WebGIS platform was developed with ArcGIS Online, ArcGIS for Desktop; HyperText Markup Language (HTML) and Javascript. This platform has a database that includes spatial and alphanumeric information, such as: origin, burned areas, vegetation change over time, terrain natural slope, land use, soil erosion and fire related hazards. The same database contains also the following relevant information: water sources, forest tracks and traffic ways, lookout posts and urban areas. The aim of this study is to provide the authorities with a tool to assess risk areas and manage more efficiently forest fire hazards, giving more support to their decisions and helping the populations when facing this kind of phenomena.

  9. Forest construction infrastructures for the prevision, suppression, and protection before and after forest fires

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Drosos, Vasileios C.; Giannoulas, Vasileios J.; Daoutis, Christodoulos

    2014-08-01

    Climatic changes cause temperature rise and thus increase the risk of forest fires. In Greece the forests with the greatest risk to fire are usually those located near residential and tourist areas where there are major pressures on land use changes, while there are no currently guaranteed cadastral maps and defined title deeds because of the lack of National and Forest Cadastre. In these areas the deliberate causes of forest fires are at a percentage more than 50%. This study focuses on the forest opening up model concerning both the prevention and suppression of forest fires. The most urgent interventions that can be done after the fire destructions is also studied in relation to soil protection constructions, in order to minimize the erosion and the torrential conditions. Digital orthophotos were used in order to produce and analyze spatial data using Geographical Information Systems (GIS). Initially, Digital Elevation Models were generated, based on photogrammetry and forest areas as well as the forest road network were mapped. Road density, road distance, skidding distance and the opening up percentage were accurately measured for a forest complex. Finally, conclusions and suggestions have been drawn about the environmental compatibility of forest protection and wood harvesting works. In particular the contribution of modern technologies such as digital photogrammetry, remote sensing and Geographical Information Systems is very important, allowing reliable, effective and fast process of spatial analysis contributing to a successful planning of opening up works and fire protection.

  10. Fire effects in southwestern forests: Proceedings of the second La Mesa Fire Symposium

    Treesearch

    Craig D. Allen

    1996-01-01

    In 1977, the La Mesa Fire burned across 15,444 acres of ponderosa pine forests on the adjoining lands of Bandelier National Monument, the Santa Fe National Forest, and Los Alamos National Laboratory. Following this event, several fire effects studies were initiated. The 16 papers herein document longer-term knowledge gained about the ecological effects of the fire and...

  11. Design and realization of disaster assessment algorithm after forest fire

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Xu, Aijun; Wang, Danfeng; Tang, Lihua

    2008-10-01

    Based on GIS technology, this paper mainly focuses on the application of disaster assessment algorithm after forest fire and studies on the design and realization of disaster assessment based on GIS. After forest fire through the analysis and processing of multi-sources and heterogeneous data, this paper integrates the foundation that the domestic and foreign scholars laid of the research on assessment for forest fire loss with the related knowledge of assessment, accounting and forest resources appraisal so as to study and approach the theory framework and assessment index of the research on assessment for forest fire loss. The technologies of extracting boundary, overlay analysis, and division processing of multi-sources spatial data are available to realize the application of the investigation method of the burnt forest area and the computation of the fire area. The assessment provides evidence for fire cleaning in burnt areas and new policy making on restoration in terms of the direct and the indirect economic loss and ecological and environmental damage caused by forest fire under the condition of different fire danger classes and different amounts of forest accumulation, thus makes forest resources protection operated in a faster, more efficient and more economical way. Finally, this paper takes Lin'an city of Zhejiang province as a test area to confirm the method mentioned in the paper in terms of key technologies.

  12. The forest fire season at different elevations in Idaho

    Treesearch

    J. A. Larsen

    1925-01-01

    In any fire-ridden forest region, such as north Idaho, there is great need for a tangible basis by which to judge the length and the intensity of the fire season in different forest types and at different elevations. The major and natural forest types, such as the western yellow pine forests, the western white-pine forests, and the subalpine forests occur in...

  13. Fire ecology of the forest habitat types of northern Idaho

    Treesearch

    Jane Kapler Smith; William C. Fischer

    1997-01-01

    Provides information on fire ecology in forest habitat and community types occurring in northern Idaho. Identifies fire groups based on presettlement fire regimes and patterns of succession and stand development after fire. Describes forest fuels and suggests considerations for fire management.

  14. Fire-mediated dieback and compositional cascade in an Amazonian forest.

    PubMed

    Barlow, Jos; Peres, Carlos A

    2008-05-27

    The only fully coupled land-atmosphere global climate model predicts a widespread dieback of Amazonian forest cover through reduced precipitation. Although these predictions are controversial, the structural and compositional resilience of Amazonian forests may also have been overestimated, as current vegetation models fail to consider the potential role of fire in the degradation of forest ecosystems. We examine forest structure and composition in the Arapiuns River basin in the central Brazilian Amazon, evaluating post-fire forest recovery and the consequences of recurrent fires for the patterns of dominance of tree species. We surveyed tree plots in unburned and once-burned forests examined 1, 3 and 9 years after an unprecedented fire event, in twice-burned forests examined 3 and 9 years after fire and in thrice-burned forests examined 5 years after the most recent fire event. The number of trees recorded in unburned primary forest control plots was stable over time. However, in both once- and twice-burned forest plots, there was a marked recruitment into the 10-20cm diameter at breast height tree size classes between 3 and 9 years post-fire. Considering tree assemblage composition 9 years after the first fire contact, we observed (i) a clear pattern of community turnover among small trees and the most abundant shrubs and saplings, and (ii) that species that were common in any of the four burn treatments (unburned, once-, twice- and thrice-burned) were often rare or entirely absent in other burn treatments. We conclude that episodic wildfires can lead to drastic changes in forest structure and composition, with cascading shifts in forest composition following each additional fire event. Finally, we use these results to evaluate the validity of the savannization paradigm.

  15. Restoring forest health: fire and thinning effects on mixed-conifer forests

    Treesearch

    Malcolm P. North

    2006-01-01

    Even after 140 years without a fire, mixed-conifer forest such as Teakettle's Experimental Forest has a distinct patch pattern and complex structure. Researcher Malcolm North and colleagues examined the structure and function of these ecosystems and their response to widely used restoration treatments. Collectively the studies found fire was essential to restoring...

  16. Simulations of Forest Fires by the Cellular Automata Model "ABBAMPAU"

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    di Gregorio, S.; Bendicenti, E.

    2003-04-01

    Forest fires represent a serious environmental problem, whose negative impact is becoming day by day more worrisome. Forest fires are very complex phenomena; that need an interdisciplinary approach. The adopted method to modelling involves the definition of local rules, from which the global behaviour of the system can emerge. The paradigm of Cellular Automata was applied and the model ABBAMPAU was projected to simulate the evolution of forest fires. Cellular Automata features (parallelism and a-centrism) seem to match the system "forest fire"; the parameters, describing globally a forest fire, i.e. propagation rate, flame length and direction, fireline intensity, fire duration time et c. are mainly depending on some local characteristics i.e. vegetation type (live and dead fuel), relative humidity, fuel moisture, heat, territory morphology (altitude, slope), et c.. The only global characteristic is given by wind velocity and direction, but wind velocity and direction is locally altered according to the morphology; therefore wind has also to be considered at local level. ABBAMPAU accounts for the following aspects of the phenomenon: effects of combustion in surface and crown fire inside the cell, crown fire triggering off; surface and crown fire spread, determination of the local wind rate and direction. A validation of ABBAMPAU was tested on a real case of forest fire, in the territory of Villaputzu, Sardinia island, August 22nd, 1998. First simulations account for the main characteristics of the phenomenon and agree with the observations. The results show that the model could be applied for the forest fire preventions, the productions of risk scenarios and the evaluation of the forest fire environmental impact.

  17. Fire regimes, forest change, and self-organization in an old-growth mixed-conifer forest, Yosemite National Park, USA.

    PubMed

    Scholl, Andrew E; Taylor, Alan H

    2010-03-01

    Fire is recognized as a keystone process in dry mixed-conifer forests that have been altered by decades of fire suppression, Restoration of fire disturbance to these forests is a guiding principle of resource management in the U.S. National Park Service. Policy implementation is often hindered by a poor understanding of forest conditions before fire exclusion, the characteristics of forest changes since excluding fire, and the influence of topographic or self-organizing controls on forest structure. In this study the spatial and temporal characteristics of fire regimes and forest structure are reconstructed in a 2125-ha mixed-conifer forest. Forests were multi-aged, burned frequently at low severity and fire-return interval, and forest structure did not vary with slope aspect, elevation, or slope position. Fire exclusion has caused an increase in forest density and basal area and a compositional shift to shade-tolerant and fire-intolerant species. The median point fire-return interval and extent of a fire was 10 yr and 115 ha, respectively. The pre-Euro-American settlement fire rotation of 13 yr increased to 378 yr after 1905. The position of fire scars within tree rings indicates that 79% of fires burned in the midsummer to fall period. The spatial pattern of burns exhibited self-organizing behavior. Area burned was 10-fold greater when an area had not been burned by the previous fire. Fires were frequent and widespread, but patches of similar aged trees were < 0.2 ha, suggesting small fire-caused canopy openings. Managers need to apply multiple burns at short intervals for a sustained period to reduce surface fuels and create small canopy openings characteristic of the reference forest. By coupling explicit reference conditions with consideration of current conditions and projected climate change, management activities can balance restoration and risk management.

  18. Climate change impacts on forest fires: the stakeholders' perspective

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Giannakopoulos, C.; Roussos, A.; Karali, A.; Hatzaki, M.; Xanthopoulos, G.; Chatzinikos, E.; Fyllas, N.; Georgiades, N.; Karetsos, G.; Maheras, G.; Nikolaou, I.; Proutsos, N.; Sbarounis, T.; Tsaggari, K.; Tzamtzis, I.; Goodess, C.

    2012-04-01

    In this work, we present a synthesis of the presentations and discussions which arose during a workshop on 'Impacts of climate change on forest fires' held in September 2011 at the National Observatory of Athens, Greece in the framework of EU project CLIMRUN. At first, a general presentation about climate change and extremes in the Greek territory provided the necessary background to the audience and highlighted the need for data and information exchange between scientists and stakeholders through climate services within CLIMRUN. Discussions and presentations that followed linked climate with forest science through the use of a meteorological index for fire risk and future projections of fire danger using regional climate models. The current situation on Greek forests was also presented, as well as future steps that should be taken to ameliorate the situation under a climate change world. A time series analysis of changes in forest fires using available historical data on forest ecosystems in Greece was given in this session. This led to the topic of forest fire risk assessment and fire prevention, stating all actions towards sustainable management of forests and effective mechanisms to control fires under climate change. Options for a smooth adaptation of forests to climate change were discussed together with the lessons learned on practical level on prevention, repression and rehabilitation of forest fires. In between there were useful interventions on sustainable hunting and biodiversity protection and on climate change impacts on forest ecosystems dynamics. The importance of developing an educational program for primary/secondary school students on forest fire management was also highlighted. The perspective of forest stakeholders on climate change and how this change can affect their current or future activities was addressed through a questionnaire they were asked to complete. Results showed that the majority of the participants consider climate variability

  19. Numerical study of propagation of forest fires in the presence of fire breaks using an averaged setting

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Marzaeva, S. I.; Galtseva, O. V.

    2018-05-01

    The forest fires spread in the pine forests have been numerically simulated using a three-dimensional mathematical model. The model was integrated with respect to the vertical coordinate because horizontal sizes of forest are much greater than the heights of trees. In this paper, the assignment and theoretical investigations of the problems of crown forest fires spread pass the firebreaks were carried out. In this context, a study ( mathematical modeling) of the conditions of forest fire spreading that would make it possible to obtain a detailed picture of the change in the temperature and component concentration fields with time, and determine as well as the limiting condition of fire propagation in forest with these fire breaks.

  20. The Zoning of Forest Fire Potential of Gulestan Province Forests Using Granular Computing and MODIS Images

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jalilzadeh Shadlouei, A.; Delavar, M. R.

    2013-09-01

    There are many vegetation in Iran. This is because of extent of Iran and its width. One of these vegetation is forest vegetation most prevalent in Northern provinces named Guilan, Mazandaran, Gulestan, Ardebil as well as East Azerbaijan. These forests are always threatened by natural forest fires so much so that there have been reports of tens of fires in recent years. Forest fires are one of the major environmental as well as economic, social and security concerns in the world causing much damages. According to climatology, forest fires are one of the important factors in the formation and dispersion of vegetation. Also, regarding the environment, forest fires cause the emission of considerable amounts of greenhouse gases, smoke and dust into the atmosphere which in turn causes the earth temperature to rise up and are unhealthy to humans, animals and vegetation. In agriculture droughts are the usual side effects of these fires. The causes of forest fires could be categorized as either Human or Natural Causes. Naturally, it is impossible to completely contain forest fires; however, areas with high potentials of fire could be designated and analysed to decrease the risk of fires. The zoning of forest fire potential is a multi-criteria problem always accompanied by inherent uncertainty like other multi-criteria problems. So far, various methods and algorithm for zoning hazardous areas via Remote Sensing (RS) and Geospatial Information System (GIS) have been offered. This paper aims at zoning forest fire potential of Gulestan Province of Iran forests utilizing Remote Sensing, Geospatial Information System, meteorological data, MODIS images and granular computing method. Granular computing is part of granular mathematical and one way of solving multi-criteria problems such forest fire potential zoning supervised by one expert or some experts , and it offers rules for classification with the least inconsistencies. On the basis of the experts' opinion, 6 determinative

  1. Fire ecology of the forest habitat types of central Idaho

    Treesearch

    M. F. Crane; William C. Fischer

    1986-01-01

    Discusses fire as an ecological factor for forest habitat types occurring in central Idaho. Identifies "Fire Groups" of habitat types based on fire's role in forest succession. Considerations for fire management are suggested.

  2. Landscape fragmentation, severe drought, and the new Amazon forest fire regime.

    PubMed

    Alencar, Ane A; Brando, Paulo M; Asner, Gregory P; Putz, Francis E

    2015-09-01

    Changes in weather and land use are transforming the spatial and temporal characteristics of fire regimes in Amazonia, with important effects on the functioning of dense (i.e., closed-canopy), open-canopy, and transitional forests across the Basin. To quantify, document, and describe the characteristics and recent changes in forest fire regimes, we sampled 6 million ha of these three representative forests of the eastern and southern edges of the Amazon using 24 years (1983-2007) of satellite-derived annual forest fire scar maps and 16 years of monthly hot pixel information (1992-2007). Our results reveal that changes in forest fire regime properties differentially affected these three forest types in terms of area burned and fire scar size, frequency, and seasonality. During the study period, forest fires burned 15% (0.3 million ha), 44% (1 million ha), and 46% (0.6 million ha) of dense, open, and transitional forests, respectively. Total forest area burned and fire scar size tended to increase over time (even in years of average rainfall in open canopy and transitional forests). In dense forests, most of the temporal variability in fire regime properties was linked to El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO)-related droughts. Compared with dense forests, transitional and open forests experienced fires twice as frequently, with at least 20% of these forests' areas burning two or more times during the 24-year study period. Open and transitional forests also experienced higher deforestation rates than dense forests. During drier years, the end of the dry season was delayed by about a month, which resulted in larger burn scars and increases in overall area burned later in the season. These observations suggest that climate-mediated forest flammability is enhanced by landscape fragmentation caused by deforestation, as observed for open and transitional forests in the Eastern portion of the Amazon Basin.

  3. Historical fire regime and forest variability on two eastern Great Basin fire-sheds (USA)

    Treesearch

    Stanley G. Kitchen

    2012-01-01

    Proper management of naturally forested landscapes requires knowledge of key disturbance processes and their effects on species composition and structure. Spatially-intensive fire and forest histories provide valuable information about how fire and vegetation may vary and interact on heterogeneous landscapes. I constructed 800-year fire and tree recruitment...

  4. Characterization of the Fire Regime and Drivers of Fires in the West African Tropical Forest

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dwomoh, F. K.; Wimberly, M. C.

    2016-12-01

    The Upper Guinean forest (UGF), encompassing the tropical regions of West Africa, is a globally significant biodiversity hotspot and a critically important socio-economic and ecological resource for the region. However, the UGF is one of the most human-disturbed tropical forest ecosystems with the only remaining large patches of original forests distributed in protected areas, which are embedded in a hotspot of climate stress & land use pressures, increasing their vulnerability to fire. We hypothesized that human impacts and climate interact to drive spatial and temporal variability in fire, with fire exhibiting distinctive seasonality and sensitivity to drought in areas characterized by different population densities, agricultural practices, vegetation types, and levels of forest degradation. We used the MODIS active fire product to identify and characterize fire activity in the major ecoregions of the UGF. We used TRMM rainfall data to measure climatic variability and derived indicators of human land use from a variety of geospatial datasets. We employed time series modeling to identify the influences of drought indices and other antecedent climatic indicators on temporal patterns of active fire occurrence. We used a variety of modeling approaches to assess the influences of human activities and land cover variables on the spatial pattern of fire activity. Our results showed that temporal patterns of fire activity in the UGF were related to precipitation, but these relationships were spatially heterogeneous. The pattern of fire seasonality varied geographically, reflecting both climatological patterns and agricultural practices. The spatial pattern of fire activity was strongly associated with vegetation gradients and anthropogenic activities occurring at fine spatial scales. The Guinean forest-savanna mosaic ecoregion had the most fires. This study contributes to our understanding of UGF fire regime and the spatio-temporal dynamics of tropical forest fires in

  5. Earth Observation - Forest Fire

    NASA Image and Video Library

    2011-06-27

    ISS028-E-010044 (27 June 2011) --- A crew member aboard the International Space Station, flying at an altitude of approximately 235 statute miles on June 27, 2011, exposed this still photograph of a major fire in the Jemez Mountains of the Santa Fe National Forest in north-central New Mexico. The fire is just southwest of Los Alamos National Laboratories.

  6. Protection against fire in the mountainous forests of Greece case study: forest complex of W. Nestos

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Drosos, Vasileios C.; Giannoulas, Vasileios J.; Stergiadou, Anastasia; Karagiannis, Evaggelos; Doukas, Aristotelis-Kosmas G.

    2014-08-01

    Forest fires are an ancient phenomenon. Appear, however, with devastating frequency and intensity over the last 30 years. In our country, the climatic conditions in combination with the intense relief, favor their rapid spread. Considering the fact that environmental conditions provided for decades even worse (increased temperature, drought and vegetation), then the problem of forest fires in our country, is expected to become more intense. The work focuses on the optimization model of the opening up of the forest mountain areas taking into account the prevention and suppression of forest fires. Research area is the mountain forest complex of W. Nestos of Drama Prefecture. The percentage of forest protection area is examined under the light whether the total hose length corresponds to the actual operational capacity to reach a fire source. For this reason are decided to present a three case study concerning area of the forest being protected by fire extinguishing vehicles. The first one corresponds to a fire suppression bandwidth (buffer zone) with a capacity radius of 150m uphill and 250m downhill from the origin point where the fire extinguishing vehicle stands. The second one corresponds to a fire suppression capacity of 200m uphill and 400m downhill and the third one corresponds to a fire suppression capacity of 300m uphill and 500m downhill. The most important forest technical infrastructures to prevent fire are roads network (opening up) for fire protection and buffer zones. Patrols of small and agile 4 × 4 appropriately equipped (pipe length of 500 meters and putting pressure on uphill to 300 meters) for the first attack of the fire in the summer months coupled with early warning of fire observatories adequately cover the forest protection of W. Nestos complex. But spatial distribution needed improvements to a road density of the optimum economic Dec, both forest protection and for better management (skidding) of woody capital.

  7. Forest Fire Ecology.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Zucca, Carol; And Others

    1995-01-01

    Presents a model that integrates high school science with the needs of the local scientific community. Describes how a high school ecology class conducted scientific research in fire ecology that benefited the students and a state park forest ecologist. (MKR)

  8. Effects of fire on the thermal stability of permafrost in lowland and upland black spruce forests of interior Alaska in a changing climate

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Jafarov, Elchin E.; Romanovsky, Vladimir E.; Genet, Helene; McGuire, Anthony David; Marchenko, Sergey S.

    2013-01-01

    Fire is an important factor controlling the composition and thickness of the organic layer in the black spruce forest ecosystems of interior Alaska. Fire that burns the organic layer can trigger dramatic changes in the underlying permafrost, leading to accelerated ground thawing within a relatively short time. In this study, we addressed the following questions. (1) Which factors determine post-fire ground temperature dynamics in lowland and upland black spruce forests? (2) What levels of burn severity will cause irreversible permafrost degradation in these ecosystems? We evaluated these questions in a transient modeling–sensitivity analysis framework to assess the sensitivity of permafrost to climate, burn severity, soil organic layer thickness, and soil moisture content in lowland (with thick organic layers, ~80 cm) and upland (with thin organic layers, ~30 cm) black spruce ecosystems. The results indicate that climate warming accompanied by fire disturbance could significantly accelerate permafrost degradation. In upland black spruce forest, permafrost could completely degrade in an 18 m soil column within 120 years of a severe fire in an unchanging climate. In contrast, in a lowland black spruce forest, permafrost is more resilient to disturbance and can persist under a combination of moderate burn severity and climate warming.

  9. Modeling impacts of fire severity on successional trajectories and future fire behavior in Alaskan boreal forests

    Treesearch

    Jill F. Johnstone; T. Scott Rupp; Mark Olson; David. Verbyla

    2011-01-01

    Much of the boreal forest in western North America and Alaska experiences frequent, stand-replacing wildfires. Secondary succession after fire initiates most forest stands and variations in fire characteristics can have strong effects on pathways of succession. Variations in surface fire severity that influence whether regenerating forests are dominated by coniferous...

  10. Early Forest Fire Detection Using Radio-Acoustic Sounding System

    PubMed Central

    Sahin, Yasar Guneri; Ince, Turker

    2009-01-01

    Automated early fire detection systems have recently received a significant amount of attention due to their importance in protecting the global environment. Some emergent technologies such as ground-based, satellite-based remote sensing and distributed sensor networks systems have been used to detect forest fires in the early stages. In this study, a radio-acoustic sounding system with fine space and time resolution capabilities for continuous monitoring and early detection of forest fires is proposed. Simulations show that remote thermal mapping of a particular forest region by the proposed system could be a potential solution to the problem of early detection of forest fires. PMID:22573967

  11. Fire-induced Carbon Emissions and Regrowth Uptake in Western U.S. Forests: Documenting Variation Across Forest Types, Fire Severity, and Climate Regions

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Ghimire, Bardan; Williams, Christopher A.; Collatz, George James; Vanderhoof, Melanie

    2012-01-01

    The forest area in the western United States that burns annually is increasing with warmer temperatures, more frequent droughts, and higher fuel densities. Studies that examine fire effects for regional carbon balances have tended to either focus on individual fires as examples or adopt generalizations without considering how forest type, fire severity, and regional climate influence carbon legacies. This study provides a more detailed characterization of fire effects and quantifies the full carbon impacts in relation to direct emissions, slow release of fire-killed biomass, and net carbon uptake from forest regrowth. We find important variations in fire-induced mortality and combustion across carbon pools (leaf, live wood, dead wood, litter, and duff) and across low- to high-severity classes. This corresponds to fire-induced direct emissions from 1984 to 2008 averaging 4 TgC/yr and biomass killed averaging 10.5 TgC/yr, with average burn area of 2723 sq km/yr across the western United States. These direct emission and biomass killed rates were 1.4 and 3.7 times higher, respectively, for high-severity fires than those for low-severity fires. The results show that forest regrowth varies greatly by forest type and with severity and that these factors impose a sustained carbon uptake legacy. The western U.S. fires between 1984 and 2008 imposed a net source of 12.3 TgC/yr in 2008, accounting for both direct fire emissions (9.5 TgC/yr) and heterotrophic decomposition of fire-killed biomass (6.1 TgC yr1) as well as contemporary regrowth sinks (3.3 TgC/yr). A sizeable trend exists toward increasing emissions as a larger area burns annually.

  12. A heuristic expert system for forest fire guidance in Greece.

    PubMed

    Iliadis, Lazaros S; Papastavrou, Anastasios K; Lefakis, Panagiotis D

    2002-07-01

    Forests and forestlands are common inheritance for all Greeks and a piece of the national wealth that must be handed over to the next generations in the best possible condition. After 1974, Greece faces a severe forest fire problem and forest fire forecasting is the process that will enable the Greek ministry of Agriculture to reduce the destruction. This paper describes the basic design principles of an Expert System that performs forest fire forecasting (for the following fire season) and classification of the prefectures of Greece into forest fire risk zones. The Expert system handles uncertainty and uses heuristics in order to produce scenarios based on the presence or absence of various qualitative factors. The initial research focused on the construction of a mathematical model which attempted to describe the annual number of forest fires and burnt area in Greece based on historical data. However this has proven to be impossible using regression analysis and time series. A closer analysis of the fire data revealed that two qualitative factors dramatically affect the number of forest fires and the hectares of burnt areas annually. The first is political stability and national elections and the other is drought cycles. Heuristics were constructed that use political stability and drought cycles, to provide forest fire guidance. Fuzzy logic was applied to produce a fuzzy expected interval for each prefecture of Greece. A fuzzy expected interval is a narrow interval of values that best describes the situation in the country or a part of the country for a certain time period. A successful classification of the prefectures of Greece in forest fire risk zones was done by the system, by comparing the fuzzy expected intervals to each other. The system was tested for the years 1994 and 1995. The testing has clearly shown that the system can predict accurately, the number of forest fires for each prefecture for the following year. The average accuracy was as high as 85

  13. Forest structure and fire hazard in dry forests of the Western United States

    Treesearch

    David L. Peterson; Morris C. Johnson; James K. Agee; Theresa B. Jain; Donald McKenzie; Elizabeth D. Reinhardt

    2005-01-01

    Fire, in conjunction with landforms and climate, shapes the structure and function of forests throughout the Western United States, where millions of acres of forest lands contain accumulations of flammable fuel that are much higher than historical conditions owing to various forms of fire exclusion. The Healthy Forests Restoration Act mandates that public land...

  14. Dry forests of the Northeastern Cascades Fire and Fire Surrogate project site, Mission Creek, Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest

    Treesearch

    James K. Agee; John F. (comps.) Lehmkuhl

    2009-01-01

    The Fire and Fire Surrogate (FFS) project is a large long-term metastudy established to assess the effectiveness and ecological impacts of burning and fire "surrogates" such as cuttings and mechanical fuel treatments that are used instead of fire, or in combination with fire, to restore dry forests. One of the 13 national FFS sites is the Northeastern...

  15. Forest fire laboratory at Riverside and fire research in California: past, present, and future

    Treesearch

    Carl C. Wilson; James B. Davis

    1988-01-01

    The need for protection from uncontrolled fire in California was identified by Abbott Kinney, Chairman of the State Board of Forestry, more than 75 years before the construction of the Riverside Forest Fire Laboratory. With the organization of the USDA Forest Service the need for an effective fire protection organization became apparent. In response, a...

  16. Using weather forecasts for predicting forest-fire danger

    Treesearch

    H. T. Gisborne

    1925-01-01

    Three kinds of weather control the fluctuations of forest-fire danger-wet weather, dry weather, and windy weather. Two other conditions also contribute to the fluctuation of fire danger. These are the occurrence of lightning and the activities of man. But neither of these fire-starting agencies is fully effective unless the weather has dried out the forest materials so...

  17. Characteristics of forest fuels, fire and emissions

    Treesearch

    Charles K. McMahon

    1983-01-01

    Introduction Forest fires can be divided into two broad classes--wildfires and prescribed fires. Wildfires, whether caused by nature (lightning, etc.) or by the accidental or malicious acts of man, are not planned by forest managers and do not occur under controlled conditions. They can be relatively tame, covering only a few hectares and burning...

  18. The Greek National Observatory of Forest Fires (NOFFi)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tompoulidou, Maria; Stefanidou, Alexandra; Grigoriadis, Dionysios; Dragozi, Eleni; Stavrakoudis, Dimitris; Gitas, Ioannis Z.

    2016-08-01

    Efficient forest fire management is a key element for alleviating the catastrophic impacts of wildfires. Overall, the effective response to fire events necessitates adequate planning and preparedness before the start of the fire season, as well as quantifying the environmental impacts in case of wildfires. Moreover, the estimation of fire danger provides crucial information required for the optimal allocation and distribution of the available resources. The Greek National Observatory of Forest Fires (NOFFi)—established by the Greek Forestry Service in collaboration with the Laboratory of Forest Management and Remote Sensing of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and the International Balkan Center—aims to develop a series of modern products and services for supporting the efficient forest fire prevention management in Greece and the Balkan region, as well as to stimulate the development of transnational fire prevention and impacts mitigation policies. More specifically, NOFFi provides three main fire-related products and services: a) a remote sensing-based fuel type mapping methodology, b) a semi-automatic burned area mapping service, and c) a dynamically updatable fire danger index providing mid- to long-term predictions. The fuel type mapping methodology was developed and applied across the country, following an object-oriented approach and using Landsat 8 OLI satellite imagery. The results showcase the effectiveness of the generated methodology in obtaining highly accurate fuel type maps on a national level. The burned area mapping methodology was developed as a semi-automatic object-based classification process, carefully crafted to minimize user interaction and, hence, be easily applicable on a near real-time operational level as well as for mapping historical events. NOFFi's products can be visualized through the interactive Fire Forest portal, which allows the involvement and awareness of the relevant stakeholders via the Public Participation GIS

  19. Recent acceleration of biomass burning and carbon losses in Alaskan forests and peatlands

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Turetsky, M.R.; Kane, E.S.; Harden, J.W.; Ottmar, R.D.; Manies, K.L.; Hoy, E.; Kasischke, E.S.

    2011-01-01

    Climate change has increased the area affected by forest fires each year in boreal North America. Increases in burned area and fire frequency are expected to stimulate boreal carbon losses. However, the impact of wildfires on carbon emissions is also affected by the severity of burning. How climate change influences the severity of biomass burning has proved difficult to assess. Here, we examined the depth of ground-layer combustion in 178 sites dominated by black spruce in Alaska, using data collected from 31 fire events between 1983 and 2005. We show that the depth of burning increased as the fire season progressed when the annual area burned was small. However, deep burning occurred throughout the fire season when the annual area burned was large. Depth of burning increased late in the fire season in upland forests, but not in peatland and permafrost sites. Simulations of wildfire-induced carbon losses from Alaskan black spruce stands over the past 60 years suggest that ground-layer combustion has accelerated regional carbon losses over the past decade, owing to increases in burn area and late-season burning. As a result, soils in these black spruce stands have become a net source of carbon to the atmosphere, with carbon emissions far exceeding decadal uptake.

  20. Forest Fire Danger Rating (FFDR) Prediction over the Korean Peninsula

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Song, B.; Won, M.; Jang, K.; Yoon, S.; Lim, J.

    2016-12-01

    Approximately five hundred forest fires occur and inflict the losses of both life and property each year in Korea during the forest fire seasons in the spring and autumn. Thus, an accurate prediction of forest fire is essential for effective forest fire prevention. The meteorology is one of important factors to predict and understand the fire occurrence as well as its behaviors and spread. In this study, we present the Forest Fire Danger Rating Systems (FFDRS) on the Korean Peninsula based on the Daily Weather Index (DWI) which represents the meteorological characteristics related to forest fire. The thematic maps including temperature, humidity, and wind speed produced from Korea Meteorology Administration (KMA) were applied to the forest fire occurrence probability model by logistic regression to analyze the DWI over the Korean Peninsula. The regional data assimilation and prediction system (RDAPS) and the improved digital forecast model were used to verify the sensitivity of DWI. The result of verification test revealed that the improved digital forecast model dataset showed better agreements with the real-time weather data. The forest fire danger rating index (FFDRI) calculated by the improved digital forecast model dataset showed a good agreement with the real-time weather dataset at the 233 administrative districts (R2=0.854). In addition, FFDRI were compared with observation-based FFDRI at 76 national weather stations. The mean difference was 0.5 at the site-level. The results produced in this study indicate that the improved digital forecast model dataset can be useful to predict the FFDRI in the Korean Peninsula successfully.

  1. Fire, climate change, and forest resilience in interior Alaska

    Treesearch

    Jill F. Johnstone; F. Stuart Chapin; Teresa N. Hollingsworth; Michelle C. Mack; Vladimir Romanovsky; Merritt Turetsky

    2010-01-01

    In the boreal forests of interior Alaska, feedbacks that link forest soils, fire characteristics, and plant traits have supported stable cycles of forest succession for the past 6000 years. This high resilience of forest stands to fire disturbance is supported by two interrelated feedback cycles: (i) interactions among disturbance regime and plant-soil-microbial...

  2. Modern fire regime resembles historical fire regime in a ponderosa pine forest on Native American land

    Treesearch

    Amanda B. Stan; Peter Z. Fule; Kathryn B. Ireland; Jamie S. Sanderlin

    2014-01-01

    Forests on tribal lands in the western United States have seen the return of low-intensity surface fires for several decades longer than forests on non-tribal lands. We examined the surface fire regime in a ponderosa pinedominated (Pinus ponderosa) forest on the Hualapai tribal lands in the south-western United States. Using fire-scarred trees, we inferred temporal (...

  3. Meta-analysis of avian and small-mammal response to fire severity and fire surrogate treatments in U.S. fire-prone forests.

    PubMed

    Fontaine, Joseph B; Kennedy, Patricia L

    2012-07-01

    Management in fire-prone ecosystems relies widely upon application of prescribed fire and/or fire surrogate (e.g., forest thinning) treatments to maintain biodiversity and ecosystem function. Recently, published literature examining wildlife response to fire and fire management has increased rapidly. However, none of this literature has been synthesized quantitatively, precluding assessment of consistent patterns of wildlife response among treatment types. Using meta-analysis, we examined the scientific literature on vertebrate demographic responses to burn severity (low/moderate, high), fire surrogates (forest thinning), and fire and fire surrogate combined treatments in the most extensively studied fire-prone, forested biome (forests of the United States). Effect sizes (magnitude of response) and their 95% confidence limits (response consistency) were estimated for each species-by-treatment combination with two or more observations. We found 41 studies of 119 bird and 17 small-mammal species that examined short-term responses (< or =4 years) to thinning, low/moderate- and high-severity fire, and thinning plus prescribed fire; data on other taxa and at longer time scales were too sparse to permit quantitative assessment. At the stand scale (<50 ha), thinning and low/moderate-severity fire demonstrated similar response patterns in these forests. Combined thinning plus prescribed fire produced a higher percentage of positive responses. High-severity fire provoked stronger responses, with a majority of species possessing higher or lower effect sizes relative to fires of lower severity. In the short term and at fine spatial scales, fire surrogate forest-thinning treatments appear to effectively mimic low/moderate-severity fire, whereas low/moderate-severity fire is not a substitute for high-severity fire. The varied response of taxa to each of the four conditions considered makes it clear that the full range of fire-based disturbances (or their surrogates) is

  4. 1954 forest fire weather in western Oregon and Washington.

    Treesearch

    Owen P. Cramer

    1954-01-01

    For the second successive fire season forest fire weather in western Oregon and Washington was far below normal severity. The low danger is reflected in record low numbers of fires reported by forestry offices of both States and by the U. S. Forest Service for their respective protection areas. Although spring and fall fire weather was near normal, a rain-producing...

  5. Contrasting spatial patterns in active-fire and fire-suppressed Mediterranean climate old-growth mixed conifer forests.

    PubMed

    Fry, Danny L; Stephens, Scott L; Collins, Brandon M; North, Malcolm P; Franco-Vizcaíno, Ernesto; Gill, Samantha J

    2014-01-01

    In Mediterranean environments in western North America, historic fire regimes in frequent-fire conifer forests are highly variable both temporally and spatially. This complexity influenced forest structure and spatial patterns, but some of this diversity has been lost due to anthropogenic disruption of ecosystem processes, including fire. Information from reference forest sites can help management efforts to restore forests conditions that may be more resilient to future changes in disturbance regimes and climate. In this study, we characterize tree spatial patterns using four-ha stem maps from four old-growth, Jeffrey pine-mixed conifer forests, two with active-fire regimes in northwestern Mexico and two that experienced fire exclusion in the southern Sierra Nevada. Most of the trees were in patches, averaging six to 11 trees per patch at 0.007 to 0.014 ha(-1), and occupied 27-46% of the study areas. Average canopy gap sizes (0.04 ha) covering 11-20% of the area were not significantly different among sites. The putative main effects of fire exclusion were higher densities of single trees in smaller size classes, larger proportion of trees (≥ 56%) in large patches (≥ 10 trees), and decreases in spatial complexity. While a homogenization of forest structure has been a typical result from fire exclusion, some similarities in patch, single tree, and gap attributes were maintained at these sites. These within-stand descriptions provide spatially relevant benchmarks from which to manage for structural heterogeneity in frequent-fire forest types.

  6. Mathematical modeling of forest fire initiation in three dimensional setting

    Treesearch

    Valeriy Perminov

    2007-01-01

    In this study, the assignment and theoretical investigations of the problems of forest fire initiation were carried out, including development of a mathematical model for description of heat and mass transfer processes in overterrestrial layer of atmosphere at crown forest fire initiation, taking into account their mutual influence. Mathematical model of forest fire...

  7. The use of fire in forest restoration

    Treesearch

    Colin C. Hardy; Stephen F. Arno

    1996-01-01

    The 26 papers in this document address the current knowledge of fire as a disturbance agent, fire history and fire regimes, applications of prescribed fire for ecological restoration, and the effects of fire on the various forested ecosystems of the north-western United States. The main body of this document is organized in three sections: Assessing Needs for Fire in...

  8. Forest Fire Research--Hindsight and Foresight

    Treesearch

    C. E. Van Wagner

    1987-01-01

    The evolution of Forest fire research in Canada first is examined through the works of Wright and Beall, at the Petawawa National Forestry Institute in Ontario, then some lessons are drawn from the past that ought to bear on the future. Some opinions are delivered on the future course of research in fire danger rating, prescribed fire and the impacts of fire on the...

  9. Fire effects on temperate forest soil C and N storage.

    PubMed

    Nave, Lucas E; Vance, Eric D; Swanston, Christopher W; Curtis, Peter S

    2011-06-01

    Temperate forest soils store globally significant amounts of carbon (C) and nitrogen (N). Understanding how soil pools of these two elements change in response to disturbance and management is critical to maintaining ecosystem services such as forest productivity, greenhouse gas mitigation, and water resource protection. Fire is one of the principal disturbances acting on forest soil C and N storage and is also the subject of enormous management efforts. In the present article, we use meta-analysis to quantify fire effects on temperate forest soil C and N storage. Across a combined total of 468 soil C and N response ratios from 57 publications (concentrations and pool sizes), fire had significant overall effects on soil C (-26%) and soil N (-22%). The impacts of fire on forest floors were significantly different from its effects on mineral soils. Fires reduced forest floor C and N storage (pool sizes only) by an average of 59% and 50%, respectively, but the concentrations of these two elements did not change. Prescribed fires caused smaller reductions in forest floor C and N storage (-46% and -35%) than wildfires (-67% and -69%), and the presence of hardwoods also mitigated fire impacts. Burned forest floors recovered their C and N pools in an average of 128 and 103 years, respectively. Among mineral soils, there were no significant changes in C or N storage, but C and N concentrations declined significantly (-11% and -12%, respectively). Mineral soil C and N concentrations were significantly affected by fire type, with no change following prescribed burns, but significant reductions in response to wildfires. Geographic variation in fire effects on mineral soil C and N storage underscores the need for region-specific fire management plans, and the role of fire type in mediating C and N shifts (especially in the forest floor) indicates that averting wildfires through prescribed burning is desirable from a soils perspective.

  10. Effects of repeated fires on ecosystem C and N stocks along a fire induced forest/grassland gradient

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cheng, Chih-Hsin; Chen, Yung-Sheng; Huang, Yu-Hsuan; Chiou, Chyi-Rong; Lin, Chau-Chih; Menyailo, Oleg V.

    2013-03-01

    Repeated fires might have different effect on ecosystem carbon storage than a single fire event, but information on repeated fires and their effects on forest ecosystems and carbon storage is scarce. However, changes in climate, vegetation composition, and human activities are expected to make forests more susceptible to fires that recur with relatively high frequency. In this study, the effects of repeated fires on ecosystem carbon and nitrogen stocks were examined along a fire-induced forest/grassland gradient wherein the fire events varied from an unburned forest to repeatedly burned grassland. Results from the study show repeated fires drastically decreased ecosystem carbon and nitrogen stocks along the forest/grassland gradient. The reduction began with the disappearance of living tree biomass, and followed by the loss of soil carbon and nitrogen. Within 4 years of the onset of repeated fires on the unburned forest, the original ecosystem carbon and nitrogen stocks were reduced by 42% and 21%, respectively. Subsequent fires caused cumulative reductions in ecosystem carbon and nitrogen stocks by 68% and 44% from the original ecosystem carbon and nitrogen stocks, respectively. The analyses of carbon budgets calculated by vegetation composition and stable isotopic δ13C values indicate that 84% of forest-derived carbon is lost at grassland, whereas the gain of grass-derived carbon only compensates 18% for this loss. Such significant losses in ecosystem carbon and nitrogen stocks suggest that the effects of repeated fires have substantial impacts on ecosystem and soil carbon and nitrogen cycling.

  11. Fire History of a Forest, Savanna, and Fen Mosaic at White Ranch State Forest

    Treesearch

    Daniel C. Dey; Ricahrd P. Guyette; Michael C. Stambaugh

    2004-01-01

    We present the fire history of a 1-km2 area that is a mosaic of oak forest, savanna, and fen on the White Ranch State Forest, Howell County, Missouri. We dated 135 fire scars on 35 cross-sections of post oak ( Quercus stellata) trees and constructed a fire chronology dating from 1705 to 1997. Mean fire return intervals by periods were 3.7 years (...

  12. Non-supervised method for early forest fire detection and rapid mapping

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Artés, Tomás; Boca, Roberto; Liberta, Giorgio; San-Miguel, Jesús

    2017-09-01

    Natural hazards are a challenge for the society. Scientific community efforts have been severely increased assessing tasks about prevention and damage mitigation. The most important points to minimize natural hazard damages are monitoring and prevention. This work focuses particularly on forest fires. This phenomenon depends on small-scale factors and fire behavior is strongly related to the local weather. Forest fire spread forecast is a complex task because of the scale of the phenomena, the input data uncertainty and time constraints in forest fire monitoring. Forest fire simulators have been improved, including some calibration techniques avoiding data uncertainty and taking into account complex factors as the atmosphere. Such techniques increase dramatically the computational cost in a context where the available time to provide a forecast is a hard constraint. Furthermore, an early mapping of the fire becomes crucial to assess it. In this work, a non-supervised method for forest fire early detection and mapping is proposed. As main sources, the method uses daily thermal anomalies from MODIS and VIIRS combined with land cover map to identify and monitor forest fires with very few resources. This method relies on a clustering technique (DBSCAN algorithm) and on filtering thermal anomalies to detect the forest fires. In addition, a concave hull (alpha shape algorithm) is applied to obtain rapid mapping of the fire area (very coarse accuracy mapping). Therefore, the method leads to a potential use for high-resolution forest fire rapid mapping based on satellite imagery using the extent of each early fire detection. It shows the way to an automatic rapid mapping of the fire at high resolution processing as few data as possible.

  13. Earth Observation - Forest Fire

    NASA Image and Video Library

    2011-06-27

    ISS028-E-010043 (27 June 2011) --- A crew member aboard the International Space Station, flying at an altitude of approximately 235 statute miles on June 27, 2011, exposed this still photograph of a major fire in the Jemez Mountains of the Santa Fe National Forest in north-central New Mexico. The fire is just southwest of Los Alamos National Laboratories, which can be seen just right of center.

  14. Fire's importance in South Central U.S. forests: distribution of fire evidence

    Treesearch

    Victor A. Rudis; Thomas V. Skinner

    1991-01-01

    Evidence of past fire occurrence is estimated to occur on 26 percent of the 87.2 million acres of forests in Alabama, Arkansas, southeast Louisiana, Mississippi, east Oklahoma, Tennessee, and east Texas.Data are drawn from a systematic survey of fire evidence conducted in conjunction with recent inventories of private and public forested areas in the South Central U.S....

  15. Defining fire environment zones in the boreal forests of northeastern China.

    PubMed

    Wu, Zhiwei; He, Hong S; Yang, Jian; Liang, Yu

    2015-06-15

    Fire activity in boreal forests will substantially increase with prolonged growing seasons under a warming climate. This trend poses challenges to managing fires in boreal forest landscapes. A fire environment zone map offers a basis for evaluating these fire-related problems and designing more effective fire management plans to improve the allocation of management resources across a landscape. Toward that goal, we identified three fire environment zones across boreal forest landscapes in northeastern China using analytical methods to identify spatial clustering of the environmental variables of climate, vegetation, topography, and human activity. The three fire environment zones were found to be in strong agreement with the spatial distributions of the historical fire data (occurrence, size, and frequency) for 1966-2005. This paper discusses how the resulting fire environment zone map can be used to guide forest fire management and fire regime prediction. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  16. Characterization of biomass burning aerosols from forest fire in Indonesia

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fujii, Y.; Iriana, W.; Okumura, M.; Lestari, P.; Tohno, S.; Akira, M.; Okuda, T.

    2012-12-01

    Biomass burning (forest fire, wild fire) is a major source of pollutants, generating an estimate of 104 Tg per year of aerosol particles worldwide. These particles have adverse human health effects and can affect the radiation budget and climate directly and indirectly. Eighty percent of biomass burning aerosols are generated in the tropics and about thirty percent of them originate in the tropical regions of Asia (Andreae, 1991). Several recent studies have reported on the organic compositions of biomass burning aerosols in the tropical regions of South America and Africa, however, there is little data about forest fire aerosols in the tropical regions of Asia. It is important to characterize biomass burning aerosols in the tropical regions of Asia because the aerosol properties vary between fires depending on type and moisture of wood, combustion phase, wind conditions, and several other variables (Reid et al., 2005). We have characterized PM2.5 fractions of biomass burning aerosols emitted from forest fire in Indonesia. During the dry season in 2012, PM2.5 aerosols from several forest fires occurring in Riau, Sumatra, Indonesia were collected on quartz and teflon filters with two mini-volume samplers. Background aerosols in forest were sampled during transition period of rainy season to dry season (baseline period). Samples were analyzed with several analytical instruments. The carbonaceous content (organic and elemental carbon, OC and EC) of the aerosols was analyzed by a thermal optical reflectance technique using IMPROVE protocol. The metal, inorganic ion and organic components of the aerosols were analyzed by X-ray Fluorescence (XRF), ion chromatography and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, respectively. There was a great difference of chemical composition between forest fire and non-forest fire samples. Smoke aerosols for forest fires events were composed of ~ 45 % OC and ~ 2.5 % EC. On the other hand, background aerosols for baseline periods were

  17. Increased heat resistance in mycelia from wood fungi prevalent in forests characterized by fire: a possible adaptation to forest fire.

    PubMed

    Carlsson, Fredrik; Edman, Mattias; Holm, Svante; Eriksson, Anna-Maria; Jonsson, Bengt Gunnar

    2012-10-01

    Forest fires have been the major stand-replacing/modifying disturbance in boreal forests. To adapt to fire disturbance, different strategies have evolved. This study focuses on wood fungi, and a specific adaptation to forest fire: increased heat resistance in their mycelia. Fifteen species of wood fungi were selected and a priori sorted in two groups according to their prevalence in fire-affected environments. The fungi were cultivated on fresh wood and exposed to 100, 140, 180, 220 °C for 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 min. under laboratory conditions. A clear difference was found among the two groups. Species prevalent in fire-affected habitats had a much higher survival rate over all combinations of time and temperature compared to species associated with other environments. Thus, the results indicate that fire adaptation in terms of increased heat resistance in mycelia occurs in some species of wood fungi. Such adaptation will influence the ecology and population dynamics of wood fungi, as well as having implications for best practices during restoration fires. Copyright © 2012 The British Mycological Society. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  18. Modelling Variable Fire Severity in Boreal Forests: Effects of Fire Intensity and Stand Structure.

    PubMed

    Miquelajauregui, Yosune; Cumming, Steven G; Gauthier, Sylvie

    2016-01-01

    It is becoming clear that fires in boreal forests are not uniformly stand-replacing. On the contrary, marked variation in fire severity, measured as tree mortality, has been found both within and among individual fires. It is important to understand the conditions under which this variation can arise. We integrated forest sample plot data, tree allometries and historical forest fire records within a diameter class-structured model of 1.0 ha patches of mono-specific black spruce and jack pine stands in northern Québec, Canada. The model accounts for crown fire initiation and vertical spread into the canopy. It uses empirical relations between fire intensity, scorch height, the percent of crown scorched and tree mortality to simulate fire severity, specifically the percent reduction in patch basal area due to fire-caused mortality. A random forest and a regression tree analysis of a large random sample of simulated fires were used to test for an effect of fireline intensity, stand structure, species composition and pyrogeographic regions on resultant severity. Severity increased with intensity and was lower for jack pine stands. The proportion of simulated fires that burned at high severity (e.g. >75% reduction in patch basal area) was 0.80 for black spruce and 0.11 for jack pine. We identified thresholds in intensity below which there was a marked sensitivity of simulated fire severity to stand structure, and to interactions between intensity and structure. We found no evidence for a residual effect of pyrogeographic region on simulated severity, after the effects of stand structure and species composition were accounted for. The model presented here was able to produce variation in fire severity under a range of fire intensity conditions. This suggests that variation in stand structure is one of the factors causing the observed variation in boreal fire severity.

  19. Modelling Variable Fire Severity in Boreal Forests: Effects of Fire Intensity and Stand Structure

    PubMed Central

    Miquelajauregui, Yosune; Cumming, Steven G.; Gauthier, Sylvie

    2016-01-01

    It is becoming clear that fires in boreal forests are not uniformly stand-replacing. On the contrary, marked variation in fire severity, measured as tree mortality, has been found both within and among individual fires. It is important to understand the conditions under which this variation can arise. We integrated forest sample plot data, tree allometries and historical forest fire records within a diameter class-structured model of 1.0 ha patches of mono-specific black spruce and jack pine stands in northern Québec, Canada. The model accounts for crown fire initiation and vertical spread into the canopy. It uses empirical relations between fire intensity, scorch height, the percent of crown scorched and tree mortality to simulate fire severity, specifically the percent reduction in patch basal area due to fire-caused mortality. A random forest and a regression tree analysis of a large random sample of simulated fires were used to test for an effect of fireline intensity, stand structure, species composition and pyrogeographic regions on resultant severity. Severity increased with intensity and was lower for jack pine stands. The proportion of simulated fires that burned at high severity (e.g. >75% reduction in patch basal area) was 0.80 for black spruce and 0.11 for jack pine. We identified thresholds in intensity below which there was a marked sensitivity of simulated fire severity to stand structure, and to interactions between intensity and structure. We found no evidence for a residual effect of pyrogeographic region on simulated severity, after the effects of stand structure and species composition were accounted for. The model presented here was able to produce variation in fire severity under a range of fire intensity conditions. This suggests that variation in stand structure is one of the factors causing the observed variation in boreal fire severity. PMID:26919456

  20. The largest forest fires in Portugal: the constraints of burned area size on the comprehension of fire severity.

    PubMed

    Tedim, Fantina; Remelgado, Ruben; Martins, João; Carvalho, Salete

    2015-01-01

    Portugal is a European country with highest forest fires density and burned area. Since beginning of official forest fires database in 1980, an increase in number of fires and burned area as well as appearance of large and catastrophic fires have characterized fire activity in Portugal. In 1980s, the largest fires were just a little bit over 10,000 ha. However, in the beginning of 21st century several fires occurred with a burned area over 20,000 ha. Some of these events can be classified as mega-fires due to their ecological and socioeconomic severity. The present study aimed to discuss the characterization of large forest fires trend, in order to understand if the largest fires that occurred in Portugal were exceptional events or evidences of a new trend, and the constraints of fire size to characterize fire effects because, usually, it is assumed that larger the fire higher the damages. Using Portuguese forest fire database and satellite imagery, the present study showed that the largest fires could be seen at the same time as exceptional events and as evidence of a new fire regime. It highlighted the importance of size and patterns of unburned patches within fire perimeter as well as heterogeneity of fire ecological severity, usually not included in fire regime description, which are critical to fire management and research. The findings of this research can be used in forest risk reduction and suppression planning.

  1. Contrasting Spatial Patterns in Active-Fire and Fire-Suppressed Mediterranean Climate Old-Growth Mixed Conifer Forests

    PubMed Central

    Fry, Danny L.; Stephens, Scott L.; Collins, Brandon M.; North, Malcolm P.; Franco-Vizcaíno, Ernesto; Gill, Samantha J.

    2014-01-01

    In Mediterranean environments in western North America, historic fire regimes in frequent-fire conifer forests are highly variable both temporally and spatially. This complexity influenced forest structure and spatial patterns, but some of this diversity has been lost due to anthropogenic disruption of ecosystem processes, including fire. Information from reference forest sites can help management efforts to restore forests conditions that may be more resilient to future changes in disturbance regimes and climate. In this study, we characterize tree spatial patterns using four-ha stem maps from four old-growth, Jeffrey pine-mixed conifer forests, two with active-fire regimes in northwestern Mexico and two that experienced fire exclusion in the southern Sierra Nevada. Most of the trees were in patches, averaging six to 11 trees per patch at 0.007 to 0.014 ha−1, and occupied 27–46% of the study areas. Average canopy gap sizes (0.04 ha) covering 11–20% of the area were not significantly different among sites. The putative main effects of fire exclusion were higher densities of single trees in smaller size classes, larger proportion of trees (≥56%) in large patches (≥10 trees), and decreases in spatial complexity. While a homogenization of forest structure has been a typical result from fire exclusion, some similarities in patch, single tree, and gap attributes were maintained at these sites. These within-stand descriptions provide spatially relevant benchmarks from which to manage for structural heterogeneity in frequent-fire forest types. PMID:24586472

  2. Understorey fire frequency and the fate of burned forests in southern Amazonia.

    PubMed

    Morton, D C; Le Page, Y; DeFries, R; Collatz, G J; Hurtt, G C

    2013-06-05

    Recent drought events underscore the vulnerability of Amazon forests to understorey fires. The long-term impact of fires on biodiversity and forest carbon stocks depends on the frequency of fire damages and deforestation rates of burned forests. Here, we characterized the spatial and temporal dynamics of understorey fires (1999-2010) and deforestation (2001-2010) in southern Amazonia using new satellite-based estimates of annual fire activity (greater than 50 ha) and deforestation (greater than 10 ha). Understorey forest fires burned more than 85 500 km(2) between 1999 and 2010 (2.8% of all forests). Forests that burned more than once accounted for 16 per cent of all understorey fires. Repeated fire activity was concentrated in Mato Grosso and eastern Pará, whereas single fires were widespread across the arc of deforestation. Routine fire activity in Mato Grosso coincided with annual periods of low night-time relative humidity, suggesting a strong climate control on both single and repeated fires. Understorey fires occurred in regions with active deforestation, yet the interannual variability of fire and deforestation were uncorrelated, and only 2.6 per cent of forests that burned between 1999 and 2008 were deforested for agricultural use by 2010. Evidence from the past decade suggests that future projections of frontier landscapes in Amazonia should separately consider economic drivers to project future deforestation and climate to project fire risk.

  3. Understorey fire frequency and the fate of burned forests in southern Amazonia

    PubMed Central

    Morton, D. C.; Le Page, Y.; DeFries, R.; Collatz, G. J.; Hurtt, G. C.

    2013-01-01

    Recent drought events underscore the vulnerability of Amazon forests to understorey fires. The long-term impact of fires on biodiversity and forest carbon stocks depends on the frequency of fire damages and deforestation rates of burned forests. Here, we characterized the spatial and temporal dynamics of understorey fires (1999–2010) and deforestation (2001–2010) in southern Amazonia using new satellite-based estimates of annual fire activity (greater than 50 ha) and deforestation (greater than 10 ha). Understorey forest fires burned more than 85 500 km2 between 1999 and 2010 (2.8% of all forests). Forests that burned more than once accounted for 16 per cent of all understorey fires. Repeated fire activity was concentrated in Mato Grosso and eastern Pará, whereas single fires were widespread across the arc of deforestation. Routine fire activity in Mato Grosso coincided with annual periods of low night-time relative humidity, suggesting a strong climate control on both single and repeated fires. Understorey fires occurred in regions with active deforestation, yet the interannual variability of fire and deforestation were uncorrelated, and only 2.6 per cent of forests that burned between 1999 and 2008 were deforested for agricultural use by 2010. Evidence from the past decade suggests that future projections of frontier landscapes in Amazonia should separately consider economic drivers to project future deforestation and climate to project fire risk. PMID:23610169

  4. Forest fire spatial pattern analysis in Galicia (NW Spain).

    PubMed

    Fuentes-Santos, I; Marey-Pérez, M F; González-Manteiga, W

    2013-10-15

    Knowledge of fire behaviour is of key importance in forest management. In the present study, we analysed the spatial structure of forest fire with spatial point pattern analysis and inference techniques recently developed in the Spatstat package of R. Wildfires have been the primary threat to Galician forests in recent years. The district of Fonsagrada-Ancares is one of the most seriously affected by fire in the region and, therefore, the central focus of the study. Our main goal was to determine the spatial distribution of ignition points to model and predict fire occurrence. These data are of great value in establishing enhanced fire prevention and fire fighting plans. We found that the spatial distribution of wildfires is not random and that fire occurrence may depend on ownership conflicts. We also found positive interaction between small and large fires and spatial independence between wildfires in consecutive years. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  5. Forest Fires and Post - Fire Regeneration in Algeria Analysis with Satellite Data

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zegrar, Ahmed

    2016-07-01

    The Algerian forests are characterized by a particularly flammable material and fuel. The wind, the relief and the slope facilitates the propagation of fire. The use of remote sensing data multi-­dates, combined with other types of data of various kinds on the environment and forest burned, opens up interesting perspectives for the management of post-­fire regeneration. In this study the use of multi-­temporal remote sensing image Alsat-­1 and Landsat combined with other types of data concerning both background and burned down forest appears to be promising in evaluating and spatial and temporal effects of post fire regeneration. A spatial analysis taking into consideration the characteristics of the burned down site in the North West of Algeria, allowed to better account new factors to explain the regeneration and its temporal and spatial variation. We intended to show the potential use of remote sensing data from satellite ALSAT-­1, of spatial resolution of 32 m. . This approach allows showing the contribution of the data of Algerian satellite ALSAT in the detection and the well attended some forest fires in Algeria.

  6. Latent resilience in ponderosa pine forest: effects of resumed frequent fire.

    PubMed

    Larson, Andrew J; Belote, R Travis; Cansler, C Alina; Parks, Sean A; Dietz, Matthew S

    2013-09-01

    Ecological systems often exhibit resilient states that are maintained through negative feedbacks. In ponderosa pine forests, fire historically represented the negative feedback mechanism that maintained ecosystem resilience; fire exclusion reduced that resilience, predisposing the transition to an alternative ecosystem state upon reintroduction of fire. We evaluated the effects of reintroduced frequent wildfire in unlogged, fire-excluded, ponderosa pine forest in the Bob Marshall Wilderness, Montana, USA. Initial reintroduction of fire in 2003 reduced tree density and consumed surface fuels, but also stimulated establishment of a dense cohort of lodgepole pine, maintaining a trajectory toward an alternative state. Resumption of a frequent fire regime by a second fire in 2011 restored a low-density forest dominated by large-diameter ponderosa pine by eliminating many regenerating lodgepole pines and by continuing to remove surface fuels and small-diameter lodgepole pine and Douglas-fir that established during the fire suppression era. Our data demonstrate that some unlogged, fire-excluded, ponderosa pine forests possess latent resilience to reintroduced fire. A passive model of simply allowing lightning-ignited fires to burn appears to be a viable approach to restoration of such forests.

  7. Focused sunlight factor of forest fire danger assessment using Web-GIS and RS technologies

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Baranovskiy, Nikolay V.; Sherstnyov, Vladislav S.; Yankovich, Elena P.; Engel, Marina V.; Belov, Vladimir V.

    2016-08-01

    Timiryazevskiy forestry of Tomsk region (Siberia, Russia) is a study area elaborated in current research. Forest fire danger assessment is based on unique technology using probabilistic criterion, statistical data on forest fires, meteorological conditions, forest sites classification and remote sensing data. MODIS products are used for estimating some meteorological conditions and current forest fire situation. Geonformation technologies are used for geospatial analysis of forest fire danger situation on controlled forested territories. GIS-engine provides opportunities to construct electronic maps with different levels of forest fire probability and support raster layer for satellite remote sensing data on current forest fires. Web-interface is used for data loading on specific web-site and for forest fire danger data representation via World Wide Web. Special web-forms provide interface for choosing of relevant input data in order to process the forest fire danger data and assess the forest fire probability.

  8. Fire ecology of Montana forest habitat types east of the Continental Divide

    Treesearch

    William C. Fischer; Bruce D. Clayton

    1983-01-01

    Provides information on fire as an ecological factor for forest habitat types occurring east of the Continental Divide in Montana. Identifies "Fire Groups" of habitat types based on fire's role in forest succession. Describes forest fuels and suggests considerations for fire management.

  9. Nitrogen balance along a northern boreal forest fire chronosequence.

    PubMed

    Palviainen, Marjo; Pumpanen, Jukka; Berninger, Frank; Ritala, Kaisa; Duan, Baoli; Heinonsalo, Jussi; Sun, Hui; Köster, Egle; Köster, Kajar

    2017-01-01

    Fire is a major natural disturbance factor in boreal forests, and the frequency of forest fires is predicted to increase due to climate change. Nitrogen (N) is a key determinant of carbon sequestration in boreal forests because the shortage of N limits tree growth. We studied changes in N pools and fluxes, and the overall N balance across a 155-year non stand-replacing fire chronosequence in sub-arctic Pinus sylvestris forests in Finland. Two years after the fire, total ecosystem N pool was 622 kg ha-1 of which 16% was in the vegetation, 8% in the dead biomass and 76% in the soil. 155 years after the fire, total N pool was 960 kg ha-1, with 27% in the vegetation, 3% in the dead biomass and 69% in the soil. This implies an annual accumulation rate of 2.28 kg ha-1 which was distributed equally between soil and biomass. The observed changes in N pools were consistent with the computed N balance +2.11 kg ha-1 yr-1 over the 155-year post-fire period. Nitrogen deposition was an important component of the N balance. The biological N fixation increased with succession and constituted 9% of the total N input during the 155 post-fire years. N2O fluxes were negligible (≤ 0.01 kg ha-1 yr-1) and did not differ among post-fire age classes. The number and intensity of microbial genes involved in N cycling were lower at the site 60 years after fire compared to the youngest and the oldest sites indicating potential differences in soil N cycling processes. The results suggest that in sub-arctic pine forests, the non-stand-replacing, intermediate-severity fires decrease considerably N pools in biomass but changes in soil and total ecosystem N pools are slight. Current fire-return interval does not seem to pose a great threat to ecosystem productivity and N status in these sub-arctic forests.

  10. Nitrogen balance along a northern boreal forest fire chronosequence

    PubMed Central

    Pumpanen, Jukka; Berninger, Frank; Ritala, Kaisa; Duan, Baoli; Heinonsalo, Jussi; Sun, Hui; Köster, Egle; Köster, Kajar

    2017-01-01

    Fire is a major natural disturbance factor in boreal forests, and the frequency of forest fires is predicted to increase due to climate change. Nitrogen (N) is a key determinant of carbon sequestration in boreal forests because the shortage of N limits tree growth. We studied changes in N pools and fluxes, and the overall N balance across a 155-year non stand-replacing fire chronosequence in sub-arctic Pinus sylvestris forests in Finland. Two years after the fire, total ecosystem N pool was 622 kg ha-1 of which 16% was in the vegetation, 8% in the dead biomass and 76% in the soil. 155 years after the fire, total N pool was 960 kg ha-1, with 27% in the vegetation, 3% in the dead biomass and 69% in the soil. This implies an annual accumulation rate of 2.28 kg ha-1 which was distributed equally between soil and biomass. The observed changes in N pools were consistent with the computed N balance +2.11 kg ha-1 yr-1 over the 155-year post-fire period. Nitrogen deposition was an important component of the N balance. The biological N fixation increased with succession and constituted 9% of the total N input during the 155 post-fire years. N2O fluxes were negligible (≤ 0.01 kg ha-1 yr-1) and did not differ among post-fire age classes. The number and intensity of microbial genes involved in N cycling were lower at the site 60 years after fire compared to the youngest and the oldest sites indicating potential differences in soil N cycling processes. The results suggest that in sub-arctic pine forests, the non-stand-replacing, intermediate-severity fires decrease considerably N pools in biomass but changes in soil and total ecosystem N pools are slight. Current fire-return interval does not seem to pose a great threat to ecosystem productivity and N status in these sub-arctic forests. PMID:28358884

  11. Relation of weather forecasts to the prediction of dangerous forest fire conditions

    Treesearch

    R. H. Weidman

    1923-01-01

    The purpose of predicting dangerous forest-fire conditions, of course, is to reduce the great cost and damage caused by forest fires. In the region of Montana and northern Idaho alone the average cost to the United States Forest Service of fire protection and suppression is over $1,000,000 a year. Although the causes of forest fires will gradually be reduced by...

  12. Impact of forest fires on particulate matter and ozone levels during the 2003, 2004 and 2005 fire seasons in Portugal.

    PubMed

    Martins, V; Miranda, A I; Carvalho, A; Schaap, M; Borrego, C; Sá, E

    2012-01-01

    The main purpose of this work is to estimate the impact of forest fires on air pollution applying the LOTOS-EUROS air quality modeling system in Portugal for three consecutive years, 2003-2005. Forest fire emissions have been included in the modeling system through the development of a numerical module, which takes into account the most suitable parameters for Portuguese forest fire characteristics and the burnt area by large forest fires. To better evaluate the influence of forest fires on air quality the LOTOS-EUROS system has been applied with and without forest fire emissions. Hourly concentration results have been compared to measure data at several monitoring locations with better modeling quality parameters when forest fire emissions were considered. Moreover, hourly estimates, with and without fire emissions, can reach differences in the order of 20%, showing the importance and the influence of this type of emissions on air quality. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  13. An approach to the real time risk evaluation system of boreal forest fire

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nakau, K.; Fukuda, M.; Kimura, K.; Hayasaka, H.; Tani, H.; Kushida, K.

    2005-12-01

    Huge boreal forest fire may cause massive impacts not only on global warming gas emission but also local communities. Thus, it is important to control forest fire. We collected data about boreal forest fire as satellite imagery and fire observation simultaneously in Alaska and east Siberia in summer fire seasons for these three years. Fire observation data was collected from aircraft flying between Japan and Europe. Fire detection results were compared with observed data to evaluate the accuracy and earliness of automatic detection. NOAA and MODIS satellite images covering Alaska and East Siberia are collected. We are also developing fire expansion simulation model to forecast the possible fire expansion area. On the basis of fire expansion forecast, risk analysis of possible fire expansion for decision aid of fire-fighting activities will be analyzed. To identify the risk of boreal forest fire and public concern about forest fire, we collected local news paper in Fairbanks, AK and discuss the statistics of articles related to forest fire on the newspaper.

  14. Forest fires and air quality issues in southern Europe

    Treesearch

    Ana Isabel Miranda; Enrico Marchi; Marco Ferretti; Millán M. Millán

    2009-01-01

    Each summer forest fires in southern Europe emit large quantities of pollutants to the atmosphere. These fires can generate a number of air pollution episodes as measured by air quality monitoring networks. We analyzed the impact of forest fires on air quality of specific regions of southern Europe. Data from several summer seasons were studied with the aim of...

  15. Wildfire and drought dynamics destabilize carbon stores of fire-suppressed forests.

    PubMed

    Earles, J Mason; North, Malcolm P; Hurteau, Matthew D

    2014-06-01

    Widespread fire suppression and thinning have altered the structure and composition of many forests in the western United States, making them more susceptible to the synergy of large-scale drought and fire events. We examine how these changes affect carbon storage and stability compared to historic fire-adapted conditions. We modeled carbon dynamics under possible drought and fire conditions over a 300-year simulation period in two mixed-conifer conditions common in the western United States: (1) pine-dominated with an active fire regime and (2) fir-dominated, fire suppressed forests. Fir-dominated stands, with higher live- and dead-wood density, had much lower carbon stability as drought and fire frequency increased compared to pine-dominated forest. Carbon instability resulted from species (i.e., fir's greater susceptibility to drought and fire) and stand (i.e., high density of smaller trees) conditions that develop in the absence of active management. Our modeling suggests restoring historic species composition and active fire regimes can significantly increase carbon stability in fire-suppressed, mixed-conifer forests. Long-term management of forest carbon should consider the relative resilience of stand structure and composition to possible increases in disturbance frequency and intensity under changing climate.

  16. Reintroducing fire in regenerated dry forests following stand-replacing wildfire.

    Treesearch

    David W. Peterson; Paul F. Hessburg; Brion Salter; Kevin M. James; Matthew C. Dahlgreen; John A. Barnes

    2007-01-01

    Prescribed fire use may be effective for increasing fire resilience in young coniferous forests by reducing surface fuels, modifying overstory stand structure, and promoting development of large trees of fire resistant species. Questions remain, however, about when and how to reintroduce fire in regenerated forests, and to what end. We studied the effects of spring...

  17. A decision support system for managing forest fire casualties.

    PubMed

    Bonazountas, Marc; Kallidromitou, Despina; Kassomenos, Pavlos; Passas, Nikos

    2007-09-01

    Southern Europe is exposed to anthropogenic and natural forest fires. These result in loss of lives, goods and infrastructure, but also deteriorate the natural environment and degrade ecosystems. The early detection and combating of such catastrophes requires the use of a decision support system (DSS) for emergency management. The current literature reports on a series of efforts aimed to deliver DSSs for the management of the forest fires by utilising technologies like remote sensing and geographical information systems (GIS), yet no integrated system exists. This manuscript presents the results of scientific research aiming to the development of a DSS for managing forest fires. The system provides a series of software tools for the assessment of the propagation and combating of forest fires based on Arc/Info, ArcView, Arc Spatial Analyst, Arc Avenue, and Visual C++ technologies. The system integrates GIS technologies under the same data environment and utilises a common user interface to produce an integrated computer system based on semi-automatic satellite image processing (fuel maps), socio-economic risk modelling and probabilistic models that would serve as a useful tool for forest fire prevention, planning and management. Its performance has been demonstrated via real time up-to-date accurate information on the position and evolution of the fire. The system can assist emergency assessment, management and combating of the incident. A site demonstration and validation has been accomplished for the island of Evoia, Greece, an area particularly vulnerable to forest fires due to its ecological characteristics and prevailing wind patterns.

  18. Time fluctuation analysis of forest fire sequences

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Vega Orozco, Carmen D.; Kanevski, Mikhaïl; Tonini, Marj; Golay, Jean; Pereira, Mário J. G.

    2013-04-01

    Forest fires are complex events involving both space and time fluctuations. Understanding of their dynamics and pattern distribution is of great importance in order to improve the resource allocation and support fire management actions at local and global levels. This study aims at characterizing the temporal fluctuations of forest fire sequences observed in Portugal, which is the country that holds the largest wildfire land dataset in Europe. This research applies several exploratory data analysis measures to 302,000 forest fires occurred from 1980 to 2007. The applied clustering measures are: Morisita clustering index, fractal and multifractal dimensions (box-counting), Ripley's K-function, Allan Factor, and variography. These algorithms enable a global time structural analysis describing the degree of clustering of a point pattern and defining whether the observed events occur randomly, in clusters or in a regular pattern. The considered methods are of general importance and can be used for other spatio-temporal events (i.e. crime, epidemiology, biodiversity, geomarketing, etc.). An important contribution of this research deals with the analysis and estimation of local measures of clustering that helps understanding their temporal structure. Each measure is described and executed for the raw data (forest fires geo-database) and results are compared to reference patterns generated under the null hypothesis of randomness (Poisson processes) embedded in the same time period of the raw data. This comparison enables estimating the degree of the deviation of the real data from a Poisson process. Generalizations to functional measures of these clustering methods, taking into account the phenomena, were also applied and adapted to detect time dependences in a measured variable (i.e. burned area). The time clustering of the raw data is compared several times with the Poisson processes at different thresholds of the measured function. Then, the clustering measure value

  19. Interactions across spatial scales among forest dieback, fire, and erosion in northern New Mexico landscapes

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Allen, Craig D.

    2007-01-01

    Ecosystem patterns and disturbance processes at one spatial scale often interact with processes at another scale, and the result of such cross-scale interactions can be nonlinear dynamics with thresholds. Examples of cross-scale pattern-process relationships and interactions among forest dieback, fire, and erosion are illustrated from northern New Mexico (USA) landscapes, where long-term studies have recently documented all of these disturbance processes. For example, environmental stress, operating on individual trees, can cause tree death that is amplified by insect mortality agents to propagate to patch and then landscape or even regional-scale forest dieback. Severe drought and unusual warmth in the southwestern USA since the late 1990s apparently exceeded species-specific physiological thresholds for multiple tree species, resulting in substantial vegetation mortality across millions of hectares of woodlands and forests in recent years. Predictions of forest dieback across spatial scales are constrained by uncertainties associated with: limited knowledge of species-specific physiological thresholds; individual and site-specific variation in these mortality thresholds; and positive feedback loops between rapidly-responding insect herbivore populations and their stressed plant hosts, sometimes resulting in nonlinear “pest” outbreak dynamics. Fire behavior also exhibits nonlinearities across spatial scales, illustrated by changes in historic fire regimes where patch-scale grazing disturbance led to regional-scale collapse of surface fire activity and subsequent recent increases in the scale of extreme fire events in New Mexico. Vegetation dieback interacts with fire activity by modifying fuel amounts and configurations at multiple spatial scales. Runoff and erosion processes are also subject to scale-dependent threshold behaviors, exemplified by ecohydrological work in semiarid New Mexico watersheds showing how declines in ground surface cover lead to non

  20. Solar activity as a possible cause of large forest fires--a case study: analysis of the Portuguese forest fires.

    PubMed

    Gomes, J F P; Radovanovic, M

    2008-05-01

    Fires of large dimension destroy forests, harvests and housing objects. Apart from that combustion products and burned surfaces become large ecological problems. Very often fires emerge simultaneously on different locations of a region so a question could be asked if they always have been a consequence of negligence, pyromania, high temperatures or maybe there has been some other cause. This paper is an attempt of establishing the possible connection between forest fires that numerous satellites registered and activities happening on the Sun immediately before fires ignite. Fires emerged on relatively large areas from Portugal and Spain on August 2005, as well as on other regions of Europe. The cases that have been analyzed show that, in every concrete situation, an emission of strong electromagnetic and thermal corpuscular energy from highly energetic regions that were in geo-effective position had preceded the fires. Such emissions have, usually, very high energy and high speeds of particles and come from coronary holes that also have been either in the very structure or in the immediate closeness of the geo-effective position. It should also be noted that the solar wind directed towards the Earth becomes weaker with deeper penetration towards the topographic surface. However, the results presented in this paper suggest that, there is a strong causality relationship between solar activity and the ignition of these forest fires taking place in South-western Europe.

  1. Land cover, more than monthly fire weather, drives fire-size distribution in Southern Québec forests: Implications for fire risk management.

    PubMed

    Marchal, Jean; Cumming, Steve G; McIntire, Eliot J B

    2017-01-01

    Fire activity in North American forests is expected to increase substantially with climate change. This would represent a growing risk to human settlements and industrial infrastructure proximal to forests, and to the forest products industry. We modelled fire size distributions in southern Québec as functions of fire weather and land cover, thus explicitly integrating some of the biotic interactions and feedbacks in a forest-wildfire system. We found that, contrary to expectations, land-cover and not fire weather was the primary driver of fire size in our study region. Fires were highly selective on fuel-type under a wide range of fire weather conditions: specifically, deciduous forest, lakes and to a lesser extent recently burned areas decreased the expected fire size in their vicinity compared to conifer forest. This has large implications for fire risk management in that fuels management could reduce fire risk over the long term. Our results imply, for example, that if 30% of a conifer-dominated landscape were converted to hardwoods, the probability of a given fire, occurring in that landscape under mean fire weather conditions, exceeding 100,000 ha would be reduced by a factor of 21. A similarly marked but slightly smaller effect size would be expected under extreme fire weather conditions. We attribute the decrease in expected fire size that occurs in recently burned areas to fuel availability limitations on fires spread. Because regenerating burned conifer stands often pass through a deciduous stage, this would also act as a negative biotic feedback whereby the occurrence of fires limits the size of nearby future for some period of time. Our parameter estimates imply that changes in vegetation flammability or fuel availability after fires would tend to counteract shifts in the fire size distribution favoring larger fires that are expected under climate warming. Ecological forecasts from models neglecting these feedbacks may markedly overestimate the

  2. Fire treatment effects on vegetation structure, fuels, and potential fire severity in western U.S. forests

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Stephens, S.L.; Moghaddas, J.J.; Edminster, C.; Fiedler, C.E.; Haase, S.; Harrington, M.; Keeley, J.E.; Knapp, E.E.; Mciver, J.D.; Metlen, K.; Skinner, C.N.; Youngblood, A.

    2009-01-01

    Abstract. Forest structure and species composition in many western U.S. coniferous forests have been altered through fire exclusion, past and ongoing harvesting practices, and livestock grazing over the 20th century. The effects of these activities have been most pronounced in seasonally dry, low and mid-elevation coniferous forests that once experienced frequent, low to moderate intensity, fire regimes. In this paper, we report the effects of Fire and Fire Surrogate (FFS) forest stand treatments on fuel load profiles, potential fire behavior, and fire severity under three weather scenarios from six western U.S. FFS sites. This replicated, multisite experiment provides a framework for drawing broad generalizations about the effectiveness of prescribed fire and mechanical treatments on surface fuel loads, forest structure, and potential fire severity. Mechanical treatments without fire resulted in combined 1-, 10-, and 100-hour surface fuel loads that were significantly greater than controls at three of five FFS sites. Canopy cover was significantly lower than controls at three of five FFS sites with mechanical-only treatments and at all five FFS sites with the mechanical plus burning treatment; fire-only treatments reduced canopy cover at only one site. For the combined treatment of mechanical plus fire, all five FFS sites with this treatment had a substantially lower likelihood of passive crown fire as indicated by the very high torching indices. FFS sites that experienced significant increases in 1-, 10-, and 100-hour combined surface fuel loads utilized harvest systems that left all activity fuels within experimental units. When mechanical treatments were followed by prescribed burning or pile burning, they were the most effective treatment for reducing crown fire potential and predicted tree mortality because of low surface fuel loads and increased vertical and horizontal canopy separation. Results indicate that mechanical plus fire, fire-only, and mechanical

  3. Emissions from Forest Fires near Mexico City

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Yokelson, R.; Urbanski, S.; Atlas, E.; Toohey, D.; Alvarado, E.; Crounse, J.; Wennberg, P.; Fisher, M.; Wold, C.; Campos, T.; hide

    2007-01-01

    The emissions of NOx (defined as NO (nitric oxide) + NO2 (nitrogen dioxide)) and hydrogen cyanide (HCN), per unit amount of fuel burned, from fires in the pine forests that dominate the mountains surrounding Mexico City (MC) are about 2 times higher than normally observed for forest burning. The ammonia (NH3) emissions are about average for forest burning. The upper limit for the mass ratio of NOX to volatile organic compounds (VOC) for these MC-area mountain fires was approximately 0.38, which is similar to the NOx/VOC ratio in the MC urban area emissions inventory of 0.34, but much larger than the NOx/VOC ratio for tropical forest fires in Brazil (approximately 0.068). The nitrogen enrichment in the fire emissions may be due to deposition of nitrogen-containing pollutants in the outflow from the MC urban area. This effect may occur worldwide wherever biomass burning coexists with large urban areas (e.g. the tropics, southeastern US, Los Angeles Basin). The molar emission ratio of HCN to carbon monoxide (CO) for the mountain fires was 0.012 +/- 0.007, which is 2-9 times higher than widely used literature values for biomass burning. The ambient molar ratio HCN/CO in the MC-area outflow is about 0.003 +/- 0.0003. Thus, if only mountain fires emit significant amounts of HCN, these fires may be contributing about 25% of the CO production in the MCarea (approximately 98-100 W and 19-20 N). Comparing the PM10/CO and PM2.5/CO mass ratios in the MC Metropolitan Area emission inventory (0.01 15 and 0.0037) to the PM1/CO mass ratio for the mountain fires (0.133) then suggests that these fires could produce as much as approximately 79-92% of the primary fine particle mass generated in the MC-area. Considering both the uncertainty in the HCN/CO ratios and secondary aerosol formation in the urban and fire emissions implies that about 50 +/- 30% of the "aged" fine particle mass in the March 2006 MC-area outflow could be from these fires.

  4. Measuring fire weather and forest inflammability

    Treesearch

    H. T. Gisborne

    1936-01-01

    In the measurement of fire weather and forest inflammability, now practiced regularly at more than 90 forest stations in northern Idaho and western Montana, it is necessary to use many methods that are peculiar to this work. Some of these methods are familiar to meteorologists, but few foresters have had any appreciable training in meteorology. Others are of such,...

  5. Land cover, more than monthly fire weather, drives fire-size distribution in Southern Québec forests: Implications for fire risk management

    PubMed Central

    Marchal, Jean; Cumming, Steve G.; McIntire, Eliot J. B.

    2017-01-01

    Fire activity in North American forests is expected to increase substantially with climate change. This would represent a growing risk to human settlements and industrial infrastructure proximal to forests, and to the forest products industry. We modelled fire size distributions in southern Québec as functions of fire weather and land cover, thus explicitly integrating some of the biotic interactions and feedbacks in a forest-wildfire system. We found that, contrary to expectations, land-cover and not fire weather was the primary driver of fire size in our study region. Fires were highly selective on fuel-type under a wide range of fire weather conditions: specifically, deciduous forest, lakes and to a lesser extent recently burned areas decreased the expected fire size in their vicinity compared to conifer forest. This has large implications for fire risk management in that fuels management could reduce fire risk over the long term. Our results imply, for example, that if 30% of a conifer-dominated landscape were converted to hardwoods, the probability of a given fire, occurring in that landscape under mean fire weather conditions, exceeding 100,000 ha would be reduced by a factor of 21. A similarly marked but slightly smaller effect size would be expected under extreme fire weather conditions. We attribute the decrease in expected fire size that occurs in recently burned areas to fuel availability limitations on fires spread. Because regenerating burned conifer stands often pass through a deciduous stage, this would also act as a negative biotic feedback whereby the occurrence of fires limits the size of nearby future for some period of time. Our parameter estimates imply that changes in vegetation flammability or fuel availability after fires would tend to counteract shifts in the fire size distribution favoring larger fires that are expected under climate warming. Ecological forecasts from models neglecting these feedbacks may markedly overestimate the

  6. Examining fire-induced forest changes using novel remote sensing technique: a case study in a mixed pine-oak forest

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Meng, R.; Wu, J.; Zhao, F. R.; Cook, B.; Hanavan, R. P.; Serbin, S.

    2017-12-01

    Fire-induced forest changes has long been a central focus for forest ecology and global carbon cycling studies, and is becoming a pressing issue for global change biologists particularly with the projected increases in the frequency and intensity of fire with a warmer and drier climate. Compared with time-consuming and labor intensive field-based approaches, remote sensing offers a promising way to efficiently assess fire effects and monitor post-fire forest responses across a range of spatial and temporal scales. However, traditional remote sensing studies relying on simple optical spectral indices or coarse resolution imagery still face a number of technical challenges, including confusion or contamination of the signal by understory dynamics and mixed pixels with moderate to coarse resolution data (>= 30 m). As such, traditional remote sensing may not meet the increasing demand for more ecologically-meaningful monitoring and quantitation of fire-induced forest changes. Here we examined the use of novel remote sensing technique (i.e. airborne imaging spectroscopy and LiDAR measurement, very high spatial resolution (VHR) space-borne multi-spectral measurement, and high temporal-spatial resolution UAS-based (Unmanned Aerial System) imagery), in combination with field and phenocam measurements to map forest burn severity across spatial scales, quantify crown-scale post-fire forest recovery rate, and track fire-induced phenology changes in the burned areas. We focused on a mixed pine-oak forest undergoing multiple fire disturbances for the past several years in Long Island, NY as a case study. We demonstrate that (1) forest burn severity mapping from VHR remote sensing measurement can capture crown-scale heterogeneous fire patterns over large-scale; (2) the combination of VHR optical and structural measurements provides an efficient means to remotely sense species-level post-fire forest responses; (3) the UAS-based remote sensing enables monitoring of fire

  7. Prediction of forest fires occurrences with area-level Poisson mixed models.

    PubMed

    Boubeta, Miguel; Lombardía, María José; Marey-Pérez, Manuel Francisco; Morales, Domingo

    2015-05-01

    The number of fires in forest areas of Galicia (north-west of Spain) during the summer period is quite high. Local authorities are interested in analyzing the factors that explain this phenomenon. Poisson regression models are good tools for describing and predicting the number of fires per forest areas. This work employs area-level Poisson mixed models for treating real data about fires in forest areas. A parametric bootstrap method is applied for estimating the mean squared errors of fires predictors. The developed methodology and software are applied to a real data set of fires in forest areas of Galicia. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  8. [Measurement model of carbon emission from forest fire: a review].

    PubMed

    Hu, Hai-Qing; Wei, Shu-Jing; Jin, Sen; Sun, Long

    2012-05-01

    Forest fire is the main disturbance factor for forest ecosystem, and an important pathway of the decrease of vegetation- and soil carbon storage. Large amount of carbonaceous gases in forest fire can release into atmosphere, giving remarkable impacts on the atmospheric carbon balance and global climate change. To scientifically and effectively measure the carbonaceous gases emission from forest fire is of importance in understanding the significance of forest fire in the carbon balance and climate change. This paper reviewed the research progress in the measurement model of carbon emission from forest fire, which covered three critical issues, i. e., measurement methods of forest fire-induced total carbon emission and carbonaceous gases emission, affecting factors and measurement parameters of measurement model, and cause analysis of the uncertainty in the measurement of the carbon emissions. Three path selections to improve the quantitative measurement of the carbon emissions were proposed, i. e., using high resolution remote sensing data and improving algorithm and estimation accuracy of burned area in combining with effective fuel measurement model to improve the accuracy of the estimated fuel load, using high resolution remote sensing images combined with indoor controlled environment experiments, field measurements, and field ground surveys to determine the combustion efficiency, and combining indoor controlled environment experiments with field air sampling to determine the emission factors and emission ratio.

  9. Advanced analysis of forest fire clustering

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kanevski, Mikhail; Pereira, Mario; Golay, Jean

    2017-04-01

    Analysis of point pattern clustering is an important topic in spatial statistics and for many applications: biodiversity, epidemiology, natural hazards, geomarketing, etc. There are several fundamental approaches used to quantify spatial data clustering using topological, statistical and fractal measures. In the present research, the recently introduced multi-point Morisita index (mMI) is applied to study the spatial clustering of forest fires in Portugal. The data set consists of more than 30000 fire events covering the time period from 1975 to 2013. The distribution of forest fires is very complex and highly variable in space. mMI is a multi-point extension of the classical two-point Morisita index. In essence, mMI is estimated by covering the region under study by a grid and by computing how many times more likely it is that m points selected at random will be from the same grid cell than it would be in the case of a complete random Poisson process. By changing the number of grid cells (size of the grid cells), mMI characterizes the scaling properties of spatial clustering. From mMI, the data intrinsic dimension (fractal dimension) of the point distribution can be estimated as well. In this study, the mMI of forest fires is compared with the mMI of random patterns (RPs) generated within the validity domain defined as the forest area of Portugal. It turns out that the forest fires are highly clustered inside the validity domain in comparison with the RPs. Moreover, they demonstrate different scaling properties at different spatial scales. The results obtained from the mMI analysis are also compared with those of fractal measures of clustering - box counting and sand box counting approaches. REFERENCES Golay J., Kanevski M., Vega Orozco C., Leuenberger M., 2014: The multipoint Morisita index for the analysis of spatial patterns. Physica A, 406, 191-202. Golay J., Kanevski M. 2015: A new estimator of intrinsic dimension based on the multipoint Morisita index

  10. Contrasting spatial patterns in active-fire and fire-suppressed Mediterranean climate old-growth mixed conifer forests

    Treesearch

    Danny L. Fry; Scott L. Stephens; Brandon M. Collins; Malcolm North; Ernesto Franco-Vizcaino; Samantha J. Gill

    2014-01-01

    In Mediterranean environments in western North America, historic fire regimes in frequent-fire conifer forests are highly variable both temporally and spatially. This complexity influenced forest structure and spatial patterns, but some of this diversity has been lost due to anthropogenic disruption of ecosystem processes, including fire. Information from reference...

  11. Dynamic analysis and pattern visualization of forest fires.

    PubMed

    Lopes, António M; Tenreiro Machado, J A

    2014-01-01

    This paper analyses forest fires in the perspective of dynamical systems. Forest fires exhibit complex correlations in size, space and time, revealing features often present in complex systems, such as the absence of a characteristic length-scale, or the emergence of long range correlations and persistent memory. This study addresses a public domain forest fires catalogue, containing information of events for Portugal, during the period from 1980 up to 2012. The data is analysed in an annual basis, modelling the occurrences as sequences of Dirac impulses with amplitude proportional to the burnt area. First, we consider mutual information to correlate annual patterns. We use visualization trees, generated by hierarchical clustering algorithms, in order to compare and to extract relationships among the data. Second, we adopt the Multidimensional Scaling (MDS) visualization tool. MDS generates maps where each object corresponds to a point. Objects that are perceived to be similar to each other are placed on the map forming clusters. The results are analysed in order to extract relationships among the data and to identify forest fire patterns.

  12. Dynamic Analysis and Pattern Visualization of Forest Fires

    PubMed Central

    Lopes, António M.; Tenreiro Machado, J. A.

    2014-01-01

    This paper analyses forest fires in the perspective of dynamical systems. Forest fires exhibit complex correlations in size, space and time, revealing features often present in complex systems, such as the absence of a characteristic length-scale, or the emergence of long range correlations and persistent memory. This study addresses a public domain forest fires catalogue, containing information of events for Portugal, during the period from 1980 up to 2012. The data is analysed in an annual basis, modelling the occurrences as sequences of Dirac impulses with amplitude proportional to the burnt area. First, we consider mutual information to correlate annual patterns. We use visualization trees, generated by hierarchical clustering algorithms, in order to compare and to extract relationships among the data. Second, we adopt the Multidimensional Scaling (MDS) visualization tool. MDS generates maps where each object corresponds to a point. Objects that are perceived to be similar to each other are placed on the map forming clusters. The results are analysed in order to extract relationships among the data and to identify forest fire patterns. PMID:25137393

  13. Thirty-Two Years of Forest Service Research at the Southern Forest Fire Laboratory in Macon, GA

    Treesearch

    USDA Forest Service

    1991-01-01

    When completed in 1959, the Southern Forest Fire Laboratory was the world?s first devoted entirely to the study of forest fires, Since then the scientists at the Laboratory have: 1) performed basic and applied research on critical fire problems of national interest, 2) conducted special regional research on fire problems peculiar to the 13 Southern States, and 3)...

  14. PCDD/F EMISSIONS FROM FOREST FIRES

    EPA Science Inventory

    Polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxin and polychlorinated dibenzofuran (PCDD/F) emissions from combustion of forest biomass were sampled to obtain an estimated emission factor for forest fires. An equal composition of live shoot and litter biomass from Oregon and North Carolina was bu...

  15. Severity of an uncharacteristically large wildfire, the Rim Fire, in forests with relatively restored frequent fire regimes

    Treesearch

    Jamie Lydersen; Malcolm North; Brandon M. Collins

    2014-01-01

    The 2013 Rim Fire, originating on Forest Service land, burned into old-growth forests within Yosemite National Park with relatively restored frequent-fire regimes (¡Ý2 predominantly low and moderate severity burns within the last 35 years). Forest structure and fuels data were collected in the field 3-4 years before the fire, providing a rare chance to use pre-existing...

  16. Longleaf pine forests and woodlands: old growth under fire!

    Treesearch

    Joan L. Walker

    1999-01-01

    The author discusses a once widespread forest type of the Southeast – longleaf pine dominated forests and woodlands. This system depends on fire – more or less frequent, and often of low intensity. Because human-mediated landscape fragmentation has drastically changed the behavior of fire on longleaf pine dominated landscapes, these forests and woodlands will never be...

  17. A new forest fire paradigm: The need for high-severity fires

    Treesearch

    Monica L. Bond; Rodney B. Siegel; Richard L. Hutto; Victoria A. Saab; Stephen A. Shunk

    2012-01-01

    Bond, Monica L.; Siegel, Rodney B.; Hutto, Richard L.; Saab, Victoria A.; Shunk, Stephen A. 2012. A new forest fire paradigm: The need for high-severity fires. The Wildlife Professional. Winter 2012: 46-49. During the 2012 fire season from June through August, wildfires in the drought-stricken western and central United States burned more than 3.6 million acres of...

  18. Avian community responses to post-fire forest structure: Implications for fire management in mixed conifer forests

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    White, Angela M.; Manley, Patricia N.; Tarbill, Gina; Richardson, T.L.; Russell, Robin E.; Safford, Hugh D.; Dobrowski, Solomon Z.

    2015-01-01

    Fire is a natural process and the dominant disturbance shaping plant and animal communities in many coniferous forests of the western US. Given that fire size and severity are predicted to increase in the future, it has become increasingly important to understand how wildlife responds to fire and post-fire management. The Angora Fire burned 1243 hectares of mixed conifer forest in South Lake Tahoe, California. We conducted avian point counts for the first 3 years following the fire in burned and unburned areas to investigate which habitat characteristics are most important for re-establishing or maintaining the native avian community in post-fire landscapes. We used a multi-species occurrence model to estimate how avian species are influenced by the density of live and dead trees and shrub cover. While accounting for variations in the detectability of species, our approach estimated the occurrence probabilities of all species detected including those that were rare or observed infrequently. Although all species encountered in this study were detected in burned areas, species-specific modeling results predicted that some species were strongly associated with specific post-fire conditions, such as a high density of dead trees, open-canopy conditions or high levels of shrub cover that occur at particular burn severities or at a particular time following fire. These results indicate that prescribed fire or managed wildfire which burns at low to moderate severity without at least some high-severity effects is both unlikely to result in the species assemblages that are unique to post-fire areas or to provide habitat for burn specialists. Additionally, the probability of occurrence for many species was associated with high levels of standing dead trees indicating that intensive post-fire harvest of these structures could negatively impact habitat of a considerable proportion of the avian community.

  19. Who starts forest fires in Maine - and how?

    Treesearch

    Wayne G. Banks; Fred E. Holt

    1966-01-01

    In 1964 the Maine Forest Service, in cooperation with the Northeastern Forest Experiment Station, conducted intensive investigations of a systematically selected sample of the fires that occurred in the State that year. The immediate purpose was to determine precisely how the fires started and who or what started them, and to assemble relevant information about the...

  20. Fire spread estimation on forest wildfire using ensemble kalman filter

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Syarifah, Wardatus; Apriliani, Erna

    2018-04-01

    Wildfire is one of the most frequent disasters in the world, for example forest wildfire, causing population of forest decrease. Forest wildfire, whether naturally occurring or prescribed, are potential risks for ecosystems and human settlements. These risks can be managed by monitoring the weather, prescribing fires to limit available fuel, and creating firebreaks. With computer simulations we can predict and explore how fires may spread. The model of fire spread on forest wildfire was established to determine the fire properties. The fire spread model is prepared based on the equation of the diffusion reaction model. There are many methods to estimate the spread of fire. The Kalman Filter Ensemble Method is a modified estimation method of the Kalman Filter algorithm that can be used to estimate linear and non-linear system models. In this research will apply Ensemble Kalman Filter (EnKF) method to estimate the spread of fire on forest wildfire. Before applying the EnKF method, the fire spread model will be discreted using finite difference method. At the end, the analysis obtained illustrated by numerical simulation using software. The simulation results show that the Ensemble Kalman Filter method is closer to the system model when the ensemble value is greater, while the covariance value of the system model and the smaller the measurement.

  1. Using Airborne LIDAR Data for Assessment of Forest Fire Fuel Load Potential

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    İnan, M.; Bilici, E.; Akay, A. E.

    2017-11-01

    Forest fire incidences are one of the most detrimental disasters that may cause long terms effects on forest ecosystems in many parts of the world. In order to minimize environmental damages of fires on forest ecosystems, the forested areas with high fire risk should be determined so that necessary precaution measurements can be implemented in those areas. Assessment of forest fire fuel load can be used to estimate forest fire risk. In order to estimate fuel load capacity, forestry parameters such as number of trees, tree height, tree diameter, crown diameter, and tree volume should be accurately measured. In recent years, with the advancements in remote sensing technology, it is possible to use airborne LIDAR for data estimation of forestry parameters. In this study, the capabilities of using LIDAR based point cloud data for assessment of the forest fuel load potential was investigated. The research area was chosen in the Istanbul Bentler series of Bahceköy Forest Enterprise Directorate that composed of mixed deciduous forest structure.

  2. Different fire-climate relationships on forested and non-forested landscapes in the Sierra Nevada ecoregion

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Keeley, Jon E.; Syphard, Alexandra D.

    2015-01-01

    In the California Sierra Nevada region, increased fire activity over the last 50 years has only occurred in the higher-elevation forests on US Forest Service (USFS) lands, and is not characteristic of the lower-elevation grasslands, woodlands and shrublands on state responsibility lands (Cal Fire). Increased fire activity on USFS lands was correlated with warmer and drier springs. Although this is consistent with recent global warming, we found an equally strong relationship between fire activity and climate in the first half of the 20th century. At lower elevations, warmer and drier conditions were not strongly tied to fire activity over the last 90 years, although prior-year precipitation was significant. It is hypothesised that the fire–climate relationship in forests is determined by climatic effects on spring and summer fuel moisture, with hotter and drier springs leading to a longer fire season and more extensive burning. In contrast, future fire activity in the foothills may be more dependent on rainfall patterns and their effect on the herbaceous fuel load. We predict spring and summer warming will have a significant impact on future fire regimes, primarily in higher-elevation forests. Lower elevation ecosystems are likely to be affected as much by global changes that directly involve land-use patterns as by climate change.

  3. Fire ecology of the forest habitat types of eastern Idaho and western Wyoming

    Treesearch

    Anne F. Bradley; William C. Fischer; Nonan V. Noste

    1992-01-01

    Provides information on fire as an ecological factor in the forest habitat types occurring in eastern Idaho and western Wyoming. Identifies Fire Groups based on fire's role in forest succession. Describes forest fuels and suggests considerations for fire management.

  4. Some environmental effects of forest fires in interior Alaska

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Eaton, Frank; Wendler, Gerd

    The high variability of burning conditions and fuels, found in Alaskan forest fires, produces an associated complex emission of particulate matter. Histological evidence of some large particles has been found in the forest fire plumes as well as aerosols resulting apparently from gas-to-particle conversion. Particles analyzed with a scanning electron microscope and X-ray energy dispersive techniques show large variability in both physical and chemical characteristics. Optical measurements show forest fire smoke affects atmospheric turbidity regionally. Turbidity values presented which were measured in the plume from a forest fire 400 km from Fairbanks show values in excess of those found for heavily polluted urban regions. The particulate matter analysis showing irregular shapes and highly varied chemical composition displays the difficulty in radiative transfer calculations due to the assumptions of Mie theory. The nature of the aerosol size concentrations (non-Junge power law distributions) found in forest fire plumes also violates the assumption necessary for application of Angstrom's classic method of defining the turbidity coefficient and wavelength exponent. Consequences of such particulate matter may affect the temperature structure of the atmosphere, radiation balance as well as visibility. In addition, the burnt over forest regions display a reduction of surface albedo and roughness parameter which will have prolonged influence on the heat exchange at the earth's surface.

  5. Fire Effects on Microbial Enzyme Activities in Larch Forests of the Siberian Arctic

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ludwig, S.; Alexander, H. D.; Bulygina, E. B.; Mann, P. J.; Natali, S.

    2012-12-01

    Arctic forest ecosystems are warming at an accelerated rate relative to lower latitudes, with global implications for C cycling within these regions. As climate continues to warm and dry, wildfire frequency and severity are predicted to increase, creating a positive feedback to climate warming. Increased fire activity will also influence the microenvironment experienced by soil microbes in disturbed soils. Because soil microbes regulate carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) cycling between terrestrial ecosystems and the atmosphere, it is important to understand microbial response to fires, particularly in the understudied larch forests in the Siberian Arctic. In this project, we created experimental burn plots in a mature larch forest in the Kolyma River watershed of Northeastern Siberia. Plots were burned at several treatments: control (no burn), low, moderate, and severe. After, 1 and 8 d post-fire, we measured soil organic layer depth, soil organic matter (SOM) content, soil moisture, and CO2 flux from the plots. Additionally, we leached soils and measured dissolved organic carbon (DOC), total dissolved nitrogen (TDN), NH4, NO3, soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP), and chromophoric dissolved organic matter (CDOM). Furthermore, we measured extracellular activity of four enzymes involved in soil C and nutrient cycling (leucine aminopeptidase (LAP), β-glucosidase, phosphatase, and phenol oxidase). One day post-fire, LAP activity was similarly low in all treatments, but by 8 d post-fire, LAP activity was lower in burned plots compared to control plots, likely due to increased nitrogen content with increasing burn severity. Phosphatase activity decreased with burn severity 1 d post-fire, but after 8 d, moderate and severe burn plots exhibited increased phosphatase activity. Coupled with trends in LAP activity, this suggests a switch in nutrient limitation from N to phosphorus that is more pronounced with burn severity. β-glucosidase activity similarly decreased with burn

  6. Climatic stress increases forest fire severity across the western United States

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    van Mantgem, Philip J.; Nesmith, Jonathan C. B.; Keifer, MaryBeth; Knapp, Eric E.; Flint, Alan; Flint, Lorraine

    2013-01-01

    Pervasive warming can lead to chronic stress on forest trees, which may contribute to mortality resulting from fire-caused injuries. Longitudinal analyses of forest plots from across the western US show that high pre-fire climatic water deficit was related to increased post-fire tree mortality probabilities. This relationship between climate and fire was present after accounting for fire defences and injuries, and appeared to influence the effects of crown and stem injuries. Climate and fire interactions did not vary substantially across geographical regions, major genera and tree sizes. Our findings support recent physiological evidence showing that both drought and heating from fire can impair xylem conductivity. Warming trends have been linked to increasing probabilities of severe fire weather and fire spread; our results suggest that warming may also increase forest fire severity (the number of trees killed) independent of fire intensity (the amount of heat released during a fire).

  7. Simulating the effect of ignition source type on forest fire statistics

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Krenn, Roland; Hergarten, Stefan

    2010-05-01

    Forest fires belong to the most frightening natural hazards, and have long-term ecological and economic effects on the regions involved. It was found that their frequency-area distributions show power-law behaviour under a wide variety of conditions, interpreting them as a self-organised critical phenomenon. Using computer simulations, self-organised critical behaviour manifests in simple cellular automaton models. With respect to ignition source, forest fires can be categorised as lightning-induced or as a result of human activity. Lightning fires are considered to be natural, whereas ``man made'' fires are frequently caused by some sort of technological disaster, such as sparks from wheels of trains, the rupture of overhead electrical lines, the misuse of electrical or mechanical devices and so on. Taking into account that such events rarely occur deep in the woods, man made fires should start preferably on the edge of a forest or where the forest is not very dense. We present a modification in the self-organised critical Drossel-Schwabl forest fire model that takes these two different triggering mechanisms into account and increases the scaling exponent of the frequency-area distribution by ca. 1/3. Combined simulations further predict a dependence of the overall event-size distribution on the ratio of lightning-induced and man made fires as well as a splitting of their partial distributions. Lightning is identified as the dominant mechanism in the regime of the largest fires. The results are confirmed by the analysis of the Canadian Large Fire Database and suggest that lightning-induced and man made forest fires cannot be treated separately in wildfire modelling, hazard assessment and forest management.

  8. Edge fires drive the shape and stability of tropical forests.

    PubMed

    Hébert-Dufresne, Laurent; Pellegrini, Adam F A; Bhat, Uttam; Redner, Sidney; Pacala, Stephen W; Berdahl, Andrew M

    2018-06-01

    In tropical regions, fires propagate readily in grasslands but typically consume only edges of forest patches. Thus, forest patches grow due to tree propagation and shrink by fires in surrounding grasslands. The interplay between these competing edge effects is unknown, but critical in determining the shape and stability of individual forest patches, as well the landscape-level spatial distribution and stability of forests. We analyze high-resolution remote-sensing data from protected Brazilian Cerrado areas and find that forest shapes obey a robust perimeter-area scaling relation across climatic zones. We explain this scaling by introducing a heterogeneous fire propagation model of tropical forest-grassland ecotones. Deviations from this perimeter-area relation determine the stability of individual forest patches. At a larger scale, our model predicts that the relative rates of tree growth due to propagative expansion and long-distance seed dispersal determine whether collapse of regional-scale tree cover is continuous or discontinuous as fire frequency changes. © 2018 The Authors. Ecology Letters published by CNRS and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  9. A guide for salvaging white pine injured by forest fires

    Treesearch

    Thomas W. McConkey; Donald R. Gedney

    1951-01-01

    White pine forests are severely damaged by forest fires. Generally a fire kills all trees less than 20 feet high immediately. Larger trees may die later, depending on the degree of injury. Salvage operations must be started soon after a fire, because insects and fungi quickly attack trees that are killed.

  10. Spatially explicit measurements of forest structure and fire behavior following restoration treatments in dry forests

    Treesearch

    Justin Paul Ziegler; Chad Hoffman; Michael Battaglia; William Mell

    2017-01-01

    Restoration treatments in dry forests of the western US often attempt silvicultural practices to restore the historical characteristics of forest structure and fire behavior. However, it is suggested that a reliance on non-spatial metrics of forest stand structure, along with the use of wildland fire behavior models that lack the ability to handle complex structures,...

  11. A Forest Fire Sensor Web Concept with UAVSAR

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lou, Y.; Chien, S.; Clark, D.; Doubleday, J.; Muellerschoen, R.; Zheng, Y.

    2008-12-01

    We developed a forest fire sensor web concept with a UAVSAR-based smart sensor and onboard automated response capability that will allow us to monitor fire progression based on coarse initial information provided by an external source. This autonomous disturbance detection and monitoring system combines the unique capabilities of imaging radar with high throughput onboard processing technology and onboard automated response capability based on specific science algorithms. In this forest fire sensor web scenario, a fire is initially located by MODIS/RapidFire or a ground-based fire observer. This information is transmitted to the UAVSAR onboard automated response system (CASPER). CASPER generates a flight plan to cover the alerted fire area and executes the flight plan. The onboard processor generates the fuel load map from raw radar data, used with wind and elevation information, predicts the likely fire progression. CASPER then autonomously alters the flight plan to track the fire progression, providing this information to the fire fighting team on the ground. We can also relay the precise fire location to other remote sensing assets with autonomous response capability such as Earth Observation-1 (EO-1)'s hyper-spectral imager to acquire the fire data.

  12. Fire Impact on Phytomass and Carbon Emissions in the Forests of Siberia

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ivanova, Galina A.; Zhila, Sergei V.; Ivanov, Valery A.; Kovaleva, Nataly M.; Kukavskaya, Elena A.; Platonova, Irina A.; Conard, Susan G.

    2014-05-01

    Siberian boreal forests contribute considerably to the global carbon budget, since they take up vast areas, accumulate large amount of carbon, and are sensitive to climatic changes. Fire is the main forest disturbance factor, covering up to millions of hectares of boreal forests annually, of which the majority is in Siberia. Carbon emissions released from phytomass burning influence atmospheric chemistry and global carbon cycling. Changing climate and land use influence the number and intensity of wildfires, forest state, and productivity, as well as global carbon balance. Fire effects on forest overstory, subcanopy woody layer, and ground vegetation phytomass were estimated on sites in light-conifer forests of the Central Siberia as a part of the project "The Influence of Changing Forestry Practices on the Effects of Wildfire and on Interactions Between Fire and Changing Climate in Central Siberia" supported by NASA (NEESPI). This study focuses on collecting quantitative data and modeling the influence of fires of varying intensity on fire emissions, carbon budget, and ecosystem processes in coniferous stands. Fires have a profound impact on forest-atmospheric carbon exchange and transform forests from carbon sinks to carbon sources lasting long after the time of burning. Our long-term experiments allowed us to identify vegetation succession patterns in taiga Scots pine stands after fires of known behavior. Estimating fire contributions to the carbon budget requires consideration of many factors, including vegetation type and fire type and intensity. Carbon emissions were found to depend on fire intensity and weather. In the first several years after fire, the above-ground phytomass appeared to be strongly controlled by fire intensity. However, the influence of burning intensity on organic matter accumulation was found to decrease with time.

  13. Forest Fire Advanced System Technology (FFAST): A Conceptual Design for Detection and Mapping

    Treesearch

    J. David Nichols; John R. Warren

    1987-01-01

    The Forest Fire Advanced System Technology (FFAST) project is developing a data system to provide near-real-time forest fire information to fire management at the fire Incident Command Post (ICP). The completed conceptual design defined an integrated forest fire detection and mapping system that is based upon technology available in the 1990's. System component...

  14. Boreal Forest Fire Cools Climate

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Randerson, J. T.; Liu, H.; Flanner, M.; Chambers, S. D.; Harden, J. W.; Hess, P. G.; Jin, Y.; Mack, M. C.; Pfister, G.; Schuur, E. A.; Treseder, K. K.; Welp, L. R.; Zender, C. S.

    2005-12-01

    We report measurements, modeling, and analysis of carbon and energy fluxes from a boreal forest fire that occurred in interior Alaska during 1999. In the first year after the fire, ozone production, atmospheric aerosol loading, greenhouse gas emissions, soot deposition, and decreases in summer albedo contributed to a positive annual radiative forcing (RF). These effects were partly offset by an increase in fall, winter, and spring albedo from reduced canopy cover and increased exposure of snow-covered surfaces. The atmospheric lifetime of aerosols and ozone and are relatively short (days to months). The radiative effects of soot on snow are also attenuated rapidly from the deposition of fresh snow. As a result, a year after the fire, only two classes of RF mechanisms remained: greenhouse gas emissions and post-fire changes in surface albedo. Summer albedo increased rapidly in subsequent years and was substantially higher than unburned control areas (by more than 0.03) after 4 years as a result of grass and shrub establishment. Satellite measurements from MODIS of other interior Alaska burn scars provided evidence that elevated levels of spring and summer albedo (relative to unburned control areas) persisted for at least 4 decades after fire. In parallel, our chamber, eddy covariance, and biomass measurements indicated that the post-fire ecosystems switch from a source to a sink within the first decade. Taken together, the extended period of increased spring and summer albedo and carbon uptake of intermediate-aged stands appears to more than offset the initial warming pulse caused by fire emissions, when compared using the RF concept. This result suggests that management of forests in northern countries to suppress fire and preserve carbon sinks may have the opposite effect on climate as that intended.

  15. Simulating the Effects of Fire on Forests in the Russian Far East: Integrating a Fire Danger Model and the FAREAST Forest Growth Model Across a Complex Landscape

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sherman, N. J.; Loboda, T.; Sun, G.; Shugart, H. H.; Csiszar, I.

    2008-12-01

    The remaining natural habitat of the critically endangered Amur tiger (Panthera tigris altaica) and Amur leopard (Panthera pardus orientalis) is a vast, biologically and topographically diverse area in the Russian Far East (RFE). Although wildland fire is a natural component of ecosystem functioning in the RFE, severe or repeated fires frequently re-set the process of forest succession, which may take centuries to return the affected forests to the pre-fire state and thus significantly alters habitat quality and long-term availability. The frequency of severe fire events has increased over the last 25 years, leading to irreversible modifications of some parts of the species' habitats. Moreover, fire regimes are expected to continue to change toward more frequent and severe events under the influence of climate change. Here we present an approach to developing capabilities for a comprehensive assessment of potential Amur tiger and leopard habitat availability throughout the 21st century by integrating regionally parameterized fire danger and forest growth models. The FAREAST model is an individual, gap-based model that simulates forest growth in a single location and demonstrates temporally explicit forest succession leading to mature forests. Including spatially explicit information on probabilities of fire occurrence at 1 km resolution developed from the regionally specific remotely -sensed data-driven fire danger model improves our ability to provide realistic long-term projections of potential forest composition in the RFE. This work presents the first attempt to merge the FAREAST model with a fire disturbance model, to validate its outputs across a large region, and to compare it to remotely-sensed data products as well as in situ assessments of forest structure. We ran the FAREAST model at 1,000 randomly selected points within forested areas in the RFE. At each point, the model was calibrated for temperature, precipitation, slope, elevation, and fire

  16. Reducing social losses from forest fires

    Treesearch

    Gregory S. Amacher; Arun S. Malik; Robert G. Haight

    2006-01-01

    We evaluate two financial incentives to encourage nonindustrial forest landowners to undertake activities that mitigate fire losses: sharing of fire suppression costs by the landowner and sharing of fuel reduction costs by the government. First and second best outcomes are identified and compared to assess the effectiveness of these incentives in reducing social...

  17. Arizona Forest Fire

    NASA Image and Video Library

    2001-10-22

    These ASTER images cover an area of 11 x 14 km on the north rim of the Grand Canyon, Arizona, and were acquired May 12, 2000. The left image displays bands 3,2,1 in RGB, displaying vegetation as red. The large dark area is burned forest, and small smoke plumes can be seen at the edges where active fires are burning. The right display substitutes SWIR band 8 for band 3. The bright red spots are the active fires, visible because the SWIR wavelength region has the capability to penetrate through the smoke. This image is located at 35.9 degrees north latitude and 113.4 degrees west longitude. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA11092

  18. Identifying the location of fire refuges in wet forest ecosystems.

    PubMed

    Berry, Laurence E; Driscoll, Don A; Stein, John A; Blanchard, Wade; Banks, Sam C; Bradstock, Ross A; Lindenmayer, David B

    2015-12-01

    The increasing frequency of large, high-severity fires threatens the survival of old-growth specialist fauna in fire-prone forests. Within topographically diverse montane forests, areas that experience less severe or fewer fires compared with those prevailing in the landscape may present unique resource opportunities enabling old-growth specialist fauna to survive. Statistical landscape models that identify the extent and distribution of potential fire refuges may assist land managers to incorporate these areas into relevant biodiversity conservation strategies. We used a case study in an Australian wet montane forest to establish how predictive fire simulation models can be interpreted as management tools to identify potential fire refuges. We examined the relationship between the probability of fire refuge occurrence as predicted by an existing fire refuge model and fire severity experienced during a large wildfire. We also examined the extent to which local fire severity was influenced by fire severity in the surrounding landscape. We used a combination of statistical approaches, including generalized linear modeling, variogram analysis, and receiver operating characteristics and area under the curve analysis (ROC AUC). We found that the amount of unburned habitat and the factors influencing the retention and location of fire refuges varied with fire conditions. Under extreme fire conditions, the distribution of fire refuges was limited to only extremely sheltered, fire-resistant regions of the landscape. During extreme fire conditions, fire severity patterns were largely determined by stochastic factors that could not be predicted by the model. When fire conditions were moderate, physical landscape properties appeared to mediate fire severity distribution. Our study demonstrates that land managers can employ predictive landscape fire models to identify the broader climatic and spatial domain within which fire refuges are likely to be present. It is essential

  19. Two keys for appraising forest fire fuels.

    Treesearch

    George R. Fahnestock

    1970-01-01

    This is an attempt to characterize forest fire fuels in a new way. The immediate purpose is to provide means for recognizing and tentatively evaluating, in the field, the fire spread potential and the crowning potential of fuels on the basis of readily observed characteristics without need for prior technical knowledge of vegetation or experience with fire. The medium...

  20. Understanding fire drivers and relative impacts in different Chinese forest ecosystems.

    PubMed

    Guo, Futao; Su, Zhangwen; Wang, Guangyu; Sun, Long; Tigabu, Mulualem; Yang, Xiajie; Hu, Haiqing

    2017-12-15

    In this study, spatial patterns and driving factors of fires were identified from 2000 to 2010 using Ripley's K (d) function and logistic regression (LR) model in two different forest ecosystems of China: the boreal forest (Daxing'an Mountains) and sub-tropical forest (Fujian province). Relative effects of each driving factor on fire occurrence were identified based on standardized coefficients in the LR model. Results revealed that fires were spatially clustered and that fire drivers vary amongst differing forest ecosystems in China. Fires in the Daxing'an Mountains respond primarily to human factors, of which infrastructure is recognized as the most influential. In contrast, climate factors played a critical role in fire occurrence in Fujian, of which the temperature of fire season was found to be of greater importance than other climate factors. Selected factors can predict nearly 80% of the total fire occurrence in the Daxing'an Mountains and 66% in Fujian, wherein human and climate factors contributed the greatest impact in the two study areas, respectively. This study suggests that different fire prevention and management strategies are required in the areas of study, as significant variations of the main fire-driving exist. Rapid socio-economic development has produced similar effects in different forest ecosystems within China, implying a strong correlation between socio-economic development and fire regimes. It can be concluded that the influence of human factors will increase in the future as China's economy continues to grow - an issue of concern that should be further addressed in future national fire management. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  1. Analysis of zone of vulnurability and impact of forest fires in forest ecosystems in north algeria by susing remote sensing

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zegrar, Ahmed

    2010-05-01

    The Forest in steppe present ecological diversity, and seen climatic unfavourable conditions in zone and impact of forest fires; we notes deterioration of physical environment particularly, deterioration of natural forest. This deterioration of forests provokes an unbalance of environment witch provokes a process of deterioration advanced in the ultimate stadium is desertification. By elsewhere, where climatic conditions are favourable, the fire is an ecological and acted agent like integral part of evolution of the ecosystems, the specific regeneration of plants are influenced greatly by the regime of fire (season of fire, intensity, interval), witch leads to the recuperation of the vegetation of meadow- fire. In this survey we used the pictures ALSAT-1 for detection of zones with risk of forest fire and their impact on the naturals forests in region named TLEMCEN in the north west of Algeria. A thematic detailed analysis of forests well attended ecosystems some processing on the picture ALSAT-1, we allowed to identify and classifying the forests in there opinion components flowers. We identified ampleness of fire on this zone also. Some parameters as the slope, the proximity to the road and the forests formations were studied in the goal of determining the zones to risk of forest fire. A crossing of diaper of information in a GIS according to a very determined logic allowed classifying the zones in degree of risk of fire in semi arid zone witch forest zone not encouraging the regeneration but permitting the installation of cash of steppe which encourages the desertification.

  2. Climatic stress increases forest fire severity across the western United States

    Treesearch

    Phillip J. van Mantgem; Jonathan C.B. Nesmith; MaryBeth Keifer; Eric E. Knapp; Alan Flint; Lorriane Flint

    2013-01-01

    Pervasive warming can lead to chronic stress on forest trees, which may contribute to mortality resulting from fire-caused injuries. Longitudinal analyses of forest plots from across the western US show that high pre-fire climatic water deficit was related to increased post-fire tree mortality probabilities. This relationship between climate and fire was present after...

  3. Modeling of multi-strata forest fire severity using Landsat TM data

    Treesearch

    Q. Meng; R.K. Meentemeyer

    2011-01-01

    Most of fire severity studies use field measures of composite burn index (CBI) to represent forest fire severity and fit the relationships between CBI and Landsat imagery derived differenced normalized burn ratio (dNBR) to predict and map fire severity at unsampled locations. However, less attention has been paid on the multi-strata forest fire severity, which...

  4. Roost selection by male Indiana Myotis following forest fires in central Appalachian hardwoods forests

    Treesearch

    Joshua B. Johnson; W. Mark Ford; Jane L. Rodrigue; John W. Edwards; Catherine Johnson

    2010-01-01

    Despite the potential for prescribed fire and natural wildfire to increase snag abundance in hardwood forests, few studies have investigated effects of fire on bat roosting habitat, particularly that of the endangered Indiana myotis Myotis sodalis. From 2001 to 2009, we examined roost selection of Indiana myotis in burned and unburned forests in...

  5. A stochastic Forest Fire Model for future land cover scenarios assessment

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    D'Andrea, M.; Fiorucci, P.; Holmes, T. P.

    2010-10-01

    Land cover is affected by many factors including economic development, climate and natural disturbances such as wildfires. The ability to evaluate how fire regimes may alter future vegetation, and how future vegetation may alter fire regimes, would assist forest managers in planning management actions to be carried out in the face of anticipated socio-economic and climatic change. In this paper, we present a method for calibrating a cellular automata wildfire regime simulation model with actual data on land cover and wildfire size-frequency. The method is based on the observation that many forest fire regimes, in different forest types and regions, exhibit power law frequency-area distributions. The standard Drossel-Schwabl cellular automata Forest Fire Model (DS-FFM) produces simulations which reproduce this observed pattern. However, the standard model is simplistic in that it considers land cover to be binary - each cell either contains a tree or it is empty - and the model overestimates the frequency of large fires relative to actual landscapes. Our new model, the Modified Forest Fire Model (MFFM), addresses this limitation by incorporating information on actual land use and differentiating among various types of flammable vegetation. The MFFM simulation model was tested on forest types with Mediterranean and sub-tropical fire regimes. The results showed that the MFFM was able to reproduce structural fire regime parameters for these two regions. Further, the model was used to forecast future land cover. Future research will extend this model to refine the forecasts of future land cover and fire regime scenarios under climate, land use and socio-economic change.

  6. Effects of fire and post-fire salvage logging on avian communities in conifer-dominated forests of the western United States

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Kotliar, N.B.; Hejl, S.J.; Hutto, R.L.; Saab, V.; Melcher, Cynthia; McFadzen, M.E.; George, T.L.; Dobkin, D.S.

    2002-01-01

    Historically, fire was one of the most widespread natural disturbances in the western United States. More recently, however, significant anthropogenic activities, especially fire suppression and silvicultural practices, have altered fire regimes; as a result, landscapes and associated communities have changed as well. Herein, we review current knowledge of how fire and postfire salvaging practices affect avian communities in conifer-dominated forests of the western United States. Specifically, we contrast avian communities in (1) burned vs. unburned forest, and (2) unsalvaged vs. salvage-logged burns. We also examine how variation in burn characteristics (e.g., severity, age, size) and salvage logging can alter avian communities in burns.Of the 41 avian species observed in three or more studies comparing early postfire and adjacent unburned forests, 22% are consistently more abundant in burned forests, 34% are usually more abundant in unburned forests, and 44% are equally abundant in burned and unburned forests or have varied responses. In general, woodpeckers and aerial foragers are more abundant in burned forest, whereas most foliage-gleaning species are more abundant in unburned forests. Bird species that are frequently observed in stand-replacement burns are less common in understory burns; similarly, species commonly observed in unburned forests often decrease in abundance with increasing burn severity. Granivores and species common in open-canopy forests exhibit less consistency among studies. For all species, responses to tire may be influenced by a number of factors including burn severity, fire size and shape, proximity to unburned forests, pre-and post-fire cover types, and time since fire. In addition, postfire management can alter species’ responses to burns. Most cavity-nesting species do not use severely salvaged burns, whereas some cavity-nesters persist in partially salvaged burns. Early post fire specialists, in particular, appear to prefer

  7. Oak woodlands and forests fire consortium: A regional view of fire science sharing

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Grabner, Keith W.; Stambaugh, Michael C.; Marschall, Joseph M.; Abadir, Erin R.

    2013-01-01

    The Joint Fire Science Program established 14 regional fire science knowledge exchange consortia to improve the delivery of fire science information and communication among fire managers and researchers. Consortia were developed regionally to ensure that fire science information is tailored to meet regional needs. In this paper, emphasis was placed on the Oak Woodlands and Forests Fire Consortium to provide an inside view of how one regional consortium is organized and its experiences in sharing fire science through various social media, conference, and workshop-based fire science events.

  8. Strategy for increasing the participation of masyarakat peduli api in forest fire control

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ni’mah, N. L. K.; Herdiansyah, H.; Soesilo, T. E. B.; Mutia, E. F.

    2018-03-01

    Forest fires have negative impact on ecology, health, and damage economic activities. One of conservation areas facing the threat of forest fire is Gunung Ciremai National Park. This research aims to formulate a strategy to increase the participation of Masyarakat Peduli Api in the effort of forest fire control. This research use quantitative method with SWOT analysis. Expert consisting of representatives from the national park, Ministry of Environment and Forestry, and BPBD Kuningan Regency. An alternative strategy based on SWOT analysis is in quadrant 1 with coordinate point (0,39; 1,23). The position shows that sustainability of national park management through forest fire control can be done with an aggressive strategy. That is maximizing the strength that is owned with its potential as an ecotourism area to increase community motivation to engage in forest fire control activities. Provision of tourism management licenses will create employment opportunities and increase income for the community so it is expected to increase community participation to prevent the occurrence of forest fires rather than forest fire prevention.

  9. Surface forcing of non-stand-replacing fires in Siberian larch forests

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chen, Dong; Loboda, Tatiana V.

    2018-04-01

    Wildfires are the dominant disturbance agent in the Siberian larch forests. Extensive low- to mediate-intensity non-stand-replacing fires are a notable property of fire regime in these forests. Recent large scale studies of these fires have focused mostly on their impacts on carbon budget; however, their potential impacts on energy budget through post-fire albedo changes have not been considered. This study quantifies the post-fire surface forcing for Siberian larch forests that experienced non-stand-replacing fires between 2001 and 2012 using the full record of MODIS MCD43A3 albedo product and a burned area product developed specifically for the Russian forests. Despite a large variability, the mean effect of non-stand-replacing fires imposed through albedo is a negative forcing which lasts for at least 14 years. However, the magnitude of the forcing is much smaller than that imposed by stand-replacing fires, highlighting the importance of differentiating between the two fire types in the studies involving the fire impacts in the region. The results of this study also show that MODIS-based summer differenced normalized burn ratio (dNBR) provides a reliable metric for differentiating non-stand-replacing from stand-replacing fires with an overall accuracy of 88%, which is of considerable importance for future work on modeling post-fire energy budget and carbon budget in the region.

  10. Forest Fire Occurrence in Southern Counties, 1966-1975

    Treesearch

    M.L. Doolittle

    1977-01-01

    Forest fire occurrence data for individual protection units generally are unavailable outside particular state organization. Number of fires, area protected and fire occurrence rate (fires per 1,000,000 acres) from 1966 to 1975, are presented in tables for the 993 counties under protection in 13 southern states. These data are compared with data for the preceeding...

  11. Climatic stress increases forest fire severity across the western United States.

    PubMed

    van Mantgem, Phillip J; Nesmith, Jonathan C B; Keifer, MaryBeth; Knapp, Eric E; Flint, Alan; Flint, Lorriane

    2013-09-01

    Pervasive warming can lead to chronic stress on forest trees, which may contribute to mortality resulting from fire-caused injuries. Longitudinal analyses of forest plots from across the western US show that high pre-fire climatic water deficit was related to increased post-fire tree mortality probabilities. This relationship between climate and fire was present after accounting for fire defences and injuries, and appeared to influence the effects of crown and stem injuries. Climate and fire interactions did not vary substantially across geographical regions, major genera and tree sizes. Our findings support recent physiological evidence showing that both drought and heating from fire can impair xylem conductivity. Warming trends have been linked to increasing probabilities of severe fire weather and fire spread; our results suggest that warming may also increase forest fire severity (the number of trees killed) independent of fire intensity (the amount of heat released during a fire). Published 2013. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.

  12. Natural and social factors influencing forest fire occurrence at a local spatial scale

    Treesearch

    Maria Luisa Chas-Amil; Julia M. Touza; Jeffrey P. Prestemon; Colin J. McClean

    2012-01-01

    Development of efficient forest fire policies requires an understanding of the underlying reasons behind forest fire ignitions. Globally, there is a close relationship between forest fires and human activities, i.e., fires understood as human events due to negligence (e.g., agricultural burning escapes), and deliberate actions (e.g., pyromania, revenge, land use change...

  13. Forest fire effects on mercury deposition in the boreal forest

    Treesearch

    Emma L. Witt; Randall K. Kolka; Edward A. Nater; Trent R. Wickman

    2009-01-01

    The objective of this study was to determine how forest fire effects Hg deposition to nearby landscapes impacted by smoke plumes. Hg concentrations and deposition were hypothesized to increase in throughfall and open precipitation after fire, and canopy type was hypothesized to influence the magnitude of the increase. Conifer canopies, which are better able to scavenge...

  14. Multi-scale controls of historical forest-fire regimes: new insights from fire-scar networks

    Treesearch

    Donald A. Falk; Emily K. Heyerdahl; Peter M. Brown; Calvin Farris; Peter Z. Fule; Donald McKenzie; Thomas W. Swetnam; Alan H. Taylor; Megan L. Van Horne

    2011-01-01

    Anticipating future forest-fire regimes under changing climate requires that scientists and natural resource managers understand the factors that control fire across space and time. Fire scars—proxy records of fires, formed in the growth rings of long-lived trees—provide an annually accurate window into past low-severity fire regimes. In western North America, networks...

  15. Emissions of Selected Semivolatile Organic Chemicals from Forest and Savannah Fires.

    PubMed

    Wang, Xianyu; Thai, Phong K; Mallet, Marc; Desservettaz, Maximilien; Hawker, Darryl W; Keywood, Melita; Miljevic, Branka; Paton-Walsh, Clare; Gallen, Michael; Mueller, Jochen F

    2017-02-07

    The emission factors (EFs) for a broad range of semivolatile organic chemicals (SVOCs) from subtropical eucalypt forest and tropical savannah fires were determined for the first time from in situ investigations. Significantly higher (t test, P < 0.01) EFs (μg kg -1 dry fuel, gas + particle-associated) for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (∑ 13 PAHs) were determined from the subtropical forest fire (7,000 ± 170) compared to the tropical savannah fires (1,600 ± 110), due to the approximately 60-fold higher EFs for 3-ring PAHs from the former. EF data for many PAHs from the eucalypt forest fire were comparable with those previously reported from pine and fir forest combustion events. EFs for other SVOCs including polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB), polychlorinated naphthalene (PCN), and polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) congeners as well as some pesticides (e.g., permethrin) were determined from the subtropical eucalypt forest fire. The highest concentrations of total suspended particles, PAHs, PCBs, PCNs, and PBDEs, were typically observed in the flaming phase of combustion. However, concentrations of levoglucosan and some pesticides such as permethrin peaked during the smoldering phase. Along a transect (10-150-350 m) from the forest fire, concentration decrease for PCBs during flaming was faster compared to PAHs, while levoglucosan concentrations increased.

  16. Automatic forest-fire measuring using ground stations and Unmanned Aerial Systems.

    PubMed

    Martínez-de Dios, José Ramiro; Merino, Luis; Caballero, Fernando; Ollero, Anibal

    2011-01-01

    This paper presents a novel system for automatic forest-fire measurement using cameras distributed at ground stations and mounted on Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS). It can obtain geometrical measurements of forest fires in real-time such as the location and shape of the fire front, flame height and rate of spread, among others. Measurement of forest fires is a challenging problem that is affected by numerous potential sources of error. The proposed system addresses them by exploiting the complementarities between infrared and visual cameras located at different ground locations together with others onboard Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS). The system applies image processing and geo-location techniques to obtain forest-fire measurements individually from each camera and then integrates the results from all the cameras using statistical data fusion techniques. The proposed system has been extensively tested and validated in close-to-operational conditions in field fire experiments with controlled safety conditions carried out in Portugal and Spain from 2001 to 2006.

  17. Automatic Forest-Fire Measuring Using Ground Stations and Unmanned Aerial Systems

    PubMed Central

    Martínez-de Dios, José Ramiro; Merino, Luis; Caballero, Fernando; Ollero, Anibal

    2011-01-01

    This paper presents a novel system for automatic forest-fire measurement using cameras distributed at ground stations and mounted on Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS). It can obtain geometrical measurements of forest fires in real-time such as the location and shape of the fire front, flame height and rate of spread, among others. Measurement of forest fires is a challenging problem that is affected by numerous potential sources of error. The proposed system addresses them by exploiting the complementarities between infrared and visual cameras located at different ground locations together with others onboard Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS). The system applies image processing and geo-location techniques to obtain forest-fire measurements individually from each camera and then integrates the results from all the cameras using statistical data fusion techniques. The proposed system has been extensively tested and validated in close-to-operational conditions in field fire experiments with controlled safety conditions carried out in Portugal and Spain from 2001 to 2006. PMID:22163958

  18. Impacts of fire on forest age and runoff in mountain ash forests

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Wood, S.A.; Beringer, J.; Hutley, L.B.; McGuire, A.D.; Van Dijk, A.; Kilinc, M.

    2008-01-01

    Runoff from mountain ash (Eucalyptus regnans F.Muell.) forested catchments has been shown to decline significantly in the few decades following fire - returning to pre-fire levels in the following centuries - owing to changes in ecosystem water use with stand age in a relationship known as Kuczera's model. We examined this relationship between catchment runoff and stand age by measuring whole-ecosystem exchanges of water using an eddy covariance system measuring forest evapotranspiration (ET) combined with sap-flow measurements of tree water use, with measurements made across a chronosequence of three sites (24, 80 and 296 years since fire). At the 296-year old site eddy covariance systems were installed above the E. regnans overstorey and above the distinct rainforest understorey. Contrary to predictions from the Kuczera curve, we found that measurements of whole-forest ET decreased by far less across stand age between 24 and 296 years. Although the overstorey tree water use declined by 1.8 mm day-1 with increasing forest age (an annual decrease of 657 mm) the understorey ET contributed between 1.2 and 1.5 mm day-1, 45% of the total ET (3 mm day-1) at the old growth forest. ?? CSIRO 2008.

  19. Effectiveness of Prescribed Fire as a Fuel Treatment in Californian Coniferous Forests

    Treesearch

    Nicole M. Vaillant; JoAnn Fites-Kaufman; Scott L. Stephens

    2006-01-01

    Effective fire suppression for the past century has altered forest structure and increased fuel loads. Prescribed fire as a fuels treatment can reduce wildfire size and severity. This study investigates how prescribed fire affects fuel loads, forest structure, potential fire behavior, and modeled tree mortality at 80th, 90th, and 97.5th percentile fire weather...

  20. Satellite Analysis of the Severe 1987 Forest Fires in Northern China and Southeastern Siberia

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Cahoon, Donald R., Jr.; Stocks, Brian J.; Levine, Joel S.; Cofer, Wesley R., III; Pierson, Joseph M.

    1994-01-01

    Meteorological conditions, extremely conducive to fire development and spread in the spring of 1987, resulted in forest fires burning over extremely large areas in the boreal forest zone in northeastern China and the southeastern region of Siberia. The great China fire, one of the largest and most destructive forest fires in recent history, occurred during this period in the Heilongjiang Province of China. Satellite imagery is used to examine the development and areal distribution of 1987 forest fires in this region. Overall trace gas emissions to the atmosphere from these fires are determined using a satellite-derived estimate of area burned in combination with fuel consumption figures and carbon emission ratios for boreal forest fires.

  1. Satellite analysis of the severe 1987 forest fires in northern China and southeastern Siberia

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Cahoon, Donald R, Jr.; Stocks, Brian J.; Levine, Joel S.; Cofer, Wesley R., III; Pierson, Joseph M.

    1994-01-01

    Meteorological conditions, extremely conducive to fire development and spread in the spring of 1987, resulted in forest fires burning over extremely large areas in the boreal forest zone in northeastern China and the southeastern region of Siberia. The great China fire, one of the largest and most destructive forest fires in recent history, occurred during this period in the Heilongjiang Province of China. Satellite imagery is used to examine the development and areal distribution of 1987 forest fires in this region. Overall trace gas emissions to the atmosphere from these fires are determined using a satellite-derived estimate of area burned in combination with fuel consumption figures and carbon emission ratios for boreal forest fires.

  2. The tropical forest and fire emissions experiment: Laboratory fire measurement and synthesis of campaign data

    Treesearch

    R. J. Yokelson; T. J. Christian; T. G. Karl; A. Guenther

    2008-01-01

    As part of the Tropical Forest and Fire Emissions Experiment (TROFFEE), tropical forest fuels were burned in a large, biomass-fire simulation facility and the smoke was characterized with open-path Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), proton-transfer reaction mass spectrometry (PTR-MS), gas chromatography (GC), GC/PTRMS, and filter sampling of the particles...

  3. Impacts of fire exclusion and recent managed fire on forest structure in old growth Sierra Nevada mixed-conifer forests

    Treesearch

    Brandon M. Collins; Richard G. Everett; Scott L. Stephens

    2011-01-01

    We re-sampled areas included in an unbiased 1911 timber inventory conducted by the U.S. Forest Service over a 4000 ha study area. Over half of the re-sampled area burned in relatively recent management- and lightning-ignited fires. This allowed for comparisons of both areas that have experienced recent fire and areas with no recent fire, to the same areas historically...

  4. Opposing effects of fire severity on climate feedbacks in Siberian larch forests

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Loranty, M. M.; Alexander, H. D.; Natali, S.; Kropp, H.; Mack, M. C.; Bunn, A. G.; Davydov, S. P.; Erb, A.; Kholodov, A. L.; Schaaf, C.; Wang, Z.; Zimov, N.; Zimov, S. A.

    2017-12-01

    Boreal larch forests in northeastern Siberia comprise nearly 25% of the continuous permafrost zone. Structural and functional changes in these ecosystems will have important climate feedbacks at regional and global scales. Like boreal ecosystems in North America, fire is an important determinant of landscape scale forest distribution, and fire regimes are intensifying as climate warms. In Siberian larch forests are dominated by a single tree species, and there is evidence that fire severity influences post-fire forest density via impacts on seedling establishment. The extent to which these effects occur, or persist, and the associated climate feedbacks are not well quantified. In this study we use forest stand inventories, in situ observations, and satellite remote sensing to examine: 1) variation in forest density within and between fire scars, and 2) changes in land surface albedo and active layer dynamics associated with forest density variation. At the landscape scale we observed declines in Landsat derived albedo as forests recovered in the first several decades after fire, though canopy cover varied widely within and between individual fire scars. Within an individual mid-successional fire scar ( 75 years) we observed canopy cover ranging from 15-90% with correspondingly large ranges of albedo during periods of snow cover, and relatively small differences in albedo during the growing season. We found an inverse relationship between canopy density and soil temperature within this fire scar; high-density low-albedo stands had cooler soils and shallower active layers, while low-density stands had warmer soils and deeper active layers. Intensive energy balance measurements at a high- and low- density site show that canopy cover alters the magnitude and timing of ground heat fluxes that affect active layer properties. Our results show that fire impacts on stand structure in Siberian larch forests affect land surface albedo and active layer dynamics in ways that

  5. Fire scars and tree vigor following prescribed fires in Missouri Ozark upland forests

    Treesearch

    Aaron P. Stevenson; Rose-Marie Muzika; Richard P. Guyette

    2008-01-01

    The goal of our project was to examine basal fire scars caused by prescribed fires and tree vigor in upland forests of the Missouri Ozarks. Fire scar data were collected in 100 plots from black oak (Quercus velutina Lam.), scarlet oak (Q. coccinea Muench.), Shumard oak (Q. shumardii Buckl.), post oak (Q...

  6. Fire intensity drives post-fire temporal pattern of soil carbon accumulation in Australian fire-prone forests.

    PubMed

    Sawyer, Robert; Bradstock, Ross; Bedward, Michael; Morrison, R John

    2018-01-01

    The impact of fire on global C cycles is considerable but complex. Nevertheless, studies on patterns of soil C accumulation following fires of differing intensity over time are lacking. Our study utilised 15 locations last burnt by prescribed fire (inferred low intensity) and 18 locations last burnt by wildfire (inferred high intensity), with time since fire (TSF) up to 43years, in a homogenous forest type in south eastern Australia. Following a stratified approach to mineral soil sampling, the soil % total C (% C Tot ) and % recalcitrant pyrogenic C (% RPC), were estimated. Generalised additive models indicated increases in % C Tot at TSF >30years in sites last burnt by wildfire. Estimates in sites last subjected to prescribed fire however, remained constant across the TSF chronosequence. There was no significant difference in % C Tot between the different fire types for the first 20years after fire. In the first 10years after wildfires, % RPC was elevated, declining to a minimum at ca. TSF 25years. After prescribed fires, % RPC was unaffected by TSF. Differences in response of % C Tot and % RPC to fire type may reflect the strength of stimulation of early successional processes and extent of charring. The divergent response to fire type in % C Tot was apparent at TSF longer than the landscape average fire return interval (i.e., 15 to 20years). Thus, any attempt to increase C sequestration in soils would require long-term exclusion of fire. Conversely, increased fire frequency is likely to have negligible impact on soil C stocks in these forests. Further investigation of the effects of fire frequency, fire intensity combinations and interaction of fire with other disturbances will enhance prediction of the likely impact of imposed or climatically induced changes to fire regimes on soil C. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  7. Contributions to Pliocene Arctic warmth from removal of anthropogenic aerosol and enhanced forest fire emissions

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Feng, R.; Otto-Bliesner, B. L.; Fletcher, T.; Ballantyne, A.; Brady, E. C.

    2016-12-01

    Changing atmosphere chemistry in the past has been hypothesized to have altered the earth's radiation budget, and hence the climate. Here, we use an advanced climate model to test whether this hypothesis can help explain the amplified warming in the northern high latitudes during the mid-Pliocene warm period (mPWP, 3.0 - 3.3 Ma). The amplified warming, suggested by terrestrial proxy records of northern high latitudes, is underestimated in previous climate simulations. This mismatch between observations and models may be partially due to proxy uncertainties, but also to insufficient model sensitivity, or incomplete knowledge of mPWP climate forcings. To explore the latter aspect, we conducted three coupled simulations using the same mPWP geography and topography, vegetation and CO2 level according to the PRISM3 reconstructions, but alternating emission scenarios among clean, polluted, and clean plus forest fire case. In the clean and polluted case, year-1850 emission and year-1850 natural plus year-2000 industrial emission are prescribed respectively. For the clean-plus-forest fire simulation, emissions from mPWP forest fire are constrained with a process-based prognostic fire model using fixed proxy SSTs. Preliminary results suggest that mPWP Arctic warmth is largely attributable to the removal of anthropogenic aerosols and enhanced deposition of the black carbon on snow and ice emitted from northern high latitude forest fires. Cloud radiative responses are shown to accelerate the summer sea ice melting from the continental margins, triggering the positive surface albedo and water vapor feedback that maintain a low perennial sea ice state in the Arctic Ocean. These results identify the important role that changes in aerosol chemistry may play in amplifying arctic surface temperatures of mPWP and insights on the role that aerosols may play in amplifying future Arctic temperatures.

  8. Tested by Fire - How two recent Wildfires affected Accelerator Operations at LANL

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Spickermann, Thomas

    2012-08-01

    In a little more than a decade two large wild fires threatened Los Alamos and impacted accelerator operations at LANL. In 2000 the Cerro Grande Fire destroyed hundreds of homes, as well as structures and equipment at the DARHT facility. The DARHT accelerators were safe in a fire-proof building. In 2011 the Las Conchas Fire burned about 630 square kilometers (250 square miles) and came dangerously close to Los Alamos/LANL. LANSCE accelerator operations Lessons Learned during Las Conchas fire: (1) Develop a plan to efficiently shut down the accelerator on short notice; (2) Establish clear lines of communication in emergencymore » situations; and (3) Plan recovery and keep squirrels out.« less

  9. Boreal ditched forest and peatland are more vulnerable to forest fire than unditched areas

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Köhler, Stephan J.; Granath, Gustav; Landahl, Anna; Fölster, Jens

    2016-04-01

    During summer of 2014 the largest wildfire in Swedish modern history occurred. The fire was ignited in a forest close to the Swedish town Sala and incinerated a total of 14 000 ha. The frequency of wildfires is expected to increase, due to effects of climate change such as increased temperature and decreased precipitation during the summer months. Wildfires can have a considerable impact on aquatic ecosystems and previous studies of wildfires have shown elevated concentrations of nutrients, cat- and anions. The area of the fire mainly consists of forestland, peatland and lakes and has been affected by acidification and intensive forestry. To assess the fire severity and the effects on the water chemistry, the fire severity were analyzed and classified using aerial phtographs and high resolution LIDAR data. The analysis indicated that increased fire intensity caused increased fire severity and that drained forested areas were more vulnerable to fire than undrained peatland. Measurements of water chemistry were conducted at nine streams and ten lakes inside the affected area. At two sites sensors for multiple parameters were deployed. During the initial three months of the post-fire period large peaks of ammonia-N and sulphate were observed in the streams and in a majority of the lakes while DOC was suppressed. In one stream Gärsjöbäcken the median concentrations of ammonia-N were 79 times higher after the fire. Due to nitrification the elevated concentrations of ammonia-N-nitrogen caused elevated concentrations of nitrate-nitrogen. The initial peak of sulphate caused a drop in ANC but after the peak had past ANC increased due to elevated concentrations of base cations. Correlation analysis of fire severity and water chemistry indicated that the maximum concentrations of ammonia-N increased with severely burned canopies in drained forested peatlands and in scorched open peatland. In a future climate with increased dry spells extensive ditching operations in

  10. Climate effect on forest fire static risk assessment

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bodini, Antonella; Cossu, Antonello; Entrade, Erika; Fiorucci, Paolo; Gaetani, Francesco; Parodi, Ulderica

    2010-05-01

    The availability of a long data series of fire perimeters combined with a detailed knowledge of topography and land cover allow to understand which are the main features involved in forest fire occurrences and their behaviour. In addition, climate indexes obtained from the analysis of time series with more than 20 years of complete records allow to understand the role of climate on fire regime, both in terms of direct effects on fire behaviour and the effect on vegetation cover. In particular, indices of extreme events have been considered like CDD (maximum number of consecutive dry days) and HWDI (heat wave duration index: maximum period > 5 consecutive days with Tmax >5°C above the 1961-1990 daily Tmax normal), together with the usual indices describing rainfall and temperature regimes. As a matter of fact, based on this information it is possible to develop statistical methods for the objective classification of forest fire static risk at regional scale. Two different case studies are presented in this work: Regione Liguria and Regione Sardegna (Italy). Both regions are in the center of the Mediterranean and are characterized by a high number of fires and burned area. However, the two regions have very different fire regimes. Sardinia is affected by the fire phenomenon only in summer whilst Liguria is affected by fires also in winter, with higher number of fires and larger burned area. In addition, the two region are very different in vegetation cover. The presence of Mediterranean conifers, (Pinus Pinaster, Pinus Nigra, Pinus halepensis) is quite spread in Liguria and is almost absent in Sardinia. What is common in the two regions is the widespread presence of shrub species frequently spread by fire. The analysis in the two regions thus allows in a rather limited area to consider almost all the species and the climate conditions that characterize the Mediterranean region. More than 10000 fire perimeters that burnt about 800 km2 were considered in the analysis

  11. Spatio-temporal evolution of forest fires in Portugal

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tonini, Marj; Pereira, Mário G.; Parente, Joana

    2017-04-01

    A key issue in fire management is the ability to explore and try to predict where and when fires are more likely to occur. This information can be useful to understand the triggering factors of ignitions and for planning strategies to reduce forest fires, to manage the sources of ignition and to identify areas and frame period at risk. Therefore, producing maps displaying forest fires location and their occurrence in time can be of great help for accurately forecasting these hazardous events. In a fire prone country as Portugal, where thousands of events occurs each year, it is involved to drive information about fires over densities and recurrences just by looking at the original arrangement of the mapped ignition points or burnt areas. In this respect, statistical methods originally developed for spatio-temporal stochastic point processes can be employed to find a structure within these large datasets. In the present study, the authors propose an approach to analyze and visualize the evolution in space and in time of forest fires occurred in Portugal during a long frame period (1990 - 2013). Data came from the Portuguese mapped burnt areas official geodatabase (by the Institute for the Conservation of Nature and Forests), which is the result of interpreted satellite measurements. The following statistical analyses were performed: the geographically-weighted summary statistics, to analyze the local variability of the average burned area; the space-time Kernel density, to elaborate smoothed density surfaces representing over densities of fires classed by size and on North vs South region. Finally, we emploied the volume rendering thecnique to visualize the spatio-temporal evolution of these events into a unique map: this representation allows visually inspecting areas and time-step more affected from a high aggregation of forest fires. It results that during the whole investigated period over densities are mainly located in the northern regions, while in the

  12. Influence of fire on mammals in eastern oak forests

    Treesearch

    Patrick D. Keyser; W. Mark Ford

    2006-01-01

    With the exception of small mammals, little research has been conducted in eastern oak forests on the influence of fire on mammals. Several studies have documented little or no change inrelative abundance or community measures for non-volant small mammals in eastern oak (Quercus spp.) forests following fires despite reductions in leaf litter, small woody debris, and...

  13. Continuity in fire disturbance between riparian and adjacent sideslopes in the Douglas-fire forest series.

    Treesearch

    Richard L. Everett; Richard Schellhaas; Pete Ohlson

    2000-01-01

    Fire scar and stand cohort records were used to estimate the number and timing of fire disturbance events that impacted riparian and adjacent sideslope forests in the Douglas-fir series. Data were gathered from 49 stream segments on 24 separate streams on the east slope of the Washington Cascade Range. Upslope forests had more traceable disturbance events than riparian...

  14. Mixed-severity fire history at a forest-grassland ecotone in west central British Columbia, Canada.

    PubMed

    Harvey, Jill E; Smith, Dan J; Veblen, Thomas T

    2017-09-01

    This study examines spatially variable stand structure and fire-climate relationships at a low elevation forest-grassland ecotone in west central British Columbia, Canada. Fire history reconstructions were based on samples from 92 fire-scarred trees and stand demography from 27 plots collected over an area of about 7 km 2 . We documented historical chronologies of widespread fires and localized grassland fires between AD 1600 and 1900. Relationships between fire events, reconstructed values of the Palmer Drought Severity Index, and annual precipitation were examined using superposed epoch and bivariate event analyses. Widespread fires occurred during warm, dry years and were preceded by multiple anomalously dry, warm years. Localized fires that affected only grassland-proximal forests were more frequent than widespread fires. These localized fires showed a lagged, positive relationship with wetter conditions. The landscape pattern of forest structure provided further evidence of complex fire activity with multiple plots shown to have experienced low-, mixed-, and/or high-severity fires over the last four centuries. We concluded that this forest-grassland ecotone was characterized by fires of mixed severity, dominated by frequent, low-severity fires punctuated by widespread fires of moderate to high severity. This landscape-level variability in fire-climate relationships and patterns in forest structure has important implications for fire and grassland management in west central British Columbia and similar environments elsewhere. Forest restoration techniques such as prescribed fire and thinning are oftentimes applied at the forest-grassland ecotone on the basis that historically high frequency, low-severity fires defined the character of past fire activity. This study provides forest managers and policy makers with important information on mixed-severity fire activity at a low elevation forest-grassland ecotone, a crucial prerequisite for the effective management

  15. Fuel variability following wildfire in forests with mixed severity fire regimes, Cascade Range, USA

    Treesearch

    Jessica L. Hudec; David L. Peterson

    2012-01-01

    Fire severity influences post-burn structure and composition of a forest and the potential for a future fire to burn through the area. The effects of fire on forests with mixed severity fire regimes are difficult to predict and interpret because the quantity, structure, and composition of forest fuels vary considerably. This study examines the relationship between fire...

  16. PCDD/F EMISSIONS FROM FOREST FIRE SIMULATIONS

    EPA Science Inventory

    Polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxin and polychlorinated dibenzofuran (PCDD/F) emissions from combustion of forest biomass were sampled to obtain an estimated emission factor for forest fires. An equal composition of live shoot and litter biomass from Oregon and North Carolina was b...

  17. Fire and fire surrogate treatments in mixed-oak forests: Effects on herbaceous layer vegetation

    Treesearch

    Ross Phillips; Todd Hutchinson; Lucy Brudnak; Thomas Waldrop

    2007-01-01

    Herbaceous layer vegetation responses to prescribed fire and fire surrogate treatments (thinning and understory removal) were examined. Results from 3 to 4 years following treatment are presented for the Ohio Hills Country and the Southern Appalachian Mountain sites of the National Fire and Fire Surrogate Study. At the Ohio Hills site, changes in forest structure were...

  18. Restoring surface fire stabilizes forest carbon under extreme fire weather in the Sierra Nevada

    Treesearch

    Daniel J. Krofcheck; Matthew D. Hurteau; Robert M. Scheller; E. Louise Loudermilk

    2017-01-01

    Climate change in the western United States has increased the frequency of extreme fire weather events and is projected to increase the area burned by wildfire in the coming decades. This changing fire regime, coupled with increased high-severity fire risk from a legacy of fire exclusion, could destabilize forest carbon (C), decrease net ecosystem exchange (...

  19. Geographic variation in mixed-conifer forest fire regimes in California

    Treesearch

    Beaty R. Matthew; Taylor Alan H.

    2008-01-01

    This paper reviews recent research from California on geographic variability in mixed conifer(MC) forest fire regimes. MC forests are typically described as having experienced primarilyfrequent, low to moderate severity burns prior to fire suppression that created a mosaic ofvegetation patches with variable structure. Research...

  20. Spatiotemporal patterns of fire-induced forest mortality in boreal regions and its potential drivers

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yang, J.; Tian, H.; Pan, S.; Hansen, M.; Wang, Y.

    2017-12-01

    Wildfire is the major natural disturbance in boreal forests, which have substantially affected various biological and biophysical processes. Although a few previous studies examined fire severity in boreal regions and reported a higher fire-induced forest mortality in boreal North America than in boreal Eurasia, it remains unclear how this mortality changes over time and how environmental factors affect the temporal dynamics of mortality at a large scale. By using a combination of multiple sources of satellite observations, we investigate the spatiotemporal patterns of fire-induced forest mortality in boreal regions, and examine the contributions of potential drivers. Our results show that forest composition is the key factor influencing the spatial variations of fire mortality across ecoregions. For the temporal variations, we find that the late-season burning was associated with higher fire intensity, which lead to greater forest mortality than the early-season burning. Forests burned in the warm and dry years had greater mortality than those burned in the cool and wet years. Our findings suggest that climate warming and drying not only stimulated boreal fire frequency, but also enhanced fire severity and forest mortality. Due to the significant effects of forest mortality on vegetation structure and ecosystem carbon dynamics, the spatiotemporal changes of fire-induced forest mortality should be explicitly considered to better understand fire impacts on regional and global climate change.

  1. Contribution of forest fires to concentrations of particulate matter in Singapore

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Spracklen, D. V.; Reddington, C.; Yoshioka, M.; Arnold, S.; Balasubramanian, R.

    2013-12-01

    Singapore is regularly exposed to substantial levels of transboundary air pollution arising from uncontrolled forest and peat fires from specific regions within Southeast Asia. This air pollution has detrimental impacts on the lives of Singapore residents and on sensitive ecosystems. In June 2013, forest fires resulted in concentrations of particulate matter greatly exceeding levels recommended for human health, causing substantial public concern. We apply two different methods to quantify the impact of forest fires on the concentrations of particulate matter with diameter less than 2.5 micrometres (PM2.5) in Singapore. Firstly, we use a global aerosol model (GLOMAP) in combination with fire emissions from GFED3 to simulate PM2.5 concentrations over the period 1998-2009. We evaluate simulated PM2.5 concentrations against long-term observations from Singapore. To identify the contributions of fires from different source regions to PM2.5 concentrations we run multiple simulations with and without fire emissions from specific regions across Southeast Asia. Secondly, we apply an atmospheric back trajectory model in combination with the GFED3 fire emissions to calculate exposure of air masses arriving in Singapore to fire emissions. Both methods use meteorology from the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts and are consistent with the large-scale atmospheric flow from the assimilated observations. We find that both methods give consistent results, with forest fires increasing PM2.5 concentrations in Singapore predominately during April to October. Forest and peat fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan cause the greatest degradation of air quality in Singapore. The contribution of fires to PM2.5 concentrations in Singapore exhibits strong interannual variability. During years with a strong contribution from fires, our simulations show that the prevention of fires in southern Sumatra would reduce regional PM2.5 concentrations around Singapore by more than a factor

  2. The causes of fires on northeastern national forests.

    Treesearch

    William A. Main; Donald A. Haines

    1974-01-01

    Presents cross-tabulations of classes of people, activities, and causes responsible for forest fires on national forests. The data combinations indicate that greater prevention efforts might be directed toward hunters and fishermen.

  3. The trend of forest fire research in northern Idaho

    Treesearch

    H. T. Gisborne

    1926-01-01

    Readers or the Idaho Forester do not need to be told why it is necessary to study forest fires in Northern Idaho. They have seen the fires sweep though virgin stands or merchantable timber and through beautiful young stands of valuable reproduction, greatly reducing the value of the merchantable timber and trees and often completely destroying the young stands which...

  4. Ecological consequences of alternative fuel reduction treatments in seasonally dry forests: the national fire and fire surrogate study

    Treesearch

    J.D. McIver; C.J. Fettig

    2010-01-01

    This special issue of Forest Science features the national Fire and Fire Surrogate study (FFS), a niultisite, multivariate research project that evaluates the ecological consequences of prescribed fire and its mechanical surrogates in seasonally dry forests of the United States. The need for a comprehensive national FFS study stemmed from concern that information on...

  5. Miller Creek Demonstration Forest - a forest born of fire: A field guide

    Treesearch

    Penelope A. Latham; Raymond C. Shearer; Kevin L. O' Hara

    1998-01-01

    Miller Creek, on the Flathead National Forest in northwest Montana, is a demonstration forest, showing up to 30 years of forest change after clearcutting and a wide range of fire treatments in 1967 and 1968. Differences in tree regeneration and vegetation development are explained for units that were clearcut and prescribed burned, clearcut and burned by wildfire,...

  6. The effects of fire on the thermal stability of permafrost in lowland and upland black spruce forests of interior Alaska in a changing climate

    Treesearch

    E.E. Jafarov; V.E. Romanovsky; H. Genet; A.D. McGuire; S.S. Marchenko

    2013-01-01

    Fire is an important factor controlling the composition and thickness of the organic layer in the black spruce forest ecosystems of interior Alaska. Fire that burns the organic layer can trigger dramatic changes in the underlying permafrost, leading to accelerated ground thawing within a relatively short time. In this study, we addressed the following questions. (1)...

  7. A stochastic Forest Fire Model for future land cover scenarios assessment

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fiorucci, P.; Holmes, T.; Gaetani, F.; D'Andrea, M.

    2009-04-01

    Land cover change and forest fire interaction under climate and socio-economics changes, is one of the main issues of the 21th century. The capability of defining future scenarios of land cover and fire regime allow forest managers to better understand the best actions to be carried out and their long term effects. In this paper a new methodology for land cover change simulations under climate change and fire disturbance is presented and discussed. The methodology is based on the assumption that forest fires exhibits power law frequency-area distribution. The well known Forest Fire Model (FFM), which is an example of self organized criticality, is able to reproduce this behavior. Starting from this observation, a modified version of the FFM has been developed. The new model, called Modified Forest Fire Model (MFFM) introduces several new features. A stochastic model for vegetation growth and regrowth after fire occurrence has been implemented for different kind of vegetations. In addition, a stochastic fire propagation model taking into account topography and vegetation cover has been introduced. The MFFM has been developed with the purpose of estimating vegetation cover changes and fire regimes over a time windows of many years for a given spatial region. Two different case studies have been carried out. The first case study is related with Liguria (Italy), a region of 5400 km2 lying between the Cote d'Azur, France, and Tuscany, Italy, on the northwest coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea. This region is characterized by Mediterranean fire regime. The second case study has been carried out in California (Florida) on a region having similar area and characterized by similar climate conditions. In both cases the model well represents the actual fire regime in terms of power law parameters proving interesting results about future land cover scenarios under climate, land use and socio-economics change.

  8. Alaska's Changing Fire Regime - Implications for the Vulnerability of Its Boreal Forests

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Kasischke, E. S.; Hoy, E. E.; Verbyla, D. L.; Rupp, T. S.; Duffy, P. A.; McGuire, A. D.; Murphy, K. A.; Jandt, R.; Barnes, J. L.; Calef, M.; hide

    2010-01-01

    A synthesis was carried out to examine Alaska s boreal forest fire regime. During the 2000s, an average of 767 000 ha/year burned, 50% higher than in any previous decade since the 1940s. Over the past 60 years, there was a decrease in the number of lightning-ignited fires, an increase in extreme lightning-ignited fire events, an increase in human-ignited fires, and a decrease in the number of extreme human-ignited fire events. The fraction of area burned from humanignited fires fell from 26% for the 1950s and 1960s to 5% for the 1990s and 2000s, a result from the change in fire policy that gave the highest suppression priorities to fire events that occurred near human settlements. The amount of area burned during late-season fires increased over the past two decades. Deeper burning of surface organic layers in black spruce (Picea mariana (Mill.) BSP) forests occurred during late-growing-season fires and on more well-drained sites. These trends all point to black spruce forests becoming increasingly vulnerable to the combined changes of key characteristics of Alaska s fire regime, except on poorly drained sites, which are resistant to deep burning. The implications of these fire regime changes to the vulnerability and resilience of Alaska s boreal forests and land and fire management are discussed.

  9. Fire Return Interval Within the Northern Boundary of the Larch Forest

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Kharuk, V. I.; Dvinskaya, M. L.; Ranson, K. J.

    2011-01-01

    Larch (Larix spp.) dominant forests compose a large proportion of the forests of Russia (i.e., about 40% of forested areas). These forests range from the Yenisei ridge on the west to the Pacific Ocean on the east, and from Lake Baikal on the south to the 73rd parallel in the north. Larch stands comprise the world s northern most forest at Ary-Mas (72 deg 28' N, 102 deg 15' E). Larch dominated forests occupy about 70% of the permafrost areas in Siberia. Larch forms high closure stands as well as open forests, and is found mainly over permafrost, where other tree species barely survive. Wildfires are typical for this territory with the majority occurring as ground fires due to low crown closure. Due to the thin active layer in permafrost soils and a dense lichen-moss cover, ground fires may cause stand mortality. The vast areas of larch-dominant forests is generally considered as a "carbon sink"; however, positive long-term temperature trends at higher latitudes are expected to result in an increase of fire frequency, and thus may convert this area to a source for greenhouse gases. There are recent observations regarding the increase of fire frequency within non-protected territories. Surprisingly, there are few publications on fire chronoseqences for the huge forested territory between the Ural Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. Also there is a general understanding that bimodal (late spring -- early summer and late summer-beginning of fall) fire seasonal distribution in the south becomes uni-modal (late spring -- early summer) in the north. The purpose of this study is to investigate the wildfire history at the northern edge of the zone of larch dominance.

  10. Changing spatial patterns of stand-replacing fire in California conifer forests

    Treesearch

    Jens T. Stevens; Brandon M. Collins; Jay D. Miller; Malcolm P. North; Scott L. Stephens

    2017-01-01

    Stand-replacing fire has profound ecological impacts in conifer forests, yet there is continued uncertainty over how best to describe the scale of stand-replacing effects within individual fires, and how these effects are changing over time. In forests where regeneration following stand-replacing fire depends on seed dispersal from surviving trees, the size and shape...

  11. Role of fire in restoration of a ponderosa pine forest, Washington

    Treesearch

    Richy J. Harrod; Richard W. Fonda; Mara K. McGrath

    2007-01-01

    Ponderosa pine forests in the Eastern Cascades of Washington support dense, overstocked stands in which crown fires are probable, owing to postsettlement sheep grazing, logging, and fire exclusion. In 1991, the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forests began to apply long-term management techniques to reverse postsettlement changes in ponderosa pine forests. For 9 years, the...

  12. Fuel loads, fire regimes, and post-fire fuel dynamics in Florida Keys pine forests

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Sah, J.P.; Ross, M.S.; Snyder, J.R.; Koptur, S.; Cooley, H.C.

    2006-01-01

    In forests, the effects of different life forms on fire behavior may vary depending on their contributions to total fuel loads. We examined the distribution of fuel components before fire, their effects on fire behavior, and the effects of fire on subsequent fuel recovery in pine forests within the National Key Deer Refuge in the Florida Keys. We conducted a burning experiment in six blocks, within each of which we assigned 1-ha plots to three treatments: control, summer, and winter burn. Owing to logistical constraints, we burned only 11 plots, three in winter and eight in summer, over a 4-year period from 1998 to 2001. We used path analysis to model the effects of fuel type and char height, an indicator of fire intensity, on fuel consumption. Fire intensity increased with surface fuel loads, but was negatively related to the quantity of hardwood shrub fuels, probably because these fuels are associated with a moist microenvironment within hardwood patches, and therefore tend to resist fire. Winter fires were milder than summer fires, and were less effective at inhibiting shrub encroachment. A mixed seasonal approach is suggested for fire management, with burns applied opportunistically under a range of winter and summer conditions, but more frequently than that prevalent in the recent past. ?? IAWF 2006.

  13. Current and future patterns of fire-induced forest degradation in Amazonia

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    De Faria, Bruno L.; Brando, Paulo M.; Macedo, Marcia N.; Panday, Prajjwal K.; Soares-Filho, Britaldo S.; Coe, Michael T.

    2017-09-01

    Amazon droughts directly increase forest flammability by reducing forest understory air and fuel moisture. Droughts also increase forest flammability indirectly by decreasing soil moisture, triggering leaf shedding, branch loss, and tree mortality—all of which contribute to increased fuel loads. These direct and indirect effects can cause widespread forest fires that reduce forest carbon stocks in the Amazon, with potentially important consequences for the global carbon cycle. These processes are expected to become more widespread, common, and intense as global climate changes, yet the mechanisms linking droughts, wildfires, and associated changes in carbon stocks remain poorly understood. Here, we expanded the capabilities of a dynamic forest carbon model to better represent (1) drought effects on carbon and fuel dynamics and (2) understory fire behavior and severity. We used the refined model to quantify changes in Pan-Amazon live carbon stocks as a function of the maximum climatological water deficit (MCWD) and fire intensity, under both historical and future climate conditions. We found that the 2005 and 2010 droughts increased potential fire intensity by 226 kW m-1 and 494 kW m-1, respectively. These increases were due primarily to increased understory dryness (109 kW m-1 in 2005; 124 kW m-1 in 2010) and altered forest structure (117 kW m-1 in 2005; 370 kW m-1 in 2010) effects. Combined, these historic droughts drove total simulated reductions in live carbon stocks of 0.016 (2005) and 0.027 (2010) PgC across the Amazon Basin. Projected increases in future fire intensity increased simulated carbon losses by up to 90% per unit area burned, compared with modern climate. Increased air temperature was the primary driver of changes in simulated future fire intensity, while reduced precipitation was secondary, particularly in the eastern portion of the Basin. Our results show that fire-drought interactions strongly affect live carbon stocks and that future climate

  14. Forest fires are associated with elevated mortality in a dense urban setting.

    PubMed

    Analitis, Antonis; Georgiadis, Ioannis; Katsouyanni, Klea

    2012-03-01

    The climate and vegetation of the greater Athens area (population over three million) make forest fires a real threat to the environment during the summer. A few studies have reported the adverse health effects of forest fires, mainly using morbidity outcomes. The authors investigated the short-term effects of forest fires on non-accidental mortality in the population of Athens, Greece, during 1998-2004. The authors used generalised additive models to investigate the effect of forest fires on daily mortality, adjusting for time trend and meteorological variables, taking into account air pollution as measured from fixed monitors. Forest fires were classified by size according to the area burnt. Small fires do not have an effect on mortality. Medium sized fires are associated with an increase of 4.9% (95% CI 0.3% to 9.6%) in the daily total number of deaths, 6.0% (95% CI -0.3% to 12.6%) in the number of cardiovascular deaths and 16.2% (95% CI 1.3% to 33.4%) in the number of respiratory deaths. Cardiovascular effects are larger in those aged <75 years, while respiratory effects are larger in older people. The corresponding effects of the one large fire are: 49.7% (95% CI 37.2% to 63.4%), 60.6% (95% CI 43.1% to 80.3%) and 92.0% (95% CI 47.5% to 150.0%). These effects cannot be completely explained by an increase in ambient particle concentrations. Forest fires have an immediate effect on mortality, not associated with accidental deaths, which is a significant public health problem, especially if the fire occurs near a densely populated area.

  15. Animation of Sequoia Forest Fire

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    2002-01-01

    Continued hot, dry weather in the American west contributed to the spread of numerous fires over the weekend of July 29-30, 2000. This is the most active fire season in the United States since 1988, when large portions of Yellowstone National Park burned. One of the largest fires currently burning has consumed more than 63,000 acres in Sequoia National Forest. This NOAA Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) image shows the fire on the afternoon of July 30, 2000. Note the clouds above the smoke plume. These often form during large fires because updrafts lift warm air near the ground high into the atmosphere, cooling the air and causing the water vapor it contains to condense into droplets. The soot particles in the smoke also act as condensation nuclei for the droplets. View the animation of GOES data to see the smoke forming clouds. Image and Animation by Robert Simmon and Marit-Jentoft Nilsen, NASA GSFC, based on data from NOAA.

  16. Factors affecting collective action for forest fire management: a comparative study of community forest user groups in central Siwalik, Nepal.

    PubMed

    Sapkota, Lok Mani; Shrestha, Rajendra Prasad; Jourdain, Damien; Shivakoti, Ganesh P

    2015-01-01

    The attributes of social ecological systems affect the management of commons. Strengthening and enhancing social capital and the enforcement of rules and sanctions aid in the collective action of communities in forest fire management. Using a set of variables drawn from previous studies on the management of commons, we conducted a study across 20 community forest user groups in Central Siwalik, Nepal, by dividing the groups into two categories based on the type and level of their forest fire management response. Our study shows that the collective action in forest fire management is consistent with the collective actions in other community development activities. However, the effectiveness of collective action is primarily dependent on the complex interaction of various variables. We found that strong social capital, strong enforcement of rules and sanctions, and users' participation in crafting the rules were the major variables that strengthen collective action in forest fire management. Conversely, users' dependency on a daily wage and a lack of transparency were the variables that weaken collective action. In fire-prone forests such as the Siwalik, our results indicate that strengthening social capital and forming and enforcing forest fire management rules are important variables that encourage people to engage in collective action in fire management.

  17. Short- and long-term effects of fire on carbon in US dry temperate forest systems

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Hurteau, Matthew D.; Brooks, Matthew L.

    2011-01-01

    Forests sequester carbon from the atmosphere, and in so doing can mitigate the effects of climate change. Fire is a natural disturbance process in many forest systems that releases carbon back to the atmosphere. In dry temperate forests, fires historically burned with greater frequency and lower severity than they do today. Frequent fires consumed fuels on the forest floor and maintained open stand structures. Fire suppression has resulted in increased understory fuel loads and tree density; a change in structure that has caused a shift from low- to high-severity fires. More severe fires, resulting in greater tree mortality, have caused a decrease in forest carbon stability. Fire management actions can mitigate the risk of high-severity fires, but these actions often require a trade-off between maximizing carbon stocks and carbon stability. We discuss the effects of fire on forest carbon stocks and recommend that managing forests on the basis of their specific ecologies should be the foremost goal, with carbon sequestration being an ancillary benefit. ?? 2011 by American Institute of Biological Sciences. All rights reserved.

  18. Web-GIS platform for forest fire danger prediction in Ukraine: prospects of RS technologies

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Baranovskiy, N. V.; Zharikova, M. V.

    2016-10-01

    There are many different statistical and empirical methods of forest fire danger use at present time. All systems have not physical basis. Last decade deterministic-probabilistic method is rapidly developed in Tomsk Polytechnic University. Forest sites classification is one way to estimate forest fire danger. We used this method in present work. Forest fire danger estimation depends on forest vegetation condition, forest fire retrospective, precipitation and air temperature. In fact, we use modified Nesterov Criterion. Lightning activity is under consideration as a high temperature source in present work. We use Web-GIS platform for program realization of this method. The program realization of the fire danger assessment system is the Web-oriented geoinformation system developed by the Django platform in the programming language Python. The GeoDjango framework was used for realization of cartographic functions. We suggest using of Terra/Aqua MODIS products for hot spot monitoring. Typical territory for forest fire danger estimation is Proletarskoe forestry of Kherson region (Ukraine).

  19. Weather Observation Systems and Efficiency of Fighting Forest Fires

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Khabarov, N.; Moltchanova, E.; Obersteiner, M.

    2007-12-01

    Weather observation is an essential component of modern forest fire management systems. Satellite and in-situ based weather observation systems might help to reduce forest loss, human casualties and destruction of economic capital. In this paper, we develop and apply a methodology to assess the benefits of various weather observation systems on reductions of burned area due to early fire detection. In particular, we consider a model where the air patrolling schedule is determined by a fire hazard index. The index is computed from gridded daily weather data for the area covering parts Spain and Portugal. We conduct a number of simulation experiments. First, the resolution of the original data set is artificially reduced. The reduction of the total forest burned area associated with air patrolling based on a finer weather grid indicates the benefit of using higher spatially resolved weather observations. Second, we consider a stochastic model to simulate forest fires and explore the sensitivity of the model with respect to the quality of input data. The analysis of combination of satellite and ground monitoring reveals potential cost saving due to a "system of systems effect" and substantial reduction in burned area. Finally, we estimate the marginal improvement schedule for loss of life and economic capital as a function of the improved fire observing system.

  20. Modeling the Effects of Fire Frequency and Severity on Forests in the Northwestern United States

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Busing, Richard T.; Solomon, Allen M.

    2006-01-01

    This study used a model of forest dynamics (FORCLIM) and actual forest survey data to demonstrate the effects of various fire regimes on different forest types in the Pacific Northwest. We examined forests in eight ecoregions ranging from wet coastal forests dominated by Pseudotsuga menziesii and other tall conifers to dry interior forests dominated by Pinus ponderosa. Fire effects simulated as elevated mortality of trees based on their species and size did alter forest structure and species composition. Low frequency fires characteristic of wetter forests (return interval >200 yr) had minor effects on composition. When fires were severe, they tended to reduce total basal area with little regard to species differences. High frequency fires characteristic of drier forests (return interval <30 yr) had major effects on species composition and on total basal area. Typically, they caused substantial reductions in total basal area and shifts in dominance toward highly fire tolerant species. With the addition of fire, simulated basal areas averaged across ecoregions were reduced to levels approximating observed basal areas.

  1. A numerical solution of the problem of crown forest fire initiation and spread

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Marzaeva, S. I.; Galtseva, O. V.

    2018-05-01

    Mathematical model of forest fire was based on an analysis of known experimental data and using concept and methods from reactive media mechanics. The study takes in to account the mutual interaction of the forest fires and three-dimensional atmosphere flows. The research is done by means of mathematical modeling of physical processes. It is based on numerical solution of Reynolds equations for chemical components and equations of energy conservation for gaseous and condensed phases. It is assumed that the forest during a forest fire can be modeled as a two-temperature multiphase non-deformable porous reactive medium. A discrete analog for the system of equations was obtained by means of the control volume method. The developed model of forest fire initiation and spreading would make it possible to obtain a detailed picture of the variation in the velocity, temperature and chemical species concentration fields with time. Mathematical model and the result of the calculation give an opportunity to evaluate critical conditions of the forest fire initiation and spread which allows applying the given model for of means for preventing fires.

  2. [Analysis of human tissue samples for volatile fire accelerants].

    PubMed

    Treibs, Rudolf

    2014-01-01

    In police investigations of fires, the cause of a fire and the fire debris analysis regarding traces of fire accelerants are important aspects for forensic scientists. Established analytical procedures were recently applied to the remains of fire victims. When examining lung tissue samples, vapors inhaled from volatile ignitable liquids could be identified and differentiated from products of pyrolysis caused by the fire. In addition to the medico-legal results this evidence allowed to draw conclusions as to whether the fire victim was still alive when the fire started.

  3. Variability of fire behavior, fire effects, and emissions in Scotch pine forests of central Siberia

    Treesearch

    D. J. McRae; Susan Conard; G. A. Ivanova; A. I. Sukhinin; Steve Baker; Y. N. Samsonov; T. W. Blake; V. A. Ivanov; A. V. Ivanov; T. V. Churkina; WeiMin Hao; K. P. Koutzenogij; Nataly Kovaleva

    2006-01-01

    As part of the Russian FIRE BEAR (Fire Effects in the Boreal Eurasia Region) Project, replicated 4-ha experimental fires were conducted on a dry Scotch pine (Pinus sylvestris)/lichen (Cladonia sp.)/feathermoss (Pleurozeum schreberi) forest site in central Siberia. Observations from the initial seven surface fires (2000-2001) ignited under a range of burning...

  4. Simulating Forest Carbon Dynamics in Response to Large-scale Fuel Reduction Treatments Under Projected Climate-fire Interactions in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, USA

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Liang, S.; Hurteau, M. D.

    2016-12-01

    The interaction of warmer, drier climate and increasing large wildfires, coupled with increasing fire severity resulting from fire-exclusion are anticipated to undermine forest carbon (C) stock stability and C sink strength in the Sierra Nevada forests. Treatments, including thinning and prescribed burning, to reduce biomass and restore forest structure have proven effective at reducing fire severity and lessening C loss when treated stands are burned by wildfire. However, the current pace and scale of treatment implementation is limited, especially given recent increases in area burned by wildfire. In this study, we used a forest landscape model (LANDIS-II) to evaluate the role of implementation timing of large-scale fuel reduction treatments in influencing forest C stock and fluxes of Sierra Nevada forests with projected climate and larger wildfires. We ran 90-year simulations using climate and wildfire projections from three general circulation models driven by the A2 emission scenario. We simulated two different treatment implementation scenarios: a `distributed' (treatments implemented throughout the simulation) and an `accelerated' (treatments implemented during the first half century) scenario. We found that across the study area, accelerated implementation had 0.6-10.4 Mg ha-1 higher late-century aboveground biomass (AGB) and 1.0-2.2 g C m-2 yr-1 higher mean C sink strength than the distributed scenario, depending on specific climate-wildfire projections. Cumulative wildfire emissions over the simulation period were 0.7-3.9 Mg C ha-1 higher for distributed implementation relative to accelerated implementation. However, simulations with both implementation practices have considerably higher AGB and C sink strength as well as lower wildfire emission than simulations in the absence of fuel reduction treatments. The results demonstrate the potential for implementing large-scale fuel reduction treatments to enhance forest C stock stability and C sink strength

  5. Geospatial monitoring and prioritization of forest fire incidences in Andhra Pradesh, India.

    PubMed

    Manaswini, G; Sudhakar Reddy, C

    2015-10-01

    Forest fire has been identified as one of the key environmental issue for long-term conservation of biodiversity and has impact on global climate. Spatially multiple observations are necessary for monitoring of forest fires in tropics for understanding conservation efficacy and sustaining biodiversity in protected areas. The present work was carried out to estimate the spatial extent of forest burnt areas and fire frequency using Resourcesat Advanced Wide Field Sensor (AWiFS) data (2009, 2010, 2012, 2013 and 2014) in Andhra Pradesh, India. The spatio-temporal analysis shows that an area of 7514.10 km(2) (29.22% of total forest cover) has been affected by forest fires. Six major forest types are distributed in Andhra Pradesh, i.e. semi-evergreen, moist deciduous, dry deciduous, dry evergreen, thorn and mangroves. Of the total forest burnt area, dry deciduous forests account for >75%. District-wise analysis shows that Kurnool, Prakasam and Cuddapah have shown >100 km(2) of burnt area every year. The total forest burnt area estimate covering protected areas ranges between 6.9 and 22.3% during the study period. Spatial burnt area analysis for protected areas in 2014 indicates 37.2% of fire incidences in the Nagarjunasagar Srisailam Tiger Reserve followed by 20.2 % in the Sri Lankamalleswara Wildlife Sanctuary, 20.1% in the Sri Venkateswara Wildlife Sanctuary and 17.4% in the Gundla Brahmeswaram Wildlife Sanctuary. The analysis of cumulative fire occurrences from 2009 to 2014 has helped in delineation of conservation priority hotspots using a spatial grid cell approach. Conservation priority hotspots I and II are distributed in major parts of study area including protected areas of the Nagarjunasagar Srisailam Tiger Reserve and Gundla Brahmeswaram Wildlife Sanctuary. The spatial database generated will be useful in studies related to influence of fires on species adaptability, ecological damage assessment and conservation planning.

  6. A soil burn severity index for understanding soil-fire relations in tropical forests

    Treesearch

    Theresa B. Jain; William A. Gould; Russell T. Graham; David S. Pilliod; Leigh B. Lentile; Grizelle Gonzalez

    2008-01-01

    Methods for evaluating the impact of fires within tropical forests are needed as fires become more frequent and human populations and demands on forests increase. Short- and long-term fire effects on soils are determined by the prefire, fire, and postfire environments. We placed these components within a fire-disturbance continuum to guide our literature synthesis and...

  7. Main dynamics and drivers of boreal forests fire regimes during the Holocene

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Molinari, Chiara; Lehsten, Veiko; Blarquez, Olivier; Clear, Jennifer; Carcaillet, Christopher; Bradshaw, Richard HW

    2015-04-01

    Forest fire is one of the most critical ecosystem processes in the boreal megabiome, and it is likely that its frequency, size and severity have had a primary role in vegetation dynamics since the Last Ice Age (Kasischke & Stocks 2000). Fire not only organizes the physical and biological attributes of boreal forests, but also affects biogeochemical cycling, particularly the carbon balance (Balshi et al. 2007). Due to their location at climatically sensitive northern latitudes, boreal forests are likely to be significantly affected by global warming with a consequent increase in biomass burning (Soja et al. 2007), a variation in vegetation structure and composition (Johnstone et al. 2004) and a rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration (Bond-Lamberty et al. 2007). Even if the ecological role of wildfire in boreal forest is widely recognized, a clearer understanding of the environmental factors controlling fire dynamics and how variations in fire regimes impact forest ecosystems is essential in order to place modern fire processes in a meaningful context for projecting ecosystem behaviour in a changing environment (Kelly et al. 2013). Because fire return intervals and successional cycles in boreal forests occur over decadal to centennial timescales (Hu et al. 2006), palaeoecological research seems to be one of the most promising tool for elucidating ecosystem changes over a broad range of environmental conditions and temporal scales. Within this context, our first aim is to reconstruct spatial and temporal patterns of boreal forests fire dynamics during the Holocene based on sedimentary charcoal records. As a second step, trends in biomass burning will be statistically analysed in order to disentangle between regional and local drivers. The use of European and north-American sites will give us the unique possibility to perform a large scale analysis on one of the broadest biome in the world and to underline the different patterns of fire in these two

  8. Post-fire comparisons of forest floor and soil carbon, nitrogen, and mercury pools with fire severity indices

    Treesearch

    Randy Kolka; Brian Sturtevant; Philip Townsend; Jessica Miesel; Peter Wolter; Shawn Fraver; Tom DeSutter

    2014-01-01

    Forest fires are important contributors of C, N, and Hg to the atmosphere. In the fall of 2011, a large wildfire occurred in northern Minnesota and we were able to quickly access the area to sample the forest floor and mineral soil for C, N, and Hg pools. When compared with unburned reference soils, the mean loss of C resulting from fire in the forest floor and the...

  9. Forest health in the Blue Mountains: a management strategy for fire-adapted ecosystems.

    Treesearch

    R.W. Mutch; S.F. Arno; J.K. Brown; C.E. Carlson; R.D. Ottmar; J.L. Peterson

    1993-01-01

    The fire-adapted forests of the Blue Mountains are suffering from a forest health problem of catastrophic proportions. Contributing to the decline of forest health are such factors as the extensive harvesting of the western larch and ponderosa pine overstory during the 1900s, attempted exclusion of fire from a fire-dependent ecosystem, and the continuing drought. The...

  10. Human ecological intervention and the role of forest fires in human ecology.

    PubMed

    Caldararo, N

    2002-06-26

    The present text is a summary of research on the relationship between forest fires and human activities. Numerous theories have been created to explain changes in forests during the late Pleistocene and early Holocene, and a general understanding has developed in the past 50 years regarding natural fire regimes. The present summary is directed to assess the validity of these theories. A re-analysis of the literature argues that the intense forest fires we experience today are an artifact of human intervention in forest ecology, especially by the reduction of herbivores and are relatively recent, approximately 100,000-250,000 BP. The history of fire, especially in the context of the increased dominance of humans, has produced a progressively fire-adapted ecology, which argues for human-free wildlife areas and against prescribed burns under many circumstances.

  11. [Forest fire risk assessment for China under different climate scenarios.

    PubMed

    Tian, Xiao Rui; Dai, Xuan; Wang, Ming Yu; Zhao, Feng Jun; Shu, Li Fu

    2016-03-01

    Forest fire risk depends on the hazard factors, affected body, and hazard prevention and reduction ability. The integrated risk assessment is the foundation for developing scientific fire mana-gement policies and carrying out the forest fire prevention measures. A forest fire risk assessment model and index system were established based on the classic natural disaster risk model and available data, and the model was used to assess the forest fire risks in past and future. The future climate scenario data included outputs from five global climate models (GFDL-ESM2M, HadGEM2-ES, IPSL-CM5A-LR, MIROC-ESM-CHEM and NorESM1-M) for RCP 2.6, RCP 4.5, RCP 6.0 and RCP 8.5, respectively. Each component index of Fire Weather Index (FWI) system was calculated daily for each grid in 1987-2050 for the historical observations and future climate scenarios according to the maximum temperature, minimum relative humidity, wind speed and daily precipitation. The results showed that areas with high and very high fire danger ratings in 1987-2010 accounted for 21.2% and 6.2%, respectively, which were distributed in Greater Xing'an Mountains and the Changbai Mountain area, most parts of Yunnan, and many fragment areas in southern China. The areas with high and very high burn possibilities were mainly distributed in the northeast and southwest region, accounting for 13.1% and 4.0%, respectively. Compared with the observation period, the areas with high and very high fire danger ratings in 2021-2050 would increase by 0.6%, 5.5%, 2.3%, and 3.5% under RCP 2.6, RCP 4.5, RCP 6.0, and RCP 8.5 respectively, and North China would show significant increase. The regions with high-risk forest fires would also increase due to climate change, with the most significant increase under RCP 8.5 scenario (+1.6%).

  12. Fire and fire surrogate study in the Sierra Nevada: evaluating restoration treatments at Blodgett Forest and Sequoia National Park

    Treesearch

    Eric E. Knapp; Scott L. Stephens; James D. McIver; Jason J. Moghaddas; Jon E. Keeley

    2004-01-01

    Management practices have altered both the structure and function of forests throughout the United States. Some of the most dramatic changes have resulted from fire exclusion, especially in forests that historically experienced relatively frequent, low- to moderate-intensity fire regimes. In the Sierra Nevada, fire exclusion is believed to have resulted in widespread...

  13. Fire in Eastern Hardwood Forests through 14,000 Years

    Treesearch

    Martin A. Spetich; Roger W. Perry; Craig A. Harper; Stacy L. Clark

    2011-01-01

    Fire helped shape the structure and species composition of hardwood forests of the eastern United States over the past 14,000 years. Periodic fires were common in much of this area prior to European settlement, and fire-resilient species proliferated. Early European settlers commonly adopted Native American techniques of applying fire to the landscape. As the demand...

  14. Northwest California National Forests fire severity monitoring 1987-2008

    Treesearch

    Jay D. Miller; Carl N. Skinner; Hugh D. Safford; Eric E. Knapp; Carlos M. Ramirez

    2012-01-01

    Research in the last several years has indicated that the frequency of large fires is on the rise in western US forests. Although fire size and frequency are important, they do not necessarily provide information concerning the effects of fire on ecosystems, as ecosystems differ in ecological and evolutionary relationships with fire. Our study focused on the four...

  15. Rule-based mapping of fire-adapted vegetation and fire regimes for the Monongahela National Forest

    Treesearch

    Melissa A. Thomas-Van Gundy; Gregory J. Nowacki; Thomas M. Schuler

    2007-01-01

    A rule-based approach was employed in GIS to map fire-adapted vegetation and fire regimes within the proclamation boundary of the Monongahela National Forest. Spatial analyses and maps were generated using ArcMap 9.1. The resulting fireadaptation scores were then categorized into standard fire regime groups. Fire regime group V (200+ yrs) was the most common, assigned...

  16. A five-year record of lightning storms and forest fires

    Treesearch

    H. T. Gisborne

    1931-01-01

    According to the records compiled by the supervisors of the national forests in the northern Rocky Mountain region, lightning has been responsible for a greater number of fires, more burned area, more damage, and more expense of suppression in this territory than all other causes of forest fires combined. Smokers, campers, brush burners, incendiarists, lumbering...

  17. Economic vulnerability of timber resources to forest fires

    Treesearch

    Francisco Rodriguez y Silva; Juan Ramon Molina; Armando Gonzalez-Caban; Miguel Angel Herrera Machuca

    2012-01-01

    The temporal-spatial planning of activities for a territorial fire management program requires knowing the value of forest ecosystems. In this paper we extend to and apply the economic valuation principle to the concept of economic vulnerability and present a methodology for the economic valuation of the forest production ecosystems. The forest vulnerability is...

  18. Applying genetic algorithms to set the optimal combination of forest fire related variables and model forest fire susceptibility based on data mining models. The case of Dayu County, China.

    PubMed

    Hong, Haoyuan; Tsangaratos, Paraskevas; Ilia, Ioanna; Liu, Junzhi; Zhu, A-Xing; Xu, Chong

    2018-07-15

    The main objective of the present study was to utilize Genetic Algorithms (GA) in order to obtain the optimal combination of forest fire related variables and apply data mining methods for constructing a forest fire susceptibility map. In the proposed approach, a Random Forest (RF) and a Support Vector Machine (SVM) was used to produce a forest fire susceptibility map for the Dayu County which is located in southwest of Jiangxi Province, China. For this purpose, historic forest fires and thirteen forest fire related variables were analyzed, namely: elevation, slope angle, aspect, curvature, land use, soil cover, heat load index, normalized difference vegetation index, mean annual temperature, mean annual wind speed, mean annual rainfall, distance to river network and distance to road network. The Natural Break and the Certainty Factor method were used to classify and weight the thirteen variables, while a multicollinearity analysis was performed to determine the correlation among the variables and decide about their usability. The optimal set of variables, determined by the GA limited the number of variables into eight excluding from the analysis, aspect, land use, heat load index, distance to river network and mean annual rainfall. The performance of the forest fire models was evaluated by using the area under the Receiver Operating Characteristic curve (ROC-AUC) based on the validation dataset. Overall, the RF models gave higher AUC values. Also the results showed that the proposed optimized models outperform the original models. Specifically, the optimized RF model gave the best results (0.8495), followed by the original RF (0.8169), while the optimized SVM gave lower values (0.7456) than the RF, however higher than the original SVM (0.7148) model. The study highlights the significance of feature selection techniques in forest fire susceptibility, whereas data mining methods could be considered as a valid approach for forest fire susceptibility modeling

  19. Management of forest fires to maximize carbon sequestration in temperate and boreal forests

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Guggenheim, D.E.

    1996-12-31

    This study examines opportunities for applying prescribed burning strategies to forest stands to enhance net carbon sequestration and compared prescribed burning strategies with more conventional forestry-based climate change mitigation alternatives, including fire suppression and afforestation. Biomass burning is a major contributor to greenhouse gas accumulation in the atmosphere. Biomass burning has increased by 50% since 1850. Since 1977, the annual extent of burning in the northern temperate and boreal forests has increased dramatically, from six- to nine-fold. Long-term suppression of fires in North America, Russia, and other parts of the world has led to accumulated fuel load and an increasemore » in the destructive power of wildfires. Prescribed burning has been used successfully to reduce the destructiveness of wildfires. However, across vast areas of Russia and other regions, prescribed burning is not a component of forest management practices. Given these factors and the sheer size of the temperate-boreal carbon sink, increasing attention is being focused on the role of these forests in mitigating climate change, and the role of fire management strategies, such as prescribed burning, which could work alongside more conventional forestry-based greenhouse gas offset strategies, such as afforestation.« less

  20. Strategies for preventing invasive plant outbreaks after prescribed fire in ponderosa pine forest

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Symstad, Amy J.; Newton, Wesley E.; Swanson, Daniel J.

    2014-01-01

    Land managers use prescribed fire to return a vital process to fire-adapted ecosystems, restore forest structure from a state altered by long-term fire suppression, and reduce wildfire intensity. However, fire often produces favorable conditions for invasive plant species, particularly if it is intense enough to reveal bare mineral soil and open previously closed canopies. Understanding the environmental or fire characteristics that explain post-fire invasive plant abundance would aid managers in efficiently finding and quickly responding to fire-caused infestations. To that end, we used an information-theoretic model-selection approach to assess the relative importance of abiotic environmental characteristics (topoedaphic position, distance from roads), pre-and post-fire biotic environmental characteristics (forest structure, understory vegetation, fuel load), and prescribed fire severity (measured in four different ways) in explaining invasive plant cover in ponderosa pine forest in South Dakota’s Black Hills. Environmental characteristics (distance from roads and post-fire forest structure) alone provided the most explanation of variation (26%) in post-fire cover of Verbascum thapsus (common mullein), but a combination of surface fire severity and environmental characteristics (pre-fire forest structure and distance from roads) explained 36–39% of the variation in post-fire cover of Cirsium arvense (Canada thistle) and all invasives together. For four species and all invasives together, their pre-fire cover explained more variation (26–82%) in post-fire cover than environmental and fire characteristics did, suggesting one strategy for reducing post-fire invasive outbreaks may be to find and control invasives before the fire. Finding them may be difficult, however, since pre-fire environmental characteristics explained only 20% of variation in pre-fire total invasive cover, and less for individual species. Thus, moderating fire intensity or targeting areas

  1. Deriving forest fire ignition risk with biogeochemical process modelling.

    PubMed

    Eastaugh, C S; Hasenauer, H

    2014-05-01

    Climate impacts the growth of trees and also affects disturbance regimes such as wildfire frequency. The European Alps have warmed considerably over the past half-century, but incomplete records make it difficult to definitively link alpine wildfire to climate change. Complicating this is the influence of forest composition and fuel loading on fire ignition risk, which is not considered by purely meteorological risk indices. Biogeochemical forest growth models track several variables that may be used as proxies for fire ignition risk. This study assesses the usefulness of the ecophysiological model BIOME-BGC's 'soil water' and 'labile litter carbon' variables in predicting fire ignition. A brief application case examines historic fire occurrence trends over pre-defined regions of Austria from 1960 to 2008. Results show that summer fire ignition risk is largely a function of low soil moisture, while winter fire ignitions are linked to the mass of volatile litter and atmospheric dryness.

  2. Deriving forest fire ignition risk with biogeochemical process modelling☆

    PubMed Central

    Eastaugh, C.S.; Hasenauer, H.

    2014-01-01

    Climate impacts the growth of trees and also affects disturbance regimes such as wildfire frequency. The European Alps have warmed considerably over the past half-century, but incomplete records make it difficult to definitively link alpine wildfire to climate change. Complicating this is the influence of forest composition and fuel loading on fire ignition risk, which is not considered by purely meteorological risk indices. Biogeochemical forest growth models track several variables that may be used as proxies for fire ignition risk. This study assesses the usefulness of the ecophysiological model BIOME-BGC's ‘soil water’ and ‘labile litter carbon’ variables in predicting fire ignition. A brief application case examines historic fire occurrence trends over pre-defined regions of Austria from 1960 to 2008. Results show that summer fire ignition risk is largely a function of low soil moisture, while winter fire ignitions are linked to the mass of volatile litter and atmospheric dryness. PMID:26109905

  3. Relating fire-caused change in forest structure to remotely sensed estimates of fire severity

    Treesearch

    Jamie M. Lydersen; Brandon M. Collins; Jay D. Miller; Danny L. Fry; Scott L. Stephens

    2016-01-01

    Fire severity maps are an important tool for understanding fire effects on a landscape. The relative differenced normalized burn ratio (RdNBR) is a commonly used severity index in California forests, and is typically divided into four categories: unchanged, low, moderate, and high. RdNBR is often calculated twice--from images collected the year of the fire (initial...

  4. Emissions from forest fires near Mexico City.

    Treesearch

    R.J. Yokelson; S.P. Urbanski; E.L. Atlas; D.E. Toohey; E.C. Alvarado; J.D. Crounse; P.O. Wennberg; M.E. Fisher; C.E. Would; T.L. Campos; K. Adachi; P.T. Buseck; W.M. Hao

    2007-01-01

    The emissions of NOx (defined as NO (nitric oxide) + NO2 (nitrogen dioxide)) and hydrogen cyanide (HCN), per unit amount of fuel burned from fires in the pine forests that dominate the mountains surrounding Mexico City (MC) are about 2 times higher than normally observed for forest burning. The ammonia (NH3...

  5. Forest fire in the central Himalaya: climate and recovery of trees

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sharma, Subrat; Rikhari, H. C.

    A forest fire event is influenced by climatic conditions and is supported by accumulation of fuel on forest floor. After forest fire, photosynthetically active solar radiation was reduced due to accumulation of ash and dust particles in atmosphere. Post-fire impacts on Quercus leucotrichophora, Rhododendron arboreum and Lyonia ovalifolia in a broadleaf forest were analysed after a wild fire. Bark depth damage was greatest for L. ovalifolia and least for Q. leucotrichophora. Regeneration of saplings was observed for all the tree species through sprouting. Epicormic recovery was observed for the trees of all the species. Young trees of Q. leucotrichophora (<40 cm circumference at breast height) were susceptible to fire as evident by the lack of sprouting. Under-canopy tree species have a high potential for recovery as evident by greater length and diameter of shoots and numbers of buds and leaves per shoot than canopy species. Leaf area, leaf moisture and specific leaf area were greater in the deciduous species, with few exceptions, than in evergreen species.

  6. Spatio-Temporal Analysis of Forest Fire Risk and Danger Using LANDSAT Imagery.

    PubMed

    Saglam, Bülent; Bilgili, Ertugrul; Dincdurmaz, Bahar; Kadiogulari, Ali Ihsan; Kücük, Ömer

    2008-06-20

    Computing fire danger and fire risk on a spatio-temporal scale is of crucial importance in fire management planning, and in the simulation of fire growth and development across a landscape. However, due to the complex nature of forests, fire risk and danger potential maps are considered one of the most difficult thematic layers to build up. Remote sensing and digital terrain data have been introduced for efficient discrete classification of fire risk and fire danger potential. In this study, two time-series data of Landsat imagery were used for determining spatio-temporal change of fire risk and danger potential in Korudag forest planning unit in northwestern Turkey. The method comprised the following two steps: (1) creation of indices of the factors influencing fire risk and danger; (2) evaluation of spatio-temporal changes in fire risk and danger of given areas using remote sensing as a quick and inexpensive means and determining the pace of forest cover change. Fire risk and danger potential indices were based on species composition, stand crown closure, stand development stage, insolation, slope and, proximity of agricultural lands to forest and distance from settlement areas. Using the indices generated, fire risk and danger maps were produced for the years 1987 and 2000. Spatio-temporal analyses were then realized based on the maps produced. Results obtained from the study showed that the use of Landsat imagery provided a valuable characterization and mapping of vegetation structure and type with overall classification accuracy higher than 83%.

  7. Spatial patterns and controls on historical fire regimes and forest structure in the Klamath Mountains

    Treesearch

    Alan H. Taylor; Carl N. Skinner

    2003-01-01

    Fire exclusion in mixed conifer forests has increased the risk of fire due to decades of fuel accumulation. Restoration of fire into altered forests is a challenge because of a poor understanding of the spatial and temporal dynamics of fire regimes. In this study the spatial and temporal characteristics of fire regimes and forest age structure are reconstructed in a...

  8. Fuel buildup and potential fire behavior after stand-replacing fires, logging fire-killed trees and herbicide shrub removal in Sierra Nevada forests

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    McGinnis, Thomas W.; Keeley, Jon E.; Stephens, Scott L.; Roller, Gary B.

    2010-01-01

    Typically, after large stand-replacing fires in mid-elevation Sierra Nevada forests, dense shrub fields occupy sites formerly occupied by mature conifers, until eventually conifers overtop and shade out shrubs. Attempting to reduce fuel loads and expedite forest regeneration in these areas, the USDA Forest Service often disrupts this cycle by the logging of fire-killed trees, replanting of conifers and killing of shrubs. We measured the effects of these treatments on live and dead fuel loads and alien species and modeled potential fire behavior and fire effects on regenerating forests. Sampling occurred in untreated, logged and herbicide-treated stands throughout the Sierra Nevada in four large fire areas 4–21 years after stand-replacing fires. Logging fire-killed trees significantly increased total available dead fuel loads in the short term but did not affect shrub cover, grass and forb cover, alien species cover or alien species richness. Despite the greater available dead fuel loads, fire behavior was not modeled to be different between logged and untreated stands, due to abundant shrub fuels in both logged and untreated stands. In contrast, the herbicide treatment directed at shrubs resulted in extremely low shrub cover, significantly greater alien species richness and significantly greater alien grass and forb cover. Grass and forb cover was strongly correlated with solar radiation on the ground, which may be the primary reason that grass and forb cover was higher in herbicide treated stands with low shrub and tree cover. Repeat burning exacerbated the alien grass problem in some stands. Although modeled surface fire flame lengths and rates of spread were found to be greater in stands dominated by shrubs, compared to low shrub cover conifer plantations, surface fire would still be intense enough to kill most trees, given their small size and low crown heights in the first two decades after planting.

  9. Toward a more ecologically informed view of severe forest fires

    Treesearch

    Richard L. Hutto; Robert E. Keane; Rosemary L. Sherriff; Christopher T. Rota; Lisa A. Eby; Vicki Saab

    2016-01-01

    We use the historical presence of high-severity fire patches in mixed-conifer forests of the western United States to make several points that we hope will encourage development of a more ecologically informed view of severe wildland fire effects. First, many plant and animal species use, and have sometimes evolved to depend on, severely burned forest...

  10. Targeting forest management through fire and erosion modeling

    Treesearch

    William J. Elliot; Mary Ellen Miller; Nic Enstice

    2016-01-01

    Forests deliver a number of important ecosystem services, including clean water. When forests are disturbed by wildfire, the timing, quantity and quality of runoff are altered. A modelling study was conducted in a forested watershed in California, USA, to determine the risk of wildfire, and the potential post-fire sediment delivery from ~4-ha hillslope polygons within...

  11. Assessment of fire effects based on Forest Inventory and Analysis data and a long-term fire mapping data set

    Treesearch

    John D. Shaw; Sara A. Goeking; James Menlove; Charles E. Werstak

    2017-01-01

    Integration of Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) plot data with Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (MTBS) data can provide new information about fire effects on forests. This integration allowed broad-scale assessment of the cover types burned in large fires, the relationship between prefire stand conditions and fire severity, and postfire stand conditions. Of the 42...

  12. Effects of fire season on vegetation in longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) forests

    Treesearch

    Bryan T. Mudder; G. Geoff Wang; Joan L. Walker; J. Drew Lanham; Ralph Costa

    2010-01-01

    Forest managers in the Southeastern United States are interested in the restoration of not only longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) trees, but also the characteristic forest structure and ground-layer vegetation of the longleaf pine ecosystem. Season of burn, fire intensity, and fire frequency are critical components of a fire regime that supports...

  13. Utilization of geoinformation tools for the development of forest fire hazard mapping system: example of Pekan fire, Malaysia

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mahmud, Ahmad Rodzi; Setiawan, Iwan; Mansor, Shattri; Shariff, Abdul Rashid Mohamed; Pradhan, Biswajeet; Nuruddin, Ahmed

    2009-12-01

    A study in modeling fire hazard assessment will be essential in establishing an effective forest fire management system especially in controlling and preventing peat fire. In this paper, we have used geographic information system (GIS), in combination with other geoinformation technologies such as remote sensing and computer modeling, for all aspects of wild land fire management. Identifying areas that have a high probability of burning is an important component of fire management planning. The development of spatially explicit GIS models has greatly facilitated this process by allowing managers to map and analyze variables contributing to fire occurrence across large, unique geographic units. Using the model and its associated software engine, the fire hazard map was produced. Extensive avenue programming scripts were written to provide additional capabilities in the development of these interfaces to meet the full complement of operational software considering various users requirements. The system developed not only possesses user friendly step by step operations to deliver the fire vulnerability mapping but also allows authorized users to edit, add or modify parameters whenever necessary. Results from the model can support fire hazard mapping in the forest and enhance alert system function by simulating and visualizing forest fire and helps for contingency planning.

  14. Estimation of the Forest Fire Risk in Indonesia based on Satellite Remote Sensing

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Suzuki, H.; Takahashi, Y.; Hashimoto, A.; Akita, M.; Hasegawa, Y.; Ogino, Y.; Naruse, N.; Takahashi, Y.

    2016-12-01

    To minimize forest fires in tropical area is extremely important, because the fire has a large impact on global warming, biodiversity, and human society. In the previous study, Shimada and Ishibashi monitored the ground-water lever from the value of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) obtained in Kalimantan Island to predict where the forest fires will happen. We have developed a method to map the forest fire risk by calculating the value of Modified Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index 2 (MSAVI2). Moreover, we investigated the relation between the distance from a road as an artificial factor and the occurrence of the fire.First, calculating the MSAVI2 from Landsat 7 and 8 images of August, 2015 around Martapura in South Sumatra, Indonesia, we mapped the area where the plants were stressed. Next, we checked the degrees of matching between the area of low MSAVI2 and the forest fire points.As a result, half of the fires happened in the area having the MSAVI2 values of 0.20 to 0.35. When we focused on only the area which is over 5 kilometers far from a road, the degrees of matching became higher; it rose up to 62 percent.Those results indicate that the fire risks relate to the dry area calculated as low MSAVI2 in the case with less human activities. We need to consider an effect of artificial factors to estimate the whole risk of forest fire.In conclusion, the map of forest fire risk by calculating the value of MSAVI2 is applicable to an area with less artificial factor, while we have to take the effect of artificial fire factor into the consideration.

  15. Post-fire surface fuel dynamics in California forests across three burn severity classes

    Treesearch

    Bianca N. I. Eskelson; Vicente J. Monleon

    2018-01-01

    Forest wildfires consume fuel and are followed by post-fire fuel accumulation. This study examines post-fire surface fuel dynamics over 9 years across a wide range of conditions characteristic of California fires in dry conifer and hardwood forests. We estimated post-fire surface fuel loadings (Mg ha _1) from 191 repeatedly measured United States...

  16. Sensitivity of ALOS/PALSAR imagery to forest degradation by fire in northern Amazon

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Martins, Flora da Silva Ramos Vieira; dos Santos, João Roberto; Galvão, Lênio Soares; Xaud, Haron Abrahim Magalhães

    2016-07-01

    We evaluated the sensitivity of the full polarimetric Phased Array type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (PALSAR), onboard the Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS), to forest degradation caused by fires in northern Amazon, Brazil. We searched for changes in PALSAR signal and tri-dimensional polarimetric responses for different classes of fire disturbance defined by fire frequency and severity. Since the aboveground biomass (AGB) is affected by fire, multiple regression models to estimate AGB were obtained for the whole set of coherent and incoherent attributes (general model) and for each set separately (specific models). The results showed that the polarimetric L-band PALSAR attributes were sensitive to variations in canopy structure and AGB caused by forest fire. However, except for the unburned and thrice burned classes, no single PALSAR attribute was able to discriminate between the intermediate classes of forest degradation by fire. Both the coherent and incoherent polarimetric attributes were important to explain AGB variations in tropical forests affected by fire. The HV backscattering coefficient, anisotropy, double-bounce component, orientation angle, volume index and HH-VV phase difference were PALSAR attributes selected from multiple regression analysis to estimate AGB. The general regression model, combining phase and power radar metrics, presented better results than specific models using coherent or incoherent attributes. The polarimetric responses indicated the dominance of VV-oriented backscattering in primary forest and lightly burned forests. The HH-oriented backscattering predominated in heavily and frequently burned forests. The results suggested a greater contribution of horizontally arranged constituents such as fallen trunks or branches in areas severely affected by fire.

  17. Effects of fire on spotted owl site occupancy in a late-successional forest

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Roberts, Susan L.; van Wagtendonk, Jan W.; Miles, A. Keith; Kelt, Douglas A.

    2011-01-01

    The spotted owl (Strix occidentalis) is a late-successional forest dependent species that is sensitive to forest management practices throughout its range. An increase in the frequency and spatial extent of standreplacing fires in western North America has prompted concern for the persistence of spotted owls and other sensitive late-successional forest associated species. However, there is sparse information on the effects of fire on spotted owls to guide conservation policies. In 2004-2005, we surveyed for California spotted owls during the breeding season at 32 random sites (16 burned, 16 unburned) throughout late-successional montane forest in Yosemite National Park, California. Our burned areas burned at all severities, but predominately involved low to moderate fire severity. Based on an information theoretic approach, spotted owl detection and occupancy rates were similar between burned and unburned sites. Nest and roost site occupancy was best explained by a model that combined total tree basal area (positive effect) with cover by coarse woody debris (negative effect). The density estimates of California spotted owl pairs were similar in burned and unburned forests, and the overall mean density estimate for Yosemite was higher than previously reported for montane forests. Our results indicate that low to moderate severity fires, historically common within montane forests of the Sierra Nevada, California, maintain habitat characteristics essential for spotted owl site occupancy. These results suggest that managed fires that emulate the historic fire regime of these forests may maintain spotted owl habitat and protect this species from the effects of future catastrophic fires.

  18. Forest diversity, climate change and forest fires in the Mediterranean region of Turkey.

    PubMed

    Ozturk, Munir; Gucel, Salih; Kucuk, Mahir; Sakcali, Serdal

    2010-01-01

    This paper reviews the forest resources in Turkey in the light of published literature and summarises extensive fieldwork undertaken in the Mediterranean phytogeograhical region of Turkey. The issues of landscape change and the associated drivers are addressed and the threats to the forest diversity are considered. It notes the impacts of climate change and forest fires and attemepts have been made to put forth future options for sustainable forest development.

  19. Fire, Carbon and Climate Change in Boreal Forests

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Flannigan, M. D.; Amiro, B. D.; Logan, K. A.

    2005-12-01

    Disturbances are the major stand-renewing agents for much of the circumboreal forest. In Canada, fire has received much of the attention in carbon cycle science because it affects about 3 million ha of Canadian forest annually, impacts air quality, and can threaten life, property and infrastructure. Fire affects the carbon balance through three processes. First, carbon and other greenhouse gases are emitted to the atmosphere during the combustion process. We estimate this to average about 27 Tg C/year in Canada over the past 40 years, which is close to 20% of industrial carbon emissions. However, in some years this can exceed 100 Tg C. Efforts are underway to estimate global fire activity and greenhouse gas emissions using observations, remote sensing and modelling. The second process is the decomposition of fire-killed vegetation. This forms a pool of coarse woody debris that can take decades to decompose, or can be quite rapid, depending on the post-fire environment. The third process is succession of vegetation following fire, a dynamic process that involves the interplay among species establishment and competition. Weather and climate affects all of these processes. Estimates of the future environment indicate that much of boreal Canada will experience warmer and drier conditions, although there will be regional differences and transient effects. The projections suggest that we may experience a doubling of area burned over the next century because of anthropogenic climate changes. This may have further implications to the global carbon budget by increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations. This increase in fire activity may lead to a positive feedback cycle with the increased release of greenhouse gases. A run-away scenario is unlikely because young successional boreal vegetation often does not burn as readily and would limit the positive feedback cycle. Also, changes to the forest composition following fire increases surface albedo and alters the

  20. Mega-fire Recovery in Dry Conifer Forests of the Interior West

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Malone, S. L.; Fornwalt, P.; Chambers, M. E.; Battaglia, M.

    2015-12-01

    Wildfire is a complex landscape process with great uncertainty in whether trends in size and severity are shifting trajectories for ecosystem recovery that are outside of the historical range of variability. Considering that wildfire size and severity is likely to increase into the future with a drier climate, it is important that we understand wildfire effects and ecosystem recovery. To evaluate how ecosystems recover from wildfire we measured spatial patterns in regeneration and mapped tree refugia within mega-fire perimeters (Hayman, Jasper, Bobcat, and Grizzly Gulch) in ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) dominated forest. On average, high severity fire effects accounted for > 15% of burned area and increased with fire size. Areas with high severity fire effects contained 1 - 15% tree refugia cover, compared to 37 - 70% observed in low severity areas . Large high severity patches with low coverage of tree refugia, were more frequent in larger fires and regeneration distances required to initiate forest recovery far exceeded 1.5 canopy height or 200 m, distances where the vast majority of regeneration is likely to arise. Using a recovery model driven by distance, we estimate recovery times between 300 to > 1000 years for these mega-fires. In Western dry conifer forests, large patches of stand replacing fire are likely to lead to uneven aged forest and very long recovery times.

  1. Alaska’s changing fire regime - Implications for the vulnerability of its boreal forests

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Kasischke, Eric S.; Verbyla, David L.; Rupp, T. Scott; McGuire, A. David; Murphy, Karen A.; Jandt, R.; Barnes, Jennifer L.; Hoy, E.; Duffy, Paul A.; Calef, Monika; Turetsky, Merritt R.

    2010-01-01

    A synthesis was carried out to examine Alaska’s boreal forest fire regime. During the 2000s, an average of 767 000 ha·year–1 burned, 50% higher than in any previous decade since the 1940s. Over the past 60 years, there was a decrease in the number of lightning-ignited fires, an increase in extreme lightning-ignited fire events, an increase in human-ignited fires, and a decrease in the number of extreme human-ignited fire events. The fraction of area burned from human-ignited fires fell from 26% for the 1950s and 1960s to 5% for the 1990s and 2000s, a result from the change in fire policy that gave the highest suppression priorities to fire events that occurred near human settlements. The amount of area burned during late-season fires increased over the past two decades. Deeper burning of surface organic layers in black spruce (Picea mariana (Mill.) BSP) forests occurred during late-growing-season fires and on more well-drained sites. These trends all point to black spruce forests becoming increasingly vulnerable to the combined changes of key characteristics of Alaska’s fire regime, except on poorly drained sites, which are resistant to deep burning. The implications of these fire regime changes to the vulnerability and resilience of Alaska’s boreal forests and land and fire management are discussed.

  2. Strengthening community participation in reducing GHG emission from forest and peatland fire

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Thoha, A. S.; Saharjo, B. H.; Boer, R.; Ardiansyah, M.

    2018-02-01

    Strengthening community participation is needed to find solutions to encourage community more participate in reducing Green House Gas (GHG) from forest and peatland fire. This research aimed to identify stakeholders that have the role in forest and peatland fire control and to formulate strengthening model of community participation through community-based early warning fire. Stakeholder mapping and action research were used to determine stakeholders that had potential influence and interest and to formulate strengthening model of community participation in reducing GHG from forest and peatland fire. There was found that position of key players in the mapping of stakeholders came from the government institution. The existence of community-based fire control group can strengthen government institution through collaborating with stakeholders having strong interest and influence. Moreover, it was found several local knowledge in Kapuas District about how communities predict drought that have potential value for developing the community-based early warning fire system. Formulated institutional model in this research also can be further developed as a model institution in the preservation of natural resources based on local knowledge. In conclusion, local knowledge and community-based fire groups can be integrated within strengthening model of community participation in reducing GHG from forest and peatland fire.

  3. Early forest dynamics in stand-replacing fire patches in the northern Sierra Nevada, California, USA

    Treesearch

    Brandon M. Collins; Gary B. Roller

    2013-01-01

    There is considerable concern over the occurrence of stand-replacing fire in forest types historically associated with low- to moderate-severity fire. The concern is largely over whether contemporary levels of stand-replacing fire are outside the historical range of variability, and what natural forest recovery is in these forest types following stand-replacing fire....

  4. A WebGIS-based command control system for forest fire fighting

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yang, Jianyu; Ming, Dongping; Zhang, Xiaodong; Huang, Haitao

    2006-10-01

    Forest is a finite resource and fire prevention is crucial work. However, once a forest fire or accident occurs, timely and effective fire-fighting is the only necessary measure. The aim of this research is to build a computerized command control system based on WEBGIS to direct fire-fighting. Firstly, this paper introduces the total technique flow and functional modules of the system. Secondly, this paper analyses the key techniques for building the system, and they are data obtaining, data organizing & management, architecture of WebGIS and sharing & interoperation technique. In the end, this paper demonstrates the on line martial symbol editing function to show the running result of system. The practical application of this system showed that it played very important role in the forest fire fighting work. In addition, this paper proposes some strategic recommendations for the further development of the system.

  5. Vulnerability and Resilience of Temperate Forest Landscapes to Broad-Scale Deforestation in Response to Changing Fire Regimes and Altered Post-Fire Vegetation Dynamics

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tepley, A. J.; Veblen, T. T.; Perry, G.; Anderson-Teixeira, K. J.

    2015-12-01

    In the face of on-going climatic warming and land-use change, there is growing concern that temperate forest landscapes could be near a tipping point where relatively small changes to the fire regime or altered post-fire vegetation dynamics could lead to extensive conversion to shrublands or savannas. To evaluate vulnerability and resilience to such conversion, we develop a simple model based on three factors we hypothesize to be key in predicting temperate forest responses to changing fire regimes: (1) the hazard rate (i.e., the probability of burning in the next year given the time since the last fire) in closed-canopy forests, (2) the hazard rate for recently-burned, open-canopy vegetation, and (3) the time to redevelop canopy closure following fire. We generate a response surface representing the proportions of the landscape potentially supporting closed-canopy forest and non-forest vegetation under nearly all combinations of these three factors. We then place real landscapes on this response surface to assess the type and magnitude of changes to the fire regime that would drive extensive forest loss. We show that the deforestation of much of New Zealand that followed initial human colonization and the introduction of a new ignition source ca. 750 years ago was essentially inevitable due to the slow rate of forest recovery after fire and the high flammability of post-fire vegetation. In North America's Pacific Northwest, by contrast, a predominantly forested landscape persisted despite two periods of widespread burning in the recent past due in large part to faster post-fire forest recovery and less pronounced differences in flammability between forests and the post-fire vegetation. We also assess the factors that could drive extensive deforestation in other regions to identify where management could reduce this potential and to guide field and modeling work to better understand the responses and ecological feedbacks to changing fire regimes.

  6. Fire performance in traditional silvicultural and fire and fire surrogate treatments in Sierran mixed-conifer forests: a brief summary

    Treesearch

    Jason J. Moghaddas; Scott L. Stephens

    2007-01-01

    Mixed conifer forests cover 7.9 million acres of California’s total land base. Forest structure in these forests has been influenced by harvest practices and silvicultural systems implemented since the beginning of the California Gold Rush in 1849. Today, the role of fire in coniferous forests, both in shaping past stand structure and its ability to shape future...

  7. The principles of measuring forest fire danger

    Treesearch

    H. T. Gisborne

    1936-01-01

    Research in fire danger measurement was commenced in 1922 at the Northern Rocky Mountain Forest and Range Experiment Station of the U. S. Forest Service, with headquarters at Missoula, Mont. Since then investigations have been made concerning ( 1) what to measure, (2) how to measure, and ( 3) field use of these measurements. In all cases the laboratory or restricted...

  8. The enigmatic fire regime of coast redwood forests and why it matters

    Treesearch

    J. Morgan Varner; Erik S. Jules

    2017-01-01

    Of perhaps all forests in North America, the fire regime of coast redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens (D. Don) Endl.) is most enigmatic. Widely considered a temperate rainforest, a large number of fire history studies depict a forest dominated by frequent surface fire regimes. Coast redwood also has a long list of traits that allow it to persist and...

  9. Mitigating Large Fires in Drossel-Schwabl Forest Fire Models

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yoder, M.; Turcotte, D.; Rundle, J.; Morein, G.

    2008-12-01

    We employ variations of the traditional Drossel-Schwabl cellular automata Forest Fire Models (FFM) to study wildfire dynamics. The traditional FFM produces a very robust power law distribution of events, as a function of size, with frequency-size slope very close to -1. Observed data from Australia, the US and northern Mexico suggest that real wild fires closely follow power laws in frequency size with slopes ranging from close to -2 to -1.3 (B.D. Malamud et al. 2005). We suggest two models that, by fracturing and trimming large clusters, reduce the number of large fires while maintaining scale invariance. These fracturing and trimming processes can be justified in terms of real physical processes. For each model, we achieve slopes in the frequency-size relation ranging from approximately -1.77 to -1.06.

  10. Defining old growth for fire-adapted forests of the Western United States

    Treesearch

    Merrill R. Kaufmann; Daniel Binkley; Peter Z. Fule; Johnson Marlin; Scott L. Stephens; Thomas W. Swetnam

    2007-01-01

    There are varying definitions of old-growth forests because of differences in environment and differing fire influence across the Intermountain West. Two general types of forests reflect the role of fire: 1) forests shaped by natural changes in structure and species makeup-plant succession-that are driven by competitive differences among species and individual trees...

  11. Rehabilitation of fire-damaged forest lands in southwestern Maine

    Treesearch

    A. D. Nutting; James C. Rettie; Wayne G. Banks

    1949-01-01

    Recognizing that it can ill afford the loss of timber productivity on the large acreage of forest land burned over by the 1947 fires, the state of Maine requested assistance of the Northeastern Forest Experiment Station of the United States Forest Service in a program of research that would aid in the rehabilitation of the burned-over forest land.

  12. Tree mortality based fire severity classification for forest inventories: A Pacific Northwest national forests example

    Treesearch

    Thomas R. Whittier; Andrew N. Gray

    2016-01-01

    Determining how the frequency, severity, and extent of forest fires are changing in response to changes in management and climate is a key concern in many regions where fire is an important natural disturbance. In the USA the only national-scale fire severity classification uses satellite image changedetection to produce maps for large (>400 ha) fires, and is...

  13. Fire Effects on Microbial Dynamics and C, N, and P Cycling in Larch Forests of the Siberian Arctic

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ludwig, S.; Alexander, H. D.; Mann, P. J.; Natali, S.; Schade, J. D.

    2013-12-01

    Arctic forest ecosystems are warming at an accelerated rate relative to lower latitudes, with global implications for C cycling within these regions. As climate continues to warm and dry, wildfire frequency and severity are predicted to increase, creating a positive feedback to climate warming. Because soil microbes regulate carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) cycling between terrestrial ecosystems and the atmosphere, it is important to understand microbial response to fires, particularly in the understudied larch forests in the Siberian Arctic. In this project, we created experimental burn plots in a mature larch forest in the Kolyma River watershed of Northeastern Siberia. Plots were burned at several treatments: control (no burn), low, moderate, and severe. After 1 day, 8 days and 1 year post-fire, we measured CO2 flux from the plots, and measured dissolved organic carbon (DOC), total dissolved nitrogen (TDN), NH4, NO3, PO4, and chromophoric dissolved organic matter (CDOM) from soil leachates. Furthermore, we measured extracellular activity of four enzymes involved in soil C and nutrient cycling (leucine aminopeptidase (LAP), β-glucosidase, phosphatase, and phenol oxidase). Both 1 day and 8 days post-fire DOC, TDN, NH4, and PO4 all increased with burn severity, but by 1 year they were similar to control plots. The aromaticity and molecular weight of DOM decreased with fire severity. One day post-fire we observed a spike in phenol oxidase activity in the severe burns only, and a decline in β-glucosidase and phosphatase activity. By 8 days post-fire all enzyme activities were at the level of the control plots. 1 year post-fire LAP, β-glucosidase, and phosphatase all decreased with fire severity, parallel to a decrease in CO2 flux by fire severity. Ratios of enzymatic activity 1 year post-fire reflect a switch of resource allocation from P acquiring to N acquiring activities in more severe fires. Our results show an immediate microbial response to the short-term effects

  14. Fire effects on Gambel oak in southwestern ponderosa pine-oak forests

    Treesearch

    Scott R. Abella; Peter Z. Fulé

    2008-01-01

    Gambel oak (Quercus gambelii) is ecologically and aesthetically valuable in southwestern ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) forests. Fire effects on Gambel oak are important because fire may be used in pine-oak forests to manage oak directly or to accomplish other management objectives. We used published literature to: (1) ascertain...

  15. Fire effects on infiltration rates after prescribed fire in northern Rocky Mountain forests, USA

    Treesearch

    Peter R. Robichaud

    2000-01-01

    Infiltration rates in undisturbed forest environments are generally high. These high infiltration rates may be reduced when forest management activities such as timber harvesting and/or prescribed fires are used. Post-harvest residue burning is a common site preparation treatment used in the Northern Rocky Mountains, USA, to reduce forest fuels and to prepare sites for...

  16. Fungal Community Shifts in Structure and Function across a Boreal Forest Fire Chronosequence

    PubMed Central

    Santalahti, Minna; Pumpanen, Jukka; Köster, Kajar; Berninger, Frank; Raffaello, Tommaso; Jumpponen, Ari; Asiegbu, Fred O.; Heinonsalo, Jussi

    2015-01-01

    Forest fires are a common natural disturbance in forested ecosystems and have a large impact on the microbial communities in forest soils. The response of soil fungal communities to forest fire is poorly documented. Here, we investigated fungal community structure and function across a 152-year boreal forest fire chronosequence using high-throughput sequencing of the internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) region and a functional gene array (GeoChip). Our results demonstrate that the boreal forest soil fungal community was most diverse soon after a fire disturbance and declined over time. The differences in the fungal communities were explained by changes in the abundance of basidiomycetes and ascomycetes. Ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi contributed to the increase in basidiomycete abundance over time, with the operational taxonomic units (OTUs) representing the genera Cortinarius and Piloderma dominating in abundance. Hierarchical cluster analysis by using gene signal intensity revealed that the sites with different fire histories formed separate clusters, suggesting differences in the potential to maintain essential biogeochemical soil processes. The site with the greatest biological diversity had also the most diverse genes. The genes involved in organic matter degradation in the mature forest, in which ECM fungi were the most abundant, were as common in the youngest site, in which saprotrophic fungi had a relatively higher abundance. This study provides insight into the impact of fire disturbance on soil fungal community dynamics. PMID:26341215

  17. Multi-temporal analysis of forest fire risk driven by environmental and socio-economic change in the Republic of Korea

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kim, S. J.; Lim, C. H.; Kim, G. S.; Lee, W. K.

    2017-12-01

    Analysis of forest fire risk is important in disaster risk reduction (DRR) since it provides a way to manage forest fires. Climate and socio-economic factors are important in the cause of forest fires, and the role of the socio-economic factors in prevention and preparedness of forest fires is increasing. As most of the forest fires in the Republic of Korea are highly related to human activities, both environmental factors and socio-economic factors were considered into the analysis of forest fire risk. In this study, the Maximum Entropy (MaxEnt) model was used to predict the potential geographical distribution and probability of forest fire occurrence spatially and temporally from 1980s to the 2010s in the Republic of Korea by multi-temporal analysis and analyze the relationship between forest fires and the factors. As a result of the risk analysis, there was an overall increasing trend in forest fire risk from the 1980s to the 2000s, and socio-economic factors were highly correlated with the occurrence of forest fires. The study demonstrates that the socio-economic factors considered as human activities can increase the occurrence of forest fires. The result implies that managing human activities are significant to prevent forest fire occurrence. In addition, timely forest fire prevention and control is necessary as drought index such as Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) also affected forest fires.

  18. Do multiple fires interact to affect vegetation structure in temperate eucalypt forests?

    PubMed

    Haslem, Angie; Leonard, Steve W J; Bruce, Matthew J; Christie, Fiona; Holland, Greg J; Kelly, Luke T; MacHunter, Josephine; Bennett, Andrew F; Clarke, Michael F; York, Alan

    2016-12-01

    Fire plays an important role in structuring vegetation in fire-prone regions worldwide. Progress has been made towards documenting the effects of individual fire events and fire regimes on vegetation structure; less is known of how different fire history attributes (e.g., time since fire, fire frequency) interact to affect vegetation. Using the temperate eucalypt foothill forests of southeastern Australia as a case study system, we examine two hypotheses about such interactions: (1) post-fire vegetation succession (e.g., time-since-fire effects) is influenced by other fire regime attributes and (2) the severity of the most recent fire overrides the effect of preceding fires on vegetation structure. Empirical data on vegetation structure were collected from 540 sites distributed across central and eastern Victoria, Australia. Linear mixed models were used to examine these hypotheses and determine the relative influence of fire and environmental attributes on vegetation structure. Fire history measures, particularly time since fire, affected several vegetation attributes including ground and canopy strata; others such as low and sub-canopy vegetation were more strongly influenced by environmental characteristics like rainfall. There was little support for the hypothesis that post-fire succession is influenced by fire history attributes other than time since fire; only canopy regeneration was influenced by another variable (fire type, representing severity). Our capacity to detect an overriding effect of the severity of the most recent fire was limited by a consistently weak effect of preceding fires on vegetation structure. Overall, results suggest the primary way that fire affects vegetation structure in foothill forests is via attributes of the most recent fire, both its severity and time since its occurrence; other attributes of fire regimes (e.g., fire interval, frequency) have less influence. The strong effect of environmental drivers, such as rainfall and

  19. A multidisciplinary decision support system for forest fire crisis management.

    PubMed

    Keramitsoglou, Iphigenia; Kiranoudis, Chris T; Sarimveis, Haralambos; Sifakis, Nicolaos

    2004-02-01

    A wildland fire is a serious threat for forest ecosystems in Southern Europe affecting severely and irreversibly regions of significant ecological value as well as human communities. To support decision makers during large-scale forest fire incidents, a multidisciplinary system has been developed that provides rational and quantitative information based on the site-specific circumstances and the possible consequences. The system's architecture consists of several distinct supplementary modules of near real-time satellite monitoring and fire forecast using an integrated framework of satellite Remote Sensing, GIS, and RDBMS technologies equipped with interactive communication capabilities. The system may handle multiple fire ignitions and support decisions regarding dispatching of utilities, equipment, and personnel that would appropriately attack the fire front. The operational system was developed for the region of Penteli Mountain in Attika, Greece, one of the mountain areas in the country most hit by fires. Starting from a real fire incident in August 2000, a scenario is presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

  20. Increasing resiliency in frequent fire forests: Lessons from the Sierra Nevada and western Australia

    Treesearch

    Scott L. Stephens

    2014-01-01

    This paper will primarily focus on the management and restoration of forests adapted to frequent, low-moderate intensity fire regimes. These are the forest types that are most at risk from large, high-severity wildfires and in many regions their fire regimes are changing. Fire as a landscape process can exhibit self-limiting characteristics in some forests which can...

  1. Fire and the herbaceous layer of eastern oak forests

    Treesearch

    Todd Hutchinson

    2006-01-01

    Across oak forest landscapes, the herbaceous layer supports the great majority of plant diversity. As the use of prescribed fire increases, it is important to better understand its effects on biodiversity. This paper reviews the current ?state of the knowledge? regarding fire effects on herbaceous layer vegetation. In typical dormant-season fires, direct heating...

  2. Spatial and temporal corroboration of a fire-scar-based fire history in a frequently burned ponderosa pine forest

    Treesearch

    Calvin A. Farris; Christopher H. Baisan; Donald A. Falk; Stephen R. Yool; Thomas W. Swetnam

    2010-01-01

    Fire scars are used widely to reconstruct historical fire regime parameters in forests around the world. Because fire scars provide incomplete records of past fire occurrence at discrete points in space, inferences must be made to reconstruct fire frequency and extent across landscapes using spatial networks of fire-scar samples. Assessing the relative accuracy of fire...

  3. A study of forest fire danger district division in Lushan Mountain based on RS and GIS

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Xiao, Jinxiang; Huang, Shu-E.; Zhong, Anjian; Zhu, Biqin; Ye, Qing; Sun, Lijun

    2009-09-01

    The study selected 9 factors, average maximum temperature, average temperature, average precipitation, average the longest days of continuous drought and average wind speed during fire prevention period, vegetation type, altitude, slope and aspect as the index of forest fire danger district division, which has taken the features of Lushan Mountain's forest fire history into consideration, then assigned subjective weights to each factor according to their sensitivity to fire or their fire-inducing capability. By remote sensing and GIS, vegetation information layer were gotten from Landsat TM image and DEM with a scale of 1:50000 was abstracted from the digital scanned relief map. Topography info. (elevation, slope, aspect) layers could be gotten after that. A climate resource databank that contained the data from the stations of Lushan Mountain and other nearby 7 stations was built up and extrapolated through the way of grid extrapolation in order to make the distribution map of climate resource. Finally synthetical district division maps were made by weighing and integrating all the single factor special layers,and the study area were divided into three forest fire danger district, include special fire danger district, I-fire danger district and II-fire danger district. It could be used as a basis for developing a forest fire prevention system, preparing the annual investment plan, allocating reasonably the investment of fire prevention, developing the program of forest fire prevention and handle, setting up forest fire brigade, leaders' decisions on forest fire prevention work.

  4. Chemical and dispersal characteristics of particulate emissions from forest fires in Siberia

    Treesearch

    Y. N. Samsonov; V. A. Ivanov; D. J. McRae; S. P. Baker

    2012-01-01

    Approximately 20 experimental fires were conducted on forest plots of 1-4 ha each in 2000-07 in two types of boreal forests in central Siberia, and 18 on 6 x 12-m plots in 2008-10. These experiments were designed to mimic wildfires under similar burning conditions. The fires were conducted in prescribed conditions including full documentation on pre-fire weather, pre-...

  5. Aerosol spectral optical depths - Jet fuel and forest fire smokes

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Pueschel, R. F.; Livingston, J. M.

    1990-01-01

    The Ames autotracking airborne sun photometer was used to investigate the spectral depth between 380 and 1020 nm of smokes from a jet fuel pool fire and a forest fire in May and August 1988, respectively. Results show that the forest fire smoke exhibited a stronger wavelength dependence of optical depths than did the jet fuel fire smoke at optical depths less than unity. At optical depths greater than or equal to 1, both smokes showed neutral wavelength dependence, similar to that of an optically thin stratus deck. These results verify findings of earlier investigations and have implications both on the climatic impact of large-scale smokes and on the wavelength-dependent transmission of electromagnetic signals.

  6. Effectiveness of Fire and Fire Surrogate Treatments For Controlling Wildfire Behavior in Piedmont Forests: A Simulation Study

    Treesearch

    Helen H. Mohr; Thomas A. Waldrop; Sandra Rideout; Ross J. Phillips; Charles T. Flint

    2004-01-01

    The need for fuel reduction has increased in United States forests due to decades of fire exclusion. Excessive fuel buildup has led to uncharacteristically severe fires in areas with historically short-interval, low-to-moderate-intensity fire regimes. The National Fire and Fire Surrogate (NFFS) Study compared the impacts of three fuel-reduction treatments on numerous...

  7. Fire History of a Ridge and Valley Oak Forest

    Treesearch

    Thomas M. Schuler; W. Russ McClain

    2003-01-01

    The fire history of an oak stand located near Pike Knob, Pendleton County, WV is described. A 156-year fire history chronology was developed from 1846 to 2002 and fire intervals ranged from 7 to 32 years for a single forest stand. The Weibull median fire interval was 14.76 years for one or more trees scarred during a single year, and 17.11 years when at least two trees...

  8. Small-area estimation of forest attributes within fire boundaries

    Treesearch

    T. Frescino; G. Moisen; K. Adachi; J. Breidt

    2014-01-01

    Wildfires are gaining more attention every year as they burn more frequently, more intensely, and across larger landscapes. Generating timely estimates of forest resources within fire perimeters is important for land managers to quickly determine the impact of fi res on U.S. forests. The U.S. Forest Service’s Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program needs tools to...

  9. Western forest, fire risk, and climate change

    Treesearch

    Valerie Rapp

    2004-01-01

    Climate warming may first show up in forests as increased growth, which occurs as warmer temperatures, increased carbon dioxide, and more precipitation encourage higher rates of photosynthesis. The second way that climate change may show up in forests is through changes in disturbance regimes—the long-term patterns of fire, drought, insects, and diseases that are basic...

  10. Western forests, fire risk, and climate change.

    Treesearch

    Valerie Rapp

    2004-01-01

    Climate warming may first show up in forests as increased growth, which occurs as warmer temperatures, increased carbon dioxide, and more precipitation encourage higher rates of photosynthesis. The second way that climate change may show up in forests is through changes in disturbance regimes—the long-term patterns of fire, drought, insects, and diseases that are basic...

  11. Forest Fires in Russia and Northern China

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    2002-01-01

    Smoke plumes from forest fires scattered along the border between the Russian Far East and northern China are clearly visible in this true-color image from the Sea-viewing Wide-Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) on June 16, 2000. Fires in Siberia occur every summer, and severe outbreaks occur every ten years or so, with the most recent in 1998. The fires are ignited by lightning, and are so remote that it is impossible to fight them effectively. Provided by the SeaWiFS Project, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, and ORBIMAGE

  12. Risk of large-scale fires in boreal forests of Finland under changing climate

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lehtonen, I.; Venäläinen, A.; Kämäräinen, M.; Peltola, H.; Gregow, H.

    2016-01-01

    The target of this work was to assess the impact of projected climate change on forest-fire activity in Finland with special emphasis on large-scale fires. In addition, we were particularly interested to examine the inter-model variability of the projected change of fire danger. For this purpose, we utilized fire statistics covering the period 1996-2014 and consisting of almost 20 000 forest fires, as well as daily meteorological data from five global climate models under representative concentration pathway RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 scenarios. The model data were statistically downscaled onto a high-resolution grid using the quantile-mapping method before performing the analysis. In examining the relationship between weather and fire danger, we applied the Canadian fire weather index (FWI) system. Our results suggest that the number of large forest fires may double or even triple during the present century. This would increase the risk that some of the fires could develop into real conflagrations which have become almost extinct in Finland due to active and efficient fire suppression. However, the results reveal substantial inter-model variability in the rate of the projected increase of forest-fire danger, emphasizing the large uncertainty related to the climate change signal in fire activity. We moreover showed that the majority of large fires in Finland occur within a relatively short period in May and June due to human activities and that FWI correlates poorer with the fire activity during this time of year than later in summer when lightning is a more important cause of fires.

  13. Effects of fire on birds in Madrean forests and woodlands

    Treesearch

    Joseph L. Ganey; William M. Block; Paul F. Boucher

    1996-01-01

    Fire usually affects birds indirectly, by altering habitat or food resources. Bird response may be positive or negative, depending on life-history characteristics and fire extent, intensity, and duration. Disruption of natural fire regimes may have far-reaching consequences for these birds and their habitat. The effects of fire on forest birds should be studied...

  14. Changing patterns of fire occurrence in proximity to forest edges, roads and rivers between NW Amazonian countries

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Armenteras, Dolors; Barreto, Joan Sebastian; Tabor, Karyn; Molowny-Horas, Roberto; Retana, Javier

    2017-06-01

    Tropical forests in NW Amazonia are highly threatened by the expansion of the agricultural frontier and subsequent deforestation. Fire is used, both directly and indirectly, in Brazilian Amazonia to propagate deforestation and increase forest accessibility. Forest fragmentation, a measure of forest degradation, is also attributed to fire occurrence in the tropics. However, outside the Brazilian Legal Amazonia the role of fire in increasing accessibility and forest fragmentation is less explored. In this study, we compared fire regimes in five countries that share this tropical biome in the most north-westerly part of the Amazon Basin (Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Brazil). We analysed spatial differences in the timing of peak fire activity and in relation to proximity to roads and rivers using 12 years of MODIS active fire detections. We also distinguished patterns of fire in relation to forest fragmentation by analysing fire distance to the forest edge as a measure of fragmentation for each country. We found significant hemispheric differences in peak fire occurrence with the highest number of fires in the south in 2005 vs. 2007 in the north. Despite this, both hemispheres are equally affected by fire. We also found difference in peak fire occurrence by country. Fire peaked in February in Colombia and Venezuela, whereas it peaked in September in Brazil and Peru, and finally Ecuador presented two fire peaks in January and October. We confirmed the relationship between fires and forest fragmentation for all countries and also found significant differences in the distance between the fire and the forest edge for each country. Fires were associated with roads and rivers in most countries. These results can inform land use planning at the regional, national and subnational scales to minimize the contribution of road expansion and subsequent access to the Amazonian natural resources to fire occurrence and the associated deforestation and carbon emissions.

  15. Fuels planning: science synthesis and integration; forest structure and fire hazard fact sheet 01: forest structure and fire hazard overview

    Treesearch

    Rocky Mountain Research Station USDA Forest Service

    2004-01-01

    Many managers and policymakers guided by the National Environmental Policy Act process want to understand the scientific principles on which they can base fuel treatments for reducing the size and severity of wildfires. These Forest Structure and Fire Hazard fact sheets discuss how to estimate fire hazard, how to visualize fuel treatments, and how the role of...

  16. Effects of active forest fire on terrestrial ecosystem production and greenhouse gas emissions

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sannigrahi, Srikanta; Rahmat, Shahid; Bhatt, Sandeep; Rana, Virendra

    2017-04-01

    The forest fire is one of the most catalysing agents which degrade an ecosystems leading to the loss of net and gross primary productivity (NPP & GPP) and carbon sequestration service. Additionally, it can suppress the efficiency of service providing capacity of an ecosystem throughout the time and space. Remote sensing-based forest fire estimation in a diverse ecosystem is very much essential for mitigating the biodiversity and productivity losses due to the forest fire. Satellite-based Land Surface Temperature (LST) has been calculated for the pre-fire and fire years to identify the burn severity hotspot across all eco-regions in the Lower Himalaya region. Several burn severity indices: Normalized Burn Ratio (NBR), Burnt Area Index (BAI), Normalized Multiband Drought Index (NMDI), Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index (SAVI), Global Environmental Monitoring Index (GEMI), Enhance Vegetation Index (EVI) have been used in this study to quantify the spatial and temporal changes (delta) of the selected indices. Two Light Use Efficiency (LUE) models: Carnegie- Ames-Stanford-Approach (CASA) and Vegetation Photosynthesis Model (VPM) have been used to quantify the terrestrial Net Primary Productivity (NPP) in the pre-fire and fire years across all biomes of the region. A novel approach has been preceded in this field to demonstrate the correlation between forest fire density (FFD) and NPP. A strong positive correlation was found between burn severity indices and predicted NPP: BAI and NPP (r = 0.49), NBR and NPP: (r = 0.58), EVI and NPP: (r = 0.72), SAVI and NPP: (r = 0.67), whereas, a negative association has noted between the NMDI and NPP: (r = -0.36) during the both studied years. Results have shown that the NPP is highly correlated with the forest fire density (R2 = 0.75, RMSE = 5.03 gC m-2 month-1). The estimated LST of the individual fire days has witnessed a sharp temperature increase by > 6oC - 9oC in comparison to the non-fire days clearly indicates high fire risk (in

  17. Long-term effects of prescribed fire on mixed conifer forest structure in the Sierra Nevada, California

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    van Mantgem, Phillip J.; Stephenson, Nathan L.; Knapp, Eric; Keeley, Jon E.

    2011-01-01

    The capacity of prescribed fire to restore forest conditions is often judged by changes in forest structure within a few years following burning. However, prescribed fire might have longer-term effects on forest structure, potentially changing treatment assessments. We examined annual changes in forest structure in five 1 ha old-growth plots immediately before prescribed fire and up to eight years after fire at Sequoia National Park, California. Fire-induced declines in stem density (67% average decrease at eight years post-fire) were nonlinear, taking up to eight years to reach a presumed asymptote. Declines in live stem biomass were also nonlinear, but smaller in magnitude (32% average decrease at eight years post-fire) as most large trees survived the fires. The preferential survival of large trees following fire resulted in significant shifts in stem diameter distributions. Mortality rates remained significantly above background rates up to six years after the fires. Prescribed fire did not have a large influence on the representation of dominant species. Fire-caused mortality appeared to be spatially random, and therefore did not generally alter heterogeneous tree spatial patterns. Our results suggest that prescribed fire can bring about substantial changes to forest structure in old-growth mixed conifer forests in the Sierra Nevada, but that long-term observations are needed to fully describe some measures of fire effects.

  18. The Fire and Fuels Extension to the Forest Vegetation Simulator

    Treesearch

    Elizabeth Reinhardt; Nicholas L. Crookston

    2003-01-01

    The Fire and Fuels Extension (FFE) to the Forest Vegetation Simulator (FVS) simulates fuel dynamics and potential fire behaviour over time, in the context of stand development and management. Existing models of fire behavior and fire effects were added to FVS to form this extension. New submodels representing snag and fuel dynamics were created to complete the linkages...

  19. FireWorks curriculum featuring ponderosa, lodgepole, and whitebark pine forests

    Treesearch

    Jane Kapler Smith; Nancy E. McMurray

    2000-01-01

    FireWorks is an educational program for students in grades 1-10. The program consists of the curriculum in this report and a trunk of laboratory materials, specimens, and reference materials. It provides interactive, hands-on activities for studying fire ecology, fire behavior, and the influences of people on three fire-dependent forest types - Pinus ponderosa...

  20. Did the summer 2003 forest fires in Portugal affect air quality over Europe?

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Miranda, A. I.; Martins, V.; Sá, E.; Carvalho, A.; Amorim, J. H.; Borrego, C.

    2009-04-01

    A forest fire is a large-scale natural combustion process consuming various types, sizes and ages of botanical specimen growing outdoors in a defined geographical area. Although wildland fires are an integral part of ecosystems management and are essential to maintain functional ecosystems their dimensions can give rise to disastrous results. Due to the frequency of occurrence and the magnitude of effects on the environment, health, economy and security, forest fires have increasingly become a major subject of concern for decision-makers, firefighters, researchers and citizens in general. Among their consequences, is the emission of various environmentally significant gases and solid particulate matter to the atmosphere that interfere with local, regional and global phenomena in the biosphere. Smoke from forest fires contains important amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2), carbon monoxide (CO), methane (CH4), nitrogen oxides (NOx), ammonia (NH3), particulate matter (PM) (that is usually referred in terms of particles with a mean diameter less than 2.5 μm, or PM2.5, and particles with a mean diameter less than 10 μm, or PM10), non-methane hydrocarbons (NMHC) and other chemical compounds. These air pollutants can cause serious consequences to local and regional air quality by reducing visibility, contributing to smog and impairing air quality in general, thus threatening human health and ecosystems. Pollutants emitted from forest fires are transported, chemically transformed, and dispersed in the atmosphere. Although major wildfires are limited to some hundreds of hectares, their impacts, with no natural or political boundaries, can be felt and reported far beyond the physical limits of the fire spread. Depending on meteorological conditions, smoke plumes and haze layers can persist in the atmosphere for long periods of time and prevailing conditions will influence the chemical and optical characteristics of the plume. The extreme fire events occurred in the summer of

  1. Early effects of forest fire on streamflow characteristics.

    Treesearch

    H.W. Berndt

    1971-01-01

    A comparison of streamflow records from three small mountain streams in north-central Washington before, during, and after a severe forest fire showed three immediate effects of destructive burning. These were: 1. Flow rate was greatly reduced while the fire was actively burning. 2. Destruction of vegetation in the riparian zone reduced...

  2. Lessons learned from prescribed fire in ponderosa pine forests of the southern Sierra Nevada

    Treesearch

    Karen E. Bagne; Kathryn L. Purcell

    2009-01-01

    Prescribed fire is a commonly used management tool in fire-suppressed ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) forests, but effects of these fires on birds are largely unstudied. We investigated both direct and indirect impacts on breeding birds in ponderosa pine forests of the southern Sierra Nevada where fires were applied in the spring. Following...

  3. Effects of multiple fires on the structure of southwestern Washington forests

    Treesearch

    Andrew N. Gray; Jerry F. Franklin

    1997-01-01

    Fire frequcncy, intensity, and size can influence the nature of forest development, with potentially profound effects on ecosystem processes and the abundance of native species. The effect of an intense wildfire and subsequent severe fires within a short period (reburns) on forest establishment, composition, and structure was examined in the 16,000 ha Siouxon Creek...

  4. Creation and implementation of a certification system for insurability and fire risk classification for forest plantations

    Treesearch

    Veronica Loewe M.; Victor Vargas; Juan Miguel Ruiz; Andrea Alvarez C.; Felipe Lobo Q.

    2015-01-01

    Currently, the Chilean insurance market sells forest fire insurance policies and agricultural weather risk policies. However, access to forest fire insurance is difficult for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), with a significant proportion (close to 50%) of forest plantations being without coverage. Indeed, the insurance market that sells forest fire insurance...

  5. Model gives a 3-month warning of Amazonian forest fires

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Schultz, Colin

    2011-08-01

    The widespread drought suffered by the Amazon rain forest in the summer of 2005 was heralded at the time as the drought of the century. Because of the dehydrated conditions, supplemented by slash and burn agricultural practices, the drought led to widespread forest fires throughout the western Amazon, a portion of the rain forest usually too lush to support spreading wildfires. Only 5 years later, the 2005 season was outdone by even more widespread drought, with fires decimating more than 3000 square kilometers of western Amazonian rain forest. Blame for the wildfires has been consistently laid on deforestation and agricultural practices, but a convincing climatological explanation exists as well. (Geophysical Research Letters, doi:10.1029/2011GL047392, 2011)

  6. Climate change, forests, fire, water, and fish: Building resilient landscapes, streams, and managers

    Treesearch

    Charles Luce; Penny Morgan; Kathleen Dwire; Daniel Isaak; Zachary Holden; Bruce Rieman

    2012-01-01

    Fire will play an important role in shaping forest and stream ecosystems as the climate changes. Historic observations show increased dryness accompanying more widespread fire and forest die-off. These events punctuate gradual changes to ecosystems and sometimes generate stepwise changes in ecosystems. Climate vulnerability assessments need to account for fire in their...

  7. Multi-season climate synchronized forest fires throughout the 20th century, Northern Rockies, USA

    Treesearch

    Penelope Morgan; Emily K. Heyerdahl; Carly E. Gibson

    2008-01-01

    We inferred climate drivers of 20th-century years with regionally synchronous forest fires in the U.S. northern Rockies. We derived annual fire extent from an existing fire atlas that includes 5038 fire polygons recorded from 12 070 086 ha, or 71% of the forested land in Idaho and Montana west of the Continental Divide. The 11 regional-fire years, those exceeding the...

  8. Impacts of the Canadian forest fires on atmospheric mercury and carbonaceous particles in Northern New York.

    PubMed

    Wang, Yungang; Huang, Jiaoyan; Zananski, Tiffany J; Hopke, Philip K; Holsen, Thomas M

    2010-11-15

    The impact of Canadian forest fires in Quebec on May 31, 2010 on PM(2.5), carbonaceous species, and atmospheric mercury species was observed at three rural sites in northern New York. The results were compared with previous studies during a 2002 Quebec forest fire episode. MODIS satellite images showed transport of forest fire smoke from southern Quebec, Canada to northern New York on May 31, 2010. Back-trajectories were consistent with this regional transport. During the forest fire event, as much as an 18-fold increase in PM(2.5) concentration was observed. The concentrations of episode-related OC, EC, BC, UVBC, and their difference (Delta-C), reactive gaseous mercury (RGM), and particle-bound mercury (PBM) were also significantly higher than those under normal conditions, suggesting a high impact of Canadian forest fire emissions on air quality in northern New York. PBM, RGM, and Delta-C are all emitted from forest fires. The correlation coefficient between Delta-C and other carbonaceous species may serve as an indicator of forest fire smoke. Given the marked changes in PBM, it may serve as a more useful tracer of forest fires over distances of several hundred kilometers relative to GEM. However, the Delta-C concentration changes are more readily measured.

  9. Decreases in net primary production and net ecosystem production along a repeated-fires induced forest/grassland gradient

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cheng, C. H.; Huang, Y. H.; Chung-Yu, L.; Menyailo, O.

    2016-12-01

    Fire is one of the most important disturbances in ecosystems. Fire rapidly releases stored carbon into atmosphere and also plays critical roles on soil properties, light and moisture regimes, and plant structures and communities. With the interventions of climate change and human activities, fire regimes become more severe and frequent. In many parts of world, forest fire regimes can be further altered by grass invasion because the invasive grasses create a positive feedback cycle through their rapid recovery after fires and their high flammability during dry periods and allow forests to be burned repeatedly in a relatively short time. For such invasive grass-fire cycle, a great change of native vegetation community can occur. In this study, we examined a C4 invasive grass () fire-induced forest/grassland gradient to quantify the changes of net primary production (NPP) and net ecosystem production (NEP) from an unburned forest to repeated fire grassland. Our results demonstrated negative effects of repeated fires on NPP and NEP. Within 4 years of the onset of repeated fires on the unburned forest, NPP declined by 14%, mainly due to the reduction in aboveground NPP but offset by increase of belowground NPP. Subsequent fires cumulatively caused reductions in both aboveground and belowground NPP. A total of 40% reduction in the long-term repeated fire induced grassland was found. Soil respiration rate were not significantly different along the forest/grassland gradient. Thus, a great reduction in NEP were shown in grassland, which shifted from 4.6 Mg C ha-1 yr-1 in unburnt forest to -2.6 Mg C ha-1 yr-1. Such great losses are critical within the context of forest carbon cycling and long-term sustainability. Forest management practices that can effectively reduce the likelihood of repeated fires and consequent likelihood of establishment of the grass fire cycle are essential for protecting the forest.

  10. Influence of fire frequency on carbon consumption in Alaskan blackspruce forests

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hoy, E.; Kasischke, E. S.

    2014-12-01

    Increasing temperatures and drier conditions within the boreal forests of Alaska have resulted in increases in burned area and fire frequency, which alter carbon storage and emissions. In particular, analyses of satellite remote sensing data showed that >20% of the area impacted by fires in interior Alaska occurred in areas that had previously burned since 1950 (e.g., short to intermediate interval fires). Field studies showed that in immature black spruce forests ~ 35 to 55 years old organic layers experienced deep burning regardless of topographic position or seasonality of burning, factors that control depth of burning in mature black spruce forests. Here, refinements were made to a carbon consumption model to account for variations in fuel loads and fraction of carbon consumed associated with fire frequency based on quantifying burned area in recently burned sites using satellite imagery. An immature black spruce (Picea mariana) fuel type (including stands of ~0-50 years) was developed which contains new ground-layer carbon consumption values in order to more accurately account for differences between various age classes of black spruce forest. Both versions of the model were used to assess carbon consumption during 100 fire events (over 4.4 x 10^6 ha of burned area) from two recent ultra-large fire years (2004 and 2005). Using the improved model to better attribute fuel type and consumption resulted in higher ground-layer carbon consumption (4.9% in 2004 and 6.8% in 2005) than previously estimated. These adjustments in ground-layer burning resulted in total carbon consumption within 2004 and 2005 of 63.5 and 42.0 Tg of carbon, respectively. Results from this research could be incorporated into larger scale modeling efforts to better assess changes in the climate-fire-vegetation dynamics in interior Alaskan boreal forests, and to understand the impacts of these changes on carbon consumption and emissions.

  11. Forest edge burning in the Brazilian Amazon promoted by escaping fires from managed pastures

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cano-Crespo, Ana; Oliveira, Paulo J. C.; Boit, Alice; Cardoso, Manoel; Thonicke, Kirsten

    2015-10-01

    Understanding to what extent different land uses influence fire occurrence in the Amazonian forest is particularly relevant for its conservation. We evaluate the relationship between forest fires and different anthropogenic activities linked to a variety of land uses in the Brazilian states of Mato Grosso, Pará, and Rondônia. We combine the new high-resolution (30 m) TerraClass land use database with Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer burned area data for 2008 and the extreme dry year of 2010. Excluding the non-forest class, most of the burned area was found in pastures, primary and secondary forests, and agricultural lands across all three states, while only around 1% of the total was located in deforested areas. The trend in burned area did not follow the declining deforestation rates from 2001 to 2010, and the spatial overlap between deforested and burned areas was only 8% on average. This supports the claim of deforestation being disconnected from burning since 2005. Forest degradation showed an even lower correlation with burned area. We found that fires used in managing pastoral and agricultural lands that escape into the neighboring forests largely contribute to forest fires. Such escaping fires are responsible for up to 52% of the burned forest edges adjacent to burned pastures and up to 22% of the burned forest edges adjacent to burned agricultural fields, respectively. Our findings call for the development of control and monitoring plans to prevent fires from escaping from managed lands into forests to support effective land use and ecosystem management.

  12. The influence of fire on lepidopteran abundance and community structure in forested habitats of eastern Texas

    Treesearch

    D. Craig Rudolph; Charles A. Ely

    2000-01-01

    Transect surveys were used to examine the influence of fire on lepidopteran communities (Papilionoidea and Hesperioidea) in forested habitats in eastern Texas. Lepidopteran abundance was greater in pine forests where prescribed fire maintained an open mid- and understory compared to forests where fire had less impact on forest structure. Ahundance of nectar sources...

  13. [Prediction model of human-caused fire occurrence in the boreal forest of northern China].

    PubMed

    Guo, Fu-tao; Su, Zhang-wen; Wang, Guang-yu; Wang, Qiang; Sun, Long; Yang, Ting-ting

    2015-07-01

    The Chinese boreal forest is an important forest resource in China. However, it has been suffering serious disturbances of forest fires, which were caused equally by natural disasters (e.g., lightning) and human activities. The literature on human-caused fires indicates that climate, topography, vegetation, and human infrastructure are significant factors that impact the occurrence and spread of human-caused fires. But the studies on human-caused fires in the boreal forest of northern China are limited and less comprehensive. This paper applied the spatial analysis tools in ArcGIS 10.0 and Logistic regression model to investigate the driving factors of human-caused fires. Our data included the geographic coordinates of human-caused fires, climate factors during year 1974-2009, topographic information, and forest map. The results indicated that distance to railway (x1) and average relative humidity (x2) significantly impacted the occurrence of human-caused fire in the study area. The logistic model for predicting the fire occurrence probability was formulated as P= 1/[11+e-(3.026-0.00011x1-0.047x2)] with an accuracy rate of 80%. The above model was used to predict the monthly fire occurrence during the fire season of 2015 based on the HADCM2 future weather data. The prediction results showed that the high risk of human-caused fire occurrence concentrated in the months of April, May, June and August, while April and May had higher risk of fire occurrence than other months. According to the spatial distribution of possibility of fire occurrence, the high fire risk zones were mainly in the west and southwest of Tahe, where the major railways were located.

  14. Forest Fire Management: A Comprehensive And Operational Approach

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fabrizi, Roberto; Perez, Bruno; Gomez, Antonio

    2013-12-01

    Remote sensing plays an important role in obtaining rapid and complete information on the occurrence and evolution in space and time of forest fires. In this paper, we present a comprehensive study of fire events through Earth Observation data for early warning, crisis monitoring and post-event damage assessment or a synthesis of the fire event, both in a wide spatial range (local to regional) and temporal scale (short to long term). The fire products are stored and distributed by means of a WebGIS and a Geoportal with additional auxiliary geospatial data. These products allow fire managers to perform analysis and decision making in a more comprehensive manner.

  15. Fuels planning: Managing forest structure to reduce fire hazard

    Treesearch

    David L. Peterson; Morris C. Johnson; James K. Agee; Theresa B. Jain; Donald McKenzie; Elizabeth D. Reinhardt

    2003-01-01

    Prior to the 20th century, low intensity fires burned regularly in most arid to semiarid forest ecosystems, with ignitions caused by lightning and humans (e.g., Baisan and Swetnam 1997, Allen et al. 2002, Hessl et al. 2004). Low intensity fires controlled regeneration of fire sensitive (e.g., grand fir [Abies grandis]) species (Arno and Allison-Bunnell 2002), promoted...

  16. Forest Fire History... A Computer Method of Data Analysis

    Treesearch

    Romain M. Meese

    1973-01-01

    A series of computer programs is available to extract information from the individual Fire Reports (U.S. Forest Service Form 5100-29). The programs use a statistical technique to fit a continuous distribution to a set of sampled data. The goodness-of-fit program is applicable to data other than the fire history. Data summaries illustrate analysis of fire occurrence,...

  17. Drought, tree mortality, and wildfire in forests adapted to frequent fire

    Treesearch

    Scott L Stephens; Brandon M Collins; Christopher J Fettig; Mark A Finney; Chad M Hoffman; Eric E Knapp; Malcolm P North; Hugh Safford; Rebecca B Wayman

    2018-01-01

    Massive tree mortality has occurred rapidly in frequent-fire-adapted forests of the Sierra Nevada, California. This mortality is a product of acute drought compounded by the long-established removal of a key ecosystem process: frequent, low- to moderate-intensity fire. The recent tree mortality has many implications for the future of these forests and the ecological...

  18. What ignited Forest Service interest in nonmarket valuation in fire economics?

    Treesearch

    John B. Loomis; Armando González-Cabán

    2009-01-01

    This paper traces the origin and evolution of the application of nonmarket valuation techniques to fire management within the USDA Forest Service. The motivation for contingent valuation (CVM) studies that quantify existence value is traced to the need for monetary benefits of protecting spotted owl old-growth forest habitat from fire in the early 1990s. Two large...

  19. Continuing fire regimes in remote forests of Grand Canyon National Park

    Treesearch

    Peter Z. Fule; Thomas A. Heinlein; W. Wallace Covington; Margaret H. Moore

    2000-01-01

    Ponderosa pine forests in which frequent fire regimes continue up to the present would be invaluable points of reference for assessing natural ecological attributes. A few remote forests on the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park come close to this ideal: never-harvested, distant from human communities and fire suppression resources, and with several low-intensity...

  20. The Lick Creek Demonstration - Forest Renewal Through Partial Harvest and Fire

    Treesearch

    Benjamin Zamora; Melinda Martin

    2006-01-01

    The Lick Creek Demonstration Site on the Pomeroy Ranger District, Umatilla National Forest, is a Joint Fire Science Program sponsored project to create a demonstration of the effects of fuels management on forest health. The project was initiated in 2001 and involved the integration of two levels of partial harvest with prescribed fire, a burn only treatment and an...

  1. Spatial and temporal distribution of fire temperatures from prescribed fires in the mixed oak forests of southern Ohio

    Treesearch

    Louis R. Iverson; Daniel Yaussy; Joanne Rebbeck; Todd Hutchinson; Robert Long; Brian McCarthy; Cynthia Riccardi; Anantha Prasad

    2003-01-01

    Prescribed surface fires are being investigated, in conjunction with thinning, as silvicultural tools for assisting in the regeneration of mixed oak forests in the Central Hardwoods Region. Fires were conducted on 2001 March 28 and 2001 April 4-5, respectively, at the Tar Hollow (TAR) and Zaleski (ZAL) State Forests, and at the Raccoon Ecological Management Area (REMA...

  2. Quantifying the effect of fuel reduction treatments on fire behavior in boreal forests

    Treesearch

    B.W. Butler; R.D. Ottmar; T.S. Rupp; R. Jandt; E. Miller; K. Howard; R. Schmoll; S. Theisen; R.E. Vihnanek; D. Jimenez

    2013-01-01

    Mechanical (e.g., shearblading) and manual (e.g., thinning) fuel treatments have become the preferred strategy of many fire managers and agencies for reducing fire hazard in boreal forests. This study attempts to characterize the effectiveness of four fuel treatments through direct measurement of fire intensity and forest floor consumption during a single prescribed...

  3. [Forest lighting fire forecasting for Daxing'anling Mountains based on MAXENT model].

    PubMed

    Sun, Yu; Shi, Ming-Chang; Peng, Huan; Zhu, Pei-Lin; Liu, Si-Lin; Wu, Shi-Lei; He, Cheng; Chen, Feng

    2014-04-01

    Daxing'anling Mountains is one of the areas with the highest occurrence of forest lighting fire in Heilongjiang Province, and developing a lightning fire forecast model to accurately predict the forest fires in this area is of importance. Based on the data of forest lightning fires and environment variables, the MAXENT model was used to predict the lightning fire in Daxing' anling region. Firstly, we studied the collinear diagnostic of each environment variable, evaluated the importance of the environmental variables using training gain and the Jackknife method, and then evaluated the prediction accuracy of the MAXENT model using the max Kappa value and the AUC value. The results showed that the variance inflation factor (VIF) values of lightning energy and neutralized charge were 5.012 and 6.230, respectively. They were collinear with the other variables, so the model could not be used for training. Daily rainfall, the number of cloud-to-ground lightning, and current intensity of cloud-to-ground lightning were the three most important factors affecting the lightning fires in the forest, while the daily average wind speed and the slope was of less importance. With the increase of the proportion of test data, the max Kappa and AUC values were increased. The max Kappa values were above 0.75 and the average value was 0.772, while all of the AUC values were above 0.5 and the average value was 0. 859. With a moderate level of prediction accuracy being achieved, the MAXENT model could be used to predict forest lightning fire in Daxing'anling Mountains.

  4. Atlantic SSTs control regime shifts in forest fire activity of Northern Scandinavia

    PubMed Central

    Drobyshev, Igor; Bergeron, Yves; Vernal, Anne de; Moberg, Anders; Ali, Adam A.; Niklasson, Mats

    2016-01-01

    Understanding the drivers of the boreal forest fire activity is challenging due to the complexity of the interactions driving fire regimes. We analyzed drivers of forest fire activity in Northern Scandinavia (above 60 N) by combining modern and proxy data over the Holocene. The results suggest that the cold climate in northern Scandinavia was generally characterized by dry conditions favourable to periods of regionally increased fire activity. We propose that the cold conditions over the northern North Atlantic, associated with low SSTs, expansion of sea ice cover, and the southward shift in the position of the subpolar gyre, redirect southward the precipitation over Scandinavia, associated with the westerlies. This dynamics strengthens high pressure systems over Scandinavia and results in increased regional fire activity. Our study reveals a previously undocumented teleconnection between large scale climate and ocean dynamics over the North Atlantic and regional boreal forest fire activity in Northern Scandinavia. Consistency of the pattern observed annually through millennium scales suggests that a strong link between Atlantic SST and fire activity on multiple temporal scales over the entire Holocene is relevant for understanding future fire activity across the European boreal zone. PMID:26940995

  5. Atlantic SSTs control regime shifts in forest fire activity of Northern Scandinavia

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Drobyshev, Igor; Bergeron, Yves; Vernal, Anne De; Moberg, Anders; Ali, Adam A.; Niklasson, Mats

    2016-03-01

    Understanding the drivers of the boreal forest fire activity is challenging due to the complexity of the interactions driving fire regimes. We analyzed drivers of forest fire activity in Northern Scandinavia (above 60 N) by combining modern and proxy data over the Holocene. The results suggest that the cold climate in northern Scandinavia was generally characterized by dry conditions favourable to periods of regionally increased fire activity. We propose that the cold conditions over the northern North Atlantic, associated with low SSTs, expansion of sea ice cover, and the southward shift in the position of the subpolar gyre, redirect southward the precipitation over Scandinavia, associated with the westerlies. This dynamics strengthens high pressure systems over Scandinavia and results in increased regional fire activity. Our study reveals a previously undocumented teleconnection between large scale climate and ocean dynamics over the North Atlantic and regional boreal forest fire activity in Northern Scandinavia. Consistency of the pattern observed annually through millennium scales suggests that a strong link between Atlantic SST and fire activity on multiple temporal scales over the entire Holocene is relevant for understanding future fire activity across the European boreal zone.

  6. Atlantic SSTs control regime shifts in forest fire activity of Northern Scandinavia.

    PubMed

    Drobyshev, Igor; Bergeron, Yves; Vernal, Anne de; Moberg, Anders; Ali, Adam A; Niklasson, Mats

    2016-03-04

    Understanding the drivers of the boreal forest fire activity is challenging due to the complexity of the interactions driving fire regimes. We analyzed drivers of forest fire activity in Northern Scandinavia (above 60 N) by combining modern and proxy data over the Holocene. The results suggest that the cold climate in northern Scandinavia was generally characterized by dry conditions favourable to periods of regionally increased fire activity. We propose that the cold conditions over the northern North Atlantic, associated with low SSTs, expansion of sea ice cover, and the southward shift in the position of the subpolar gyre, redirect southward the precipitation over Scandinavia, associated with the westerlies. This dynamics strengthens high pressure systems over Scandinavia and results in increased regional fire activity. Our study reveals a previously undocumented teleconnection between large scale climate and ocean dynamics over the North Atlantic and regional boreal forest fire activity in Northern Scandinavia. Consistency of the pattern observed annually through millennium scales suggests that a strong link between Atlantic SST and fire activity on multiple temporal scales over the entire Holocene is relevant for understanding future fire activity across the European boreal zone.

  7. Proposed wildland fire amendment to the Coronado National Forest Land and Resource Management Plan

    Treesearch

    Sherry A. Tune; Erin M. Boyle

    2005-01-01

    The Coronado National Forest proposed amending its 1986 Land and Resource Management Plan to conform to the 2001 Federal Wildland Fire Management Policy. This Policy emphasizes fire’s essential role in maintaining natural ecosystems and allows a broader range of management options for wildland fires. Under the current Forest Plan, fires must be suppressed in areas...

  8. Forest fire danger in western Oregon and Washington during 1953.

    Treesearch

    Owen P. Cramer

    1953-01-01

    Following two successive fire seasons of record breaking severity, the 1953 season set new records for low fire danger in western Oregon and Washington. The low danger is reflected in the fire record—the U. S. Forest Service and forestry offices of both States all report the lowest acreage burned since fire records have been kept. A cool, wet spring, above...

  9. Visibility analysis of fire lookout towers in the Boyabat State Forest Enterprise in Turkey.

    PubMed

    Kucuk, Omer; Topaloglu, Ozer; Altunel, Arif Oguz; Cetin, Mehmet

    2017-07-01

    For a successful fire suppression, it is essential to detect and intervene forest fires as early as possible. Fire lookout towers are crucial assets in detecting forest fires, in addition to other technological advancements. In this study, we performed a visibility analysis on a network of fire lookout towers currently operating in a relatively fire-prone region in Turkey's Western Black Sea region. Some of these towers had not been functioning properly; it was proposed that these be taken out of the grid and replaced with new ones. The percentage of visible areas under the current network of fire lookout towers was 73%; it could rise to 81% with the addition of newly proposed towers. This study was the first research to conduct a visibility analysis of current and newly proposed fire lookout towers in the Western Black Sea region and focus on its forest fire problem.

  10. Targeting Audiences and Content for Forest Fire Information Programs.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Carpenter, Edwin H.; And Others

    1986-01-01

    Discusses opinion survey results for the purpose of improving the capabilities of forest managers to effectively communicate new fire management objectives and plans. Includes recommendations based on the analysis concerning the appropriate audiences and content to target in the design of fire information programs. (ML)

  11. Quantifying black carbon deposition over the Greenland ice sheet from forest fires in Canada: BC DEPOSITION FROM FOREST FIRES

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Thomas, J. L.; Polashenski, C. M.; Soja, A. J.

    We identify an important Black Carbon (BC) aerosol deposition event that was observed in snow stratigraphy and dated to between 27 July 2013 – 2 August 2013. This event comprises a significant portion (~60%) of total deposition over a 10 month period (July 2013 – April 2014). Here we link this event to forest fires burning in Canada during summer 2013 using modeling and remote sensing tools. Aerosols were detected by both the CALIOP and MODIS instruments during transport between Canada and Greenland, confirming that this event involved emissions from forest fires in Canada. We use high-resolution regional chemical transportmore » mod-eling (WRF-Chem) combined with high-resolution fire emissions (FINNv1.5) to study aerosol emissions, transport, and deposition during this event. The model accurately captures the timing of the BC deposition event and shows that the major contribution to deposition during this event is emissions originating from fires in Canada. However, the model under-predicts aerosol deposition compared to measurements at all sites by a factor of 2–100. Under-prediction of modeled BC deposition originates from uncertainties in fire emissions combined with uncertainties in aerosol scavenging by clouds. This study suggests that it is possible to describe the transport of an exceptional smoke event on regional and continental scales. Improvements in model descriptions of precipitation scavenging and emissions from wildfires are needed to correctly predict deposition, which is critical for determining the climate impacts of aerosols that originate from fires.« less

  12. A soil burn severity index for understanding soil-fire relations in tropical forests [Chinese version

    Treesearch

    Theresa B. Jain; William A. Gould; Russell T. Graham; David S. Pilliod; Leigh B. Lentile; Grizelle Gonzalez

    2008-01-01

    Methods for evaluating the impact of fires within tropical forests are needed as fires become more frequent and human populations and demands on forests increase. Short- and long-term fire effects on soils are determined by the prefire, fire, and postfire environments. We placed these components within a fire-disturbance continuum to guide our literature synthesis and...

  13. Aeolian Dust and Forest Fire Smoke in Urban Air

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Brimblecombe, P.

    2006-12-01

    Particles of aeolian dust and forest fire smoke are now regularly detected in urban air. Although dusts are common on the Asian Pacific Rim and forest fire smoke characteristic of South East Asia they also frequently detected elsewhere. In the past dust was treated as though it was fairly inert and reactions on the surface limited to the neutralizing ability of alkaline minerals. More recent work shows that that dust has a complex organic chemistry. Observations in China found fatty acids from urban areas (oleic acid and linoleic acid from cooking) on dust derived aerosols. The fatty acids and PAHs decreased sharply after dust storms, suggesting a role for dust in removal processes. When silica particles absorb unsaturated compounds they can react with ozone and release compounds such as formaldehyde. Particles from forest fires have a similarly complex chemistry and the acid-alkaline balance may vary depend on the balance of removal rates of alkaline materials (ammonia, potassium carbonate) and inorganic and organic acids. Airborne dust and forest fire soot can contain humic like substances (HULIS) either as primary material or as secondary oxidation products of the surface of soot. This paper will report on the role polluted air masses in the generation humic materials, particularly those that are surface active. These materials of high molecular weight oxygen rich organic compounds, which exhibit a range of properties of importance in aerosols: they can form complexes with metal ions and thus enhance their solubility, photosensitize the oxidation of organic compounds and lower the surface tension of aqueous aerosols. HULIS can be oxidized to form a range of simpler acids such as formic, acetic and oxalic acid. Dust and forest fire smoke particles have a different composition and size range to that of typical urban combustion particles, so it is likely that the health impacts will be different, yet current regulation often does not recognize any significant

  14. Climate and forest fires in Montana and northern Idaho, 1909-1919

    Treesearch

    J. A. Larsen; C. C. Delavan

    1922-01-01

    The present report is a result of the study of the relation between climate and forest fires in Montana and northern Idaho. This region is designated as District I of the United States Forest Service. The data used are the weather records of the United States Weather Bureau for the regular and cooperative stations, and the detail fire reports of the United States...

  15. Influence of landscape structure, topography, and forest type on spatial variation in historical fire regimes, central Oregon, USA

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Merschel, Andrew; Heyerdahl, Emily K.; Spies, Thomas A; Loehman, Rachel A.

    2018-01-01

    Context In the interior Northwest, debate over restoring mixed-conifer forests after a century of fire exclusion is hampered by poor understanding of the pattern and causes of spatial variation in historical fire regimes. Objectives To identify the roles of topography, landscape structure, and forest type in driving spatial variation in historical fire regimes in mixed-conifer forests of central Oregon. Methods We used tree rings to reconstruct multicentury fire and forest histories at 105 plots over 10,393 ha. We classified fire regimes into four types and assessed whether they varied with topography, the location of fuel-limited pumice basins that inhibit fire spread, and an updated classification of forest type. Results We identified four fire-regime types and six forest types. Although surface fires were frequent and often extensive, severe fires were rare in all four types. Fire regimes varied with some aspects of topography (elevation), but not others (slope or aspect) and with the distribution of pumice basins. Fire regimes did not strictly co-vary with mixed-conifer forest types. Conclusions Our work reveals the persistent influence of landscape structure on spatial variation in historical fire regimes and can help inform discussions about appropriate restoration of fire-excluded forests in the interior Northwest. Where the goal is to restore historical fire regimes at landscape scales, managers may want to consider the influence of topoedaphic and vegetation patch types that could affect fire spread and ignition frequency.

  16. Landslides, forest fires, and earthquakes: examples of self-organized critical behavior

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Turcotte, Donald L.; Malamud, Bruce D.

    2004-09-01

    Per Bak conceived self-organized criticality as an explanation for the behavior of the sandpile model. Subsequently, many cellular automata models were found to exhibit similar behavior. Two examples are the forest-fire and slider-block models. Each of these models can be associated with a serious natural hazard: the sandpile model with landslides, the forest-fire model with actual forest fires, and the slider-block model with earthquakes. We examine the noncumulative frequency-area statistics for each natural hazard, and show that each has a robust power-law (fractal) distribution. We propose an inverse-cascade model as a general explanation for the power-law frequency-area statistics of the three cellular-automata models and their ‘associated’ natural hazards.

  17. 75 FR 52713 - Nationwide Aerial Application of Fire Retardant on National Forest System Lands

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2010-08-27

    ... DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE Forest Service Nationwide Aerial Application of Fire Retardant on... statement for the continued nationwide aerial application of fire retardant on National Forest System lands... 26667, Salt Lake City, UT 84126-0667. Comments may also be sent via e- mail to Fire[email protected

  18. Avian response to fire in pine–oak forests of Great Smoky Mountains National Park following decades of fire suppression

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Rose, Eli T.; Simons, Theodore R.

    2016-01-01

    Fire suppression in southern Appalachian pine–oak forests during the past century dramatically altered the bird community. Fire return intervals decreased, resulting in local extirpation or population declines of many bird species adapted to post-fire plant communities. Within Great Smoky Mountains National Park, declines have been strongest for birds inhabiting xeric pine–oak forests that depend on frequent fire. The buildup of fuels after decades of fire suppression led to changes in the 1996 Great Smoky Mountains Fire Management Plan. Although fire return intervals remain well below historic levels, management changes have helped increase the amount of fire within the park over the past 20 years, providing an opportunity to study patterns of fire severity, time since burn, and bird occurrence. We combined avian point counts in burned and unburned areas with remote sensing indices of fire severity to infer temporal changes in bird occurrence for up to 28 years following fire. Using hierarchical linear models that account for the possibility of a species presence at a site when no individuals are detected, we developed occurrence models for 24 species: 13 occurred more frequently in burned areas, 2 occurred less frequently, and 9 showed no significant difference between burned and unburned areas. Within burned areas, the top models for each species included fire severity, time since burn, or both, suggesting that fire influenced patterns of species occurrence for all 24 species. Our findings suggest that no single fire management strategy will suit all species. To capture peak occupancy for the entire bird community within xeric pine–oak forests, at least 3 fire regimes may be necessary; one applying frequent low severity fire, another using infrequent low severity fire, and a third using infrequently applied high severity fire.

  19. Restoring and managing low-severity fire in dry-forest landscapes of the western USA.

    PubMed

    Baker, William L

    2017-01-01

    Low-severity fires that killed few canopy trees played a significant historical role in dry forests of the western USA and warrant restoration and management, but historical rates of burning remain uncertain. Past reconstructions focused on on dating fire years, not measuring historical rates of burning. Past statistics, including mean composite fire interval (mean CFI) and individual-tree fire interval (mean ITFI) have biases and inaccuracies if used as estimators of rates. In this study, I used regression, with a calibration dataset of 96 cases, to test whether these statistics could accurately predict two equivalent historical rates, population mean fire interval (PMFI) and fire rotation (FR). The best model, using Weibull mean ITFI, had low prediction error and R2adj = 0.972. I used this model to predict historical PMFI/FR at 252 sites spanning dry forests. Historical PMFI/FR for a pool of 342 calibration and predicted sites had a mean of 39 years and median of 30 years. Short (< 25 years) mean PMFI/FRs were in Arizona and New Mexico and scattered in other states. Long (> 55 years) mean PMFI/FRs were mainly from northern New Mexico to South Dakota. Mountain sites often had a large range in PMFI/FR. Nearly all 342 estimates are for old forests with a history of primarily low-severity fire, found across only about 34% of historical dry-forest area. Frequent fire (PMFI/FR < 25 years) was found across only about 14% of historical dry-forest area, with 86% having multidecadal rates of low-severity fire. Historical fuels (e.g., understory shrubs and small trees) could fully recover between multidecadal fires, allowing some denser forests and some ecosystem processes and wildlife habitat to be less limited by fire. Lower historical rates mean less restoration treatment is needed before beginning managed fire for resource benefits, where feasible. Mimicking patterns of variability in historical low-severity fire regimes would likely benefit biological diversity and

  20. Restoring and managing low-severity fire in dry-forest landscapes of the western USA

    PubMed Central

    2017-01-01

    Low-severity fires that killed few canopy trees played a significant historical role in dry forests of the western USA and warrant restoration and management, but historical rates of burning remain uncertain. Past reconstructions focused on on dating fire years, not measuring historical rates of burning. Past statistics, including mean composite fire interval (mean CFI) and individual-tree fire interval (mean ITFI) have biases and inaccuracies if used as estimators of rates. In this study, I used regression, with a calibration dataset of 96 cases, to test whether these statistics could accurately predict two equivalent historical rates, population mean fire interval (PMFI) and fire rotation (FR). The best model, using Weibull mean ITFI, had low prediction error and R2adj = 0.972. I used this model to predict historical PMFI/FR at 252 sites spanning dry forests. Historical PMFI/FR for a pool of 342 calibration and predicted sites had a mean of 39 years and median of 30 years. Short (< 25 years) mean PMFI/FRs were in Arizona and New Mexico and scattered in other states. Long (> 55 years) mean PMFI/FRs were mainly from northern New Mexico to South Dakota. Mountain sites often had a large range in PMFI/FR. Nearly all 342 estimates are for old forests with a history of primarily low-severity fire, found across only about 34% of historical dry-forest area. Frequent fire (PMFI/FR < 25 years) was found across only about 14% of historical dry-forest area, with 86% having multidecadal rates of low-severity fire. Historical fuels (e.g., understory shrubs and small trees) could fully recover between multidecadal fires, allowing some denser forests and some ecosystem processes and wildlife habitat to be less limited by fire. Lower historical rates mean less restoration treatment is needed before beginning managed fire for resource benefits, where feasible. Mimicking patterns of variability in historical low-severity fire regimes would likely benefit biological diversity and

  1. Examining Historical and Current Mixed-Severity Fire Regimes in Ponderosa Pine and Mixed-Conifer Forests of Western North America

    PubMed Central

    Odion, Dennis C.; Hanson, Chad T.; Arsenault, André; Baker, William L.; DellaSala, Dominick A.; Hutto, Richard L.; Klenner, Walt; Moritz, Max A.; Sherriff, Rosemary L.; Veblen, Thomas T.; Williams, Mark A.

    2014-01-01

    There is widespread concern that fire exclusion has led to an unprecedented threat of uncharacteristically severe fires in ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa Dougl. ex. Laws) and mixed-conifer forests of western North America. These extensive montane forests are considered to be adapted to a low/moderate-severity fire regime that maintained stands of relatively old trees. However, there is increasing recognition from landscape-scale assessments that, prior to any significant effects of fire exclusion, fires and forest structure were more variable in these forests. Biota in these forests are also dependent on the resources made available by higher-severity fire. A better understanding of historical fire regimes in the ponderosa pine and mixed-conifer forests of western North America is therefore needed to define reference conditions and help maintain characteristic ecological diversity of these systems. We compiled landscape-scale evidence of historical fire severity patterns in the ponderosa pine and mixed-conifer forests from published literature sources and stand ages available from the Forest Inventory and Analysis program in the USA. The consensus from this evidence is that the traditional reference conditions of low-severity fire regimes are inaccurate for most forests of western North America. Instead, most forests appear to have been characterized by mixed-severity fire that included ecologically significant amounts of weather-driven, high-severity fire. Diverse forests in different stages of succession, with a high proportion in relatively young stages, occurred prior to fire exclusion. Over the past century, successional diversity created by fire decreased. Our findings suggest that ecological management goals that incorporate successional diversity created by fire may support characteristic biodiversity, whereas current attempts to “restore” forests to open, low-severity fire conditions may not align with historical reference conditions in most ponderosa

  2. Examining historical and current mixed-severity fire regimes in ponderosa pine and mixed-conifer forests of western North America.

    PubMed

    Odion, Dennis C; Hanson, Chad T; Arsenault, André; Baker, William L; Dellasala, Dominick A; Hutto, Richard L; Klenner, Walt; Moritz, Max A; Sherriff, Rosemary L; Veblen, Thomas T; Williams, Mark A

    2014-01-01

    There is widespread concern that fire exclusion has led to an unprecedented threat of uncharacteristically severe fires in ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa Dougl. ex. Laws) and mixed-conifer forests of western North America. These extensive montane forests are considered to be adapted to a low/moderate-severity fire regime that maintained stands of relatively old trees. However, there is increasing recognition from landscape-scale assessments that, prior to any significant effects of fire exclusion, fires and forest structure were more variable in these forests. Biota in these forests are also dependent on the resources made available by higher-severity fire. A better understanding of historical fire regimes in the ponderosa pine and mixed-conifer forests of western North America is therefore needed to define reference conditions and help maintain characteristic ecological diversity of these systems. We compiled landscape-scale evidence of historical fire severity patterns in the ponderosa pine and mixed-conifer forests from published literature sources and stand ages available from the Forest Inventory and Analysis program in the USA. The consensus from this evidence is that the traditional reference conditions of low-severity fire regimes are inaccurate for most forests of western North America. Instead, most forests appear to have been characterized by mixed-severity fire that included ecologically significant amounts of weather-driven, high-severity fire. Diverse forests in different stages of succession, with a high proportion in relatively young stages, occurred prior to fire exclusion. Over the past century, successional diversity created by fire decreased. Our findings suggest that ecological management goals that incorporate successional diversity created by fire may support characteristic biodiversity, whereas current attempts to "restore" forests to open, low-severity fire conditions may not align with historical reference conditions in most ponderosa

  3. Linking complex forest fuel structure and fire behavior at fine scales

    Treesearch

    EL Loudermilk; Joseph O' Brien; RJ Mitchell; JK Hiers; WP Cropper; S Grunwald; J Grego; J Fernandez

    2012-01-01

    Improved fire management of savannas and open woodlands requires better understanding of the fundamental connection between fuel heterogeneity, variation in fire behaviour and the influence of fire variation on vegetation feedbacks. In this study, we introduce a novel approach to predicting fire behaviour at the submetre scale, including measurements of forest...

  4. Lidar Technique for Early Forest Fire Detection : Design and Development Aspects

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Traïche, M.; Bourai, K.; Moussaoui, N.; Beggar, R.; Almabouada, F.; Louhibi, D.

    2008-09-01

    Many countries suffer from forest fires every summer, a phenomenon which wreaks havoc on both local and global environment. As well, it causes enormous damage to public health especially for people living in surrounding areas. For fighting against forest fires, ocular surveillance, in spite of its wide use, is not efficient owing to the costly mobilization of a great number of forest agents and to the fact that most of forest regions are not accessible. Other passive techniques such as infrared camera remote sensing are neither efficient under unfavorable weather conditions. An efficient way to early detect forest fires even under worse environmental conditions and in inaccessible mountainous regions uses the backscattering Lidar technique. This consists of the emission of monowavelength laser pulses spanning azimuthally the entire region subject to surveillance and the detection of the backscattered signal. The detection parameter is the signal to noise ration SNR. In this contribution, we will deal with approach and design aspects inherent to the development task of such a Lidar.

  5. Increasing elevation of fire in the Sierra Nevada and implications for forest change

    Treesearch

    Mark W. Schwartz; Nathalie Butt; Christopher R. Dolanc; Andrew Holguin; Max A. Moritz; Malcolm P. North; Hugh D. Safford; Nathan L. Stephenson; James H. Thorne; Phillip J. van Mantgem

    2015-01-01

    Fire in high-elevation forest ecosystems can have severe impacts on forest structure, function and biodiversity. Using a 105-year data set, we found increasing elevation extent of fires in the Sierra Nevada, and pose five hypotheses to explain this pattern. Beyond the recognized pattern of increasing fire frequency in the Sierra Nevada since the late 20th century, we...

  6. Implications of the spatial dynamics of fire spread for the bistability of savanna and forest.

    PubMed

    Schertzer, E; Staver, A C; Levin, S A

    2015-01-01

    The role of fire in expanding the global distribution of savanna is well recognized. Empirical observations and modeling suggest that fire spread has a threshold response to fuel-layer continuity, which sets up a positive feedback that maintains savanna-forest bistability. However, modeling has so far failed to examine fire spread as a spatial process that interacts with vegetation. Here, we use simple, well-supported assumptions about fire spread as an infection process and its effects on trees to ask whether spatial dynamics qualitatively change the potential for savanna-forest bistability. We show that the spatial effects of fire spread are the fundamental reason that bistability is possible: because fire spread is an infection process, it exhibits a threshold response to fuel continuity followed by a rapid increase in fire size. Other ecological processes affecting fire spread may also contribute including temporal variability in demography or fire spread. Finally, including the potential for spatial aggregation increases the potential both for savanna-forest bistability and for savanna and forest to coexist in a landscape mosaic.

  7. Increment-borer methods for determining fire history in coniferous forests

    Treesearch

    Stephen W. Barrett; Stephen F. Arno

    1988-01-01

    Describes use of increment borers for interpreting fire history in coniferous forests. These methods are intended for use in wildernesses, parks, and other natural areas where sawing cross-sections from fire-scarred trees is prohibited.

  8. A review of the relationships between drought and forest fire in the United States

    Treesearch

    Jeremy S. Littell; David L. Peterson; Karin L. Riley; Yongqiang Liu; Charlie H. Luce

    2016-01-01

    The historical and presettlement relationships between drought and wildfire are well documented in North America, with forest fire occurrence and area clearly increasing in response to drought. There is also evidence that drought interacts with other controls (forest productivity, topography, fire weather, management activities) to affect fire intensity,...

  9. Ecosystem Carbon Emissions from 2015 Forest Fires in Interior Alaska

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Potter, Christopher S.

    2018-01-01

    In the summer of 2015, hundreds of wildfires burned across the state of Alaska, and consumed more than 1.6 million ha of boreal forest and wetlands in the Yukon-Koyukuk region. Mapping of 113 large wildfires using Landsat satellite images from before and after 2015 indicated that nearly 60% of this area was burned at moderate-to-high severity levels. Field measurements near the town of Tanana on the Yukon River were carried out in July of 2017 in both unburned and 2015 burned forested areas (nearly adjacent to one-another) to visually verify locations of different Landsat burn severity classes (low, moderate, or high). Results: Field measurements indicated that the loss of surface organic layers in boreal ecosystem fires is a major factor determining post-fire soil temperature changes, depth of thawing, and carbon losses from the mineral topsoil layer. Measurements in forest sites showed that soil temperature profiles to 30 cm depth at burned forest sites increased by an average of 8o - 10o C compared to unburned forest sites. Sampling and laboratory analysis indicated a 65% reduction in soil carbon content and a 58% reduction in soil nitrogen content in severely burned sample sites compared to soil mineral samples from nearby unburned spruce forests. Conclusions: Combined with nearly unprecedented forest areas severely burned in the Interior region of Alaska in 2015, total ecosystem fire emission of carbon to the atmosphere exceeded most previous estimates for the state.

  10. Climate effects on fire regimes and tree recruitment in Black Hills ponderosa pine forests.

    PubMed

    Brown, Peter M

    2006-10-01

    Climate influences forest structure through effects on both species demography (recruitment and mortality) and disturbance regimes. Here, I compare multi-century chronologies of regional fire years and tree recruitment from ponderosa pine forests in the Black Hills of southwestern South Dakota and northeastern Wyoming to reconstructions of precipitation and global circulation indices. Regional fire years were affected by droughts and variations in both Pacific and Atlantic sea surface temperatures. Fires were synchronous with La Niñas, cool phases of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), and warm phases of the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO). These quasi-periodic circulation features are associated with drought conditions over much of the western United States. The opposite pattern (El Niño, warm PDO, cool AMO) was associated with fewer fires than expected. Regional tree recruitment largely occurred during wet periods in precipitation reconstructions, with the most abundant recruitment coeval with an extended pluvial from the late 1700s to early 1800s. Widespread even-aged cohorts likely were not the result of large crown fires causing overstory mortality, but rather were caused by optimal climate conditions that contributed to synchronous regional recruitment and longer intervals between surface fires. Synchronous recruitment driven by climate is an example of the Moran effect. The presence of abundant fire-scarred trees in multi-aged stands supports a prevailing historical model for ponderosa pine forests in which recurrent surface fires affected heterogenous forest structure, although the Black Hills apparently had a greater range of fire behavior and resulting forest structure over multi-decadal time scales than ponderosa pine forests of the Southwest that burned more often.

  11. Managing Fire Risk During Drought: The Influence of Certification and El Nino on Fire-Driven Forest Conversion for Oil Palm in Southeast Asia

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Noojipady, Praveen; Morton, Douglas C.; Schroeder, Wilfrid; Carlson, Kimberly M.; Huang, Chengquan; Gibbs, Holly K.; Burns, David; Walker, Nathalie F.; Prince, Stephen D.

    2017-01-01

    Indonesia and Malaysia have emerged as leading producers of palm oil in the past several decades, expanding production through the conversion of tropical forests to industrial plantations. Efforts to produce "sustainable" palm oil, including certification by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), include guidelines designed to reduce the environmental impact of palm oil production. Fire-driven deforestation is prohibited by law in both countries and a stipulation of RSPO certification, yet the degree of environmental compliance isunclear, especially during El Niño events when drought conditions increase fire risk. Here, we used time series of satellite data to estimate the spatial and temporal patterns of fire-driven deforestation on and around oil palm plantations. In Indonesia, fire-driven deforestation accounted for one-quarter of total forest losses on both certified and noncertified plantations. After the first plantations in Indonesia received RSPO certification in 2009,forest loss and fire-driven deforestation declined on certified plantations but did not stop altogether. Oil palm expansion in Malaysia rarely involved fire; only 5 % of forest loss on certified plantations had coincident activefire detections. Interannual variability in fire detections was strongly influenced by El Nino and the timing of certification. Fire activity during the 2002, 2004, and 2006 El Nino events was similar among oil palm plantations in Indonesia that would later become certified, noncertified plantations, and surrounding areas. However, total fire activity was 75% and 66% lower on certified plantations than noncertified plantations during the 2009 and 2015 El Nino events, respectively. The decline in fire activity on certified plantations, including during drought periods, highlights the potential for RSPO certification to safeguard carbon stocks in peatlands and remaining forests in accordance with legislation banning fires. However, aligning certification

  12. [Forest fire division by using MODIS data based on the temporal-spatial variation law].

    PubMed

    He, Cheng; He, Cheng; Gong, Yin-xi; Zhang, Si-yu; He, Teng-fei; Chen, Feng; Sun, Yu; Feng, Zhong-ke

    2013-09-01

    Forest fires are harmful to the ecological environment, which have induced global attention. In the present paper fire activities extracted from MODIS and burned areas were compared, and it was found that the wave band of 8-9 extracted from MOD14A1 was useful for fire monitoring, and the data accorded with field investigation with goodness of fit reaching up to 0. 83. Through combining this wave band and the relative data to make the time and space analysis of the forest fires for 11 years, from 2000 to 2010, the study showed that the fire occurred most frequently in the spring, the autumn took the second place, and in the summer there was almost no fire occurrence unless drought. Through the analysis of the research area, the burned areas of the coniferous forest and temperate mixed forest were 53.68% and 44%, respectively, while the grassland was only 2.32%. Da Hinggan Ling region was the main combustion area, the burned areas were 64.7% and that for Xiao Hinggan Ling was about 23.49%, while those for other areas were less than 5%. The majority of forest land of burned areas has a gentle slope (< or =5 percent), and is in the middle altitude between 200 and 500 m. So, using satellite remote sensing to analyze the time series of burned areas in forests would make the relationship between the fire activities, climate change, topography and vegetation type clear and it is also helpful to predicting the risk level of the fire areas.

  13. Pyro-eco-hydrologic feedbacks and catchment co-evolution in fire-prone forested uplands

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sheridan, Gary; Inbar, Assaf; Lane, Patrick; Nyman, Petter

    2017-04-01

    The south east Australian forested uplands are characterized by complex and inter-correlated spatial patterns in standing biomass, soil depth/quality, and fire regimes, even within areas with similar rainfall, geology and catenary position. These system properties have traditionally been investigated independently, however recent research in the areas of post fire hydrology and erosion, and new insights into forest structure, fuel moisture, and flammability, suggest the presence of critical co-evolutionary feedbacks between fire, soils and vegetation that may explain the observed system states. To test this hypothesis we started with a published ecohydrologic model, modifying and extending the algorithms to capture feedbacks between hyrology and fire, and between fire, vegetation and soil production and erosion. The model was parameterized and calibrated with new data from instrumented forested hillslopes across energy and rainfall gradients generated by selecting sites with a range of aspect (energy) and elevation (rainall). The calibrated model was able to reasonably replicate the observed patterns of standing biomass, water balance, fire interval, and soil depth. The catchment co-evolution/feedback modelling approach to understanding patterns of vegetation, soils and fire regimes provides a promising new paradigm for predicting the response of forested se Australian catchments to declining rainfall and increasing temperatures under climate change.

  14. Risk for large-scale fires in boreal forests of Finland under changing climate

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lehtonen, I.; Venäläinen, A.; Kämäräinen, M.; Peltola, H.; Gregow, H.

    2015-08-01

    The target of this work was to assess the impact of projected climate change on the number of large forest fires (over 10 ha fires) and burned area in Finland. For this purpose, we utilized a strong relationship between fire occurrence and the Canadian fire weather index (FWI) during 1996-2014. We used daily data from five global climate models under representative concentration pathway RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 scenarios. The model data were statistically downscaled onto a high-resolution grid using the quantile-mapping method before performing the analysis. Our results suggest that the number of large forest fires may double or even triple during the present century. This would increase the risk that some of the fires could develop into real conflagrations which have become almost extinct in Finland due to active and efficient fire suppression. Our results also reveal substantial inter-model variability in the rate of the projected increase in forest-fire danger. We moreover showed that the majority of large fires occur within a relatively short period in May and June due to human activities and that FWI correlates poorer with the fire activity during this time of year than later in summer when lightning is more important cause of fires.

  15. Increasing elevation of fire in the Sierra Nevada and implications for forest change

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Schwartz, Mark W.; Butt, Nathalie; Dolanc, Christopher R.; Holguin, Andrew; Moritz, Max A.; North, Malcolm P.; Safford, Hugh D.; Stephenson, Nathan L.; Thorne, James H.; van Mantgem, Phillip J.

    2015-01-01

    Fire in high-elevation forest ecosystems can have severe impacts on forest structure, function and biodiversity. Using a 105-year data set, we found increasing elevation extent of fires in the Sierra Nevada, and pose five hypotheses to explain this pattern. Beyond the recognized pattern of increasing fire frequency in the Sierra Nevada since the late 20th century, we find that the upper elevation extent of those fires has also been increasing. Factors such as fire season climate and fuel build up are recognized potential drivers of changes in fire regimes. Patterns of warming climate and increasing stand density are consistent with both the direction and magnitude of increasing elevation of wildfire. Reduction in high elevation wildfire suppression and increasing ignition frequencies may also contribute to the observed pattern. Historical biases in fire reporting are recognized, but not likely to explain the observed patterns. The four plausible mechanistic hypotheses (changes in fire management, climate, fuels, ignitions) are not mutually exclusive, and likely have synergistic interactions that may explain the observed changes. Irrespective of mechanism, the observed pattern of increasing occurrence of fire in these subalpine forests may have significant impacts on their resilience to changing climatic conditions.

  16. Prescribed fire as the minimum tool for wilderness forest and fire regime restoration: a case study from the Sierra Nevada, California

    Treesearch

    MaryBeth Keifer; Nathan L. Stephenson; Jeff Manley

    2000-01-01

    Changes in forest structure were monitored in areas treated with prescribed fire in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. Five years after the initial prescribed fires, tree density was reduced by 61% in the giant sequoia-mixed conifer forest, with the greatest reduction in the smaller trees. This post-burn forest structure falls within the range that may have been...

  17. Interactive effects of historical logging and fire exclusion on ponderosa pine forest structure in the northern Rockies.

    PubMed

    Naficy, Cameron; Sala, Anna; Keeling, Eric G; Graham, Jon; DeLuca, Thomas H

    2010-10-01

    Increased forest density resulting from decades of fire exclusion is often perceived as the leading cause of historically aberrant, severe, contemporary wildfires and insect outbreaks documented in some fire-prone forests of the western United States. Based on this notion, current U.S. forest policy directs managers to reduce stand density and restore historical conditions in fire-excluded forests to help minimize high-severity disturbances. Historical logging, however, has also caused widespread change in forest vegetation conditions, but its long-term effects on vegetation structure and composition have never been adequately quantified. We document that fire-excluded ponderosa pine forests of the northern Rocky Mountains logged prior to 1960 have much higher average stand density, greater homogeneity of stand structure, more standing dead trees and increased abundance of fire-intolerant trees than paired fire-excluded, unlogged counterparts. Notably, the magnitude of the interactive effect of fire exclusion and historical logging substantially exceeds the effects of fire exclusion alone. These differences suggest that historically logged sites are more prone to severe wildfires and insect outbreaks than unlogged, fire-excluded forests and should be considered a high priority for fuels reduction treatments. Furthermore, we propose that ponderosa pine forests with these distinct management histories likely require distinct restoration approaches. We also highlight potential long-term risks of mechanical stand manipulation in unlogged forests and emphasize the need for a long-term view of fuels management.

  18. The changing role of fire in mediating the relationships among oaks, grasslands, mesic temperate forests, and boreal forests in the Lake States

    Treesearch

    Lee E. Frelich; Peter B. Reich; David W. Peterson

    2017-01-01

    Historically, oak forests and woodlands intergraded with southern boreal forest, temperate mesic forest, and grassland biomes, forming complex fire-mediated relationships in the Great Lakes region of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan, USA. Variability in fire recurrence intervals allowed oaks to mix with grasses or with mesic forest species in areas with high (2–10 yr...

  19. Soils of Mountainous Forests and Their Transformation under the Impact of Fires in Baikal Region

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Krasnoshchekov, Yu. N.

    2018-04-01

    Data on postpyrogenic dynamics of soils under mountainous taiga cedar ( Pinus sibirica) and pine ( Pinus sylvestris) forests and subtaiga-forest-steppe pine ( Pinus sylvestris) forests in the Baikal region are analyzed. Ground litter-humus fires predominating in this region transform the upper diagnostic organic soil horizons and lead to the formation of new pyrogenic organic horizons (Opir). Adverse effects of ground fires on the stock, fractional composition, and water-physical properties of forest litters are shown. Some quantitative parameters of the liquid and solid surface runoff in burnt areas related to the slope gradient, fire intensity, and the time passed after the fire are presented. Pyrogenic destruction of forest ecosystems inevitably induces the degradation of mountainous soils, whose restoration after fires takes tens of years. The products of soil erosion from the burnt out areas complicate the current situation with the pollution of coastal waters of Lake Baikal.

  20. Remote sensing techniques in monitoring areas affected by forest fire

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Karagianni, Aikaterini Ch.; Lazaridou, Maria A.

    2017-09-01

    Forest fire is a part of nature playing a key role in shaping ecosystems. However, fire's environmental impacts can be significant, affecting wildlife habitat and timber, human settlements, man-made technical constructions and various networks (road, power networks) and polluting the air with emissions harmful to human health. Furthermore, fire's effect on the landscape may be long-lasting. Monitoring the development of a fire occurs as an important aspect at the management of natural hazards in general. Among the used methods for monitoring, satellite data and remote sensing techniques can be proven of particular importance. Satellite remote sensing offers a useful tool for forest fire detection, monitoring, management and damage assessment. Especially for fire scars detection and monitoring, satellite data derived from Landsat 8 can be a useful research tool. This paper includes critical considerations of the above and concerns in particular an example of the Greek area (Thasos Island). This specific area was hit by fires several times in the past and recently as well (September 2016). Landsat 8 satellite data are being used (pre and post fire imagery) and digital image processing techniques are applied (enhancement techniques, calculation of various indices) for fire scars detection. Visual interpretation of the example area affected by the fires is also being done, contributing to the overall study.

  1. The national Fire and Fire Surrogate study: effects of fuel reduction methods on forest vegetation structure and fuels

    Treesearch

    Dylan W. Schwilk; Jon E. Keeley; Eric E. Knapp; James Mciver; John D. Bailey; Christopher J. Fettig; Carl E. Fiedler; Richy J. Harrod; Jason J. Moghaddas; Kenneth W. Outcalt; Carl N. Skinner; Scott L. Stephens; Thomas A. Waldrop; Daniel A. Yaussy; Andrew Youngblood

    2009-01-01

    Changes in vegetation and fuels were evaluated from measurements taken before and after fuel reduction treatments (prescribed fire, mechanical treatments, and the combination of the two) at 12 Fire and Fire Surrogate (FFS) sites located in forests with a surface fire regime across the conterminous United States. To test the relative effectiveness of fuel reduction...

  2. Fire treatment effects on vegetation structure, fuels, and potential fire severity in western U.S. forests

    Treesearch

    Scott L. Stephens; Jason J. Moghaddas; Carl Edminster; Carl E. Fiedler; Sally Haase; Michael Harrington; Jon E. Keeley; Eric E. Knapp; James D. McIver; Kerry Metlen; Carl N. Skinner; Andrew Youngblood

    2009-01-01

    Forest structure and species composition in many western U.S. coniferous forests have been altered through fire exclusion, past and ongoing harvesting practices, and livestock grazing over the 20th century. The effects of these activities have been most pronounced in seasonally dry, low and mid-elevation coniferous forests that once experienced frequent, low to...

  3. Soil carbon in Australian fire-prone forests determined by climate more than fire regimes.

    PubMed

    Sawyer, Robert; Bradstock, Ross; Bedward, Michael; Morrison, R John

    2018-10-15

    Knowledge of global C cycle implications from changes to fire regime and climate are of growing importance. Studies on the role of the fire regime in combination with climate change on soil C pools are lacking. We used Bayesian modelling to estimate the soil % total C (% C Tot ) and % recalcitrant pyrogenic C (% RPC) from field samples collected using a stratified sampling approach. These observations were derived from the following scenarios: 1. Three fire frequencies across three distinctive climate regions in a homogeneous dry sclerophyll forest in south-eastern Australia over four decades. 2. The effects of different fire intensity combinations from successive wildfires. We found climate had a stronger effect than fire frequency on the size of the estimated mineral soil C pool. The largest soil C pool was estimated to occur under a wet and cold (WC) climate, via presumed effects of high precipitation, an adequate growing season temperature (i.e. resulting in relatively high NPP) and winter conditions sufficiently cold to retard seasonal soil respiration rates. The smallest soil C pool was estimated in forests with lower precipitation but warmer mean annual temperature (MAT). The lower precipitation and higher temperature was likely to have retarded NPP and litter decomposition rates but may have had little effect on relative soil respiration. Small effects associated with fire frequency were found, but both their magnitude and direction were climate dependent. There was an increase in soil C associated with a low intensity fire being followed by a high intensity fire. For both fire frequency and intensity the response of % RPC mirrored that of % C Tot : i.e. it was effectively a constant across all combinations of climate and fire regimes sampled. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier B.V.

  4. Comparative ratings of 1951 forest fire weather in western Oregon.

    Treesearch

    Owen P. Cramer; Robert Kirkpatrick

    1951-01-01

    The 1951 forest fire weather in western Oregon is generally conceded to have been unusually severe. In order to compare this season with others, this report uses a scheme for rating fire seasons recently developed by the Fire Research section of the Experiment Station, The rating is based on indices of three weather characteristics which generally control burning...

  5. Decree No. 849/988 of 14 December 1988 setting forth regulations on the prevention and combat of forest fires.

    PubMed

    1989-01-01

    This Uruguayan Decree sets forth regulations on the prevention and fighting of forest fires. Among other things, it does the following: 1) requires all public and private organizations, as well as all persons, to assist personally in and provide vehicles, machines, and tools for the fighting of forest fires; 2) requires the owners of property containing forests to maintain instruction in fighting fires for an adequate number of employees; 3) requires all forests to be kept cleared of vegetation capable of spreading fires and to have fire walls; 4) requires owners of forests larger than 30 hectares in size to present to the Forest Directorate an annual plan for forest fire defense; and 5) requires owners of forests larger than 30 hectares in size to maintain specified equipment for fighting fires. Persons violating the provisions of this Decree are subject to fines.

  6. Fire exclusion as a disturbance in the temperate forests of the USA: examples from longleaf pine forests

    Treesearch

    W. Keith Moser; Dale D. Wade

    2005-01-01

    Forest fires are a disturbance where the effects can range from benign to extreme devastation within a given ecosystem. The stage of stand development coupled with prior management dictates the amount and composition of potential fuels. Thus, fire policy exerts a strong influence on fire effects. Changes in cultural acceptance and use of tire typically drive fire...

  7. Quantifying Fire's Impacts on Total and Pyrogenic Carbon Stocks in Mixed-Conifer Forests: Results from Pre- and Post-Fire Measurements in Active Wildfire Incidents

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Miesel, J. R.; Reiner, A. L.; Ewell, C. M.; Sanderman, J.; Maestrini, B.; Adkins, J.

    2016-12-01

    Widespread US fire suppression policy has contributed to an accumulation of vegetation in many western forests relative to historic conditions, and these changes can exacerbate wildfire severity and carbon (C) emissions. Serious concern exists about positive feedbacks between wildfire emissions and global climate; however, fires not only release C from terrestrial to atmospheric pools, they also create "black" or pyrogenic C (PyC) which contributes to longer-term C stability. Our objective was to quantify wildfire impacts on aboveground and belowground total C and PyC stocks in California mixed-conifer forests. We worked with incident management teams to access five active wildfires to establish and measure plots within days before and after fire. We measured pre- and post-fire aboveground forest structure and woody fuels to calculate aboveground biomass, biomass C, and PyC, and we collected pre- and post-fire forest floor and 0-5 cm mineral soil samples to measure belowground C and PyC stocks. Our preliminary results show that fire had minimal impact on the number of trees per hectare, whereas C losses from the tree layer occurred via consumption of foliage, and PyC gain occurred in tree bark. Fire released 54% to 100% of surface fuel C. In the forest floor layer, we observed 33 to 100% C loss, whereas changes in PyC stocks ranged from 100% loss to 186% gain relative to pre-fire samples. In general, fire had minimal to no impact on 0-5 cm mineral soil C. We will present relationships between total C, PyC and post-fire C and N dynamics in one of the five wildfire sites. Our data are unique because they represent nearly immediate pre- and post-fire measurements in major wildfires in a widespread western U.S. forest type. This research advances understanding of the role of fire on forest C fluxes and C sequestration potential as PyC.

  8. Long-term effects of fire and harvest on carbon stocks of boreal forests in northeastern China

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Huang, C.; He, H. S.; Hawbaker, T. J.; Zhu, Z.; Liang, Y.; Gong, P.

    2017-12-01

    Fire, harvest and their interactions have strong effects on boreal forests carbon stocks. Repeated disturbances associated with relatively short fire return intervals and harvest rotations, and their interactions caused their effects to increase over simulation time.Boreal forests in the northeastern of China cover 8.46×105 km2, store about 350 Tg aboveground carbon, and play an important role in maintaining China's carbon balance. Boreal forests in this region are facing pressures from repeated fires and timber harvesting activities.The objectives of our study were to evaluate the effects of fire, harvest and their interactions on boreal forest carbon stocks of northeastern China.We used the LANDIS PRO-LINKAGES model-coupling framework to simulate the landscape-level effects of fire and harvest and their interactions over 150 years. Our simulation results suggested that aboveground and soil organic carbon are significantly reduced by fire and harvest over 150 years. The long-term effects of fire and harvest on carbon stocks were greater than the short-term effects in the Great Xing' an Mountains. The total effects of fire-harvest interactions on boreal forests are less than the sum of separate effects of fire and harvest. The response of carbon stocks among ecoregions diverged and was due to the spatial variability of fire and harvest regimes.These results emphasize that fire, harvest, and their interactions play an important role in regulating boreal forest carbon stocks, the extent of fire and harvest effects depended on the intensity of these disturbances.

  9. Temperate and boreal forest mega-fires: characteristics and challenges

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Stephens, Scott L.; Burrows, Neil; Buyantuyev, Alexander; Gray, Robert W.; Keane, Robert E.; Kubian, Rick; Liu, Shirong; Seijo, Francisco; Shu, Lifu; Tolhurst, Kevin G.; Van Wagtendonk, Jan W.

    2014-01-01

    Mega-fires are often defined according to their size and intensity but are more accurately described by their socioeconomic impacts. Three factors – climate change, fire exclusion, and antecedent disturbance, collectively referred to as the “mega-fire triangle” – likely contribute to today's mega-fires. Some characteristics of mega-fires may emulate historical fire regimes and can therefore sustain healthy fire-prone ecosystems, but other attributes decrease ecosystem resiliency. A good example of a program that seeks to mitigate mega-fires is located in Western Australia, where prescribed burning reduces wildfire intensity while conserving ecosystems. Crown-fire-adapted ecosystems are likely at higher risk of frequent mega-fires as a result of climate change, as compared with other ecosystems once subject to frequent less severe fires. Fire and forest managers should recognize that mega-fires will be a part of future wildland fire regimes and should develop strategies to reduce their undesired impacts.

  10. Post-fire regeneration in seasonally dry tropical forest fragments in southeastern Brazil.

    PubMed

    Costa, Mayke B; Menezes, Luis Fernando T DE; Nascimento, Marcelo T

    2017-01-01

    Seasonally dry tropical forest is one of the highly threatened biome. However, studies on the effect of fire on these tree communities are still scarce. In this context, a floristic and structural survey in three forest areas in the southeast of Brazil that were affected by fire between 14 and 25 years ago was performed with the objective of evaluating post-fire regeneration. In each site, five systematically placed plots (25 m x 25 m each) were established. The more recently burnt site had significantly lower values of richness and diversity than the other two sites. However, the sites did not differ in density and basal area. Annona dolabripetala, Astronium concinnum, Joannesia princeps and Polyandrococos caudescens were within the 10 most important species for the three sites. Comparing these data with adjacent mature forests, the results indicated differences both in structural and floristic aspects, suggesting that the time after fire was not sufficient for recuperation of these areas. The recovery process indicate at least 190 years for areas return to basal area values close to those observed in mature forests nearby.

  11. Spatial distribution of ozone over Indonesia (Study case: Forest fire event 2015)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Muslimah, Sri; Buce Saleh, Muhamad; Hidayat, Rahmat

    2018-05-01

    Tropospheric ozone is known as surface ozone and caused several health impact. The objective of this study was to analysis spatial distribution of tropospheric ozone over Indonesia case study forest fire event in 2015. Monthly observation measured by Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) have been analysed from January – December 2015 to study spatial distribution of tropospheric ozone related to forest fire event 2015. The study discovered high level of tropospheric column ozone (TCO) from October to November 2015. The result shows increasing average of TCO from September to October almost 6 DU. Meanwhile, monthly number of hotspot is higher in September 2015 with total number 257 hotspot which is acquired by Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) Terra version 6.1 with confidence level same or more than 90%. The hotspot distribution compared with spatial TCO distribution and shows interesting time lag with respect to hotspot distribution, one month. Further study for daily comparison of TCO and forest fire event needed. This result suggested that the tropospheric ozone over the Indonesian region increases in 2015 were remarkable and corresponded to forest fire event.

  12. Madrean pine-oak forest in Arizona: altered fire regimes, altered communities

    Treesearch

    Andrew M. Barton

    2005-01-01

    In Madrean pine-oak forests in the Chiricahua Mountains, surface fire favors pines, which exhibit high top-survival, but resprouting allows oaks to rebound during inter-fire periods. These patterns plus age structure and radial growth data suggest that frequent presettlement surface fire maintained open stands, promoted a high pine:oak ratio, and excluded less fire...

  13. Fire in Ghana's dry forest: Causes, frequency, effects and management interventions

    Treesearch

    Sandra Opoku Agyemang; Michael Muller; Victor Rex Barnes

    2015-01-01

    This paper describes the number of fires, area burned, causes and seasonality of fires over a ten year period from 2002-2012 and investigates different fire management strategies and their effectiveness in the Afram headwaters forest reserve in Ghana. Data were collected from interviews of stakeholders in two communities adjacent to the reserve, and from 2002-2012 fire...

  14. Fire-induced erosion and millennial-scale climate change in northern ponderosa pine forests.

    PubMed

    Pierce, Jennifer L; Meyer, Grant A; Jull, A J Timothy

    2004-11-04

    Western US ponderosa pine forests have recently suffered extensive stand-replacing fires followed by hillslope erosion and sedimentation. These fires are usually attributed to increased stand density as a result of fire suppression, grazing and other land use, and are often considered uncharacteristic or unprecedented. Tree-ring records from the past 500 years indicate that before Euro-American settlement, frequent, low-severity fires maintained open stands. However, the pre-settlement period between about ad 1500 and ad 1900 was also generally colder than present, raising the possibility that rapid twentieth-century warming promoted recent catastrophic fires. Here we date fire-related sediment deposits in alluvial fans in central Idaho to reconstruct Holocene fire history in xeric ponderosa pine forests and examine links to climate. We find that colder periods experienced frequent low-severity fires, probably fuelled by increased understory growth. Warmer periods experienced severe droughts, stand-replacing fires and large debris-flow events that comprise a large component of long-term erosion and coincide with similar events in sub-alpine forests of Yellowstone National Park. Our results suggest that given the powerful influence of climate, restoration of processes typical of pre-settlement times may be difficult in a warmer future that promotes severe fires.

  15. Use of models to study forest fire behavior

    Treesearch

    Wallace L. Fons

    1961-01-01

    The U.S. Forest Service has started a laboratory study with the ultimate objective of determining model laws for fire behavior. The study includes an examination of the effect of such variables as species of wood, density of wood, moisture content, size of fuel particle, spacing, dimensions of fuel bed, wind, and slope on the rate of spread of fire and the partition of...

  16. Measuring short-term post-fire forest recovery across a burn severity gradient in a mixed pine-oak forest using multi-sensor remote sensing techniques

    DOE PAGES

    Meng, Ran; Wu, Jin; Zhao, Feng; ...

    2018-06-01

    Understanding post-fire forest recovery is pivotal to the study of forest dynamics and global carbon cycle. Field-based studies indicated a convex response of forest recovery rate to burn severity at the individual tree level, related with fire-induced tree mortality; however, these findings were constrained in spatial/temporal extents, while not detectable by traditional optical remote sensing studies, largely attributing to the contaminated effect from understory recovery. For this work, we examined whether the combined use of multi-sensor remote sensing techniques (i.e., 1m simultaneous airborne imaging spectroscopy and LiDAR and 2m satellite multi-spectral imagery) to separate canopy recovery from understory recovery wouldmore » enable to quantify post-fire forest recovery rate spanning a large gradient in burn severity over large-scales. Our study was conducted in a mixed pine-oak forest in Long Island, NY, three years after a top-killing fire. Our studies remotely detected an initial increase and then decline of forest recovery rate to burn severity across the burned area, with a maximum canopy area-based recovery rate of 10% per year at moderate forest burn severity class. More intriguingly, such remotely detected convex relationships also held at species level, with pine trees being more resilient to high burn severity and having a higher maximum recovery rate (12% per year) than oak trees (4% per year). These results are one of the first quantitative evidences showing the effects of fire adaptive strategies on post-fire forest recovery, derived from relatively large spatial-temporal domains. Our study thus provides the methodological advance to link multi-sensor remote sensing techniques to monitor forest dynamics in a spatially explicit manner over large-scales, with important implications for fire-related forest management, and for constraining/benchmarking fire effect schemes in ecological process models.« less

  17. Measuring short-term post-fire forest recovery across a burn severity gradient in a mixed pine-oak forest using multi-sensor remote sensing techniques

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Meng, Ran; Wu, Jin; Zhao, Feng

    Understanding post-fire forest recovery is pivotal to the study of forest dynamics and global carbon cycle. Field-based studies indicated a convex response of forest recovery rate to burn severity at the individual tree level, related with fire-induced tree mortality; however, these findings were constrained in spatial/temporal extents, while not detectable by traditional optical remote sensing studies, largely attributing to the contaminated effect from understory recovery. For this work, we examined whether the combined use of multi-sensor remote sensing techniques (i.e., 1m simultaneous airborne imaging spectroscopy and LiDAR and 2m satellite multi-spectral imagery) to separate canopy recovery from understory recovery wouldmore » enable to quantify post-fire forest recovery rate spanning a large gradient in burn severity over large-scales. Our study was conducted in a mixed pine-oak forest in Long Island, NY, three years after a top-killing fire. Our studies remotely detected an initial increase and then decline of forest recovery rate to burn severity across the burned area, with a maximum canopy area-based recovery rate of 10% per year at moderate forest burn severity class. More intriguingly, such remotely detected convex relationships also held at species level, with pine trees being more resilient to high burn severity and having a higher maximum recovery rate (12% per year) than oak trees (4% per year). These results are one of the first quantitative evidences showing the effects of fire adaptive strategies on post-fire forest recovery, derived from relatively large spatial-temporal domains. Our study thus provides the methodological advance to link multi-sensor remote sensing techniques to monitor forest dynamics in a spatially explicit manner over large-scales, with important implications for fire-related forest management, and for constraining/benchmarking fire effect schemes in ecological process models.« less

  18. A review of the main driving factors of forest fire ignition over Europe.

    PubMed

    Ganteaume, Anne; Camia, Andrea; Jappiot, Marielle; San-Miguel-Ayanz, Jesus; Long-Fournel, Marlène; Lampin, Corinne

    2013-03-01

    Knowledge of the causes of forest fires, and of the main driving factors of ignition, is an indispensable step towards effective fire prevention policies. This study analyses the factors driving forest fire ignition in the Mediterranean region including the most common human and environmental factors used for modelling in the European context. Fire ignition factors are compared to spatial and temporal variations of fire occurrence in the region, then are compared to results obtained in other areas of the world, with a special focus on North America (US and Canada) where a significant number of studies has been carried out on this topic. The causes of forest fires are varied and their distribution differs among countries, but may also differ spatially and temporally within the same country. In Europe, and especially in the Mediterranean basin, fires are mostly human-caused mainly due arson. The distance to transport networks and the distance to urban or recreation areas are among the most frequently used human factors in modelling exercises and the Wildland-Urban Interface is increasingly taken into account in the modelling of fire occurrence. Depending on the socio-economic context of the region concerned, factors such as the unemployment rate or variables linked to agricultural activity can explain the ignition of intentional and unintentional fires. Regarding environmental factors, those related to weather, fuel and topography are the most significant drivers of ignition of forest fires, especially in Mediterranean-type regions. For both human and lightning-caused fires, there is a geographical gradient of fire ignition, mainly due to variations in climate and fuel composition but also to population density for instance. The timing of fires depends on their causes. In populated areas, the timing of human-caused fires is closely linked to human activities and peaks in the afternoon whereas, in remote areas, the timing of lightning-caused fires is more linked to

  19. A Review of the Main Driving Factors of Forest Fire Ignition Over Europe

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ganteaume, Anne; Camia, Andrea; Jappiot, Marielle; San-Miguel-Ayanz, Jesus; Long-Fournel, Marlène; Lampin, Corinne

    2013-03-01

    Knowledge of the causes of forest fires, and of the main driving factors of ignition, is an indispensable step towards effective fire prevention policies. This study analyses the factors driving forest fire ignition in the Mediterranean region including the most common human and environmental factors used for modelling in the European context. Fire ignition factors are compared to spatial and temporal variations of fire occurrence in the region, then are compared to results obtained in other areas of the world, with a special focus on North America (US and Canada) where a significant number of studies has been carried out on this topic. The causes of forest fires are varied and their distribution differs among countries, but may also differ spatially and temporally within the same country. In Europe, and especially in the Mediterranean basin, fires are mostly human-caused mainly due arson. The distance to transport networks and the distance to urban or recreation areas are among the most frequently used human factors in modelling exercises and the Wildland-Urban Interface is increasingly taken into account in the modelling of fire occurrence. Depending on the socio-economic context of the region concerned, factors such as the unemployment rate or variables linked to agricultural activity can explain the ignition of intentional and unintentional fires. Regarding environmental factors, those related to weather, fuel and topography are the most significant drivers of ignition of forest fires, especially in Mediterranean-type regions. For both human and lightning-caused fires, there is a geographical gradient of fire ignition, mainly due to variations in climate and fuel composition but also to population density for instance. The timing of fires depends on their causes. In populated areas, the timing of human-caused fires is closely linked to human activities and peaks in the afternoon whereas, in remote areas, the timing of lightning-caused fires is more linked to

  20. Post-fire regeneration in a Mediterranean pine forest with historically low fire frequency

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Buhk, Constanze; Götzenberger, Lars; Wesche, Karsten; Gómez, Pedro Sánchez; Hensen, Isabell

    2006-11-01

    Species of Mediterranean vegetation are known to regenerate directly after fire. The phenomenon of autosuccession (direct regeneration) has been found to be often combined with an increase of species richness during the first years after fire due to the high abundance of short-lived herbaceous plants facilitated by plentiful nutrients and light. The high degree of vegetation resilience, which is expressed in terms of autosuccession, has been explained by the selective pressure of fire in historic times. According to existing palaeoecological data, however, the Pinus halepensis forests in the Ricote Mountains (Province of Murcia, SE Spain) did not experience substantial fire impact before the presence of man nor are they especially fire-prone today. Therefore, we studied post-fire regeneration to find out if direct succession is present or if species from pre-fire vegetation are absent during the post-fire regeneration stages. Patterns of succession were deduced from observations made in sample plots on sites of a known regeneration age as well as in adjacent unburnt areas. The results of the vegetation analyses, including a Detrended Correspondence Analysis, indicate that Pinus halepensis forest regeneration after fire resembles autosuccession. As regards the presence of woody species, there is a high percentage similarity on north (83%) and south (70%) facing slopes during the first year after fire vs. reference areas which is due, for example, to direct regeneration of the resprouting Quercus coccifera or seeders like Pinus halepensis or Fumana laevipes. However, if herbaceous species are included in the comparison, the similarity on north-facing sites decreases (to 53%) with the presence of additional species, mainly ruderals like Anagallis arvensis or Reseda phyteuma, and even woody species on the burnt plots. This effect indicates "enhanced autosuccession", which was not found on south-facing sites where overall species richness was very high irrespective of

  1. Kanawha State Forest, WV: Wildland fire fuel load assessment and geospatial distribution

    Treesearch

    Adele Fenwick; Jamie L. Schuler; Shawn Grushecky; Thomas M. Schuler; Melissa Thomas-Van Gundy

    2014-01-01

    Fire has become a major concern along the wildland-urban interface (WUI), and there is increased awareness that fires could result in serious damage to people and property in residential areas occurring in forested landscapes. Part of the long-term strategy the West Virginia Division of Forestry outlined in the 2010 West Virginia Statewide Forest Resource Assessment...

  2. Latent resilience in ponderosa pine forest: effects of resumed frequent fire

    Treesearch

    Andrew J. Larson; R. Travis Belote; C. Alina Cansler; Sean A. Parks; Matthew S. Dietz

    2013-01-01

    Ecological systems often exhibit resilient states that are maintained through negative feedbacks. In ponderosa pine forests, fire historically represented the negative feedback mechanism that maintained ecosystem resilience; fire exclusion reduced that resilience, predisposing the transition to an alternative ecosystem state upon reintroduction of fire. We evaluated...

  3. Respiratory tract deposition efficiencies: evaluation of effects from smoke released in the Cerro Grande forest fire.

    PubMed

    Schöllnberger, H; Aden, J; Scott, B R

    2002-01-01

    Forest-fire smoke inhaled by humans can cause various health effects. This smoke contains toxic chemicals and naturally occurring radionuclides. In northern New Mexico, a large wildfire occurred in May 2000. Known as the Cerro Grande Fire, it devastated the town of Los Alamos and damaged Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). Residents were concerned about the possible dissemination of radionuclides from LANL via smoke from the fire. To evaluate potential health effects of inhaling radionuclides contained in the smoke from the Cerro Grande Fire, it was first necessary to evaluate how much smoke would deposit in the human respiratory tract. The purpose of this study was to evaluate respiratory-tract deposition efficiencies of airborne forest-fire smoke for persons of different ages exposed while inside their homes. Potential non-radiological health effects of a forest fire are reviewed. The deposition efficiencies presented can be used to evaluate in-home smoke deposition in the respiratory tract and expected radionuclide intake related to forest fires. The impact of smoke exposure on firemen fighting a forest fire is quantitatively discussed and compared. They primarily inhaled forest-fire smoke while outdoors where the smoke concentration was much higher than inside. Radionuclides released at the LANL site via the Cerro Grande Fire were restricted to naturally occurring radionuclides from burning trees and vegetation. Radiation doses from inhaled airborne radionuclides to individuals inside and outside the Los Alamos area were likely very small.

  4. A review of the relationships between drought and forest fire in the United States

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Littell, Jeremy; Peterson, David L.; Riley, Karin L.; Yongquiang Liu,; Luce, Charles H.

    2016-01-01

    The historical and pre-settlement relationships between drought and wildfire are well documented in North America, with forest fire occurrence and area clearly increasing in response to drought. There is also evidence that drought interacts with other controls (forest productivity, topography, fire weather, management activities) to affect fire intensity, severity, extent, and frequency. Fire regime characteristics arise across many individual fires at a variety of spatial and temporal scales, so both weather and climate—including short- and long-term droughts—are important and influence several, but not all, aspects of fire regimes. We review relationships between drought and fire regimes in United States forests, fire-related drought metrics and expected changes in fire risk, and implications for fire management under climate change. Collectively, this points to a conceptual model of fire on real landscapes: fire regimes, and how they change through time, are products of fuels and how other factors affect their availability (abundance, arrangement, continuity) and flammability (moisture, chemical composition). Climate, management, and land use all affect availability, flammability, and probability of ignition differently in different parts of North America. From a fire ecology perspective, the concept of drought varies with scale, application, scientific or management objective, and ecosystem.

  5. A stand-replacing fire history in upper montane forests of the southern Rocky Mountains

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Margolis, E.Q.; Swetnam, T.W.; Allen, Craig D.

    2007-01-01

    Dendroecological techniques were applied to reconstruct stand-replacing fire history in upper montane forests in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado. Fourteen stand-replacing fires were dated to 8 unique fire years (1842–1901) using four lines of evidence at each of 12 sites within the upper Rio Grande Basin. The four lines of evidence were (i) quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) inner-ring dates, (ii) fire-killed conifer bark-ring dates, (iii) tree-ring width changes or other morphological indicators of injury, and (iv) fire scars. The annual precision of dating allowed the identification of synchronous stand-replacing fire years among the sites, and co-occurrence with regional surface fire events previously reconstructed from a network of fire scar collections in lower elevation pine forests across the southwestern United States. Nearly all of the synchronous stand-replacing and surface fire years coincided with severe droughts, because climate variability created regional conditions where stand-replacing fires and surface fires burned across ecosystems. Reconstructed stand-replacing fires that predate substantial Anglo-American settlement in this region provide direct evidence that stand-replacing fires were a feature of high-elevation forests before extensive and intensive land-use practices (e.g., logging, railroad, and mining) began in the late 19th century.

  6. Atmospheric turbulence observations in the vicinity of surface fires in forested environments

    Treesearch

    Warren E. Heilman; Xindi Bian; Kenneth L. Clark; Nicholas S. Skowronski; John L. Hom; Michael R. Gallagher

    2017-01-01

    Ambient and fire-induced atmospheric turbulence in the vicinity of wildland fires can affect the behavior of those fires and the dispersion of smoke. The presence of forest overstory vegetation can further complicate the evolution of local turbulence regimes and their interaction with spreading fires and smoke plumes. Previous observational studies of wildland fire...

  7. Larch Forests of Middle Siberia: Long-Term Trends in Fire Return Intervals

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Kharuk, Viacheslav I.; Dvinskaya, Mariya L.; Petrov, Ilya A.; Im, Sergei T.; Ranson, Kenneth J.

    2016-01-01

    Fire history within the northern larch forests of Central Siberia was studied (65+degN). Fires within this area are predominantly caused by lightning strikes rather than human activity. Mean fire return intervals (FRIs) were found to be 112 +/- 49 years (based on firescars) and 106 +/- 36 years (based on firescars and tree natality dates). FRIs were increased with latitude increase and observed to be about 80 years at 64N, about 200 years near the Arctic Circle and about 300 years nearby the northern range limit of larch stands (approx.71+degN). Northward FRIs increase correlated with incoming solar radiation (r = -0.95). Post- Little Ice Age (LIA) warming (after 1850) caused approximately a doubling of fire events (in comparison with a similar period during LIA). The data obtained support a hypothesis of climate-induced fire frequency increase. Keywords Fire ecology Fire history Fire frequency Siberian wildfires Larch forests Climate change

  8. Direct and indirect effects of fires on the carbon balance of tropical forest ecosystems (Invited)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Randerson, J. T.; Tosca, M. G.; Ward, D. S.; Kasibhatla, P. S.; Mahowald, N. M.; Hess, P. G.

    2013-12-01

    Fires influence the carbon budget of tropical forests directly because they account for a significant component of net emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. They also have indirect effects on nearby intact forests by modifying regional climate, atmospheric composition, and patterns of nutrient deposition. These latter pathways are not well understood and are often ignored in climate mitigation efforts such as the United Nations Program on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+). Here we used the Community Atmosphere Model (CAM5) and the Global Fire Emissions Database (GFED3) to quantify the impacts of fire-emitted aerosols on the productivity of tropical forests. Across the tropical forest biome, fire-emitted aerosols reduced surface temperatures and increased the diffuse solar insolation fraction. These changes in surface meteorology increased gross primary production (GPP) in the Community Land Model. However, these drivers were more than offset in many regions by reductions in soil moisture and total solar radiation. The net effect of fire aerosols caused GPP to decrease by approximately 8% in equatorial Asia and 6% in the central Africa. In the Amazon, decreases in photosynthesis in the western part of the basin were nearly balanced by increases in the south and east. Using additional CAM5 and GEOS-Chem model simulations, we estimated fire contributions to surface concentrations of ozone. Using empirical relationships between ozone exposure and GPP from field studies and models, we estimated how tropical forest GPP was further modified by fire-induced ozone. Our results suggest that efforts to reduce the fire component of tropical land use fluxes may have sustainability benefits that extend beyond the balance sheet for greenhouse gases.

  9. The Impact of Precipitation Regimes on Forest Fires in Yunnan Province, Southwest China

    PubMed Central

    Chen, Feng; Niu, Shukui; Tong, Xiaojuan; Zhao, Jinlong; Sun, Yu; He, Tengfei

    2014-01-01

    The amount, frequency, and duration of precipitation have important impact on the occurrence and severity of forest fires. To fully understand the effects of precipitation regimes on forest fires, a drought index was developed with number of consecutive dry days (daily precipitation less than 2 mm) and total precipitation, and the relationships of drought and precipitation with fire activities were investigated over two periods (i.e., 1982–1988 and 1989–2008) in five ecoregions of Yunnan Province. The results showed that precipitation regime had a significant relationship with fire activities during the two periods. However, the influence of the drought on fire activities varied by ecoregions, with more impacts in drier ecoregions IV-V and less impacts in the more humid ecoregions I–III. The drought was more closely related to fire activities than precipitation during the two study periods, especially in the drier ecoregions, indicating that the frequency and the duration of precipitation had significant influences on forest fires in the drier areas. Drought appears to offer a better explanation than total precipitation on temporal changes in fire regimes across the five ecoregions in Yunnan. Our findings have significant implications for forecasting the local fire dangers under the future climate change. PMID:25243208

  10. The impact of precipitation regimes on forest fires in Yunnan Province, southwest China.

    PubMed

    Chen, Feng; Niu, Shukui; Tong, Xiaojuan; Zhao, Jinlong; Sun, Yu; He, Tengfei

    2014-01-01

    The amount, frequency, and duration of precipitation have important impact on the occurrence and severity of forest fires. To fully understand the effects of precipitation regimes on forest fires, a drought index was developed with number of consecutive dry days (daily precipitation less than 2 mm) and total precipitation, and the relationships of drought and precipitation with fire activities were investigated over two periods (i.e., 1982-1988 and 1989-2008) in five ecoregions of Yunnan Province. The results showed that precipitation regime had a significant relationship with fire activities during the two periods. However, the influence of the drought on fire activities varied by ecoregions, with more impacts in drier ecoregions IV-V and less impacts in the more humid ecoregions I-III. The drought was more closely related to fire activities than precipitation during the two study periods, especially in the drier ecoregions, indicating that the frequency and the duration of precipitation had significant influences on forest fires in the drier areas. Drought appears to offer a better explanation than total precipitation on temporal changes in fire regimes across the five ecoregions in Yunnan. Our findings have significant implications for forecasting the local fire dangers under the future climate change.

  11. Observations of fire-induced turbulence regimes during low-intensity wildland fires in forested environments: implications for smoke dispersion

    Treesearch

    Warren E. Heilman; Craig B. Clements; Daisuke Seto; Xindi Bian; Kenneth L. Clark; Nicholas S. Skowronski; John L. Hom

    2015-01-01

    Low-intensity wildland fires occurring beneath forest canopies can result in particularly adverse local air-quality conditions. Ambient and fire-induced turbulent circulations play a substantial role in the transport and dispersion of smoke during these fire events. Recent in situ measurements of fire–atmosphere interactions during low-...

  12. Fire in upper Midwestern oak forest ecosystems: an oak forest restoration and management handbook

    Treesearch

    Lee E. Frelich; Peter B. Reich; David W. Peterson

    2015-01-01

    We reviewed the literature to synthesize what is known about the use of fire to maintain and restore oak forests, woodlands, and savannas of the upper Midwestern United States, with emphasis on Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Included are (1) known physical and ecological effects of fire on oaks from acorn through seedling, established sapling, and mature stages of...

  13. Object-based Forest Fire Analysis for Pedrógão Grande Fire Using Landsat 8 OLI and Sentinel-2A Imagery

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tonbul, H.; Kavzoglu, T.

    2017-12-01

    Forest fires are among the most important natural disasters with the damage to the natural habitat and human-life. Mapping damaged forest fires is crucial for assessing ecological effects caused by fire, monitoring land cover changes and modeling atmospheric and climatic effects of fire. In this context, satellite data provides a great advantage to users by providing a rapid process of detecting burning areas and determining the severity of fire damage. Especially, Mediterranean ecosystems countries sets the suitable conditions for the forest fires. In this study, the determination of burnt areas of forest fire in Pedrógão Grande region of Portugal occurred in June 2017 was carried out using Landsat 8 OLI and Sentinel-2A satellite images. The Pedrógão Grande fire was one of the largest fires in Portugal, more than 60 people was killed and thousands of hectares were ravaged. In this study, four pairs of pre-fire and post-fire top of atmosphere (TOA) and atmospherically corrected images were utilized. The red and near infrared (NIR) spectral bands of pre-fire and post-fire images were stacked and multiresolution segmentation algorithm was applied. In the segmentation processes, the image objects were generated with estimated optimum homogeneity criteria. Using eCognition software, rule sets have been created to distinguish unburned areas from burned areas. In constructing the rule sets, NDVI threshold values were determined pre- and post-fire and areas where vegetation loss was detected using the NDVI difference image. The results showed that both satellite images yielded successful results for burned area discrimination with a very high degree of consistency in terms of spatial overlap and total burned area (over 93%). Object based image analysis (OBIA) was found highly effective in delineation of burnt areas.

  14. Catastrophic Fires in Russian Forests

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sukhinin, A. I.; McRae, D. J.; Stocks, B. J.; Conard, S. G.; Hao, W.; Soja, A. J.; Cahoon, D.

    2010-12-01

    We evaluated the contribution of catastrophic fires to the total burned area and the amount of tree mortality in Russia since the 1970’s. Such fires occurred in the central regions of European Russia (1972, 1976, 1989, 2002, 2010), Khabarovsk krai (1976, 1988, 1998), Amur region (1997-2002), Republics of Yakutia and Tuva (2002), Magadan and Kamchatka oblast (1984, 2001, 2010), and Irkutsk, Chita, Amur regions, Buryat, Agin national districts (2003, 2007-08). We define a catastrophic fire as a single high-severity fire that covers more than 10,000 ha and results in total consumption of the litter and humus layers and in high tree mortality, or the simultaneous occurrence of several high-severity fires in a given region with a total area exceeding 10,000 km2. Fires on this scale can cause substantial economic, social and environmental effects, with regional to global impacts. We hypothesize that there is a positive feedback between anticyclone growth and energy release from wildfires burning over large areas. Usually the first blocking anticyclone appears in June in Russia, bringing with it dry weather that increases fire hazard. The anticyclonic pattern has maximum activity in the end of July and disappears around the middle of August. When high fire activity occurs, the anticyclone may strengthen and develop a blocking character that prevents cyclonic patterns from moving into anticyclone-dominated areas, where the fire danger index may be more than six times the average maximum. The likelihood of uncontrolled fire situations developing increases greatly when the fire number and burned area exceed critical values as a function of conditions that favor high intensity fires. In such situations fire suppression by regional forest protection services becomes impossible and federal resources are required. If the appearance of a blocking anticyclone is forecast, active fire prevention and suppression of small fires (most of which appear to be human caused) is critical

  15. A feasibility study: Forest Fire Advanced System Technology (FFAST)

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Mcleod, R. G.; Martin, T. Z.; Warren, J.

    1983-01-01

    The National Aeronautics and Space Administration/Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service completed a feasibility study that examined the potential uses of advanced technology in forest fires mapping and detection. The current and future (1990's) information needs in forest fire management were determined through interviews. Analysis shows that integrated information gathering and processing is needed. The emerging technologies that were surveyed and identified as possible candidates for use in an end to end system include ""push broom'' sensor arrays, automatic georeferencing, satellite communication links, near real or real time image processing, and data integration. Matching the user requirements and the technologies yielded a ""strawman'' system configuration. The feasibility study recommends and outlines the implementation of the next phase for this project, a two year, conceptual design phase to define a system that warrants continued development.

  16. Combining fire and erosion modeling to target forest management activities

    Treesearch

    William J. Elliot; Mary Ellen Miller; Nic Enstice

    2015-01-01

    Forests deliver a number of important ecosystem services including clean water. When forests are disturbed by wildfire, the timing, quantity and quality of runoff are altered. A modeling study was carried out in a forested watershed in California to determine the risk of wildfire, and the potential post-fire sediment delivery from approximately 6-ha hillslope polygons...

  17. Prescribed fire applications: Restoring ecological structure and process in ponderosa pine forests

    Treesearch

    Michael G. Harrington

    1996-01-01

    The decision to include the fire process as part of a restoration treatment for a particular forest site is most logically made in conjunction with the decision for a silvicultural treatment. In other words, forest managers do not typically wait to visually or quantitatively evaluate the post harvest site before deciding whether or not to apply fire. Each phase of the...

  18. Comparing modern and presettlement forest dynamics of a subboreal wilderness: Does spruce budworm enhance fire risk?

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Sturtevant, Brian R.; Miranda, Brian R.; Shinneman, Douglas J.; Gustafson, Eric J.; Wolter, Peter T.

    2012-01-01

    Insect disturbance is often thought to increase fire risk through enhanced fuel loadings, particularly in coniferous forest ecosystems. Yet insect disturbances also affect successional pathways and landscape structure that interact with fire disturbances (and vice-versa) over longer time scales. We applied a landscape succession and disturbance model (LANDIS-II) to evaluate the relative strength of interactions between spruce budworm (Choristoneura fumiferana) outbreaks and fire disturbances in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA) in northern Minnesota (USA). Disturbance interactions were evaluated for two different scenarios: presettlement forests and fire regimes vs. contemporary forests and fire regimes. Forest composition under the contemporary scenario trended toward mixtures of deciduous species (primarily Betula papyrifera and Populus spp.) and shade-tolerant conifers (Picea mariana, Abies balsamea, Thuja occidentalis), with disturbances dominated by a combination of budworm defoliation and high-severity fires. The presettlement scenario retained comparatively more “big pines” (i.e., Pinus strobus, P. resinosa) and tamarack (L. laricina), and experienced less budworm disturbance and a comparatively less-severe fire regime. Spruce budworm disturbance decreased area burned and fire severity under both scenarios when averaged across the entire 300-year simulations. Contrary to past research, area burned and fire severity during outbreak decades were each similar to that observed in non-outbreak decades. Our analyses suggest budworm disturbances within forests of the BWCA have a comparatively weak effect on long-term forest composition due to a combination of characteristics. These include strict host specificity, fine-scaled patchiness created by defoliation damage, and advance regeneration of its primary host, balsam fir (A. balsamea) that allows its host to persist despite repeated disturbances. Understanding the nature of the three-way interaction

  19. Reintroducing fire into a ponderosa pine forest with and without cattle grazing: understory vegetation response

    Treesearch

    Becky K. Kerns; Michelle Buonopane; Walter G. Thies; Christine. Niwa

    2011-01-01

    Reestablishing historical fire regimes is a high priority for North American coniferous forests, particularly ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) ecosystems. These forests are also used extensively for cattle (Bos spp.) grazing. Prescribed fires are being applied on or planned for millions of hectares of these forests to reduce...

  20. Fire-induced changes in boreal forest canopy volume and soil organic matter from multi-temporal airborne lidar

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Alonzo, M.; Cook, B.; Andersen, H. E.; Babcock, C. R.; Morton, D. C.

    2016-12-01

    Fire in boreal forests initiates a cascade of biogeochemical and biophysical processes. Over typical fire return intervals, net radiative forcing from boreal forest fires depends on the offsetting impacts of greenhouse gas emissions and post-fire changes in land surface albedo. Whether boreal forest fires warm or cool the climate over these multi-decadal intervals depends on the magnitude of fire emissions and the time scales of decomposition, albedo changes, and forest regrowth. Our understanding of vegetation and surface organic matter (SOM) changes from boreal forest fires is shaped by field measurements and moderate resolution remote sensing data. Intensive field plot measurements offer detailed data on overstory, understory, and SOM changes from fire, but sparse plot data can be difficult to extend across the heterogeneous boreal forest landscape. Conversely, satellite measurements of burn severity are spatially extensive but only provide proxy measures of fire effects. In this research, we seek to bridge the scale gap between existing intensive and extensive methods using a combination of airborne lidar data and time series of Landsat data to evaluate pre- and post-fire conditions across Alaska's Kenai Peninsula. Lidar-based estimates of pre-fire stand structure and composition were essential to characterize the loss of canopy volume from fires between 2001 and 2014, quantify transitions from live to dead standing carbon pools, and isolate vegetation recovery following fire over 1 to 13 year time scales. Results from this study demonstrate the utility of lidar for estimating pre-fire structure and species composition at the scale of individual tree crowns. Multi-temporal airborne lidar data also provide essential insights regarding the heterogeneity of canopy and SOM losses at a sub-Landsat pixel scale. Fire effects are forest-structure and species dependent with variable temporal lags in carbon release due to delayed mortality (>5 years post fire) and

  1. Prioritizing forest fuels treatments based on the probability of high-severity fire restores adaptive capacity in Sierran forests

    Treesearch

    Daniel J. Krofcheck; Matthew D. Hurteau; Robert M. Scheller; E. Louise Loudermilk

    2017-01-01

    In frequent fire forests of the western United States, a legacy of fire suppression coupled with increases in fire weather severity have altered fire regimes and vegetation dynamics. When coupled with projected climate change, these conditions have the potential to lead to vegetation type change and altered carbon (C) dynamics. In the Sierra Nevada, fuels...

  2. Decreases in Soil Moisture and Organic Matter Quality Suppress Microbial Decomposition Following a Boreal Forest Fire

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Holden, Sandra R.; Berhe, Asmeret A.; Treseder, Kathleen K.

    Climate warming is projected to increase the frequency and severity of wildfires in boreal forests, and increased wildfire activity may alter the large soil carbon (C) stocks in boreal forests. Changes in boreal soil C stocks that result from increased wildfire activity will be regulated in part by the response of microbial decomposition to fire, but post-fire changes in microbial decomposition are poorly understood. Here, we investigate the response of microbial decomposition to a boreal forest fire in interior Alaska and test the mechanisms that control post-fire changes in microbial decomposition. We used a reciprocal transplant between a recently burnedmore » boreal forest stand and a late successional boreal forest stand to test how post-fire changes in abiotic conditions, soil organic matter (SOM) composition, and soil microbial communities influence microbial decomposition. We found that SOM decomposing at the burned site lost 30.9% less mass over two years than SOM decomposing at the unburned site, indicating that post-fire changes in abiotic conditions suppress microbial decomposition. Our results suggest that moisture availability is one abiotic factor that constrains microbial decomposition in recently burned forests. In addition, we observed that burned SOM decomposed more slowly than unburned SOM, but the exact nature of SOM changes in the recently burned stand are unclear. Finally, we found no evidence that post-fire changes in soil microbial community composition significantly affect decomposition. Taken together, our study has demonstrated that boreal forest fires can suppress microbial decomposition due to post-fire changes in abiotic factors and the composition of SOM. Models that predict the consequences of increased wildfires for C storage in boreal forests may increase their predictive power by incorporating the observed negative response of microbial decomposition to boreal wildfires.« less

  3. Do one percent of the forest fires cause ninety-nine percent of the damage? Forest Science

    Treesearch

    David Strauss; Larry Bednar; Romain Mees

    1989-01-01

    A relatively small number of forest fires are responsible for a very high proportion of the total damage. The proportion due to the fraction p of largest fires, when plotted against p, is a measure of variability of fire sizes that is especially sensitive to the important extreme events. We find the theoretical form of the plot for several commonly used distributions...

  4. The paleoecology of fire and oaks in eastern forests

    Treesearch

    William A. III Patterson

    2006-01-01

    Oaks (Quercus spp.) currently dominate eastern deciduous forests, but are widely perceived as declining, with regeneration inadequate to perpetuate many stands. Most stands regenerated following fire in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and a lack of recent fire is viewed as contributing to the shortage of sapling and pole-size stands. But paleoecological studies...

  5. Decadal time-scale monitoring of forest fires in Similipal Biosphere Reserve, India using remote sensing and GIS.

    PubMed

    Saranya, K R L; Reddy, C Sudhakar; Rao, P V V Prasada; Jha, C S

    2014-05-01

    Analyzing the spatial extent and distribution of forest fires is essential for sustainable forest resource management. There is no comprehensive data existing on forest fires on a regular basis in Biosphere Reserves of India. The present work have been carried out to locate and estimate the spatial extent of forest burnt areas using Resourcesat-1 data and fire frequency covering decadal fire events (2004-2013) in Similipal Biosphere Reserve. The anomalous quantity of forest burnt area was recorded during 2009 as 1,014.7 km(2). There was inconsistency in the fire susceptibility across the different vegetation types. The spatial analysis of burnt area shows that an area of 34.2 % of dry deciduous forests, followed by tree savannah, shrub savannah, and grasslands affected by fires in 2013. The analysis based on decadal time scale satellite data reveals that an area of 2,175.9 km(2) (59.6 % of total vegetation cover) has been affected by varied rate of frequency of forest fires. Fire density pattern indicates low count of burnt area patches in 2013 estimated at 1,017 and high count at 1,916 in 2004. An estimate of fire risk area over a decade identifies 12.2 km(2) is experiencing an annual fire damage. Summing the fire frequency data across the grids (each 1 km(2)) indicates 1,211 (26 %) grids are having very high disturbance regimes due to repeated fires in all the 10 years, followed by 711 grids in 9 years and 418 in 8 years and 382 in 7 years. The spatial database offers excellent opportunities to understand the ecological impact of fires on biodiversity and is helpful in formulating conservation action plans.

  6. Summer moisture of forest fire fuels in Oregon and Washington in 1948 and previous years.

    Treesearch

    William G. Morris

    1948-01-01

    The forest fire season of 1948 in Oregon and Washington was regarded by fire suppression agencies as the most favorable for many years. The number of fires started and area burned were, in general, less than for many years. On the national forests the number of fires was the least since 1912 and the acreage burned was the least ever recorded. Was this primarily due to...

  7. Efficacy of variable density thinning and prescribed fire for restoring forest heterogeneity to mixed-conifer forest in the central Sierra Nevada, CA

    Treesearch

    Eric E. Knapp; Jamie M. Lydersen; Malcolm P. North; Brandon M. Collins

    2017-01-01

    Frequent-fire forests were historically characterized by lower tree density, a higher proportion of pine species, and greater within-stand spatial variability, compared to many contemporary forests where fire has been excluded. As a result, such forests are now increasingly unstable, prone to uncharacteristically severe wildfire or high levels of tree mortality in...

  8. Response of northern bats (Myotis septentrionalis) to prescribed fires in eastern Kentucky forests

    Treesearch

    Michael J. Lacki; Daniel R. Cox; Luke E. Dodd; Matthew B. Dickinson

    2009-01-01

    Prescribed fire is becoming a common management tool for restoring forests of North America; however, effects of prescribed fire on forest-dwelling bats remain unclear. During 2006 and 2007, we monitored prey availability, diet, foraging behavior, and roost selection of adult female northern bats (Myotis septentrionalis) before and after 2 prescribed...

  9. [Change trends of summer fire danger in great Xing' an Mountains forest region of Heilongjiang Province, Northeast China under climate change].

    PubMed

    Yang, Guang; Shu, Li-Fu; Di, Xue-Ying

    2012-11-01

    By using Delta and WGEN downscaling methods and Canadian Forest Fire Weather Index, this paper analyzed the variation characteristics of summer fire in Great Xing' an Mountains forest region of Heilongjiang Province in 1966-2010, estimated the change trends of the summer fire danger in 2010-2099, compared the differences of the forest fire in summer, spring, and autumn, and proposed the prevention and control strategies of the summer fire based on the fire environment. Under the background of climate warming, the summer forest fire in the region in 2000-2010 showed a high incidence trend. In foreseeable future, the summer forest fire across the region in 2010-2099, as compared to that in the baseline period 1961-1990, would be increased by 34%, and the increment would be obviously greater than that of spring and autumn fire. Relative to that in 1961-1990, the summer fire in 2010-2099 under both SRES A2a and SRES B2a scenarios would have an increasing trend, and, with the lapse of time, the trend would be more evident, and the area with high summer fire would become wider and wider. Under the scenario of SRES A2a, the summer fire by the end of the 21st century would be doubled, as compared to that in 1961-1990, and the area with high summer fire would be across the region. In the characteristics of fire source, attributes of forest fuel, and fire weather conditions, the summer forest fire was different from the spring and autumn forest fire, and thus, the management of fire source and forest fuel load as well as the forest fire forecast (mid-long term forecast in particular) in the region should be strengthened to control the summer forest fire.

  10. Water quality impacts of forest fires

    Treesearch

    Tecle Aregai; Daniel Neary

    2015-01-01

    Forest fires have been serious menace, many times resulting in tremendous economic, cultural and ecological damage to many parts of the United States. One particular area that has been significantly affected is the water quality of streams and lakes in the water thirsty southwestern United States. This is because the surface water coming off burned areas has resulted...

  11. Villaflores: Municipal forest fire management model

    Treesearch

    Pedro Martínez Muñoz; Carlos Alberto Velázquez Sanabria

    2013-01-01

    As provided for in the General Law on Sustainable Forestry Development, the Municipality of Villaflores has worked on a continuous basis since 2002 to reduce the damage caused by forest fires as part of its working agenda, in conjunction with Federal and State agencies and NGOs. The work plan has the following phases: a) Inter-agency coordination:...

  12. Large forest fires in Canada, 1959-1997

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Stocks, B. J.; Mason, J. A.; Todd, J. B.; Bosch, E. M.; Wotton, B. M.; Amiro, B. D.; Flannigan, M. D.; Hirsch, K. G.; Logan, K. A.; Martell, D. L.; Skinner, W. R.

    2003-01-01

    A Large Fire Database (LFDB), which includes information on fire location, start date, final size, cause, and suppression action, has been developed for all fires larger than 200 ha in area for Canada for the 1959-1997 period. The LFDB represents only 3.1% of the total number of Canadian fires during this period, the remaining 96.9% of fires being suppressed while <200 ha in size, yet accounts for ~97% of the total area burned, allowing a spatial and temporal analysis of recent Canadian landscape-scale fire impacts. On average ~2 million ha burned annually in these large fires, although more than 7 million ha burned in some years. Ecozones in the boreal and taiga regions experienced the greatest areas burned, with an average of 0.7% of the forested land burning annually. Lightning fires predominate in northern Canada, accounting for 80% of the total LFDB area burned. Large fires, although small in number, contribute substantially to area burned, most particularly in the boreal and taiga regions. The Canadian fire season runs from late April through August, with most of the area burned occurring in June and July due primarily to lightning fire activity in northern Canada. Close to 50% of the area burned in Canada is the result of fires that are not actioned due to their remote location, low values-at-risk, and efforts to accommodate the natural role of fire in these ecosystems. The LFDB is updated annually and is being expanded back in time to permit a more thorough analysis of long-term trends in Canadian fire activity.

  13. Surface Fire Influence on Carbon Balance Components in Scots Pine Forest of Siberia, Russia

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kukavskaya, E.; Ivanova, G. A.; Conard, S. G.; Soja, A. J.

    2008-12-01

    Wildfire is one of the most important disturbances in boreal forests, and it can have a profound effect on forest-atmosphere carbon exchange. Pinus sylvestris (Scots pine) stands of Siberia are strongly impacted by fires of low to high severity. Biomass distribution in mature lichen/feathermoss Scots pine stands indicates that they are carbon sinks before fire. Fires contribute significantly to the carbon budget resulting in a considerable carbon efflux, initially through direct consumption of forest fuels and later as a result of tree mortality and decomposition of dead material accumulated on the forest floor. In initial postfire years these processes dominate over photosynthetic carbon assimilation, and the ecosystems become a carbon source. Over several postfire years, above-ground carbon in dead biomass tends to increase, with the increase depending significantly on fire severity. High-severity fire enhances dead biomass carbon, while moderate- and low-severity fires have minimal effect on above-ground carbon distribution in Scots pine ecosystems. Dead stand biomass carbon increases, primarily during the first two years following fires, due to tree mortality. This increase can account for up to 12.4% of the total stand biomass after low- and moderate- intensity fires. We found tree dieback following a high-intensity fire is an order of magnitude higher, and thus the dead biomass increases up to 88.1% of total above-ground biomass. Photosynthetic CO2 uptake decreases with increasing tree mortality, and needle foliage and bark are incorporated into the upper layer of the forest floor in the course of years. Ground vegetation and duff carbon were >90, 71-83, and 82% of prefire levels after fires of low, moderate, and high severity, respectively for the first 4 to 5 years after fire. Fires of low and moderate severity caused down woody fuel carbon to increase by 2.1 and 3.6 t ha-1 respectively by four years after burning as compared to the pre-fire values. Climate

  14. The effects of forest fires on the stand history of New Jersey's pine region

    Treesearch

    S. Little

    1946-01-01

    This paper summarizes the present knowledge on the effects of forest fires in the Pine Region of New Jersey. It is not the result of any one research project, but the combined result of research and observations. Its purpose is to acquaint foresters and others having some knowledge of forestry and conservation with the importance of forest fires and the part they have...

  15. Absorption properties and graphitic carbon emission factors of forest fire aerosols

    Treesearch

    E.M. Patterson; Charles K. McMahon; D.E. Ward

    1986-01-01

    Abstract. Data on the optical absorption properties (expressed as a specific absorption, Ba) of the smoke emissions from fires with forest fuels have been determined for a series of low-intensity field fires and a series of laboratory scale fires. The B, data have been used to estimate the emission factors for graphitic...

  16. Air quality impacts from prescribed forest fires under different management practices.

    PubMed

    Tian, Di; Wang, Yuhang; Bergin, Michelle; Hu, Yongtao; Liu, Yongqiang; Russell, Armistead G

    2008-04-15

    Large amounts of air pollutants are emitted during prescribed forest fires. Such emissions and corresponding air quality impacts can be modulated by different forest management practices. The impacts of changing burning seasons and frequencies and of controlling emissions during smoldering on regional air quality in Georgia are quantified using source-oriented air quality modeling, with modified emissions from prescribed fires reflecting effects of each practice. Equivalent fires in the spring and winter are found to have a greater impact on PM2.5 than those in summer, though ozone impacts are larger from spring and summer fires. If prescribed fires are less frequent more biofuel is burnt in each fire, leading to larger emissions and air quality impacts per fire. For example, emissions from a fire with a 5-year fire return interval (FRI) are 72% larger than those from a fire of the same acreage with a 2-year FRI. However, corresponding long-term regional impacts are reduced with the longer FRI since the annual burned area is reduced. Total emissions for fires in Georgia with a 5-year FRI are 32% less than those with a 2-year FRI. Smoldering emissions can lead to approximately 1.0 or 1.9 microg/m3 of PM2.5 in the Atlanta PM2.5 nonattainment area during March 2002.

  17. A review of the relationships between drought and forest fire in the United States.

    PubMed

    Littell, Jeremy S; Peterson, David L; Riley, Karin L; Liu, Yongquiang; Luce, Charles H

    2016-07-01

    The historical and presettlement relationships between drought and wildfire are well documented in North America, with forest fire occurrence and area clearly increasing in response to drought. There is also evidence that drought interacts with other controls (forest productivity, topography, fire weather, management activities) to affect fire intensity, severity, extent, and frequency. Fire regime characteristics arise across many individual fires at a variety of spatial and temporal scales, so both weather and climate - including short- and long-term droughts - are important and influence several, but not all, aspects of fire regimes. We review relationships between drought and fire regimes in United States forests, fire-related drought metrics and expected changes in fire risk, and implications for fire management under climate change. Collectively, this points to a conceptual model of fire on real landscapes: fire regimes, and how they change through time, are products of fuels and how other factors affect their availability (abundance, arrangement, continuity) and flammability (moisture, chemical composition). Climate, management, and land use all affect availability, flammability, and probability of ignition differently in different parts of North America. From a fire ecology perspective, the concept of drought varies with scale, application, scientific or management objective, and ecosystem. Published 2016. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.

  18. Forest Fire Prevention Programs and Their Evaluation In U.S. Forest Service Region 8

    Treesearch

    G. Richard Wetherill

    1982-01-01

    A telephone survey of all national forest ranger districts in Region 8 obtained data describing the status of forest fire prevention program evaluation. Out of the 396 programs being conducted on the 105 districts in the South, only one program had undergone any sort of systematic evaluation. Survey data indicate that ranger district prevention personnel are aware of...

  19. Strata-based forest fuel classification for wild fire hazard assessment using terrestrial LiDAR

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chen, Yang; Zhu, Xuan; Yebra, Marta; Harris, Sarah; Tapper, Nigel

    2016-10-01

    Fuel structural characteristics affect fire behavior including fire intensity, spread rate, flame structure, and duration, therefore, quantifying forest fuel structure has significance in understanding fire behavior as well as providing information for fire management activities (e.g., planned burns, suppression, fuel hazard assessment, and fuel treatment). This paper presents a method of forest fuel strata classification with an integration between terrestrial light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data and geographic information system for automatically assessing forest fuel structural characteristics (e.g., fuel horizontal continuity and vertical arrangement). The accuracy of fuel description derived from terrestrial LiDAR scanning (TLS) data was assessed by field measured surface fuel depth and fuel percentage covers at distinct vertical layers. The comparison of TLS-derived depth and percentage cover at surface fuel layer with the field measurements produced root mean square error values of 1.1 cm and 5.4%, respectively. TLS-derived percentage cover explained 92% of the variation in percentage cover at all fuel layers of the entire dataset. The outcome indicated TLS-derived fuel characteristics are strongly consistent with field measured values. TLS can be used to efficiently and consistently classify forest vertical layers to provide more precise information for forest fuel hazard assessment and surface fuel load estimation in order to assist forest fuels management and fire-related operational activities. It can also be beneficial for mapping forest habitat, wildlife conservation, and ecosystem management.

  20. Effect of Experimentally Manipulated Fire Regimes on the Response of Forests to Drought

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Refsland, T. K.; Knapp, B.; Fraterrigo, J.

    2017-12-01

    Climate change is expected to increase drought stress in many forests and alter fire regimes. Fire can reduce tree density and thus competition for limited water, but the effects of changing fire regimes on forest productivity during drought remain poorly understood. We measured the annual ring-widths of adult oak (Quercus spp.) trees in Mark Twain National Forest, Missouri USA that experienced unburned, annual or periodic (every 4 years) surface fire treatments from 1951 - 2015. Severe drought events were identified using the BILJOU water balance model. We determined the effect of fire treatment on stand-level annual growth rates as well as stand-level resistance and resilience to drought, defined as the drought-induced reduction in growth and post-drought recovery in growth, respectively. During favorable wet years, annual and periodic fire treatments reduced annual growth rates by approximately 10-15% relative to unburned controls (P < 0.001). Stand-level growth rates declined 22-40% during drought events (P < 0.001), but fire-driven changes to stand basal area had no effect on the resistance or resilience of trees to drought. The decline in annual growth rates of burned stands during favorable wet years was likely caused by increased nitrogen (N) limitation in burned plots. After 60 years of treatment, burned plots experienced 30% declines in total soil N relative to unburned plots. Our finding that drought resistance and resilience were similar across all treatments suggest that fire-driven reductions in stand density may have negligible effects on soil moisture availability during drought. Our results highlight that climate-fire interactions can have important long-term effects on forest productivity.

  1. Civic Ecology Education and Resilient Societies: A Survey of Forest Fires in Greece

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Papaspiliou, Konstantina; Skanavis, Constantina; Giannoulis, Christos

    2014-01-01

    Forest fires, as all natural disasters, have the potential to seriously affect both the environment and the social structure of a local community. Unlike some of the natural disasters, such as hurricanes, tornados and tsunamis which are unpredictable, the phenomenon of forest fires could be easily predicted and controlled, since the causes are…

  2. Fire as the dominant driver of central Canadian boreal forest carbon balance.

    PubMed

    Bond-Lamberty, Ben; Peckham, Scott D; Ahl, Douglas E; Gower, Stith T

    2007-11-01

    Changes in climate, atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration and fire regimes have been occurring for decades in the global boreal forest, with future climate change likely to increase fire frequency--the primary disturbance agent in most boreal forests. Previous attempts to assess quantitatively the effect of changing environmental conditions on the net boreal forest carbon balance have not taken into account the competition between different vegetation types on a large scale. Here we use a process model with three competing vascular and non-vascular vegetation types to examine the effects of climate, carbon dioxide concentrations and fire disturbance on net biome production, net primary production and vegetation dominance in 100 Mha of Canadian boreal forest. We find that the carbon balance of this region was driven by changes in fire disturbance from 1948 to 2005. Climate changes affected the variability, but not the mean, of the landscape carbon balance, with precipitation exerting a more significant effect than temperature. We show that more frequent and larger fires in the late twentieth century resulted in deciduous trees and mosses increasing production at the expense of coniferous trees. Our model did not however exhibit the increases in total forest net primary production that have been inferred from satellite data. We find that poor soil drainage decreased the variability of the landscape carbon balance, which suggests that increased climate and hydrological changes have the potential to affect disproportionately the carbon dynamics of these areas. Overall, we conclude that direct ecophysiological changes resulting from global climate change have not yet been felt in this large boreal region. Variations in the landscape carbon balance and vegetation dominance have so far been driven largely by increases in fire frequency.

  3. Warm Dry Weather Conditions Cause of 2016 Fort McMurray Wild Forest Fire and Associated Air Quality

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    de Azevedo, S. C.; Singh, R. P.; da Silva, E. A., Sr.

    2016-12-01

    The climate change is evident from the increasing temperature around the world, day to day life and increasing frequency of natural hazards. The warm and dry conditions are the cause of frequent forest fires around the globe. Forest fires severely affect the air quality and human health. Multi sensor satellites and dense network of ground stations provide information about vegetation health, meteorological, air quality and atmospheric parameters. We have carried out detailed analysis of satellite and ground data of wild forest fire that occurred in May 2016 in Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada. This wild forest fire destroyed 10 per cent of Fort McMurray's housing and forced more than 90,000 people to evacuate the surrounding areas. Our results show that the warm and dry conditions with low rainfall were the cause of Fort McMurray wild fire. The air quality parameters (particulate matter, CO, ozone, NO2, methane) and greenhouse gases measured from Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) satellite show enhanced levels soon after the forest fire. The emissions from the forest fire affected health of population living in surrounding areas up to 300 km radius.

  4. Web service tools in the era of forest fire management and elimination

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Poursanidis, Dimitris; Kochilakis, Giorgos; Chrysoulakis, Nektarios; Varella, Vasiliki; Kotroni, Vassiliki; Eftychidis, Giorgos; Lagouvardos, Kostas

    2014-10-01

    Wildfires in forests and forested areas in South Europe, North America, Central Asia and Australia are a diachronic threat with crucial ecological, economic and social impacts. Last decade the frequency, the magnitude and the intensity of fires have increased even more because of the climate change. An efficient response to such disasters requires an effective planning, with an early detection system of the ignition area and an accurate prediction of fire propagation to support the rapid response mechanisms. For this reason, information systems able to predict and visualize the behavior of fires, are valuable tools for fire fighting. Such systems, able also to perform simulations that evaluate the fire development scenarios, based on weather conditions, become valuable Decision Support Tools for fire mitigation planning. A Web-based Information System (WIS) developed in the framework of the FLIRE (Floods and fire risk assessment and management) project, a LIFE+ co-funded by the European Commission research, is presented in this study. The FLIRE WIS use forest fuel maps which have been developed by using generalized fuel maps, satellite data and in-situ observations. Furthermore, it leverages data from meteorological stations and weather forecast from numerical models to feed the fire propagation model with the necessary for the simulations inputs and to visualize the model's results for user defined time periods and steps. The user has real-time access to FLIRE WIS via any web browser from any platform (PC, Laptop, Tablet, Smartphone).

  5. Effects of biotic feedback and harvest management on boreal forest fire activity under climate change.

    PubMed

    Krawchuk, Meg A; Cumming, Steve G

    2011-01-01

    Predictions of future fire activity over Canada's boreal forests have primarily been generated from climate data following assumptions that direct effects of weather will stand alone in contributing to changes in burning. However, this assumption needs explicit testing. First, areas recently burned can be less likely to burn again in the near term, and this endogenous regulation suggests the potential for self-limiting, negative biotic feedback to regional climate-driven increases in fire. Second, forest harvest is ongoing, and resulting changes in vegetation structure have been shown to affect fire activity. Consequently, we tested the assumption that fire activity will be driven by changes in fire weather without regulation by biotic feedback or regional harvest-driven changes in vegetation structure in the mixedwood boreal forest of Alberta, Canada, using a simulation experiment that includes the interaction of fire, stand dynamics, climate change, and clear cut harvest management. We found that climate change projected with fire weather indices calculated from the Canadian Regional Climate Model increased fire activity, as expected, and our simulations established evidence that the magnitude of regional increase in fire was sufficient to generate negative feedback to subsequent fire activity. We illustrate a 39% (1.39-fold) increase in fire initiation and 47% (1.47-fold) increase in area burned when climate and stand dynamics were included in simulations, yet 48% (1.48-fold) and 61% (1.61-fold) increases, respectively, when climate was considered alone. Thus, although biotic feedbacks reduced burned area estimates in important ways, they were secondary to the direct effect of climate on fire. We then show that ongoing harvest management in this region changed landscape composition in a way that led to reduced fire activity, even in the context of climate change. Although forest harvesting resulted in decreased regional fire activity when compared to unharvested

  6. Modeling the disturbance of vegetation by fire in the boreal forest

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Crevoisier, C.; Shevliakova, E.; Gloor, M.; Wirth, C.

    2006-12-01

    Boreal regions are important for the global carbon cycle because it is the largest forested area on earth and there are large belowground carbon pools (~1000 PgC). It is also a region where largest warming trends on the globe over the last decades have been observed and changes of the land ecosystems have already started. A major factor that determines the structure and carbon dynamics of the boreal forest is fire. As fire frequency depends strongly on climate, increased fire occurrence and related losses to the atmosphere are likely, and have already been reported. In order to predict with more confidence the occurrence and effect of fire on forest ecosystems in the boreal region, we have developed a fire model that takes advantage of the large on-ground, remote sensing and climate data from Canada, Alaska and Siberia. This prognostic model estimates the monthly burned area in a grid cell of 2 by 2.5 degrees, from four climate (air temperature, air relative humidity, precipitation and soil water content) and one human-related (road density) variables. Parameters are estimated using a Markov Chain Monte Carlo method applied to a dataset of observed burned area for Canada. The model is able to reproduce the seasonality of fire, the interannual variability, as well as the location of fire events, not only for Canada (on which data the model is based), but also for Siberia and Alaska, for which the results compare well with remote sensing observation, and are in the range of various current estimations of burned area. The fire model is being implemented in LM3V, the new vegetation model of GFDL earth system model, in order to make prediction of future fire behavior in boreal regions, and the related disturbance of the vegetation and carbon emissions.

  7. Wildfire and drought dynamics destabilize carbon stores of fire-suppressed forests

    Treesearch

    J. Mason Earles; Malcolm P. North; Matthew D. Hurteau

    2014-01-01

    Widespread fire suppression and thinning have altered the structure and composition of many forests in the western United States, making them more susceptible to the synergy of large-scale drought and fire events. We examine how these changes affect carbon storage and stability compared to historic fire-adapted conditions. We modeled carbon dynamics under possible...

  8. The Influence of Proximity to a National Forest on Emotions and Fire-Management Decisions

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Vining, Joanne; Merrick, Melinda S.

    2008-02-01

    Because American national forests are managed for all citizens, it is important that researchers explore the differences and similarities between citizens living both near and far from publicly managed land. We surveyed residents living at various distances from nationally managed land to collect resident perceptions of different forest fire-management techniques, to determine public preferences for these techniques, and to examine the motivations behind these preferences. Participants both close to and far away from national forests tended to favor a multipronged approach to fire management by preferring the use of a combination of two or more fire-management techniques. There were no significant differences by proximity in participants’ self-rated emotions, types of fire-management techniques preferred, or the reasons and rationales for their preferred fire-management technique(s), indicating that the proximity variable may not be as significant as previously thought.

  9. The influence of proximity to a national forest on emotions and fire-management decisions.

    PubMed

    Vining, Joanne; Merrick, Melinda S

    2008-02-01

    Because American national forests are managed for all citizens, it is important that researchers explore the differences and similarities between citizens living both near and far from publicly managed land. We surveyed residents living at various distances from nationally managed land to collect resident perceptions of different forest fire-management techniques, to determine public preferences for these techniques, and to examine the motivations behind these preferences. Participants both close to and far away from national forests tended to favor a multipronged approach to fire management by preferring the use of a combination of two or more fire-management techniques. There were no significant differences by proximity in participants' self-rated emotions, types of fire-management techniques preferred, or the reasons and rationales for their preferred fire-management technique(s), indicating that the proximity variable may not be as significant as previously thought.

  10. Burnscar analysis using normalized burning ratio (NBR) index during 2015 forest fire at Merang-Kepahyang peat forest, South Sumatra, Indonesia

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Saputra, Agus Dwi; Setiabudidaya, Dedi; Setyawan, Dwi; Khakim, M. Yusup Nur; Iskandar, Iskhaq

    2017-07-01

    Forest fire, classified as a natural hazard or human-induced hazard, has negative impacts on humans. These negative impacts are including economic loss, health problems, transportation disruption and land degradation or even biodiversity loss. During 2015, forest fire had occurred at the Merang-Kepahyang peat forest that has a total area of about 69.837,00 ha. In order to set a rehabilitation plan for recovering the impact of forest fire, information on the total burnscar area and severity level is required. In this study, the total burnscar area and severity level is evaluated using a calculation on the Normalized Burning Ratio (NBR) Index. The calculation is based on the Near Infra Red (NIR) and Short Wave Infra Red (SWIR) of the satellite imageries from LANDSAT. The images of pre-and post-fire are used to evaluate the severity level, which is defined as a difference in NBR Index of pre- and post-fire. It is found that about 42.906,00 ha of the total area of Merang-Kepahyang peat area have been fired in 2015. These burned area are classified into four categories, i.e., unburned, low, extreme and moderate extreme. By overlying the spatial map of burning level with other thematic maps, it is expected that strategy for rehabilitation plan can be well developed.

  11. Acorn viability following prescribed fire in upland hardwood forests

    Treesearch

    Katie Greenberg; Tara Keyser; Stan Zarnoch; Kris Connor

    2012-01-01

    Restoration of structure and function of mixed-oak (Quercus spp.) forests is a focal issue of forest land managers in the eastern United States due to widespread regeneration failure and poor overstory recruitment of oaks, particularly on productive sites. Prescribed fire is increasingly used as a tool in oak ecosystem restoration, with the goal of reducing competition...

  12. Fire impact and assessment of post-fire actions of a typical Mediterranean forest from SW Spain

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jiménez-González, Marco A.; María De la Rosa, José; Jiménez-Morillo, Nicasio T.; Zavala, Lorena M.; Knicker, Heike

    2015-04-01

    Wildfires may cause significant changes in soil physical and chemical properties. In addition, soil organic matter (SOM) content and chemical properties are usually affected by fire. Fire impacts may negatively affect soil health and quality, and induce or enhance runoff generation and, thereby, soil erosion risk and cause damages to the habitat of species. This fact is especially dramatic in Mediterranean ecosystems, where forest fires are a frequent phenomenon and restoration strategies are a key issue. The goals of this study are to determine: i) the immediate effects of fire on soil properties, including changes occurred in the quantity and quality of SOM and ii) the effect of post-fire actions on soil properties. In August 2012, a wildfire affected a forest area of approx. 90 ha in Montellano (Seville, SW Spain; longitude 37.00 °, latitude -5.56 °). This area is dominated by pines (Pinus pinaster and Pinus halepensis), and eucalypts (Eucaliptus globulus) with a Mediterranean climate. Dominant soil types are Rendzic Leptosols and Calcaric Haplic Regosols. It is a poorly limestone-developed soil (usually swallower than 25 cm). Four soil subsamples were collected 1 month and 25 months after fire within an area of approximately 200 m2. Subsamples were mixed together, homogenized, air-dried, crushed and sieved (2 mm). One control sample was collected in an adjacent area. The litter layer was removed by hand and studied separately. Branches, stems, bushes and plant residues on the fire-affected area were removed 16 months after the fire using heavy machinery as part of the post-fire management. The present research focuses on the study of the elemental composition (C, H and N) and physical properties (pH, water holding capacity, electrical conductivity) of bulk soil samples, and on the spectroscopic analysis (FT-IR, 13C NMR) and analytical pyrolysis data obtained from bulk the oils and from the humic acid fraction. immediate effects of fire, including the charring

  13. Mixed-severity fire regimes in dry forests of southern interior British Columbia, Canada

    Treesearch

    Emily K. Heyerdahl; Ken Lertzman; Carmen M. Wong

    2012-01-01

    Historical fire severity is poorly characterized for dry forests in the interior west of North America. We inferred a multicentury history of fire severity from tree rings in Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii var. glauca (Beissn.) Franco) - ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa Douglas ex P. Lawson & C. Lawson) forests in the southern interior of British Columbia,...

  14. Fire ecology and bird populations in eastern deciduous forests

    Treesearch

    Vanessa L. Artman; Todd F. Hutchinson; Jeffrey D. Brawn; Jeffrey D. Brawn

    2005-01-01

    Eastern deciduous forests are located across the central portion of eastern North America and provide habitat for a wide diversity of bird species. The occurrence of fi re in the region has been associated with the presence of humans for over 10,000 yr. While pre-European fire regimes are poorly understood, fire is widely thought to have promoted and maintained large...

  15. Long term effects of fire on the carbon balance in boreal forests

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Berninger, Frank; Köster, Kaja; Pumpanen, Jukka

    2013-04-01

    Fire is the primary process which organizes the physical and biological attributes of the boreal biome and influences energy flows and biogeochemical cycles, particularly the carbon and nitrogen cycle. We established a forest fire chronosequence in the northern boreal forest in Lapland (Värriö Strict Nature Reserve), Finland (67°46' N, 29°35' E) that spans 160 years. Soil organic matter and its turnover were measured in and ex situ, as well as biomass of trees. The fungal biomass was assessed using soil ergosterol contents. The results indicate that fires slow down the turnover of soil organic matter for a period of at least 50 years. The turnover rate in recently burnt sites was only half of the turnover of the old forest site. Decreases in the turnover where still substantial 50 years after fire. The slow recovery of fungal biomass after fires seems to be the cause of the decrease since sites with a higher concentration of fungal biomass in the soils had shorter soil organic matter turnover rates. Increases in stand foliar biomass were less important for the turnover of soil organic matter. We tried to explore the potential importance of our finding using a simple data driven simulation model that estimates soil carbon dynamic from litter input and the measured soil carbon turnover times. The results indicate the initial post-fire slowdown of soil carbon turnover is an important component of the boreal carbon cycle. Using our fire intervals the simulated soil carbon stocks with a lower post-fire soil organic matter turnover were up to 15 % larger than simulations assuming a constant carbon turnover rate. Our sensitivity analysis indicates that the effects will be larger in areas with frequent fires. We do not know which environmental factors cause the delay in the turnover time and the effects of fires on post fire soil organic matter turnover could be considerably smaller or larger. Altogether our results fit well to published results from laboratory studies

  16. Gaseous emissions from Canadian boreal forest fires

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Cofer, Wesley R., III; Levine, Joel S.; Winstead, Edward L.; Stocks, Brian J.

    1990-01-01

    CO2-normalized emission ratios for carbon monoxide (CO), hydrogen (H2), methane (CH4), total nonmethane hydrocarbons (TNMHC), and nitrous oxide (N2O) were determined from smoke samples collected during low-altitude helicopter flights over two prescribed fires in northern Ontario, Canada. The emission ratios determined from these prescribed boreal forest fires are compared to emission ratios determined over two graminoid (grass) wetlands fires in central Florida and are found to be substantially higher (elevated levels of reduced gas production relative to CO2) during all stages of combustion. These results argue strongly for the need to characterize biomass burning emissions from the major global vegetation/ecosystems in order to couple combustion emissions to their vegetation/ecosystem type.

  17. Long-term effects of prescribed fire on mixed conifer forest structure in the Sierra Nevada, California

    Treesearch

    Phillip J. Van Mantgem; Nathan L. Stephenson; Eric Knapp; John Barrles; Jon E. Keeley

    2011-01-01

    The capacity of prescribed fire to restore forest conditions is often judged by changes in forest structure within a few years following burning. However, prescribed fire might have longer-term effects on forest structure, potentially changing treatment assessments. We examined annual changes in forest structure in five 1 ha old-growth plots immediately before...

  18. Refining the oak-fire hypothesis for management of oak-dominated forests of the eastern United States

    Treesearch

    Mary A. Arthur; Heather D. Alexander; Daniel C. Dey; Callie J. Schweitzer; David L. Loftis

    2012-01-01

    Prescribed fires are increasingly implemented throughout eastern deciduous forests to accomplish various management objectives, including maintenance of oak-dominated (Quercus spp.) forests. Despite a regional research-based understanding of prehistoric and historic fire regimes, a parallel understanding of contemporary fire use to preserve oak...

  19. Initial tree regeneration responses to fire and thinning treatments in a Sierra Nevada mixed-conifer forest, USA

    Treesearch

    Harold S.J. Zald; Andrew N. Gray; Malcolm North; Ruth A. Kern

    2008-01-01

    Fire is a driver of ecosystem patterns and processes in forests globally, but natural fire regimes have often been altered by decades of active fire management. Following almost a century of fire suppression, many Western U.S. forests have greater fuel levels, higher tree densities, and are now dominated by fire-sensitive, shade-tolerant species. These fuel-loaded...

  20. Levels and patterns of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in soils after forest fires in South Korea.

    PubMed

    Kim, Eun Jung; Choi, Sung-Deuk; Chang, Yoon-Seok

    2011-11-01

    To investigate the influence of biomass burning on the levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in soils, temporal trends and profiles of 16 US Environmental Protection Agency priority PAHs were studied in soil and ash samples collected 1, 5, and 9 months after forest fires in South Korea. The levels of PAHs in the burnt soils 1 month after the forest fires (mean, 1,200 ng/g dry weight) were comparable with those of contaminated urban soils. However, 5 and 9 months after the forest fires, these levels decreased considerably to those of general forest soils (206 and 302 ng/g, respectively). The burnt soils and ash were characterized by higher levels of light PAHs with two to four rings, reflecting direct emissions from biomass burning. Five and 9 months after the forest fires, the presence of naphthalene decreased considerably, which indicates that light PAHs were rapidly volatilized or degraded from the burnt soils. The temporal trend and pattern of PAHs clearly suggests that soils in the forest-fire region can be contaminated by PAHs directly emitted from biomass burning. However, the fire-affected soils can return to the pre-fire conditions over time through the washout and wind dissipation of the ash with high content of PAHs as well as vaporization or degradation of light PAHs.

  1. Strong Gradients in Forest Sensitivity to Climate Change Revealed by Dynamics of Forest Fire Cycles in the Post Little Ice Age Era

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Drobyshev, Igor; Bergeron, Yves; Girardin, Martin P.; Gauthier, Sylvie; Ols, Clémentine; Ojal, John

    2017-10-01

    The length of the fire cycle is a critical factor affecting the vegetation cover in boreal and temperate regions. However, its responses to climate change remain poorly understood. We reanalyzed data from earlier studies of forest age structures at the landscape level, in order to map the evolution of regional fire cycles across Eastern North American boreal and temperate forests, following the termination of the Little Ice Age (LIA). We demonstrated a well-defined spatial pattern of post-LIA changes in the length of fire cycles toward lower fire activity during the 1800s and 1900s. The western section of Eastern North America (west of 77°W) experienced a decline in fire activity as early as the first half of the 1800s. By contrast, the eastern section showed these declines as late as the early 1900s. During a regionally fire-prone period of the 1910s-1920s, forests in the western section of Eastern boreal North America burned more than forests in the eastern section. The climate appeared to dominate over vegetation composition and human impacts in shaping the geographical pattern of the post-LIA change in fire activity. Changes in the atmospheric circulation patterns following the termination of the LIA, specifically changes in Arctic Oscillation and the strengthening of the Continental Polar Trough, were likely drivers of the regional fire dynamics.

  2. Forest landowner decisions and the value of information under fire risk.

    Treesearch

    Gregory S. Amacher; Arun S. Malik; Robert G. Haight

    2005-01-01

    We estimate the value of three types of information about fire risk to a nonindustrial forest landowner: the relationship between fire arrival rates and stand age, the magnitude of fire arrival rates, and the efficacy of fuel reduction treatment. Our model incorporates planting density and the level and timing of fuel reduction treatment as landowner decisions. These...

  3. Presettlement fire regime and vegetation mapping in Southeastern Coastal Plain forest ecosystems

    Treesearch

    Andrew D. Bailey; Robert Mickler; Cecil Frost

    2007-01-01

    Fire-adapted forest ecosystems make up 95 percent of the historic Coastal Plain vegetation types in the Southeastern United States. Fire suppression over the last century has altered the species composition of these ecosystems, increased fuel loads, and increased wildfire risk. Prescribed fire is one management tool used to reduce fuel loading and restore fire-adapted...

  4. Landscape-scale effects of fire severity on mixed-conifer and red fir forest structure in Yosemite National Park

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Kane, Van R.; Lutz, James A.; Roberts, Susan L.; Smith, Douglas F.; McGaughey, Robert J.; Povak, Nicholas A.; Brooks, Matthew L.

    2013-01-01

    While fire shapes the structure of forests and acts as a keystone process, the details of how fire modifies forest structure have been difficult to evaluate because of the complexity of interactions between fires and forests. We studied this relationship across 69.2 km2 of Yosemite National Park, USA, that was subject to 32 fires ⩾40 ha between 1984 and 2010. Forests types included ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa), white fir-sugar pine (Abies concolor/Pinus lambertiana), and red fir (Abies magnifica). We estimated and stratified burned area by fire severity using the Landsat-derived Relativized differenced Normalized Burn Ratio (RdNBR). Airborne LiDAR data, acquired in July 2010, measured the vertical and horizontal structure of canopy material and landscape patterning of canopy patches and gaps. Increasing fire severity changed structure at the scale of fire severity patches, the arrangement of canopy patches and gaps within fire severity patches, and vertically within tree clumps. Each forest type showed an individual trajectory of structural change with increasing fire severity. As a result, the relationship between estimates of fire severity such as RdNBR and actual changes appears to vary among forest types. We found three arrangements of canopy patches and gaps associated with different fire severities: canopy-gap arrangements in which gaps were enclosed in otherwise continuous canopy (typically unburned and low fire severities); patch-gap arrangements in which tree clumps and gaps alternated and neither dominated (typically moderate fire severity); and open-patch arrangements in which trees were scattered across open areas (typically high fire severity). Compared to stands outside fire perimeters, increasing fire severity generally resulted first in loss of canopy cover in lower height strata and increased number and size of gaps, then in loss of canopy cover in higher height strata, and eventually the transition to open areas with few or no trees. However

  5. Fire in Siberian boreal forests -- implications for global climate and air quality

    Treesearch

    Eduard P. Davidenko

    1998-01-01

    Boreal forests and woodlands comprise about 29 percent of the world's forest cover. About 70 percent of this forest is in Eurasia, mostly in the Russian Federation. Boreal forests contain about 45 percent of the world's growing stock and are an increasingly important part of global timber production. Fire impacts large areas of boreal forest annually in...

  6. A presettlement fire history in an oak-pine forest near Basin Lake, Algonquin Park, Ontario

    Treesearch

    Richard P. Guyette; Daniel C. Dey

    1995-01-01

    Fire scars from natural remnants of red pine (Pinus resinosa Ait.) in an oak-pine forest near Basin Lake, Algonquin Park, Ontario, were dated using dendrochronological methods. A fire scar chronology was constructed from 28 dated fire scars on 26 pine remnants found in a 1 km2 area of this forest. From pith and outside ring...

  7. Large forest fires in Canada, 1959-1997

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Stocks, B. J.; Mason, J. A.; Todd, J. B.; Bosch, E. M.; Wotton, B. M.; Amiro, B. D.; Flannigan, M. D.; Hirsch, K. G.; Logan, K. A.; Martell, D. L.; Skinner, W. R.

    2002-01-01

    A Large Fire Database (LFDB), which includes information on fire location, start date, final size, cause, and suppression action, has been developed for all fires larger than 200 ha in area for Canada for the 1959-1997 period. The LFDB represents only 3.1% of the total number of Canadian fires during this period, the remaining 96.9% of fires being suppressed while <200 ha in size, yet accounts for ˜97% of the total area burned, allowing a spatial and temporal analysis of recent Canadian landscape-scale fire impacts. On average ˜2 million ha burned annually in these large fires, although more than 7 million ha burned in some years. Ecozones in the boreal and taiga regions experienced the greatest areas burned, with an average of 0.7% of the forested land burning annually. Lightning fires predominate in northern Canada, accounting for 80% of the total LFDB area burned. Large fires, although small in number, contribute substantially to area burned, most particularly in the boreal and taiga regions. The Canadian fire season runs from late April through August, with most of the area burned occurring in June and July due primarily to lightning fire activity in northern Canada. Close to 50% of the area burned in Canada is the result of fires that are not actioned due to their remote location, low values-at-risk, and efforts to accommodate the natural role of fire in these ecosystems. The LFDB is updated annually and is being expanded back in time to permit a more thorough analysis of long-term trends in Canadian fire activity.

  8. Drainage and Agriculture Impacts onf Fire Frequency in a Southern Illinois Forested Bottomland.

    Treesearch

    John L. Nelson; Charles M. Ruffner; John W. Groninger; Ray A. Souter

    2008-01-01

    Postsettlement (1909–2003) fire history of a forested bottomland in the Mississippi Embayment of southern Illinois, USA, was determined using fire-scar analysis. The study area is a forested bottomland hardwood site, with remnant pockets of the dominant presettlement bald cypress – tupelo (1919, with agricultural clearing and abandonment varying throughout the...

  9. Post-Fire Changes in Forest Biomass Retrieved by Airborne LiDAR in Amazonia

    Treesearch

    Luciane Sato; Vitor Gomes; Yosio Shimabukuro; Michael Keller; Egidio Arai; Maiza dos-Santos; Irving Brown; Luiz Aragão

    2016-01-01

    Fire is one of the main factors directly impacting Amazonian forest biomass and dynamics. Because of Amazonia’s large geographical extent, remote sensing techniques are required for comprehensively assessing forest fire impacts at the landscape level. In this context, Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) stands out as a technology capable of retrieving direct...

  10. Prototype of microbolometer thermal infrared camera for forest fire detection from space

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Guerin, Francois; Dantes, Didier; Bouzou, Nathalie; Chorier, Philippe; Bouchardy, Anne-Marie; Rollin, Joël.

    2017-11-01

    The contribution of the thermal infrared (TIR) camera to the Earth observation FUEGO mission is to participate; to discriminate the clouds and smoke; to detect the false alarms of forest fires; to monitor the forest fires. Consequently, the camera needs a large dynamic range of detectable radiances. A small volume, low mass and power are required by the small FUEGO payload. These specifications can be attractive for other similar missions.

  11. Prioritizing forest fuels treatments based on the probability of high-severity fire restores adaptive capacity in Sierran forests.

    PubMed

    Krofcheck, Daniel J; Hurteau, Matthew D; Scheller, Robert M; Loudermilk, E Louise

    2018-02-01

    In frequent fire forests of the western United States, a legacy of fire suppression coupled with increases in fire weather severity have altered fire regimes and vegetation dynamics. When coupled with projected climate change, these conditions have the potential to lead to vegetation type change and altered carbon (C) dynamics. In the Sierra Nevada, fuels reduction approaches that include mechanical thinning followed by regular prescribed fire are one approach to restore the ability of the ecosystem to tolerate episodic fire and still sequester C. Yet, the spatial extent of the area requiring treatment makes widespread treatment implementation unlikely. We sought to determine if a priori knowledge of where uncharacteristic wildfire is most probable could be used to optimize the placement of fuels treatments in a Sierra Nevada watershed. We developed two treatment placement strategies: the naive strategy, based on treating all operationally available area and the optimized strategy, which only treated areas where crown-killing fires were most probable. We ran forecast simulations using projected climate data through 2,100 to determine how the treatments differed in terms of C sequestration, fire severity, and C emissions relative to a no-management scenario. We found that in both the short (20 years) and long (100 years) term, both management scenarios increased C stability, reduced burn severity, and consequently emitted less C as a result of wildfires than no-management. Across all metrics, both scenarios performed the same, but the optimized treatment required significantly less C removal (naive=0.42 Tg C, optimized=0.25 Tg C) to achieve the same treatment efficacy. Given the extent of western forests in need of fire restoration, efficiently allocating treatments is a critical task if we are going to restore adaptive capacity in frequent-fire forests. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  12. Longleaf pine restoration in context comparisons of frequent fire forests

    Treesearch

    Seth Bigelow; Michael C. Stambaugh; Joseph J. O' Brien; Andrew J. Larson; Michael A. Battaglia

    2018-01-01

    To see a frequent-fire forest burn for the first time is to experience a remarkable teat of nature. Most people are accustomed to the slow change of forests with the seasons, not the instantaneous conversion of green and brown plant mass to smoke and char. Yet to visit such a forest a week after it bums is to see bright green shoots emerging, highlighted against a...

  13. Average stand age from forest inventory plots does not describe historical fire regimes in ponderosa pine and mixed-conifer forests of western North America

    Treesearch

    Jens T. Stevens; Hugh D. Safford; Malcolm P. North; Jeremy S. Fried; Andrew N. Gray; Peter M. Brown; Christopher R. Dolanc; Solomon Z. Dobrowski; Donald A. Falk; Calvin A. Farris; Jerry F. Franklin; Peter Z. Fulé; R. Keala Hagmann; Eric E. Knapp; Jay D. Miller; Douglas F. Smith; Thomas W. Swetnam; Alan H. Taylor; Julia A. Jones

    2016-01-01

    Quantifying historical fire regimes provides important information for managing contemporary forests. Historical fire frequency and severity can be estimated using several methods; each method has strengths and weaknesses and presents challenges for interpretation and verification. Recent efforts to quantify the timing of historical high-severity fire events in forests...

  14. Tree mortality from fire and bark beetles following early and late season prescribed fires in a Sierra Nevada mixed conifer forest

    Treesearch

    Dylan W. Schwilk; Eric E. Knapp; Scott M. Ferrenberg; Jon E. Keeley; Anthony. Caprio

    2006-01-01

    Over the last century, fire exclusion in the forests of the Sierra Nevada has allowed surface fuels to accumulate and has led to increased tree density. Stand composition has also been altered as shade tolerant tree species crowd out shade intolerant species. To restore forest structure and reduce the risk of large, intense fires, managers have increasingly used...

  15. The Impact of Indonesian Forest Fires on Singaporean Pollution and Health.

    PubMed

    Sheldon, Tamara L; Sankaran, Chandini

    2017-05-01

    Between 1990 and 2015, Indonesia lost nearly 25 percent of its forests, largely due to intentional burning to clear land for cultivation of palm oil and timber plantations.1 The neighboring "victim countries" experienced severe deteriorations in air quality as a result of these fires. For example, Singapore experienced record air pollution levels in June of 2013 and again in September of 2015 as a result of the Indonesian forest fires.2 This air pollution is associated with increased incidences of upper respiratory tract infections, acute conjunctivitis, lung disease, asthma, bronchitis, emphysema, and pneumonia, among other ailments.2 Quantifying the impact of air pollution on health outcomes is challenging because pollution levels are often nonrandom for a variety of reasons, including policy endogeneity and sorting (Dominici, Greenstone, and Sunstein 2014). In this paper we offer the first causal analysis of the transboundary health effects of the Indonesian forest burning. The Indonesian fires induce exogenous variation in Singaporean air quality. We take advantage of this by using satellite fire data to instrument for changes in Singaporean air quality. Since Singapore is only 277.6 square miles in area (two-thirds the size of New York City), air pollution resulting from the fires is homogeneously spread so that sorting is less likely to be an issue. Using a two-stage least squares approach, we find that from 2010 through mid-2016, the Indonesian fires caused a statistically significant increase in pollution levels in Singapore. Our study also provides evidence that polyclinic attendances for acute respiratory tract infections and acute conjunctivitis in Singapore increased as a result of the deterioration in air quality. The reduced form estimates show that a one standard deviation increase in our measure of fires causes a 0.7 standard deviation increase in polyclinic attendances for each of these illnesses. These findings provide causal evidence of the

  16. The Habitat Susceptibility of Bali Starling (Leucopsar rothschildi Stresemann> 1912) Based on Forest Fire Vulnerability Mappin in West Bali National Park

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pramatana, F.; Prasetyo, L. B.; Rushayati, S. B.

    2017-10-01

    Bali starling is an endemic and endangered species which tend to decrease of its population in the wild. West Bali National Park (WBNP) is the only habitat of bali starling, however it is threatened nowadays by forest fire. Understanding the sensitivity of habitat to forest & land fire is urgently needed. Geographic Information System (GIS) can be used for mapping the vulnerability of forest fire. This study aims to analyze the contributed factor of forest fire, to develop vulnerability level map of forest fire in WBNP, to estimate habitat vulnerability of bali starling. The variable for mapping forest fire in WBNP were road distance, village distance, land cover, NDVI, NDMI, surface temperature, and slope. Forest fire map in WBNP was created by scoring from each variable, and classified into four classes of forest fire vulnerability which are very low (9 821 ha), low (5 015.718 ha), middle (6 778.656 ha), and high (2 126.006 ha). Bali starling existence in the middle and high vulnerability forest fire class in WBNP, consequently the population and habitat of bali starling is a very vulnerable. Management of population and habitat of bali starling in WBNP must be implemented focus on forest fire impact.

  17. Broadleaf deciduous forest counterbalanced the direct effect of climate on Holocene fire regime in hemiboreal/boreal region (NE Europe)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Feurdean, Angelica; Veski, Siim; Florescu, Gabriela; Vannière, Boris; Pfeiffer, Mirjam; O'Hara, Robert B.; Stivrins, Normunds; Amon, Leeli; Heinsalu, Atko; Vassiljev, Jüri; Hickler, Thomas

    2017-08-01

    Disturbances by fire are essential for the functioning of boreal/hemiboreal forests, but knowledge of long-term fire regime dynamics is limited. We analysed macrocharcoal morphologies and pollen of a sediment record from Lake Lielais Svētiņu (eastern Latvia), and in conjunction with fire traits analysis present the first record of Holocene variability in fire regime, fuel sources and fire types in boreal forests of the Baltic region. We found a phase of moderate to high fire activity during the cool and moist early (mean fire return interval; mFRI of ∼280 years; 11,700-7500 cal yr BP) and the late (mFRI of ∼190 years; 4500-0 cal yr BP) Holocene and low fire activity (mFRI of ∼630 years) during the Holocene Thermal Optimum (7500-4500 cal yr BP). Charcoal morphotypes and the pollen record show the predominance of frequent surface fires, occasionally transitioning to the crown during Pinus sylvestris-Betula boreal forests and less frequent surface fires during the dominance of temperate deciduous forests. In contrast to the prevailing opinion that fires in boreal forests are mostly low to moderate severity surface fires, we found evidence for common occurrence of stand-replacing crown fires in Picea abies canopy. Our results highlight that charcoal morphotypes analysis allows for distinguishing the fuel types and surface from crown fires, therefore significantly advancing our interpretation of fire regime. Future warmer temperatures and increase in the frequency of dry spells and abundant biomass accumulation can enhance the fire risk on the one hand, but will probably promote the expansion of broadleaf deciduous forests to higher latitudes, on the other hand. By highlighting the capability of broadleaf deciduous forests to act as fire-suppressing landscape elements, our results suggest that fire activity may not increase in the Baltic area under future climate change.

  18. Restoring fire-adapted forested ecosystems—research in longleaf pine on the Kisatchie National Forest.

    Treesearch

    James D. Haywood

    2007-01-01

    Prescribed burning research on the Kisatchie National Forest, Louisiana spanned the last five decades and led to a greater understanding of fire behavior and the importance of burning in longleaf pine (Pinus palustris P. Mill.) forests. Early research found that biennial burning in May favored the growth of longleaf pine seedlings. However, burning...

  19. Holocene vegetation and fire regimes in subalpine and mixed conifer forests, southern Rocky Mountains, USA

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Anderson, R. Scott; Allen, Craig D.; Toney, J.L.; Jass, R.B.; Bair, A.N.

    2008-01-01

    Our understanding of the present forest structure of western North America hinges on our ability to determine antecedent forest conditions. Sedimentary records from lakes and bogs in the southern Rocky Mountains of Colorado and New Mexico provide information on the relationships between climate and vegetation change, and fire history since deglaciation. We present a new pollen record from Hunters Lake (Colorado) as an example of a high-elevation vegetation history from the southern Rockies. We then present a series of six sedimentary records from ???2600 to 3500-m elevation, including sites presently at the alpine?subalpine boundary, within the Picea engelmannii?Abies lasiocarpa forest and within the mixed conifer forest, to determine the history of fire in high-elevation forests there. High Artemisia and low but increasing percentages of Picea and Pinus suggest vegetation prior to 13 500 calendar years before present (cal yr BP) was tundra or steppe, with open spruce woodland to ???11 900 cal yr BP. Subalpine forest (Picea engelmannii, Abies lasiocarpa) existed around the lake for the remainder of the Holocene. At lower elevations, Pinus ponderosa and/or contorta expanded 11 900 to 10 200 cal yr BP; mixed conifer forest expanded ???8600 to 4700 cal yr BP; and Pinus edulis expanded after ???4700 cal yr BP. Sediments from lake sites near the alpine?subalpine transition contained five times less charcoal than those entirely within subalpine forests, and 40 times less than bog sites within mixed conifer forest. Higher fire episode frequencies occurred between ???12 000 and 9000 cal yr BP (associated with the initiation or expansion of south-west monsoon and abundant lightning, and significant biomass during vegetation turnover) and at ???2000?1000 cal yr BP (related to periodic droughts during the long-term trend towards wetter conditions and greater biomass). Fire episode frequencies for subalpine?alpine transition and subalpine sites were on average 5 to 10 fire

  20. Cardiorespiratory hospitalizations associated with smoke exposure during the 1997, Southeast Asian forest fires.

    PubMed

    Mott, Joshua A; Mannino, David M; Alverson, Clinton J; Kiyu, Andrew; Hashim, Jamilah; Lee, Tzesan; Falter, Kenneth; Redd, Stephen C

    2005-01-01

    We investigated the cardiorespiratory health effects of smoke exposure from the 1997 Southeast Asian Forest Fires among persons who were hospitalized in the region of Kuching, Malaysia. We selected admissions to seven hospitals in the Kuching region from a database of all hospital admissions in the state of Sarawak during January 1, 1995 and December 31, 1998. For several cardiorespiratory disease classifications we used Holt-Winters time-series analyses to determine whether the total number of monthly hospitalizations during the forest fire period (August 1 to October 31, 1997), or post-fire period (November 1, 1997 to December 31, 1997) exceeded forecasted estimates established from a historical baseline period of January 1, 1995 to July 31, 1997. We also identified age-specific cohorts of persons whose members were admitted for specific cardiorespiratory problems during January 1 to July 31 of each year (1995--1997). We compared Kaplan-Meier survival curves of time to first readmission for the 1997 cohorts (exposed to the forest fire smoke) with the survival curves for the 1995 and 1996 cohorts (not exposed, pre-fire cohorts). The time-series analyses indicated that statistically significant fire-related increases were observed in respiratory hospitalizations, specifically those for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma. The survival analyses indicated that persons over age 65 years with previous hospital admissions for any cause (chi2(1df) = 5.98, p = 0.015), any cardiorespiratory disease (chi2(1df) = 5.3, p = 0.02), any respiratory disease (chi2(1df) = 7.8, p = 0.005), or COPD (chi2(1df) = 3.9, p = 0.047), were significantly more likely to be rehospitalized during the follow-up period in 1997 than during the follow-up periods in the pre-fire years of 1995 or 1996. The survival functions of the exposed cohorts resumed similar trajectories to unexposed cohorts during the post-fire period of November 1, 1997 to December 31, 1998. Communities

  1. Negligible influence of spatial autocorrelation in the assessment of fire effects in a mixed conifer forest

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    van Mantgem, P.J.; Schwilk, D.W.

    2009-01-01

    Fire is an important feature of many forest ecosystems, although the quantification of its effects is compromised by the large scale at which fire occurs and its inherent unpredictability. A recurring problem is the use of subsamples collected within individual burns, potentially resulting in spatially autocorrelated data. Using subsamples from six different fires (and three unburned control areas) we show little evidence for strong spatial autocorrelation either before or after burning for eight measures of forest conditions (both fuels and vegetation). Additionally, including a term for spatially autocorrelated errors provided little improvement for simple linear models contrasting the effects of early versus late season burning. While the effects of spatial autocorrelation should always be examined, it may not always greatly influence assessments of fire effects. If high patch scale variability is common in Sierra Nevada mixed conifer forests, even following more than a century of fire exclusion, treatments designed to encourage further heterogeneity in forest conditions prior to the reintroduction of fire will likely be unnecessary.

  2. Fire-return intervals in mixed-conifer forests of the Kings River Sustainable Forest Ecosystems Project area

    Treesearch

    Catherine Phillips

    2002-01-01

    Fire-return intervals were studied on six 1.4-ha plots in a 2,070-ha study area in the Dinkey Creek watershed. Stumps in mixed-conifer forest were examined for fire scars created from 1771 to 1994, with 1873 chosen as the end of the pre-Euro-American settlement period because the rate of fire events decreased on most plots after about that year. Mean intervals from...

  3. Carbon tradeoffs of restoration and provision of endangered species habitat in a fire-maintained forest

    Treesearch

    Katherine L. Martin; Matthew D. Hurteau; Bruce A. Hungate; George W. Koch; Malcolm P. North

    2015-01-01

    Forests are a significant part of the global carbon cycle and are increasingly viewed as tools for mitigating climate change. Natural disturbances, such as fire, can reduce carbon storage. However, many forests and dependent species evolved with frequent fire as an integral ecosystem process. We used a landscape forest simulation model to evaluate the effects of...

  4. PCDD/F and Aromatic Emissions from Simulated Forest and Grassland Fires

    EPA Science Inventory

    Emissions of polychlorinated dibenzodioxin and polychlorinated dibenzofuran (PCDD/F) from simulated grassland and forest fires were quantitatively sampled to derive emission factors in support of PCDD/F inventory development. Grasses from Kentucky and Minnesota; forest shrubs fro...

  5. Caliver: An R package for CALIbration and VERification of forest fire gridded model outputs.

    PubMed

    Vitolo, Claudia; Di Giuseppe, Francesca; D'Andrea, Mirko

    2018-01-01

    The name caliver stands for CALIbration and VERification of forest fire gridded model outputs. This is a package developed for the R programming language and available under an APACHE-2 license from a public repository. In this paper we describe the functionalities of the package and give examples using publicly available datasets. Fire danger model outputs are taken from the modeling components of the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) and observed burned areas from the Global Fire Emission Database (GFED). Complete documentation, including a vignette, is also available within the package.

  6. Caliver: An R package for CALIbration and VERification of forest fire gridded model outputs

    PubMed Central

    Di Giuseppe, Francesca; D’Andrea, Mirko

    2018-01-01

    The name caliver stands for CALIbration and VERification of forest fire gridded model outputs. This is a package developed for the R programming language and available under an APACHE-2 license from a public repository. In this paper we describe the functionalities of the package and give examples using publicly available datasets. Fire danger model outputs are taken from the modeling components of the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) and observed burned areas from the Global Fire Emission Database (GFED). Complete documentation, including a vignette, is also available within the package. PMID:29293536

  7. Functional and environmental determinants of bark thickness in fire-free temperate rain forest communities.

    PubMed

    Richardson, Sarah J; Laughlin, Daniel C; Lawes, Michael J; Holdaway, Robert J; Wilmshurst, Janet M; Wright, Monique; Curran, Timothy J; Bellingham, Peter J; McGlone, Matt S

    2015-10-01

    In fire-prone ecosystems, variation in bark thickness among species and communities has been explained by fire frequency; thick bark is necessary to protect cambium from lethal temperatures. Elsewhere this investment is deemed unnecessary, and thin bark is thought to prevail. However, in rain forest ecosystems where fire is rare, bark thickness varies widely among species and communities, and the causes of this variation remain enigmatic. We tested for functional explanations of bark thickness variation in temperate rain forest species and communities. We measured bark thickness in 82 tree species throughout New Zealand temperate rain forests that historically have experienced little fire and applied two complementary analyses. First, we examined correlations between bark traits and leaf habit, and leaf and stem traits. Second, we calculated community-weighted mean (CWM) bark thickness for 272 plots distributed throughout New Zealand to identify the environments in which thicker-barked communities occur. Conifers had higher size-independent bark thickness than evergreen angiosperms. Species with thicker bark or higher bark allocation coefficients were not associated with "slow economic" plant traits. Across 272 forest plots, communities with thicker bark occurred on infertile soils, and communities with thicker bark and higher bark allocation coefficients occurred in cooler, drier climates. In non-fire-prone temperate rain forest ecosystems, investment in bark is driven by soil resources, cool minimum temperatures, and seasonal moisture stress. The role of these factors in fire-prone ecosystems warrants testing. © 2015 Botanical Society of America.

  8. Forest and Land Fire Prevention Through the Hotspot Movement Pattern Approach

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Turmudi, T.; Kardono, P.; Hartanto, P.; Ardhitasari, Y.

    2018-02-01

    Indonesia has experienced a great forest fire disaster in 2015. The losses incurred were enormous. But actually the incidence of forest and land fires occurs almost every year. Various efforts were made to cope with the fire disaster. The appearance of a hotspot becomes an early indication of the fire incident both location and time. By studying the location and time of the hotspot's appearance indicates that the hotspot has certain movement patterns from year to year. This study aims to show the pattern of movement of hotspots from year to year that can be used for the prevention of forest and land fires. The method used is time series analysis of land cover and hotspot distribution. The data used were land cover data from 2005 to 2016, hotspot data from 2005 to 2016. The location of this study is the territory of Meranti Kepulauan District. The results show that the highest hotspot is 425 hotspots occurs in the shrubs and bushes. From year to year, the pattern of hotspot movement occurs in the shrubs and bushes cover. The hotspot pattern follows the direction of unused land for cultivation and is dominated by shrubs. From these results, we need to pay more attentiont for the land with the cover of shrubs adjacent to the cultivated land.

  9. Forest fire risk assessment-an integrated approach based on multicriteria evaluation.

    PubMed

    Goleiji, Elham; Hosseini, Seyed Mohsen; Khorasani, Nematollah; Monavari, Seyed Masoud

    2017-11-06

    The present study deals with application of the weighted linear combination method for zoning of forest fire risk in Dohezar and Sehezar region of Mazandaran province in northern Iran. In this study, the effective criteria for fires were identified by the Delphi method, and these included ecological and socioeconomic parameters. In this regard, the first step comprised of digital layers; the required data were provided from databases, related centers, and field data collected in the region. Then, the map of criteria was digitized in a geographic information system, and all criteria and indexes were normalized by fuzzy logic. After that, the geographic information system (GIS 10.3) was integrated with the Weighted Linear Combination and the Analytical Network Process, to produce zonation of the forest fire risk map in the Dohezar and Sehezar region. In order to analyze accuracy of the evaluation, the results obtained from the study were compared to records of former fire incidents in the region. This was done using the Kappa coefficient test and a receiver operating characteristic curve. The model showing estimations for forest fire risk explained that the prepared map had accuracy of 90% determined by the Kappa coefficient test and the value of 0.924 by receiver operating characteristic. These results showed that the prepared map had high accuracy and efficacy.

  10. Clemson Researchers Find Prescribed Fire Regenerates Oak Forests

    Treesearch

    David van Lear; Patrick Brose

    1999-01-01

    Fire is being prescribed by Clemson University forestry researchers to regenerate oak forests. Regenerating oaks following timber harvests is a major challenge because faster growing yellow polar and red maple trees crowd out hte more valuable oak seedlings.

  11. Multi-trophic resilience of boreal lake ecosystems to forest fires.

    PubMed

    Lewis, Tyler L; Lindberg, Mark S; Schmutz, Joel A; Bertram, Mark R

    2014-05-01

    Fires are the major natural disturbance in the boreal forest, and their frequency and intensity will likely increase as the climate warms. Terrestrial nutrients released by fires may be transported to boreal lakes, stimulating increased primary productivity, which may radiate through multiple trophic levels. Using a before-after-control-impact (BACI) design, with pre- and postfire data from burned and unburned areas, we examined effects of a natural fire across several trophic levels of boreal lakes, from nutrient and chlorophyll levels, to macroinvertebrates, to waterbirds. Concentrations of total nitrogen and phosphorus were not affected by the fire. Chlorophyll a levels were also unaffected, likely reflecting the stable nutrient concentrations. For aquatic invertebrates, we found that densities of three functional feeding groups did not respond to the fire (filterers, gatherers, scrapers), while two groups increased (shredders, predators). Amphipods accounted for 98% of shredder numbers, and we hypothesize that fire-mediated habitat changes may have favored their generalist feeding and habitat ecology. This increase in amphipods may, in turn, have driven increased predator densities, as amphipods were the most numerous invertebrate in our lakes and are commonly taken as prey. Finally, abundance of waterbird young, which feed primarily on aquatic invertebrates, was not affected by the fire. Overall, ecosystems of our study lakes were largely resilient to forest fires, likely due to their high initial nutrient concentrations and small catchment sizes. Moreover, this resilience spanned multiple trophic levels, a significant result for ecologically similar boreal regions, especially given the high potential for increased fires with future climate change.

  12. Multi-trophic resilience of boreal lake ecosystems to forest fires

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Lewis, Tyler L.; Lindberg, Mark S.; Schmutz, Joel A.; Bertram, M.R.

    2014-01-01

    Fires are the major natural disturbance in the boreal forest, and their frequency and intensity will likely increase as the climate warms. Terrestrial nutrients released by fires may be transported to boreal lakes, stimulating increased primary productivity, which may radiate through multiple trophic levels. Using a before-after-control-impact (BACI) design, with pre- and postfire data from burned and unburned areas, we examined effects of a natural fire across several trophic levels of boreal lakes, from nutrient and chlorophyll levels, to macroinvertebrates, to waterbirds. Concentrations of total nitrogen and phosphorus were not affected by the fire. Chlorophyll levels were also unaffected, likely reflecting the stable nutrient concentrations. For aquatic invertebrates, we found that densities of three functional feeding groups did not respond to the fire (filterers, gatherers, scrapers), while two groups increased (shredders, predators). Amphipods accounted for 98% of shredder numbers, and we hypothesize that fire-mediated habitat changes may have favored their generalist feeding and habitat ecology. This increase in amphipods may, in turn, have driven increased predator densities, as amphipods were the most numerous invertebrate in our lakes and are commonly taken as prey. Finally, abundance of waterbird young, which feed primarily on aquatic invertebrates, was not affected by the fire. Overall, ecosystems of our study lakes were largely resilient to forest fires, likely due to their high initial nutrient concentrations and small catchment sizes. Moreover, this resilience spanned multiple trophic levels, a significant result for ecologically similar boreal regions, especially given the high potential for increased fires with future climate change.

  13. Fire history and fire-climate relationships in upper elevation forests of the southwestern United States

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Margolis, Ellis Quinn

    Fire history and fire-climate relationships of upper elevation forests of the southwestern United States are imperative for informing management decisions in the face of increased crown fire occurrence and climate change. I used dendroecological techniques to reconstruct fires and stand-replacing fire patch size in the Madrean Sky Islands and Mogollon Plateau. Reconstructed patch size (1685-1904) was compared with contemporary patch size (1996-2004). Reconstructed fires at three sites had stand-replacing patches totaling > 500 ha. No historical stand-replacing fire patches were evident in the mixed conifer/aspen forests of the Sky Islands. Maximum stand-replacing fire patch size of modern fires (1129 ha) was greater than that reconstructed from aspen (286 ha) and spruce-fir (521 ha). Undated spruce-fir patches may be evidence of larger (>2000ha) stand-replacing fire patches. To provide climatological context for fire history I used correlation and regionalization analyses to document spatial and temporal variability in climate regions, and El-Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO), the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) and the Atlantic Multi-decadal Oscillation (AMO) teleconnections using 273 tree-ring chronologies (1732-1979). Four regions were determined by common variability in annual ring width. The component score time series replicate spatial variability in 20th century droughts (e.g., 1950's) and pluvials (e.g., 1910's). Two regions were significantly correlated with instrumental SOI and AMO, and three with PDO. Sub-regions within the southwestern U.S. varied geographically between the instrumental (1900-1979) and the pre-instrumental periods (1732-1899). Mapped correlations between ENSO, PDO and AMO, and tree-ring indices illustrate detailed sub-regional variability in the teleconnections. I analyzed climate teleconnections, and fire-climate relationships of historical upper elevation fires from 16 sites in 8 mountain ranges. I tested for links between Palmer

  14. A multivariate model of plant species richness in forested systems: Old-growth montane forests with a long history of fire

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Laughlin, D.C.; Grace, J.B.

    2006-01-01

    Recently, efforts to develop multivariate models of plant species richness have been extended to include systems where trees play important roles as overstory elements mediating the influences of environment and disturbance on understory richness. We used structural equation modeling to examine the relationship of understory vascular plant species richness to understory abundance, forest structure, topographic slope, and surface fire history in lower montane forests on the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park, USA based on data from eighty-two 0.1 ha plots. The questions of primary interest in this analysis were: (1) to what degree are influences of trees on understory richness mediated by effects on understory abundance? (2) To what degree are influences of fire history on richness mediated by effects on trees and/or understory abundance? (3) Can the influences of fire history on this system be related simply to time-since-fire or are there unique influences associated with long-term fire frequency? The results we obtained are consistent with the following inferences. First, it appears that pine trees had a strong inhibitory effect on the abundance of understory plants, which in turn led to lower understory species richness. Second, richness declined over time since the last fire. This pattern appears to result from several processes, including (1) a post-fire stimulation of germination, (2) a decline in understory abundance, and (3) an increase over time in pine abundance (which indirectly leads to reduced richness). Finally, once time-since-fire was statistically controlled, it was seen that areas with higher fire frequency have lower richness than expected, which appears to result from negative effects on understory abundance, possibly by depletions of soil nutrients from repeated surface fire. Overall, it appears that at large temporal and spatial scales, surface fire plays an important and complex role in structuring understory plant communities in old

  15. Assessment of post forest fire reclamation in Algarve, Portugal

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Andrade, Rita; Panagopoulos, Thomas; Guerrero, Carlos; Martins, Fernando; Zdruli, Pandi; Ladisa, Gaetano

    2014-05-01

    Fire is a common phenomenon in Mediterranean landscapes and it plays a crucial role in its transformations, making the determination of its impact on the ecosystem essential for land management. During summer of 2012, a wildfire took place in Algarve, Portugal, on an area mainly covered by sclerophyllous vegetation (39.44%, 10080ha), broad-leaved forest (20.80%, 5300ha), agriculture land with significant areas of natural vegetation (17.40%, 4400ha) and transitional woodlands-shrubs (16.17%, 4100ha). The objective of the study was to determine fire severity in order to plan post-fire treatments and to aid vegetation recovery and land reclamation. Satellite imagery was used to estimate burn severity by detecting physical and ecological changes in the landscape caused by fire. Differenced Normalized Burn Ratio (DNBR) was used to measure burn severity with pre and post fire data of four Landsat images acquired in October 2011, February and August 2012 and April 2013. The initial and extended differenced normalized burn ratio (DiNBR and DeNBR) were calculated. The calculated burned area of 24291 ha was 552ha lower than the map data determined with field reports. The 19.5% of that area was burned with high severity, 45% with moderate severity and 28.3% with low severity. Comparing fire severity and regrowth with land use, it is shown in DiNBR that the most severely burned areas were predominantly sclerophyllous vegetation (37.6%) and broad-leaved forests (31.1%). From the DeNRB it was found that the reestablishment of vegetation was slower in mixed forests and higher in sclerophyllous vegetation and in land with significant areas of natural vegetation. Faster recovery was calculated for the land uses of sclerophyllous vegetation (46.7%) and significant regrowth in areas of natural vegetation and lands occupied by agriculture (25.4%). Next steps of the study are field validation and crossing with erosion risk maps before to take land reclamation decisions.

  16. Measuring moisture dynamics to predict fire severity in longleaf pine forests.

    Treesearch

    Sue A. Ferguson; Julia E. Ruthford; Steven J. McKay; David Wright; Clint Wright; Roger Ottmar

    2002-01-01

    To understand the combustion limit of biomass fuels in a longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) forest, an experiment was conducted to monitor the moisture content of potentially flammable forest floor materials (litter and duff) at Eglin Air Force Base in the Florida Panhandle. While longleaf pine forests are fire dependent ecosystems, a long history of...

  17. Prescribed fire effects on the herbaceous layer of mixed-oak forests

    Treesearch

    Todd F. Hutchinson; Ralph E.J. Boerner; Steve Sutherland; Elaine Kennedy Sutherland; Marilyn Ortt; Louis R. Iverson; Louis R. Iverson

    2005-01-01

    In 1994, a multidisciplinary project was established to study the effects of prescribed fire on oak forests in southern Ohio. Here we describe the herbaceous layer response to fires over a 5-year period. In four study sites, treatments imposed were unburned, periodic (1996 and 1999), and annual (1996-1999) fires. Sample plots (n = 108) were stratified by an integrated...

  18. Forest Fire: A Crisis Reality for Camp.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Brown, Don; Mickelson, Rhonda

    2002-01-01

    Two camp directors were interviewed about evacuations from their camps due to forest fires. Topics covered include descriptions of the events; actions taken; aspects of advance planning that proved helpful; unexpected portions of the experience and resultant changes made in plans; relations with outside agencies, the media, and parents; working…

  19. Fire severity unaffected by spruce beetle outbreak in spruce-fir forests in southwestern Colorado.

    PubMed

    Andrus, Robert A; Veblen, Thomas T; Harvey, Brian J; Hart, Sarah J

    2016-04-01

    Recent large and severe outbreaks of native bark beetles have raised concern among the general public and land managers about potential for amplified fire activity in western North America. To date, the majority of studies examining bark beetle outbreaks and subsequent fire severity in the U.S. Rocky Mountains have focused on outbreaks of mountain pine beetle (MPB; Dendroctonus ponderosae) in lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) forests, but few studies, particularly field studies, have addressed the effects of the severity of spruce beetle (Dendroctonus rufipennis Kirby) infestation on subsequent fire severity in subalpine Engelmann spruce (Picea engelmannii) and subalpine fir (Abies lasiocarpa) forests. In Colorado, the annual area infested by spruce beetle outbreaks is rapidly rising, while MPB outbreaks are subsiding; therefore understanding this relationship is of growing importance. We collected extensive field data in subalpine forests in the eastern San Juan Mountains, southwestern Colorado, USA, to investigate whether a gray-stage (< 5 yr from outbreak to time of fire) spruce beetle infestation affected fire severity. Contrary to the expectation that bark beetle infestation alters subsequent fire severity, correlation and multivariate generalized linear regression analysis revealed no influence of pre-fire spruce beetle severity on nearly all field or remotely sensed measurements of fire severity. Findings were consistent across moderate and extreme burning conditions. In comparison to severity of the pre-fire beetle outbreak, we found that topography, pre-outbreak basal area, and weather conditions exerted a stronger effect on fire severity. Our finding that beetle infestation did not alter fire severity is consistent with previous retrospective studies examining fire activity following other bark beetle outbreaks and reiterates the overriding influence of climate that creates conditions conducive to large, high-severity fires in the subalpine zone of Colorado

  20. Simulating boreal forest carbon dynamics after stand-replacing fire disturbance: insights from a global process-based vegetation model

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yue, C.; Ciais, P.; Luyssaert, S.; Cadule, P.; Harden, J.; Randerson, J.; Bellassen, V.; Wang, T.; Piao, S. L.; Poulter, B.; Viovy, N.

    2013-04-01

    Stand-replacing fires are the dominant fire type in North American boreal forest and leave a historical legacy of a mosaic landscape of different aged forest cohorts. To accurately quantify the role of fire in historical and current regional forest carbon balance using models, one needs to explicitly simulate the new forest cohort that is established after fire. The present study adapted the global process-based vegetation model ORCHIDEE to simulate boreal forest fire CO2 emissions and follow-up recovery after a stand-replacing fire, with representation of postfire new cohort establishment, forest stand structure and the following self-thinning process. Simulation results are evaluated against three clusters of postfire forest chronosequence observations in Canada and Alaska. Evaluation variables for simulated postfire carbon dynamics include: fire carbon emissions, CO2 fluxes (gross primary production, total ecosystem respiration and net ecosystem exchange), leaf area index (LAI), and biometric measurements (aboveground biomass carbon, forest floor carbon, woody debris carbon, stand individual density, stand basal area, and mean diameter at breast height). The model simulation results, when forced by local climate and the atmospheric CO2 history on each chronosequence site, generally match the observed CO2 fluxes and carbon stock data well, with model-measurement mean square root of deviation comparable with measurement accuracy (for CO2 flux ~100 g C m-2 yr-1, for biomass carbon ~1000 g C m-2 and for soil carbon ~2000 g C m-2). We find that current postfire forest carbon sink on evaluation sites observed by chronosequence methods is mainly driven by historical atmospheric CO2 increase when forests recover from fire disturbance. Historical climate generally exerts a negative effect, probably due to increasing water stress caused by significant temperature increase without sufficient increase in precipitation. Our simulation results demonstrate that a global