Soil microbiological properties and enzymatic activities of long-term post-fire recovery in dry and semiarid Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensis M.) forest stands

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hedo, J.; Lucas-Borja, M. E.; Wic, C.; Andrés-Abellán, M.; de Las Heras, J.

2015-02-01

Wildfires affecting forest ecosystems and post-fire silvicultural treatments may cause considerable changes in soil properties. The capacity of different microbial groups to recolonise soil after disturbances is crucial for proper soil functioning. The aim of this work was to investigate some microbial soil properties and enzyme activities in semiarid and dry Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensis M.) forest stands. Different plots affected by a wildfire event 17 years ago without or with post-fire silvicultural treatments 5 years after the fire event were selected. A mature Aleppo pine stand, unaffected by wildfire and not thinned was used as a control. Physicochemical soil properties (soil texture, pH, carbonates, organic matter, electrical conductivity, total N and P), soil enzymes (urease, phosphatase, β-glucosidase and dehydrogenase activities), soil respiration and soil microbial biomass carbon were analysed in the selected forests areas and plots. The main finding was that long time after this fire event produces no differences in the microbiological soil properties and enzyme activities of soil after comparing burned and thinned, burned and not thinned, and mature plots. Moreover, significant site variation was generally seen in soil enzyme activities and microbiological parameters. We conclude that total vegetation recovery normalises post-fire soil microbial parameters, and that wildfire and post-fire silvicultural treatments are not significant factors affecting soil properties after 17 years.

Interactive effects of wildfire and permafrost on microbial communities and soil processes in an Alaskan black spruce forest.

Treesearch

Mark P. Waldrop; Jennifer W. Harden

2008-01-01

Boreal forests contain significant quantities of soil carbon that may be oxidized to CO2 given future increases in climate warming and wildfire behavior. At the ecosystem scale, decomposition and heterotrophic respiration are strongly controlled by temperature and moisture, but we questioned whether changes in microbial biomass, activity, or...

Influence of habitat amount, arrangement, and use on population trend estimates of male Kirtland's warblers

Treesearch

Deanh M. Donner; John R. Probst; Christine A. Ribic

2008-01-01

Kirtland's warblers (Dendroica kirtlandii) persist in a naturally patchy environment of young, regenerating jack pine forests (i.e., 5-23 years old) created after wildfires and human logging activities. We examined how changing landscape structure from 26 years of forest management and wildfire disturbances influenced population size and spatial...

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. Decreased live tree carbon and increased reliance on younger cohorts for carbon recovery after high-severity wildfire could increase vulnerabilities to imminent fires, leading to decisions about interventions to maintain the productivity of some stands. Our multi-indicator assessment also highlights the importance of considering all carbon pools, particularly pyrogenic reservoirs like soils, when evaluating the potential for prescribed fire regimes to mitigate the carbon costs of wildfires in fire-prone landscapes. © 2017 by the Ecological Society of America.

Spatiotemporal dynamics of simulated wildfire, forest management, and forest succession in central Oregon, USA

Treesearch

Ana M. G. Barros; Alan A. Ager; Michelle A. Day; Haiganoush K. Preisler; Thomas A. Spies; Eric White; Robert J. Pabst; Keith A. Olsen; Emily Platt; John D. Bailey; John P. Bolte

2017-01-01

We use the simulation model Envision to analyze long-term wildfire dynamics and the effects of different fuel management scenarios in central Oregon, USA. We simulated a 50-year future where fuel management activities were increased by doubling and tripling the current area treated while retaining existing treatment strategies in terms of spatial distribution and...

Using field data to assess model predictions of surface and ground fuel consumption by wildfire in coniferous forests of California

Treesearch

Jamie Lydersen; Brandon M. Collins; Carol Ewell; Alicia Reiner; Jo Ann Fites; Christopher Dow; Patrick Gonzalez; David Saah; John Battles

2014-01-01

Inventories of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from wildfire provide essential information to the state of California, USA, and other governments that have enacted emission reductions. Wildfires can release a substantial amount of GHGs and other compounds to the atmosphere, so recent increases in fire activity may be increasing GHG emissions. Quantifying wildfire...

Comparing resource values at risk from wildfires with Forest Service fire suppression expenditures: Examples from 2003 western Montana wildfire season

Treesearch

David Calkin; Kevin Hyde; Krista Gebert; Greg Jones

2005-01-01

Determining the economic effectiveness of wildfire suppression activities is complicated by difficulties in identifying the area that would have burned and the associated resource value changes had suppression resources not been employed. We developed a case study using break-even analysis for two large wildfires from the 2003 fire season in western Montana -- the...

Avian relationships with wildfire at two dry forest locations with different historical fire regimes

Treesearch

Quresh Latif; Jamie Sanderlin; Vicki Saab; William Block; Jonathan Dudley

2016-01-01

Wildfire is a key factor influencing bird community composition in western North American forests. We need to understand species and community responses to wildfire and how responses vary regionally to effectively manage dry conifer forests for maintaining biodiversity. We compared avian relationships with wildfire burn severity between two dry forest...

Deforestation as a result of wildfire incidence in the Worobong Forest Reserve in the Eastern Region of Ghana

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Danquah, S.

2009-04-01

This submission captures report on the perennial occurrence of wildfires and their accompanying effects on the inhabitants and the fringe forest communities in the Worobong Forest Reserve within the Eastern part of Ghana. Wildfire continues to be the single serious threat to the sustainable development and management of forest and wildlife resources in Ghana, thus depriving indigenous fringe forest communities of enormous socio-economic benefit of the forest. Locally, fire is used in the preparation of farm lands, tapping of palm-wine, charcoal production, honey harvesting, etc. This paper identifies some of the effects of wildfires on the indigenous communities and various interventions made to address the wildfire menace in the area of study over the years. Keywords: Wildfire, Fringe Forest Communities, Sustainable Development Resources, Socio-Economic Benefits

Spatial optimization of the pattern of fuel management activities and subsequent effects on simulated wildfires

Treesearch

Young-Hwan Kim; Pete Bettinger; Mark Finney

2009-01-01

Methods for scheduling forest management activities in a spatial pattern (dispersed, clumped, random, and regular) are presented, with the intent to examine the effects of placement of activities on resulting simulated wildfire behavior. Both operational and fuel reduction management prescriptions are examined, and a heuristic was employed to schedule the activities....

Evidence for declining forest resilience to wildfires under climate change.

PubMed

Stevens-Rumann, Camille S; Kemp, Kerry B; Higuera, Philip E; Harvey, Brian J; Rother, Monica T; Donato, Daniel C; Morgan, Penelope; Veblen, Thomas T

2018-02-01

Forest resilience to climate change is a global concern given the potential effects of increased disturbance activity, warming temperatures and increased moisture stress on plants. We used a multi-regional dataset of 1485 sites across 52 wildfires from the US Rocky Mountains to ask if and how changing climate over the last several decades impacted post-fire tree regeneration, a key indicator of forest resilience. Results highlight significant decreases in tree regeneration in the 21st century. Annual moisture deficits were significantly greater from 2000 to 2015 as compared to 1985-1999, suggesting increasingly unfavourable post-fire growing conditions, corresponding to significantly lower seedling densities and increased regeneration failure. Dry forests that already occur at the edge of their climatic tolerance are most prone to conversion to non-forests after wildfires. Major climate-induced reduction in forest density and extent has important consequences for a myriad of ecosystem services now and in the future. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd/CNRS.

Hydrologic responses to restored wildfire regimes revealed by soil moisture-vegetation relationships

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Boisramé, Gabrielle; Thompson, Sally; Stephens, Scott

2018-02-01

Many forested mountain watersheds worldwide evolved with frequent fire, which Twentieth Century fire suppression activities eliminated, resulting in unnaturally dense forests with high water demand. Restoration of pre-suppression forest composition and structure through a variety of management activities could improve forest resilience and water yields. This study explores the potential for "managed wildfire", whereby naturally ignited fires are allowed to burn, to alter the water balance. Interest in this type of managed wildfire is increasing, yet its long-term effects on water balance are uncertain. We use soil moisture as a spatially-distributed hydrologic indicator to assess the influence of vegetation, fire history and landscape position on water availability in the Illilouette Creek Basin in Yosemite National Park. Over 6000 manual surface soil moisture measurements were made over a period of three years, and supplemented with continuous soil moisture measurements over the top 1m of soil in three sites. Random forest and linear mixed effects models showed a dominant effect of vegetation type and history of vegetation change on measured soil moisture. Contemporary and historical vegetation maps were used to upscale the soil moisture observations to the basin and infer soil moisture under fire-suppressed conditions. Little change in basin-averaged soil moisture was inferred due to managed wildfire, but the results indicated that large localized increases in soil moisture had occurred, which could have important impacts on local ecology or downstream flows.

Fire regimes approaching historic norms reduce wildfire-facilitated conversion from forest to non-forest

Treesearch

Ryan B. Walker; Jonathan D. Coop; Sean A. Parks; Laura Trader

2018-01-01

Extensive high-severity wildfires have driven major losses of ponderosa pine and mixed-conifer forests in the southwestern United States, in some settings catalyzing enduring conversions to nonforested vegetation types. Management interventions to reduce the probability of stand-replacing wildfire have included mechanical fuel treatments, prescribed fire, and wildfire...

Is forest structure related to fire severity? Yes, no, and maybe: Methods and insights in quantifying the answer

Treesearch

Theresa Benavidez Jain; Russell T. Graham

2004-01-01

Wildfires in 2000 burned over 500,000 forested ha in the Northern Rocky Mountains. In 2001, National Fire Plan funding became available to evaluate the influence of pre-wildfire forest structure on post wildfire fire severity. Results from this study will provide information on forest structures that are resilient to wildfire. Three years of data (558 plots) have been...

Wildfire exposure to analysis on the national forests in the Pacific Northwest, USA

Treesearch

Alan A. Ager; Michelle Buonopane; Allison Reger; Mark A. Finney

2012-01-01

We analyzed wildfire exposure for key social and ecological features on the national forests in Oregon and Washington. The forests contain numerous urban interfaces, old growth forests, recreational sites, and habitat for rare and endangered species. Many of these resources are threatened by wildfire, especially in the east Cascade Mountains fire-prone forests. The...

Wildfire exposure analysis on the National Forests in the Pacific Northwest, USA

Treesearch

Alan A. Ager; Michelle Buonopane; Allison Reger; Mark A. Finney

2013-01-01

We analyzed wildfire exposure for key social and ecological features on the national forests in Oregon and Washington. The forests contain numerous urban interfaces, old growth forests, recreational sites, and habitat for rare and endangered species. Many of these resources are threatened by wildfire, especially in the east Cascade Mountains fire-prone forests. The...

The Human and Physical Determinants of Wildfires and Burnt Areas in Israel

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Levin, Noam; Tessler, Naama; Smith, Andrew; McAlpine, Clive

2016-09-01

Wildfires are expected to increase in Mediterranean landscapes as a result of climate change and changes in land-use practices. In order to advance our understanding of human and physical factors shaping spatial patterns of wildfires in the region, we compared two independently generated datasets of wildfires for Israel that cover approximately the same study period. We generated a site-based dataset containing the location of 10,879 wildfires (1991-2011), and compared it to a dataset of burnt areas derived from MODIS imagery (2000-2011). We hypothesized that the physical and human factors explaining the spatial distribution of burnt areas derived from remote sensing (mostly large fires, >100 ha) will differ from those explaining site-based wildfires recorded by national agencies (mostly small fires, <10 ha). Small wildfires recorded by forestry agencies were concentrated within planted forests and near built-up areas, whereas the largest wildfires were located in more remote regions, often associated with military training areas and herbaceous vegetation. We conclude that to better understand wildfire dynamics, consolidation of wildfire databases should be achieved, combining field reports and remote sensing. As nearly all wildfires in Mediterranean landscapes are caused by human activities, improving the management of forest areas and raising public awareness to fire risk are key considerations in reducing fire danger.

The Human and Physical Determinants of Wildfires and Burnt Areas in Israel.

PubMed

Levin, Noam; Tessler, Naama; Smith, Andrew; McAlpine, Clive

2016-09-01

Wildfires are expected to increase in Mediterranean landscapes as a result of climate change and changes in land-use practices. In order to advance our understanding of human and physical factors shaping spatial patterns of wildfires in the region, we compared two independently generated datasets of wildfires for Israel that cover approximately the same study period. We generated a site-based dataset containing the location of 10,879 wildfires (1991-2011), and compared it to a dataset of burnt areas derived from MODIS imagery (2000-2011). We hypothesized that the physical and human factors explaining the spatial distribution of burnt areas derived from remote sensing (mostly large fires, >100 ha) will differ from those explaining site-based wildfires recorded by national agencies (mostly small fires, <10 ha). Small wildfires recorded by forestry agencies were concentrated within planted forests and near built-up areas, whereas the largest wildfires were located in more remote regions, often associated with military training areas and herbaceous vegetation. We conclude that to better understand wildfire dynamics, consolidation of wildfire databases should be achieved, combining field reports and remote sensing. As nearly all wildfires in Mediterranean landscapes are caused by human activities, improving the management of forest areas and raising public awareness to fire risk are key considerations in reducing fire danger.

Soil microbiological properties and enzymatic activities of long-term post-fire recovery in dry and semiarid Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensis M.) forest stands

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hedo, J.; Lucas-Borja, M. E.; Wic, C.; Andrés Abellán, M.; de Las Heras, J.

2014-10-01

Wildfires affecting forest ecosystems and post-fire silvicultural treatments may cause considerable changes in soil properties. The capacity of different microbial groups to recolonize soil after disturbances is crucial for proper soil functioning. The aim of this work was to investigate some microbial soil properties and enzyme activities in semiarid and dry Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensis M.) forest stands. Different plots affected by a wildfire event 17 years ago without or with post-fire silvicultural treatments five years after the fire event were selected. A mature Aleppo pine stand unaffected by wildfire and not thinned was used as a control. Physicochemical soil properties (soil texture, pH, carbonates, organic matter, electrical conductivity, total N and P), soil enzymes (urease, phosphatase, β-glucosidase and dehydrogenase activities), soil respiration and soil microbial biomass carbon were analysed in the selected forests areas and plots. The main finding was that long time after this fire event produces no differences in the microbiological soil properties and enzyme activities of soil after comparing burned and thinned, burned and not thinned, and mature plots. Thus, the long-term consequences and post-fire silvicultural management in the form of thinning have a significant effect on the site recovery after fire. Moreover, significant site variation was generally seen in soil enzyme activities and microbiological parameters. We conclude that total vegetation restoration normalises microbial parameters, and that wildfire and post-fire silvicultural treatments are not significant factors of soil properties after 17 years.

The impact of a large boreal wildfire on boundary-layer conditions and carbon cycling in adjacent unburned areas: case study of the 2011 Utikuma Complex fire, Alberta, Canada

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Petrone, R. M.; Thompson, D. K.; Chasmer, L.; Kljun, N.; Flannigan, M.; Devito, K. J.; Waddington, J. M.

2016-12-01

Boreal wildfire conflagrations have increased in frequency in the western boreal forest of Canada, with notable events in 2011, 2015, and 2016. Significant advances have been made in recent years in understanding fire-atmosphere interactions, with similar gains in the knowledge of carbon emissions and post-fire carbon cycling in forests. However, the focus of such studies is routinely on the burned stands themselves, with little attention to the adjacent forest whose boundary layer meteorology and carbon cycling may be impacted by smoke plume. We capitalize here on opportunistic eddy covariance observations of boundary-layer conditions and carbon cycling taken over a long-term monitoring site adjacent to an active wildfire in Alberta, Canada in 2011. Over a one-week period while the wildfire was burning near the footprint of the tower the turbulent structure of the boundary layer near the tower was altered with significant changes in friction velocity, air temperature, and vapour pressure deficit. Moreover, growing season net ecosystem productivity (NEP) decreased to almost zero largely due to reduced photosynthesis likely due to smoke-related reductions in photosynthetically active radiation (PAR). While the `smoke event' caused a reduction in forest CO2 sequestration by 7 g CO2 m-2 given that the smoked affected area was 120 times greater than the area burned this carbon reduction was equivalent to 30% of gross fire emissions from the fire. Consequently, we argue that smoke related inhibition of photosynthesis via reduced light should be considered when investigating the net radiative forcing of boreal forest wildfires.

Comparing erosion risks from forest operations to wildfire

Treesearch

William J. Elliot; Peter R. Robichaud

2001-01-01

Wildfire and forest operations remove vegetation and disturb forest soils. Both of these effects can lead to an increased risk of soil erosion. Operations to reduce forest fuel loads, however, may reduce the risk of wildfire. This paper presents research and modeling results which show that under many conditions, carefully planned operations with adequate buffers,...

Modelling Spatial Patterns and Drivers of Wildfires in Honduras Using Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Valdez Vasquez, M. C.; Chen, C. F.; Chiang, S. H.

2016-12-01

Forests in Honduras are one of the most important resources as they provide a wide range of environmental, economic, and social benefits. However, they are endangered as a result of the relentless occurrence of wildfires during the dry season. Despite the knowledge acquired by the population concerning the effects of wildfires, the frequency is increasing, a pattern attributable to the numerous ignition sources linked to human activity. The purpose of this study is to integrate the wildfire occurrences throughout the 2010-2015 period with a series of anthropogenic and non-anthropogenic variables using the random forest algorithm (RF). We use a series of variables that represent the anthropogenic activity, the flammability of vegetation, climatic conditions, and topography. To represent the anthropogenic activity, we included the continuous distances to rivers, roads, and settlements. To characterize the vegetation flammability, we used the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and the normalized multi-band drought index (NMDI) acquired from MODIS surface reflectance data. Additionally, we included the topographical variables elevation, slope, and solar radiation derived from the ASTER global digital elevation model (GDEM V2). To represent the climatic conditions, we employed the land surface temperature (LST) product from the MODIS sensor and the WorldClim precipitation data. We analyzed the explanatory variables through native RF variable importance analysis and jackknife test, and the results revealed that the dry fuel conditions and low precipitation combined with the proximity to non-paved roads were the major drivers of wildfires. Furthermore, we predicted the areas with highest wildfire susceptibility, which are located mainly in the central and eastern regions of the country, within coniferous and mixed forests. Results acquired were validated using the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and the point biserial correlation and both validation metrics showed satisfactory agreement with the test data. Predictions of forest fire risk and its spatial variability are important instruments for proper management and the results acquired can lead to enhanced preventive measures to minimize risk and reduce the impacts caused by wildfires.

Hydrological Effects of Recent Wildfires in the Southern Appalachian Mountains

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, J.; Stewart, R. D.

2017-12-01

In 2016, intense wildfires occurred throughout the southern Appalachian Mountains region due to severe drought conditions and high fuel loads. Most previous work on the effects of forest wildfire has concentrated on the western United States, and has shown that wildfires can induce a number of physical, chemical and biological changes in soils, including creating water repellency (hydrophobicity), altering color, decreasing structural stability, and altering nutrient availability. Drought intensity and wildfire activity are both predicted to increase in the southeastern United States, making it important to understand hydrological effects of wildfire in the forests of this region. In this study, we evaluated the effect of wildfire on soil hydrophobicity and soil water storage in two locations: Mount Pleasant Wildlife Refuge, Virginia, and Chimney Rock State Park, North Carolina. In each location unburned, moderately burned, and heavily burned sites were selected. Soil hydrophobicity was measured both in the field using water drop penetration time method at 0 cm, 2 cm, and 5 cm depth, and in the lab using WDPT method and water-solid contact angle method. Soil water content and unsaturated infiltration processes were also measured in the field using mini-disk infiltrometers. The results showed that hydrophobicity was detected after wildfires in both southeastern forests: the Mount Pleasant site had the highest hydrophobic layer in surface layer, while the Chimney Rock site had highest hydrophobicity at the 2 cm depth. Lab results were in accordance with the field results, and in both cases hysteresis between hydrophobicity and soil water content was observed. Burned soils had consistently lower soil water contents than unburned soils. The burned soils in the Mount Pleasant site had lower infiltration rates than the unburned sites, whereas in the Chimney Rock site the burned soils had higher infiltration rates. We hypothesize that the differences between the two sites may be related to the positions of hydrophobic layers in each (i.e., surface versus subsurface). Altogether, these results highlight the hydrological impacts of unprecedented wildfire activity in the southern Appalachians.

Classifying Wildfire Causes in the USDA Forest Service: Problems and Alternatives

Treesearch

Linda R. Donoghue

1982-01-01

Discusses problems associated with fire-cause data on USDA Forest Service wildfire reports, traces the historical development of wildfire-cause categories, and presents the pros and cons of retaining current wildfire-cause reporting systems or adopting new systems.

Effect of fire prevention programs on accidental and incendiary wildfires on tribal lands in the United States

Treesearch

Karen L. Abt; David T. Butry; Jeff Prestemon; Samuel Scranton

2015-01-01

Humans cause more than 55% of wildfires on lands managed by the USDA Forest Service and US Department of the Interior, contributing to both suppression expenditures and damages. One means to reduce the expenditures and damages associated with these wildfires is through fire prevention activities, which can include burn permits, public service programs or announcements...

Repeated wildfires alter forest recovery of mixed-conifer ecosystems.

PubMed

Stevens-Rumann, Camille; Morgan, Penelope

2016-09-01

Most models project warmer and drier climates that will contribute to larger and more frequent wildfires. However, it remains unknown how repeated wildfires alter post-fire successional patterns and forest structure. Here, we test the hypothesis that the number of wildfires, as well as the order and severity of wildfire events interact to alter forest structure and vegetation recovery and implications for vegetation management. In 2014, we examined forest structure, composition, and tree regeneration in stands that burned 1-18 yr before a subsequent 2007 wildfire. Three important findings emerged: (1) Repeatedly burned forests had 15% less woody surface fuels and 31% lower tree seedling densities compared with forests that only experienced one recent wildfire. These repeatedly burned areas are recovering differently than sites burned once, which may lead to alternative ecosystem structure. (2) Order of burn severity (high followed by low severity compared with low followed by high severity) did influence forest characteristics. When low burn severity followed high, forests had 60% lower canopy closure and total basal area with 92% fewer tree seedlings than when high burn severity followed low. (3) Time between fires had no effect on most variables measured following the second fire except large woody fuels, canopy closure and tree seedling density. We conclude that repeatedly burned areas meet many vegetation management objectives of reduced fuel loads and moderate tree seedling densities. These differences in forest structure, composition, and tree regeneration have implications not only for the trajectories of these forests, but may reduce fire intensity and burn severity of subsequent wildfires and may be used in conjunction with future fire suppression tactics. © 2016 by the Ecological Society of America.

The relation between forest structure and soil burn severity

Treesearch

Theresa B. Jain; Russell T. Graham; David S. Pilliod

2006-01-01

A study funded through National Fire Plan evaluates the relation between pre-wildfire forest structure and post-wildfire soil burn severity across three forest types: dry, moist, and cold forests. Over 73 wildfires were sampled in Idaho, Oregon, Montana, Colorado, and Utah, which burned between 2000 and 2003. Because of the study’s breadth, the results are applicable...

Probabilistic risk models for multiple disturbances: an example of forest insects and wildfires

Treesearch

Haiganoush K. Preisler; Alan A. Ager; Jane L. Hayes

2010-01-01

Building probabilistic risk models for highly random forest disturbances like wildfire and forest insect outbreaks is a challenging. Modeling the interactions among natural disturbances is even more difficult. In the case of wildfire and forest insects, we looked at the probability of a large fire given an insect outbreak and also the incidence of insect outbreaks...

Association of wildfire with tree health and numbers of pine bark beetles, reproduction weevils and their associates in Florida

Treesearch

James L. Hanula; James R. Meeker; Daniel R. Miller; Edward L. Barnard

2002-01-01

Wildfires burned over 200,000 ha of forests in Florida from April to July 1998. This unique disturbance event provided a valuable opportunity to study the interactions of summer wildfires with the activity of pine feeding insects and their associates in the southeastern United States. We compared tree mortality with abundance of bark and ambrosia beetles, reproduction...

Air pollution increases forest susceptibility to wildfires: a case study for the San Bernardino Mountains in southern California

Treesearch

N.E. Grulke; R.A. Minnich; T. Paine; P. Riggan

2010-01-01

Many factors increase susceptibility of forests to wildfire. Among them are increases in human population, changes in land use, fire suppression, and frequent droughts. These factors have been exacerbating forest susceptibility to wildfires over the last century in southern California. Here we report on the significant role that air pollution has on increasing forest...

Using field data to assess model predictions of surface and ground fuel consumption by wildfire in coniferous forests of California

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lydersen, Jamie M.; Collins, Brandon M.; Ewell, Carol M.; Reiner, Alicia L.; Fites, Jo Ann; Dow, Christopher B.; Gonzalez, Patrick; Saah, David S.; Battles, John J.

2014-03-01

Inventories of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from wildfire provide essential information to the state of California, USA, and other governments that have enacted emission reductions. Wildfires can release a substantial amount of GHGs and other compounds to the atmosphere, so recent increases in fire activity may be increasing GHG emissions. Quantifying wildfire emissions however can be difficult due to inherent variability in fuel loads and consumption and a lack of field data of fuel consumption by wildfire. We compare a unique set of fuel data collected immediately before and after six wildfires in coniferous forests of California to fuel consumption predictions of the first-order fire effects model (FOFEM), based on two different available fuel characterizations. We found strong regional differences in the performance of different fuel characterizations, with FOFEM overestimating the fuel consumption to a greater extent in the Klamath Mountains than in the Sierra Nevada. Inaccurate fuel load inputs caused the largest differences between predicted and observed fuel consumption. Fuel classifications tended to overestimate duff load and underestimate litter load, leading to differences in predicted emissions for some pollutants. When considering total ground and surface fuels, modeled consumption was fairly accurate on average, although the range of error in estimates of plot level consumption was very large. These results highlight the importance of fuel load input to the accuracy of modeled fuel consumption and GHG emissions from wildfires in coniferous forests.

Collaboration in Action: Office of Research and Development (ORD) at the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA)-Current Wildfire Program

EPA Science Inventory

The "Collaboration in Action: US EPA's Office of Research and Develop - Current Wildfire Research Program" was invited by the USDA's US Forest Service's Scientific Executive Committee to provide USFS scientific leadership active and potential future opportunities for co...

Measuring the effect of fuel treatments on forest carbon using landscape risk analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ager, A. A.; Finney, M. A.; McMahan, A.; Cathcart, J.

2010-12-01

Wildfire simulation modelling was used to examine whether fuel reduction treatments can potentially reduce future wildfire emissions and provide carbon benefits. In contrast to previous reports, the current study modelled landscape scale effects of fuel treatments on fire spread and intensity, and used a probabilistic framework to quantify wildfire effects on carbon pools to account for stochastic wildfire occurrence. The study area was a 68 474 ha watershed located on the Fremont-Winema National Forest in southeastern Oregon, USA. Fuel reduction treatments were simulated on 10% of the watershed (19% of federal forestland). We simulated 30 000 wildfires with random ignition locations under both treated and untreated landscapes to estimate the change in burn probability by flame length class resulting from the treatments. Carbon loss functions were then calculated with the Forest Vegetation Simulator for each stand in the study area to quantify change in carbon as a function of flame length. We then calculated the expected change in carbon from a random ignition and wildfire as the sum of the product of the carbon loss and the burn probabilities by flame length class. The expected carbon difference between the non-treatment and treatment scenarios was then calculated to quantify the effect of fuel treatments. Overall, the results show that the carbon loss from implementing fuel reduction treatments exceeded the expected carbon benefit associated with lowered burn probabilities and reduced fire severity on the treated landscape. Thus, fuel management activities resulted in an expected net loss of carbon immediately after treatment. However, the findings represent a point in time estimate (wildfire immediately after treatments), and a temporal analysis with a probabilistic framework used here is needed to model carbon dynamics over the life cycle of the fuel treatments. Of particular importance is the long-term balance between emissions from the decay of dead trees killed by fire and carbon sequestration by forest regeneration following wildfire.

Rehabilitation and recovery following wildfires: a synthesis

Treesearch

Lee H. MacDonald

1989-01-01

Wildfires traditionally have been regarded as a threat to many of the multiple resources produced by forest lands. Timber, fish, recreation, and water are all important forest products that can be adversely affected by wildfires. The greatest threat, however, is to the long-term productivity of the land. Foresters are particularly aware of this threat because the...

Is timber insurable? A study of wildfire Risks in the U.S. forest sector using spatio-temporal models.

Treesearch

Xuan Chen; Barry K. Goodwin; Jeffrey P. Prestemon

2014-01-01

In the U.S. forest products industry, wildfire is one of the leading causes of damage and economic losses. While individual wildfire behavior is well studied, new literature is emerging on broad-scale (e.g., county-level) wildfire risks. Our paper studies wildfire risks using crucial informational vari­ ables across both spatio units and time periods....

Carbon recovery rates following different wildfire risk mitigation treatments

Treesearch

M. Hurteau; M. North

2010-01-01

Sequestered forest carbon can provide a climate change mitigation benefit, but in dry temperate forests, wildfire poses a reversal risk to carbon offset projects. Reducing wildfire risk requires a reduction in and redistribution of carbon stocks, the benefit of which is only realized when wildfire occurs. To estimate the time needed to recover carbon removed and...

A review of state and local regulation for wildfire mitigation

Treesearch

Terry K. Haines; Cheryl R. Renner; Margaret A. Reams

2008-01-01

Wildfire may result from natural processes or as the result of human actions (Ffolliott 1988, Mees 1990). As a natural phenomenon, it is important in sustaining forest health in fire-dependent ecosystems. While some wildfire may be ecologically beneficial, it poses a threat to residential communities located within or adjacent to the forest. Wildfire is considered a...

Evaluating soil risks associated with severe wildfire and ground-based logging

Treesearch

Keith M. Reynolds; Paul F. Hessburg; Richard E. Miller; Robert T. Meurisse

2011-01-01

Rehabilitation and timber-salvage activities after wildfire require rapid planning and rational decisions. Identifying areas with high risk for erosion and soil productivity losses is important. Moreover, allocation of corrective and mitigative efforts must be rational and prioritized. Our logic-based analysis of forested soil polygons on the Okanogan-Wenatchee...

Is Managed Wildfire Protecting Yosemite National Park from Drought?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Boisrame, G. F. S.; Thompson, S. E.; Stephens, S.; Collins, B.; Kelly, M.; Tague, N.

2016-12-01

Fire suppression in many dry forest types has left a legacy of dense, homogeneous forests. Such landscapes have high water demands and fuel loads, and when burned can result in catastrophically large fires. These characteristics are undesirable in the face of projected warming and drying in the Western US. This project explores the potential of managed wildfire - a forest management strategy in which fires caused by lightning are allowed to burn naturally as long as certain safety parameters are met - to reverse the effects of fire suppression. The Illilouette Creek Basin in Yosemite National Park has experienced 40 years of managed wildfire, reducing forest cover and increasing meadow and shrubland areas. We have collected evidence from field measurements and remote sensing which suggest that managed wildfire increases landscape and hydrologic heterogeneity, and likely improves resilience to disturbances such as fire and drought. Vegetation maps created from aerial photos show an increase in landscape heterogeneity following the introduction of managed wildfire. Soil moisture observations during the drought years of 2013-2016 suggest that transitions from dense forest to shrublands or meadows can increase summer soil moisture. In the winter of 2015-2016, snow depth measurements showed deeper spring snowpacks in burned areas compared to dense forests. Our study provides a unique view of relatively long-term effects of managed wildfire on vegetation change, ecohydrology, and drought resistance. Understanding these effects is increasingly important as the use of managed wildfire becomes more widely accepted, and as the likelihood of both drought and wildfire increases.

Burn me twice, shame on who? Interactions between successive forest fires across a temperate mountain region.

PubMed

Harvey, Brian J; Donato, Daniel C; Turner, Monica G

2016-09-01

Increasing rates of natural disturbances under a warming climate raise important questions about how multiple disturbances interact. Escalating wildfire activity in recent decades has resulted in some forests re-burning in short succession, but how the severity of one wildfire affects that of a subsequent wildfire is not fully understood. We used a field-validated, satellite-derived, burn-severity atlas to assess interactions between successive wildfires across the US Northern Rocky Mountains a 300,000-km 2 region dominated by fire-prone forests. In areas that experienced two wildfires between 1984 and 2010, we asked: (1) How do overall frequency distributions of burn-severity classes compare between first and second fires? (2) In a given location, how does burn severity of the second fire relate to that of the first? (3) Do interactions between successive fires vary by forest zone or the interval between fires? (4) What factors increase the probability of burning twice as stand-replacing fire? Within the study area, 138,061 ha burned twice between 1984 and 2010. Overall, frequency distributions of burn severity classes (low, moderate, high; quantified using relativized remote sensing indices) were similar between the first and second fires; however burn severity was 5-13% lower in second fires on average. Negative interactions between fires were most pronounced in lower-elevation forests and woodlands, when fire intervals were <10 yr, and when burn severity was low in the first fire. When the first fire burned as high severity and fire intervals exceeded 10-12 yr, burn-severity interactions switched from negative to positive, with high-severity fire begetting subsequent high-severity fire. Locations most likely to experience successive stand-replacing fires were high-elevation forests, which are adapted to high-severity fire, and areas conducive to abundant post-fire tree regeneration. Broadly similar severities among short-interval "re-burns" and other wildfires indicate that positive severity feedbacks, an oft-posited agent of ecosystem decline or state shift, are not an inevitable outcome of re-burning. Nonetheless, context-dependent shifts in both the magnitude and direction of wildfire interactions (associated with forest zone, initial burn-severity, and disturbance interval) illustrate complexities in disturbance interactions and can inform management and predictions of future system dynamics. © 2016 by the Ecological Society of America.

Social assessment for the Wenatchee National Forest wildfires of 1994: targeted analysis for the Leavenworth, Entiat, and Chelan Ranger Districts.

Treesearch

Matthew S. Carroll; Angela J. Findley; Keith A. Blatner; Sandra Rodriguez Mendez; Steven E. Daniels; Gregg B. Walker

2000-01-01

A purposive social assessment across three communities explored reactions of local residents to wildfires in the Wenatchee National Forest in north-central Washington. Research concentrated on identifying the diversity of fundamental beliefs and values held by local residents about wildfire and forest management. Particular emphasis was given to investigating community...

Diversity in forest management to reduce wildfire losses: implications for resilience

Treesearch

Susan Charnley; Thomas A. Spies; Ana M. G. Barros; Eric M. White; Keith A. Olsen

2017-01-01

This study investigates how federal, state, and private corporate forest owners in a fire-prone landscape of southcentral Oregon manage their forests to reduce wildfire hazard and loss to high-severity wildfire. We evaluate the implications of our findings for concepts of social–ecological resilience. Using interview data, we found a high degree of "response...

An alternative incentive structure for wildfire management on national forest land.

Treesearch

Geoffrey H. Donovan; Thomas C. Brown

2005-01-01

Wildfire suppression expenditures on national forest land have increased over the last 35 years, exceeding US $l billion in 2000 and 2002. These increases in expenditure have been attributed, in part, to a century of aggressive wildfire suppression, resulting in a buildup of fuel on the nation's forests. The efficiency of the current incentive structure faced by...

The value of fuel management in reducing wildfire damage

Treesearch

Kenneth W. Outcalt; Dale D. Wade

2000-01-01

The objective of this study was to test the effectiveness of a regular prescribed burning program to reduce mortality of southern pines when forests are burned by wildfire. The study was installed on the Osceola National Forest in where about 10,000 ha of flatwoods forest type was burned by arson set wildfires under extreme conditions in June 1998. Stands within the...

Wildfire and fuel treatment effects on forest carbon dynamics in the western United States

Treesearch

Joseph C. Restiano; David L. Peterson

2013-01-01

Sequestration of carbon (C) in forests has the potential to mitigate the effects of climate change by offsetting future emissions of greenhouse gases. However, in dry temperate forests, wildfire is a natural disturbance agent with the potential to release large fluxes of C into the atmosphere. Climate-driven increases in wildfire extent and severity arc expected to...

Regeneration and invasion of cottonwood riparian forest following wildfire

USGS Publications Warehouse

Wonkka, Carissa L.; Twidwell, Dirac; Bielski, Christine H.; Allen, Craig R.; Stambaugh, Michael C.

2018-01-01

Populus deltoides is considered to be a weak resprouter and highly susceptible to wildfire, but few post-wildfire studies have tracked P. deltoides response and resprouting within the Great Plains of North America. Following a wildfire in southwestern Kansas, U.S.A., we surveyed burned and unburned areas of a cottonwood riparian forest along the Cimarron River that included a major understory invader, tamarisk (Tamarix ramosissima Ledeb.). We tested the following hypotheses, which are consistent with the current understanding of P. deltoides response to wildfire in the Great Plains: (1) regeneration of P. deltoides will be low in areas burned by the wildfire; (2) the number of dead P. deltoides individuals will be greater in the wildfire than unburned areas; and (3) tamarisk regeneration will be higher than P. deltoides regeneration in the wildfire areas because tamarisk is considered a stronger resprouter. We found evidence contrary to two of our hypotheses 3 years following the wildfire. (1) P. deltoides regeneration was high following the wildfire, averaging 692 individuals/ha. (2) The number of dead mature cottonwood trees was greater in wildfire plots than in unburned plots. (3) There was more P. deltoides regeneration than tamarisk regeneration following wildfire. These findings, which diverge from the majority of studies examining P. deltoides regeneration in the Great Plains, suggest that differing local environmental and forest stand conditions, coupled with the timing and intensity of the fire, could be important determinants of riparian forest species' responses to wildfire.

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 under projected climate-wildfire interactions. Given climate and wildfire would become more stressful since the mid-century, a forward management action would grant us more C benefits.

Entiat Experimental Forest: catchment-scale runoff data before and after a 1970 wildfire.

Treesearch

Richard D. Woodsmith; Kellie B. Vache; Jeffrey J. McDonnell; J. David Helvey

2004-01-01

Effects of wildfire on water quantity and quality are issues of major concern. Much has been learned from previous research, although site specific data from both before and after wildfire are rare. The Entiat Experimental Forest (EEF) in central Washington State provides such a hydrologic record. In August 1970 a severe wildfire occurred following 10 years of stream...

Different regional climatic drivers of Holocene large wildfires in boreal forests of northeastern America

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Remy, Cécile C.; Hély, Christelle; Blarquez, Olivier; Magnan, Gabriel; Bergeron, Yves; Lavoie, Martin; Ali, Adam A.

2017-03-01

Global warming could increase climatic instability and large wildfire activity in circumboreal regions, potentially impairing both ecosystem functioning and human health. However, links between large wildfire events and climatic and/or meteorological conditions are still poorly understood, partly because few studies have covered a wide range of past climate-fire interactions. We compared palaeofire and simulated climatic data over the last 7000 years to assess causes of large wildfire events in three coniferous boreal forest regions in north-eastern Canada. These regions span an east-west cline, from a hilly region influenced by the Atlantic Ocean currently dominated by Picea mariana and Abies balsamea to a flatter continental region dominated by Picea mariana and Pinus banksiana. The largest wildfires occurred across the entire study zone between 3000 and 1000 cal. BP. In western and central continental regions these events were triggered by increases in both the fire-season length and summer/spring temperatures, while in the eastern region close to the ocean they were likely responses to hydrological (precipitation/evapotranspiration) variability. The impact of climatic drivers on fire size varied spatially across the study zone, confirming that regional climate dynamics could modulate effects of global climate change on wildfire regimes.

Understanding the Socioeconomic Effects of Wildfires on Western U.S. Public Lands

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sanchez, J. J.; Srivastava, L.; Marcos-Martinez, R.

2017-12-01

Climate change has resulted in the increased severity and frequency of forest disturbances due to wildfires, droughts, pests and diseases that compromise the sustainable provision of forest ecosystem services (e.g., water quantity and quality, carbon sequestration, recreation). A better understanding of the environmental and socioeconomic consequences of forest disturbances (i.e., wildfires) could improve the management and protection of public lands. We used a single-site benefit transfer function and spatially explicit information for demographic, socioeconomic, and site-specific characteristics to estimate the monetized value of market and non-market ecosystem services provided by forests on Western US public lands. These estimates are then used to approximate the costs of forest disturbances caused by wildfires of varying frequency and intensity, and across sites with heterogeneous characteristics and protection and management strategies. Our analysis provides credible estimates of the benefits of the forest for land management by the United States Forest Service, thereby assisting forest managers in planning resourcing and budgeting priorities.

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,...

Mechanical restoration of California mixed-conifer forests: does it matter which trees are cut?

Treesearch

Jessica Miesel; Ralph Boerner; Carl Skinner

2009-01-01

The montane ecosystems of northern California have been subjected to repeated manipulation and active fire suppression for over a century, resulting in changes in community structure that contribute to increased wildfire hazard. Ecosystem restoration via reduction of stand density for wildfire hazard mitigation has received substantial attention in recent years;...

Wildfire and management of forests and native fishes: Conflict or opportunity for convergent solutions?

Treesearch

Bruce E. Rieman; Paul F. Hessburg; Charles Luce; Matthew R. Dare

2010-01-01

Wildfire is a critical land management issue in the western United States. Efforts to mitigate the effects of altered fire regimes have led to debate over ecological restoration versus species conservation framed at the conjuncture of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and their respective management regimes. Fire-related management activities may disrupt watershed...

Fuel reduction management practices in riparian areas of the western USA

Treesearch

Katharine R. Stone; David S. Pilliod; Kathleen A. Dwire; Charles C. Rhoades; Sherry P. Wollrab; Michael K. Young

2010-01-01

Two decades of uncharacteristically severe wildfires have caused government and private land managers to actively reduce hazardous fuels to lessen wildfire severity in western forests, including riparian areas. Because riparian fuel treatments are a fairly new management strategy, we set out to document their frequency and extent on federal lands in the western U.S....

Effects of timber harvest following wildfire in western North America

Treesearch

David L. Peterson; James K. Agee; Gregory H. Aplet; Dennis P. Dykstra; Russell T. Graham; John F. Lehmkuhl; David S. Pilliod; Donald F. Potts; Robert F. Powers; John D. Stuart

2009-01-01

Timber harvest following wildfire leads to different outcomes depending on the biophysical setting of the forest, pattern of burn severity, operational aspects of tree removal, and other management activities. Fire effects range from relatively minor, in which fire burns through the understory and may kill a few trees, to severe, in which fire kills most trees and...

Pre-wildfire fuel reduction treatments result in more resilient forest structure a decade after wildfire

Treesearch

Camille Stevens-Rumann; Kristen Shive; Peter Fule; Carolyn H. Sieg

2013-01-01

Increasing size and severity of wildfires have led to an interest in the effectiveness of forest fuels treatments on reducing fire severity and post-wildfire fuels. Our objective was to contrast stand structure and surface fuel loadings on treated and untreated sites within the 2002 Rodeo-Chediski Fire area. Data from 140 plots on seven paired treated-untreated sites...

Preliminary results from a survey of U.S. Forest Service wildfire managers' attitudes toward aviation personnel exposure and risk

Treesearch

Matthew Wibbenmeyer; Michael Hand; David Calkin

2012-01-01

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service (USFS) has, in recent years, increasingly emphasized the importance of safety to its employees, but wildfire management remains a risky endeavor. While wildfire management decisions affecting safety and exposure of firefighters to the wildland fire environment may be aided by decision support tools such the Wildfire...

Modeling soil erosion and sediment transport from fires in forested watersheds of the South Carolina Piedmont

Treesearch

Tyler Crumbley; Ge Sun; Steve McNulty

2008-01-01

Forested watersheds in the Southeastern U.S. provide high quality water vital to ecosystem integrity and downstream aquatic resources. Excessive sedimentation from human activities in forest streams is of concern to responsible land managers. Prescribed fire is a common treatment applied to Southeastern piedmont forests and the risk of wildfire is becoming increasingly...

Modeling soil erosion and sediment transport from fires in forested watersheds of the South Carolina Piedmont

Treesearch

Tyler Crumbley; Ge Sun; Steve McNulty

2007-01-01

Forested watersheds in the Southeastern U.S. provide high quality water vital to ecosystem integrity and downstream aquatic resources. Excessive sedimentation from human activities in forest streams is of concern to responsible land managers. Prescribed fire is a common treatment applied to Southeastern Piedmont forests and the risk of wildfire is becoming increasingly...

Effectiveness of fuel treatments for mitigating wildfire risk and sequestering forest carbon: a case study in the Lake Tahoe Basin

Treesearch

Louise Loudermilk; Alison Stanton; Robert M. Scheller; Thomas E. Dilts; Peter J. Weisberg; Carl Skinner; Jian Yang

2014-01-01

Fuel-reduction treatments are used extensively to reduce wildfire risk and restore forest diversity and function. In the near future, increasing regulation of carbon (C) emissions may force forest managers to balance the use of fuel treatments for reducing wildfire risk against an alternative goal of C sequestration. The objective of this study was to evaluate how long...

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.

Restoring forest structure and process stabilizes forest carbon in wildfire-prone southwestern ponderosa pine forests

Treesearch

Matthew D. Hurteau; Shuang Liang; Katherine L. Martin; Malcolm P. North; George W. Koch; Bruce A. Hungate

2016-01-01

Changing climate and a legacy of fire-exclusion have increased the probability of high-severity wildfire, leading to an increased risk of forest carbon loss in ponderosa pine forests in the southwestern USA. Efforts to reduce high-severity fire risk through forest thinning and prescribed burning require both the removal and emission of carbon from these forests, and...

Wildfire and the future of water supply.

PubMed

Bladon, Kevin D; Emelko, Monica B; Silins, Uldis; Stone, Micheal

2014-08-19

In many parts of the world, forests provide high quality water for domestic, agricultural, industrial, and ecological needs, with water supplies in those regions inextricably linked to forest health. Wildfires have the potential to have devastating effects on aquatic ecosystems and community drinking water supply through impacts on water quantity and quality. In recent decades, a combination of fuel load accumulation, climate change, extensive droughts, and increased human presence in forests have resulted in increases in area burned and wildfire severity-a trend predicted to continue. Thus, the implications of wildfire for many downstream water uses are increasingly concerning, particularly the provision of safe drinking water, which may require additional treatment infrastructure and increased operations and maintenance costs in communities downstream of impacted landscapes. A better understanding of the effects of wildfire on water is needed to develop effective adaptation and mitigation strategies to protect globally critical water supplies originating in forested environments.

Quantifying changes in total and pyrogenic carbon stocks across fire severity gradients using active wildfire incidents

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Miesel, Jessica; Reiner, Alicia; Ewell, Carol; Maestrini, Bernardo; Dickinson, Matthew

2018-05-01

Positive feedbacks between wildfire emissions and climate are expected to increase in strength in the future; however, fires not only release carbon (C) from terrestrial to atmospheric pools, they also produce pyrogenic C (PyC) which contributes to longer-term C stability. Our objective was to quantify wildfire impacts on total C and PyC stocks in California mixed-conifer forest, and to investigate relationships between C and PyC stocks and changes across gradients of fire severity, using metrics derived from remote sensing and field observations. Our unique study accessed active wildfires to establish and measure plots within days before and after fire, prior to substantial erosion. We measured pre- and post-fire aboveground forest structure and woody fuels to calculate aboveground biomass, C and PyC, and collected forest floor and 0-5 cm mineral soil samples. Tree mortality increased with severity, but overstory C loss was minimal and limited primarily to foliage. Fire released 85% of understory and herbaceous C (comprising <1.0% of total ecosystem C). The greatest C losses occurred from downed wood and forest floor pools (19.3±5.1 Mg ha-1 and 25.9±3.2 Mg ha-1, respectively). Tree bark and downed wood contributed the greatest PyC gains (1.5±0.3 Mg ha-1 and 1.9±0.8 Mg ha-1, respectively), and PyC in tree bark showed non-significant positive trends with increasing severity. Overall PyC losses of 1.9±0.3 Mg ha-1 and 0.5±0.1 Mg ha-1 occurred from forest floor and 0-5 cm mineral soil, with no clear patterns across severity. Fire resulted in a net ecosystem PyC gain (0.96±0.98 Mg ha-1) across aboveground and belowground components of these forests, and there were no differences among severity levels. Carbon emissions represented only 21.6% of total forest C; however, extensive conversion of C from live to dead pools will contribute to large downed wood C pools susceptible to release in a subsequent fire, indicating that there may be a delayed relationship between fire severity and C emissions. This research advances understanding of forest C loss and stabilization as PyC in wildfires; however, poor relationships between C and PyC gains or losses and fire severity highlight the complexity of fire impacts on forest C.

Mobile satellite communications in the Forest Service

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Warren, John R.

1988-01-01

There are usually some places within a forest that do not have adequate communication coverage due to line-of-sight or other reasons. These areas are generally known by the foresters and radio technicians and allowances are made for that when working or traveling in those areas. However, when wildfire or other emergencies occur, communications are vital because wildfires can require hundreds of firefighters and cover thousands of acres. During these emergency operations, the existing communications are not adequate and complete radio systems are moved into the area for the conduct of fire communications. Incident command posts (ICPs) and fire camps are set up in remote locations and there is constant need for communications in the fire area and to agency headquarters and dispatch offices. Mobile satellite communications would be an ideal supplement to the Forest Service's current communications system in aiding forest fire control activities.

Accounting for biomass carbon stock change due to wildfire in temperate forest landscapes in Australia.

PubMed

Keith, Heather; Lindenmayer, David B; Mackey, Brendan G; Blair, David; Carter, Lauren; McBurney, Lachlan; Okada, Sachiko; Konishi-Nagano, Tomoko

2014-01-01

Carbon stock change due to forest management and disturbance must be accounted for in UNFCCC national inventory reports and for signatories to the Kyoto Protocol. Impacts of disturbance on greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories are important for many countries with large forest estates prone to wildfires. Our objective was to measure changes in carbon stocks due to short-term combustion and to simulate longer-term carbon stock dynamics resulting from redistribution among biomass components following wildfire. We studied the impacts of a wildfire in 2009 that burnt temperate forest of tall, wet eucalypts in south-eastern Australia. Biomass combusted ranged from 40 to 58 tC ha(-1), which represented 6-7% and 9-14% in low- and high-severity fire, respectively, of the pre-fire total biomass carbon stock. Pre-fire total stock ranged from 400 to 1040 tC ha(-1) depending on forest age and disturbance history. An estimated 3.9 TgC was emitted from the 2009 fire within the forest region, representing 8.5% of total biomass carbon stock across the landscape. Carbon losses from combustion were large over hours to days during the wildfire, but from an ecosystem dynamics perspective, the proportion of total carbon stock combusted was relatively small. Furthermore, more than half the stock losses from combustion were derived from biomass components with short lifetimes. Most biomass remained on-site, although redistributed from living to dead components. Decomposition of these components and new regeneration constituted the greatest changes in carbon stocks over ensuing decades. A critical issue for carbon accounting policy arises because the timeframes of ecological processes of carbon stock change are longer than the periods for reporting GHG inventories for national emissions reductions targets. Carbon accounts should be comprehensive of all stock changes, but reporting against targets should be based on human-induced changes in carbon stocks to incentivise mitigation activities.

Accounting for Biomass Carbon Stock Change Due to Wildfire in Temperate Forest Landscapes in Australia

PubMed Central

Keith, Heather; Lindenmayer, David B.; Mackey, Brendan G.; Blair, David; Carter, Lauren; McBurney, Lachlan; Okada, Sachiko; Konishi-Nagano, Tomoko

2014-01-01

Carbon stock change due to forest management and disturbance must be accounted for in UNFCCC national inventory reports and for signatories to the Kyoto Protocol. Impacts of disturbance on greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories are important for many countries with large forest estates prone to wildfires. Our objective was to measure changes in carbon stocks due to short-term combustion and to simulate longer-term carbon stock dynamics resulting from redistribution among biomass components following wildfire. We studied the impacts of a wildfire in 2009 that burnt temperate forest of tall, wet eucalypts in south-eastern Australia. Biomass combusted ranged from 40 to 58 tC ha−1, which represented 6–7% and 9–14% in low- and high-severity fire, respectively, of the pre-fire total biomass carbon stock. Pre-fire total stock ranged from 400 to 1040 tC ha−1 depending on forest age and disturbance history. An estimated 3.9 TgC was emitted from the 2009 fire within the forest region, representing 8.5% of total biomass carbon stock across the landscape. Carbon losses from combustion were large over hours to days during the wildfire, but from an ecosystem dynamics perspective, the proportion of total carbon stock combusted was relatively small. Furthermore, more than half the stock losses from combustion were derived from biomass components with short lifetimes. Most biomass remained on-site, although redistributed from living to dead components. Decomposition of these components and new regeneration constituted the greatest changes in carbon stocks over ensuing decades. A critical issue for carbon accounting policy arises because the timeframes of ecological processes of carbon stock change are longer than the periods for reporting GHG inventories for national emissions reductions targets. Carbon accounts should be comprehensive of all stock changes, but reporting against targets should be based on human-induced changes in carbon stocks to incentivise mitigation activities. PMID:25208298

Evolving the policy framework: Budget strategies, legislative authorities, and management strategies to facilitate federal forest adaptation and collaborative partnerships

Treesearch

Christopher Topik; Paige Lewis

2014-01-01

Some of the greatest challenges to the management of federal forests in the Unites States result from inadequate public and private investment in proactive forest restoration projects. This situation has been exacerbated by the growing fiscal and logistical demands of wildfire suppression activities, which currently consume at least 40 percent of the U.S. Forest...

Fire-climate interactions in forests of the American Pacific Coast

Treesearch

Valerie Trouet; Alan H. Taylor; Andrew M. Carleton; Carl N. Skinner

2006-01-01

We investigate relationships between climate and wildfire activity between 1929 and 2004 in Pacific coast forests of the United States. Self-Organizing Mapping (SOM) of annual area burned in National Forests (NF) in California, Oregon, and Washington identifies three contiguous NF groups and a fourth group of NF traversed by major highways. Large fire years in all...

Basic principles of forest fuel reduction treatments

Treesearch

James K. Agee; Carl N. Skinner

2005-01-01

Successful fire exclusion in the 20th century has created severe fire problems across the West. Not every forest is at risk of uncharacteristically severe wildfire, but drier forests are in need of active management to mitigate fire hazard. We summarize a set of simple principles important to address in fuel reduction treatments: reduction of surface fuels, increasing...

Utility of remotely sensed imagery for assessing the impact of salvage logging after forest fires

Treesearch

Sarah A. Lewis; Peter R. Robichaud; Andrew T. Hudak; Brian Austin; Robert J. Liebermann

2012-01-01

Remotely sensed imagery provides a useful tool for land managers to assess the extent and severity of post-wildfire salvage logging disturbance. This investigation uses high resolution QuickBird and National Agricultural Imagery Program (NAIP) imagery to map soil exposure after ground-based salvage operations. Three wildfires with varying post-fire salvage activities...

Influence of wildfires in the boreal forests of Eastern Siberia on atmospheric aerosol parameters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tomshin, Oleg A.; Solovyev, Vladimir S.

2017-11-01

The results of studies of the dynamics of forest fires in the boreal forests of Yakutia (Eastern Siberia) for 2001-2016 are presented. Variations of aerosol optical thickness (AOT), aerosol index (AI) and total carbon monoxide content during May-September were studied depending on the different forest fire activity level. It is shown that the seasonal variations of AOT, AI and CO in the most fire-dangerous years differ significantly from the fire seasons when forest fire activity was medium or low.

Greenhouse Gas and Criteria Air Pollutant Emission Reductions from Forest Fuel Treatment Projects in Placer County, California

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Saah, D. S.; Moritz, M.; Ganz, D. J.; Stine, P. A.; Moody, T.

2010-12-01

Years of successful fire suppression activities have left forests unnaturally dense, overstocked, and with high hazardous fuel loads. Wildfires, particularly those of high severity, may dramatically reduce carbon stocks and convert forested lands from carbon sinks to decades-long carbon sources . Forest resource managers are currently pursuing fuels reduction and mitigation strategies to reduce wildfire risk and maintain carbon stocks. These projects include selective thinning and removal of trees and brush to return forest ecosystems to more natural stocking levels, resulting in a more fire-resilient forest that in theory would retain higher carry capacity for standing above ground carbon. Resource managers are exploring the possibility of supporting these local forest management projects by offering greenhouse gas (GHG) offsets to project developers that require GHG emissions mitigation. Using robust field data, this research project modeled three types of carbon benefits that could be realized from forest management: 1. Fuels treatments in the study area were shown to reduce the GHG and Criteria Air Pollutant emissions from wildfires by decreasing the probability, extent, and severity of fires and the corresponding loss in forest carbon stocks; 2. Biomass utilization from fuel treatment was shown to reduce GHG and Criteria Air Pollutant emissions over the duration of the fuels treatment project compared to fossil fuel energy. 3. Management and thinning of forests in order to stimulate growth, resulting in more rapid uptake of atmospheric carbon and approaching a carbon carrying capacity stored in a forest ecosystem under prevailing environmental conditions and natural disturbance regimes.

Interactive effects of wildfire, forest management, and isolation on amphibian and parasite abundance

Treesearch

Blake R. Hossack; Winsor H. Lowe; R. Ken Honeycutt; Sean A. Parks; Paul Stephen Corn

2013-01-01

Projected increases in wildfire and other climate-driven disturbances will affect populations and communities worldwide, including host-parasite relationships. Research in temperate forests has shown that wildfire can negatively affect amphibians, but this research has occurred primarily outside of managed landscapes where interactions with human disturbances could...

How forest context influences the acceptability of prescribed burning and mechanical thinning

Treesearch

Alan D. Bright; Peter Newman

2006-01-01

We examined how forest factors influenced public perceptions of three fuels management alternatives: prescribed burns, mechanical thinning, or no artificial fire management. The factors included the forest?s proximity to urban areas, primary use, wildfire history, and current fire conditions. Surveying three study strata with different wildfire histories and...

Carbon dynamics in the future forest: the importance of long-term successional legacy and climate–fire interactions

Treesearch

Louise Loudermilk; Robert Scheller; Peter Weisberg; Jian Yang; Thomas Dilts; Sarah Karam; Carl Skinner

2013-01-01

Understanding how climate change may influence forest carbon (C) budgets requires knowledge of forest growth relationships with regional climate, long-term forest succession, and past and future disturbances, such as wildfires and timber harvesting events. We used a landscape-scale model of forest succession, wildfire, and C dynamics (LANDIS-II) to evaluate the effects...

78 FR 21340 - Information Collection: Annual Wildfire Summary Report

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-04-10

... Interagency Fire Center, USDA Forest Service, 3833 S. Development Avenue, Boise, ID, 83705. Comments also may... funding requests for the Forest Service State and Private Forestry Cooperative Fire Program. The program... DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE Forest Service Information Collection: Annual Wildfire Summary Report...

Examining alternative fuel management strategies and the relative contribution of National Forest System land to wildfire risk to adjacent homes - A pilot assessment on the Sierra National Forest, California, USA

Treesearch

Joe H. Scott; Matthew P. Thompson; Julie W. Gilbertson-Day

2016-01-01

Determining the degree of risk that wildfires pose to homes, where across the landscape the risk originates, and who can best mitigate risk are integral elements of effective co-management of wildfire risk. Developing assessments and tools to help provide this information is a high priority for federal land management agencies such as the US Forest Service (...

Assessing double counting of carbon emissions between forest land cover change and forest wildfires: a case study in the United States, 1992-2006

Treesearch

Daolan Zheng; Linda S. Heath; Mark J. Ducey; Brad Quayle

2013-01-01

The relative contributions of double counting of carbon emissions between forest-to-nonforest cover change (FNCC) and forest wildfires are an unknown in estimating net forest carbon exchanges at large scales. This study employed land-cover change maps and forest fire data in the four representative states (Arkansas, California, Minnesota, and Washington) of the US for...

Wildfires, Ecosystem Services, and Biodiversity in Tropical Dry Forest in India.

PubMed

Schmerbeck, Joachim; Fiener, Peter

2015-08-01

This review is intended to contribute to the understanding of the interlinkage between wildfire in India's tropical dry forest (TDF) and selected ecosystem services (ES), namely forest provisioning and water regulating services, as well as biodiversity. TDF covers approximately 146,000 km(2) (4.4%) of India, whereas according to the MODIS fire product about 2200 km(2) (1.4%) burns per year. As studies on wildfire effects upon ESs and biodiversity in Indian TDFs are rare we partly transferred findings from other (dry) forest areas to the environmental situation in India. In India (intentionally lit) wildfires have a very important connection to local livelihoods and the availability of non-wood forest products. Very important adverse long-term effects are the deterioration of forest ecosystems and soil degradation. The potential for TDF to regulate hydrological cycles is expected to be greater in the absence of fire than with it. A general judgment on the effect of fire on biodiversity is difficult as it depends on the community and species involved but a loss of biodiversity under regular burnings is apparent. Consequently, forest managers need sound knowledge regarding the interplay of wildfires and ecosystem behavior in general and more specific knowledge regarding the effects on taxa being considered for conservation efforts. Generally, much more research is needed to understand the trade-offs between the short-term benefits gained from forest provisioning services and long-term adverse effects.

Wildfires, Ecosystem Services, and Biodiversity in Tropical Dry Forest in India

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schmerbeck, Joachim; Fiener, Peter

2015-08-01

This review is intended to contribute to the understanding of the interlinkage between wildfire in India's tropical dry forest (TDF) and selected ecosystem services (ES), namely forest provisioning and water regulating services, as well as biodiversity. TDF covers approximately 146,000 km2 (4.4 %) of India, whereas according to the MODIS fire product about 2200 km2 (1.4 %) burns per year. As studies on wildfire effects upon ESs and biodiversity in Indian TDFs are rare we partly transferred findings from other (dry) forest areas to the environmental situation in India. In India (intentionally lit) wildfires have a very important connection to local livelihoods and the availability of non-wood forest products. Very important adverse long-term effects are the deterioration of forest ecosystems and soil degradation. The potential for TDF to regulate hydrological cycles is expected to be greater in the absence of fire than with it. A general judgment on the effect of fire on biodiversity is difficult as it depends on the community and species involved but a loss of biodiversity under regular burnings is apparent. Consequently, forest managers need sound knowledge regarding the interplay of wildfires and ecosystem behavior in general and more specific knowledge regarding the effects on taxa being considered for conservation efforts. Generally, much more research is needed to understand the trade-offs between the short-term benefits gained from forest provisioning services and long-term adverse effects.

Estimating Effects of Brazilian Forest Wildfires on the Carbon Monoxide Concentration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bhoi, S.; Qu, J.; Dasgupta, S.

2004-12-01

Forest wildfires have dramatically increased in recent years due to global warming and extreme dry conditions. Forest wildfires spew out a significant amount of atmospheric pollutants, such as carbon monoxide, due to incomplete burning of the biomass. According to United State Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), a high increase of carbon monoxide leads to the formation of carboxyhemoglobin in blood which decreases the oxygen intake capacity of human body and at moderate concentration angina, impaired vision and reduced brain function may occur. As compared to Northern America where significant amount of carbon monoxide released is caused by combustion devices and furnace, the increase of carbon monoxide concentration in Brazilian regions is mainly attributed to the forest fires. In this study, carbon monoxide datasets from the Measurements of pollution in the troposphere (MOPITT) have been analyzed to see the amount of increase in the carbon monoxide concentration after forest wildfires, ire, particularly in summer of 2003. The study reveals that there is a significant increase in the carbon monoxide concentration after forest fires.

Challenges to Sierra Nevada forests and their local communities: An observational and modeling perspective

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schmidt, Cynthia L.

Global forests are experiencing dramatic changes due to changes in climate as well as anthropogenic activities. Increased warming is causing the advancement of some species upslope and northward, while it is also causing widespread mortality due to increased drought conditions. In addition, increasing human population in mountain regions is resulting in elevated risk of human life and property loss due to larger and more severe wildfires. My research focuses on assessing the current vulnerability of forests and their communities in the Sierra Nevada, and how forests are projected to change in the future based on different climate change scenarios. In the first chapter I use Landsat satellite imagery to identify and attribute cause of forest disturbance between 1985 and 2011, primarily focusing on disturbances due to insect, diseases and drought. The change-detection algorithm, Landtrendr, was successfully used to identify forest disturbance, but identifying cause of disturbance was challenging due to the spectral similarities between disturbance types. Landtrendr was most successful in identifying disturbance due to insect, disease and drought in the San Bernardino National Forest, where there is little forest management activity. In the second chapter, I assess whether state or local land use policies in high-fire prone regions exist to reduce the vulnerability of residential developments to wildfire. Three specific land-use tools associated with reducing wildfire vulnerability are identified: (1) buffers around developments; (2) clustered developments; (3) restricting construction on slopes greater than 25%. The study also determines whether demographic and physical characteristics of selected California counties were related to implementing land use policies related to reducing wildfire vulnerability. Results indicate that land use policies related to preventing wildfire-related losses focus on building materials, road access, water availability and vegetation management, not the three identified land-use tools. San Diego County, the county that has experienced the most devastating fires, had the highest percentage of residential developments with both clustering and buffering. The third chapter focuses on future forest conditions. I used a Dynamic Global Vegetation Model (DGVM) to assess future vegetation dynamics and productivity under changing climate and atmospheric CO2 concentrations in the Sierra Nevada. Model results suggest that Temperate Broadleaved Evergreen Plant Functional Types (PFTs) will move upslope and eastward, replacing Temperate Needleleaved PFTs. Boreal Needleleaved Evergreen PFTs, found primarily at higher elevations, will decline dramatically as temperatures continue to increase. Gross Primary Productivity (GPP) will increase as atmospheric CO2 concentration increases, due primarily to the increase in the more productive broadleaved PFTs. Forest ecosystems play an important role in maintaining climate stability at the regional and global scales as a vital carbon sink, so understanding the role of disturbance and climate change will be vital to both scientists and policy makers in the future.

Future wildfire trends, impacts, and mitigation options in the Southern United States

Treesearch

Yongqiang Liu; Jeffrey P. Prestemon; Scott L. Goodrick; Thomas P. Holmes; John A. Stanturf; James M. Vose; Ge Sun

2014-01-01

Wildfire is among the most common forest disturbances, affecting the structure, composition, and functions of many ecosystems. The complex role that wildfire plays in shaping forests has been described in terms of vegetation responses, which are characterized as dependent on, sensitive to, independent of, or influenced by fire (Myers 2006). Fire is essential in areas...

Observations of bird numbers and species following a historic wildfire in Arizona ponderosa pine forests

Treesearch

Peter F. Ffolliott; Cody L. Stropki; Hui Chen; Daniel G. Neary

2009-01-01

The Rodeo-Chediski Wildfire, the largest in Arizona's history, damaged or destroyed ecosystem resources or disrupted ecosystem functioning in a mostly mosaic pattern throughout the ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) forests exposed to the burn. Impacts of the wildfire on the occurrence of birds and their diversities were studied on...

Using Size-Frequency Distributions to Analyze Fire Regimes in Florida

Treesearch

Thomas P. Holmes; Jeffrey P. Prestemon; John M. Pye; David T. Butry; D. Evan Mercer; Karen L. Abt

2004-01-01

Wildfire regimes in natural forest ecosystems have been characterized with power­law distributions. In this paper, we evaluated whether wildfire regimes in a human-dominated landscape were also consistent with power­law distributions. Our case study focused on wildfires in Florida, a state with rapid population growth and consequent rapid alteration of forest...

Using hyperspectral imagery to estimate forest floor consumption from wildfire in boreal forests of Alaska, USA

Treesearch

Sarah A. Lewis; Andrew T. Hudak; Roger D. Ottmar; Peter R. Robichaud; Leigh B. Lentile; Sharon M. Hood; James B. Cronan; Penny Morgan

2011-01-01

Wildfire is a major forest disturbance in interior Alaska that can both directly and indirectly alter ecological processes. We used a combination of pre- and post-fire forest floor depths and post-fire ground cover assessments measured in the field, and high-resolution airborne hyperspectral imagery, to map forest floor conditions after the 2004 Taylor Complex in...

The key host for an invasive forest pathogen also facilitates the pathogen’s survival of wildfire in California forests

Treesearch

Maia M. Beh; Margaret R. Metz; Kerri M. Frangioso; David M. Rizzo

2012-01-01

SummaryThe first wildfires in sudden oak death-impacted forests occurred in 2008 in the Big Sur region of California, creating the rare opportunity to study the interaction between an invasive forest pathogen and a historically recurring disturbance.To determine whether and how the sudden oak death...

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...

Forest bioenergy system to reduce the hazard of wildfires: White Mountains, Arizona

Treesearch

Daniel G. Neary; Elaine J. Zieroth

2007-01-01

In an innovative effort, the USDA Forest Service is planning to reduce the long-term threat of catastrophic wildfires by inaugurating a series of forest thinnings for bioenergy. The start-up project is in the Nutrioso area of the Alpine Ranger District, Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest. ''The Nutrioso Wildland/Urban Interface Fuels Reduction Project'...

Interacting disturbances: Wildfire severity affected by stage of forest disease invasion

Treesearch

Margaret Metz; Kerri Frangioso; Ross Meentemeyer; David Rizzo

2010-01-01

Sudden oak death (SOD) is an emerging forest disease causing extensive tree mortality in coastal California forests. Recent California wildfires provided an opportunity to test a major assumption underlying discussions of SOD and land management: SOD mortality will increase fire severity. We examined pre-fire fuels from host species in a forest monitoring plot network...

Short and long-term carbon balance of bioenergy electricity production fueled by forest treatments.

PubMed

Kelsey, Katharine C; Barnes, Kallie L; Ryan, Michael G; Neff, Jason C

2014-01-01

Forests store large amounts of carbon in forest biomass, and this carbon can be released to the atmosphere following forest disturbance or management. In the western US, forest fuel reduction treatments designed to reduce the risk of high severity wildfire can change forest carbon balance by removing carbon in the form of biomass, and by altering future potential wildfire behavior in the treated stand. Forest treatment carbon balance is further affected by the fate of this biomass removed from the forest, and the occurrence and intensity of a future wildfire in this stand. In this study we investigate the carbon balance of a forest treatment with varying fates of harvested biomass, including use for bioenergy electricity production, and under varying scenarios of future disturbance and regeneration. Bioenergy is a carbon intensive energy source; in our study we find that carbon emissions from bioenergy electricity production are nearly twice that of coal for the same amount of electricity. However, some emissions from bioenergy electricity production are offset by avoided fossil fuel electricity emissions. The carbon benefit achieved by using harvested biomass for bioenergy electricity production may be increased through avoided pyrogenic emissions if the forest treatment can effectively reduce severity. Forest treatments with the use of harvested biomass for electricity generation can reduce carbon emissions to the atmosphere by offsetting fossil fuel electricity generation emissions, and potentially by avoided pyrogenic emissions due to reduced intensity and severity of a future wildfire in the treated stand. However, changes in future wildfire and regeneration regimes may affect forest carbon balance and these climate-induced changes may influence forest carbon balance as much, or more, than bioenergy production.

Soil nitrogen mineralization and enzymatic activities in fire and fire surrogate treatments in California

Treesearch

J. R. Miesel; R. E. J. Boerner; C. N. Skinner

2011-01-01

Forest thinning and prescribed fire are management strategies used to reduce hazardous fuel loads and catastrophic wildfires in western mixed-conifer forests. We evaluated effects of thinning (Thin) and prescribed fire (Burn), alone and in combination (Thin+Burn), on N transformations and microbial enzyme activities relative to an untreated control (Control) at 1 and 3...

Silvicultural activities in Pringle Falls Experimental Forest, Central Oregon

Treesearch

Andrew Youngblood; Kim Johnson; Jim Schlaich; Boyd Wickman

2004-01-01

Pringle Falls Experimental Forest has been a center for research in ponderosa pine forests east of the crest of the Cascade Range since 1931. Long-term research facilities, sites, and future research opportunities are currently at risk from stand-replacement wildfire because of changes in stand structure resulting from past fire exclusion. At the same time, many of the...

Simulating avian species and foraging group responses to fuel reduction treatments in coniferous forests

Treesearch

Angela M. White; Elise F. Zipkin; Patricia N. Manley; Matthew D. Schlesinger

2013-01-01

Over a century of fire suppression activities have altered the structure and composition of mixed conifer forests throughout the western United States. In the absence of fire, fuels have accumulated in these forests causing concerns over the potential for catastrophic wildfires. Fuel reduction treatments are being used on federal and state lands to reduce the threat of...

The potential and realized spread of wildfires across Canada

Treesearch

Xianli Wang; Marc-Andre Parisien; Mike D. Flannigan; Sean A. Parks; Kerry R. Anderson; John M. Little; Steve W. Taylor

2014-01-01

Given that they can burn for weeks or months, wildfires in temperate and boreal forests may become immense (eg., 100 - 04 km2). However, during the period within which a large fire is 'active', not all days experience weather that is conducive to fire spread; indeed most of the spread occurs on a small proportion (e.g., 1 - 15 days) of not necessarily...

Sphagnum mosses limit total carbon consumption during fire in Alaskan black spruce forests

Treesearch

G. Shetler; .R. Turetsky; E. Kane; E. Kasischke

2008-01-01

The high water retention of hummock-forming Sphagnum species minimizes soil moisture fluctuations and might protect forest floor organic matter from burning during wildfire. We hypothesized that Sphagnum cover reduces overall forest floor organic matter consumption during wildfire compared with other ground-layer vegetation. We...

Ten years after wildfires: How does varying tree mortality impact fire hazard and forest resiliency?

Treesearch

Camille S. Stevens-Rumann; Carolyn H. Sieg; Molly E. Hunter

2012-01-01

Severe wildfires across the western US have lead to concerns about heavy surface fuel loading and the potential for high-intensity reburning. Ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) forests, often overly dense from a century of fire suppression, are increasingly susceptible to large and severe wildfires especially given warmer and drier climate projections for the future....

Challenges of socio-economically evaluating wildfire management on non-industrial private and public forestland in the western United States

Treesearch

Tyron J. Venn; David E. Calkin

2009-01-01

Non-industrial private forests (NIPFs) and public forests in the United States generate many non-market benefits for landholders and society generally. These values can be both enhanced and diminished by wildfire management. This paper considers the challenges of supporting economically efficient allocation of wildfire suppression resources in a social cost-benefit...

Capacity to adapt to environmental change: evidence from a network of organizations concerned with increasing wildfire risk

Treesearch

A. Paige Fischer; Lorien Jasny

2017-01-01

Because wildfire size and frequency are expected to increase in many forested areas in the United States, organizations involved in forest and wildfire management could arguably benefit from working together and sharing information to develop strategies for how to adapt to this increasing risk. Social capital theory suggests that actors in cohesive networks are...

Fuel treatments reduce the severity of wildfire effects in dry mixed conifer forest, Washington, USA

Treesearch

Susan J. Prichard; David L. Peterson; Kyle Jacobson

2010-01-01

To address hazardous fuel accumulations, many fuel treatments are being implemented in dry forests, but there have been few opportunities to evaluate treatment efficacy in wildfires. We documented the effectiveness of thinning and prescribed burning in the 2006 Tripod Complex fires. Recent fuel treatments burned in the wildfires and offered an opportunity to evaluate...

Using the forest, people, fire agent-based social network model to investigate interactions in social-ecological systems

Treesearch

Paige Fischer; Adam Korejwa; Jennifer Koch; Thomas Spies; Christine Olsen; Eric White; Derric Jacobs

2013-01-01

Wildfire links social and ecological systems in dry-forest landscapes of the United States. The management of these landscapes, however, is bifurcated by two institutional cultures that have different sets of beliefs about wildfire, motivations for managing wildfire risk, and approaches to administering policy. Fire protection, preparedness, and response agencies often...

Modeling Tree Mortality Following Wildfire in Pinus ponderosa Forests in the Central Sierra Nevada of California

Treesearch

Jon C. Regelbrugge

1993-01-01

Abstract. We modeled tree mortality occurring two years following wildfire in Pinus ponderosa forests using data from 1275 trees in 25 stands burned during the 1987 Stanislaus Complex fires. We used logistic regression analysis to develop models relating the probability of wildfire-induced mortality with tree size and fire severity for Pinus ponderosa, Calocedrus...

Response of Sierra Nevada forests to projected climate-wildfire interactions.

PubMed

Liang, Shuang; Hurteau, Matthew D; Westerling, Anthony LeRoy

2017-05-01

Climate influences forests directly and indirectly through disturbance. The interaction of climate change and increasing area burned has the potential to alter forest composition and community assembly. However, the overall forest response is likely to be influenced by species-specific responses to environmental change and the scale of change in overstory species cover. In this study, we sought to quantify how projected changes in climate and large wildfire size would alter forest communities and carbon (C) dynamics, irrespective of competition from nontree species and potential changes in other fire regimes, across the Sierra Nevada, USA. We used a species-specific, spatially explicit forest landscape model (LANDIS-II) to evaluate forest response to climate-wildfire interactions under historical (baseline) climate and climate projections from three climate models (GFDL, CCSM3, and CNRM) forced by a medium-high emission scenario (A2) in combination with corresponding climate-specific large wildfire projections. By late century, we found modest changes in the spatial distribution of dominant species by biomass relative to baseline, but extensive changes in recruitment distribution. Although forest recruitment declined across much of the Sierra, we found that projected climate and wildfire favored the recruitment of more drought-tolerant species over less drought-tolerant species relative to baseline, and this change was greatest at mid-elevations. We also found that projected climate and wildfire decreased tree species richness across a large proportion of the study area and transitioned more area to a C source, which reduced landscape-level C sequestration potential. Our study, although a conservative estimate, suggests that by late century, forest community distributions may not change as intact units as predicted by biome-based modeling, but are likely to trend toward simplified community composition as communities gradually disaggregate and the least tolerant species are no longer able to establish. The potential exists for substantial community composition change and forest simplification beyond this century. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Large-scale, dynamic transformations in fuel moisture drive wildfire activity across southeastern Australia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nolan, R. H.; Boer, M. M.; Resco de Dios, V.; Caccamo, G.; Bradstock, R. A.

2016-05-01

The occurrence of large, high-intensity wildfires requires plant biomass, or fuel, that is sufficiently dry to burn. This poses the question, what is "sufficiently dry"? Until recently, the ability to address this question has been constrained by the spatiotemporal scale of available methods to monitor the moisture contents of both dead and live fuels. Here we take advantage of recent developments in macroscale monitoring of fuel moisture through a combination of remote sensing and climatic modeling. We show there are clear thresholds of fuel moisture content associated with the occurrence of wildfires in forests and woodlands. Furthermore, we show that transformations in fuel moisture conditions across these thresholds can occur rapidly, within a month. Both the approach presented here, and our findings, can be immediately applied and may greatly improve fire risk assessments in forests and woodlands globally.

Comparing fuel reduction treatments for reducing wildfire size and intensity in a boreal forest landscape of northeastern China.

PubMed

Wu, Zhiwei; He, Hong S; Liu, Zhihua; Liang, Yu

2013-06-01

Fuel load is often used to prioritize stands for fuel reduction treatments. However, wildfire size and intensity are not only related to fuel loads but also to a wide range of other spatially related factors such as topography, weather and human activity. In prioritizing fuel reduction treatments, we propose using burn probability to account for the effects of spatially related factors that can affect wildfire size and intensity. Our burn probability incorporated fuel load, ignition probability, and spread probability (spatial controls to wildfire) at a particular location across a landscape. Our goal was to assess differences in reducing wildfire size and intensity using fuel-load and burn-probability based treatment prioritization approaches. Our study was conducted in a boreal forest in northeastern China. We derived a fuel load map from a stand map and a burn probability map based on historical fire records and potential wildfire spread pattern. The burn probability map was validated using historical records of burned patches. We then simulated 100 ignitions and six fuel reduction treatments to compare fire size and intensity under two approaches of fuel treatment prioritization. We calibrated and validated simulated wildfires against historical wildfire data. Our results showed that fuel reduction treatments based on burn probability were more effective at reducing simulated wildfire size, mean and maximum rate of spread, and mean fire intensity, but less effective at reducing maximum fire intensity across the burned landscape than treatments based on fuel load. Thus, contributions from both fuels and spatially related factors should be considered for each fuel reduction treatment. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Impact of anthropogenic climate change on wildfire across western US forests.

PubMed

Abatzoglou, John T; Williams, A Park

2016-10-18

Increased forest fire activity across the western continental United States (US) in recent decades has likely been enabled by a number of factors, including the legacy of fire suppression and human settlement, natural climate variability, and human-caused climate change. We use modeled climate projections to estimate the contribution of anthropogenic climate change to observed increases in eight fuel aridity metrics and forest fire area across the western United States. Anthropogenic increases in temperature and vapor pressure deficit significantly enhanced fuel aridity across western US forests over the past several decades and, during 2000-2015, contributed to 75% more forested area experiencing high (>1 σ) fire-season fuel aridity and an average of nine additional days per year of high fire potential. Anthropogenic climate change accounted for ∼55% of observed increases in fuel aridity from 1979 to 2015 across western US forests, highlighting both anthropogenic climate change and natural climate variability as important contributors to increased wildfire potential in recent decades. We estimate that human-caused climate change contributed to an additional 4.2 million ha of forest fire area during 1984-2015, nearly doubling the forest fire area expected in its absence. Natural climate variability will continue to alternate between modulating and compounding anthropogenic increases in fuel aridity, but anthropogenic climate change has emerged as a driver of increased forest fire activity and should continue to do so while fuels are not limiting.

Impact of anthropogenic climate change on wildfire across western US forests

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Abatzoglou, John T.; Park Williams, A.

2016-10-01

Increased forest fire activity across the western continental United States (US) in recent decades has likely been enabled by a number of factors, including the legacy of fire suppression and human settlement, natural climate variability, and human-caused climate change. We use modeled climate projections to estimate the contribution of anthropogenic climate change to observed increases in eight fuel aridity metrics and forest fire area across the western United States. Anthropogenic increases in temperature and vapor pressure deficit significantly enhanced fuel aridity across western US forests over the past several decades and, during 2000-2015, contributed to 75% more forested area experiencing high (>1 σ) fire-season fuel aridity and an average of nine additional days per year of high fire potential. Anthropogenic climate change accounted for ˜55% of observed increases in fuel aridity from 1979 to 2015 across western US forests, highlighting both anthropogenic climate change and natural climate variability as important contributors to increased wildfire potential in recent decades. We estimate that human-caused climate change contributed to an additional 4.2 million ha of forest fire area during 1984-2015, nearly doubling the forest fire area expected in its absence. Natural climate variability will continue to alternate between modulating and compounding anthropogenic increases in fuel aridity, but anthropogenic climate change has emerged as a driver of increased forest fire activity and should continue to do so while fuels are not limiting.

Bat activity in relation to fire and fire surrogate treatments in southern pine stands

Treesearch

Susan C. Loeb; Thomas A. Waldrop

2008-01-01

Forest managers often use thinning and prescribed burning to reduce the risk of wildfire and insect outbreaks. Because thinning and burning alter the structure of forest stands and may affect insect prey abundance, they may change the suitability of stands for bats. Our objective was to test the effects of thinning and burning on bat foraging and commuting activity in...

Wildfire suppression cost forecasts from the US Forest Service

Treesearch

Karen L. Abt; Jeffrey P. Prestemon; Krista M. Gebert

2009-01-01

The US Forest Service and other land-management agencies seek better tools for nticipating future expenditures for wildfire suppression. We developed regression models for forecasting US Forest Service suppression spending at 1-, 2-, and 3-year lead times. We compared these models to another readily available forecast model, the 10-year moving average model,...

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...

The legal system, the U.S. Forest Service, and human-caused wildfires.

Treesearch

Linda R. Donoghue; Donna M. Paananen

1984-01-01

Presents an overview of the American legal system; describes the relations and interactions between the Forest Service and legal system components and processes; discusses how individuals enter, move through, and leave the legal system; and describes the current status of Forest Service law enforcement efforts directed at wildfire violations.

Post-fire burn severity and vegetation response following eight large wildfires across the Western United States

Treesearch

Leigh B. Lentile; Penelope Morgan; Andrew T. Hudak; Michael J. Bobbitt; Sarah A. Lewis; Alistair M. S. Smith; Peter R. Robichaud

2007-01-01

Vegetation response and burn severity were examined following eight large wildfires that burned in 2003 and 2004: two wildfires in California chaparral, two each in dry and moist mixed-conifer forests in Montana, and two in boreal forests in interior Alaska. Our research objectives were: 1) to characterize one year post-fire vegetation recovery relative to initial fire...

Response of lizards to high-severity wildfires in a southern United States mixed pine/hardwood forest

Treesearch

Adam ​Duarte; Donald J. Brown; Michael R. J. Forstner

2017-01-01

High-severity forest fires are increasing in large areas of the southern and western United States as the climate becomes warmer and drier. Natural resource managers need a better understanding of the short- and long-term effects of wildfires on lizard populations, but there is a paucity of studies focused on lizard-wildfire relationships. We used a before-after,...

Response of native Hawaiian woody species to lava-ignited wildfires in tropical forests and shrublands

Treesearch

Alison Ainsworth; J. Boone Kauffman

2009-01-01

Wildfires are rare in the disturbance history of Hawaiian forests but may increase in prevalence due to invasive species and global climate change. We documented survival rates and adaptations facilitating persistence of native woody species following 2002–2003 wildfires in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, Hawaii. Fires occurred during an El Niño drought and were...

Seeking common ground: protecting homes from wildfires while making forests more resilient to fire

Treesearch

Noreen Parks; Alan Ager

2011-01-01

Federal policies direct public-land managers to reduce wildfire risks for urban areas close to wildlands, while broader agency goals call for landscape restoration to create fire-resilient forests. This study used wildfires simulation modeling to examine the tradeoffs between focusing fuel reduction efforts on a wildland-urban interface (WUI) in Oregon’s Blue Mountains...

Analyzing wildfire exposure and source–sink relationships on a fire prone forest landscape

Treesearch

Alan A. Ager; Nicole M. Vaillant; Mark A. Finney; Haiganoush K. Preisler

2012-01-01

We used simulation modeling to analyze wildfire exposure to social and ecological values on a 0.6 million ha national forest in central Oregon, USA. We simulated 50,000 wildfires that replicated recent fire events in the area and generated detailed maps of burn probability (BP) and fire intensity distributions. We also recorded the ignition locations and size of each...

Fuel treatment effects on tree mortality following wildfire in dry mixed conifer forests, Washington State, USA

Treesearch

Susan J. Prichard; Maureen C. Kennedy

2012-01-01

Fuel reduction treatments are increasingly used to mitigate future wildfire severity in dry forests, but few opportunities exist to assess their effectiveness. We evaluated the influence of fuel treatment, tree size and species on tree mortality following a large wildfire event in recent thin-only, thin and prescribed burn (thin-Rx) units. Of the trees that died within...

Decades-old silvicultural treatments influence surface wildfire severity and post-fire nitrogen availability in a ponderosa pine forest

Treesearch

Ann L. Lezberg; Michael A. Battaglia; Wayne D. Shepperd; Anna W. Schoettle

2008-01-01

Wildfire severity and subsequent ecological effects may be influenced by prior land management, via modification of forest structure and lingering changes in fuels. In 2002, the Hayman wildfire burned as a low to moderate-severity surface fire through a 21-year pine regeneration experiment with two overstory harvest cuttings (shelterwood, seed-tree) and two site...

Principles and practices for the restoration of ponderosa pine and dry mixed-conifer forests of the Colorado Front Range

Treesearch

Robert N. Addington; Gregory H. Aplet; Mike A. Battaglia; Jennifer S. Briggs; Peter M. Brown; Antony S. Cheng; Yvette Dickinson; Jonas A. Feinstein; Kristen A. Pelz; Claudia M. Regan; Jim Thinnes; Rick Truex; Paula J. Fornwalt; Benjamin Gannon; Chad W. Julian; Jeffrey L. Underhill; Brett Wolk

2018-01-01

Wildfires have become larger and more severe over the past several decades on Colorado’s Front Range, catalyzing greater investments in forest management intended to mitigate wildfire risks. The complex ecological, social, and political context of the Front Range, however, makes forest management challenging, especially where multiple management goals including forest...

Impacts of fire and climate change on long-term nitrogen availability and forest productivity in the New Jersey Pine Barrens

Treesearch

Melissa S. Lucash; Robert M. Scheller; Alec M. Kretchun; Kenneth L. Clark; John Hom

2014-01-01

Increased wildfires and temperatures due to climate change are expected to have profound effects on forest productivity and nitrogen (N) cycling. Forecasts about how wildfire and climate change will affect forests seldom consider N availability, which may limit forest response to climate change, particularly in fire-prone landscapes. The overall objective of this study...

Influences of prior wildfires on vegetation response to subsequent fire in a reburned Southwestern landscape.

PubMed

Coop, Jonathan D; Parks, Sean A; McClernan, Sarah R; Holsinger, Lisa M

2016-03-01

Large and severe wildfires have raised concerns about the future of forested landscapes in the southwestern United States, especially under repeated burning. In 2011, under extreme weather and drought conditions, the Las Conchas fire burned over several previous burns as well as forests not recently exposed to fire. Our purpose was to examine the influences of prior wildfires on plant community composition and structure, subsequent burn severity, and vegetation response. To assess these relationships, we used satellite-derived measures of burn severity and a nonmetric multidimensional scaling of pre- and post- Las Conchas field samples. Earlier burns were associated with shifts from forested sites to open savannas and meadows, oak scrub, and ruderal communities. These non-forested vegetation types exhibited both resistance to subsequent fire, measured by reduced burn severity, and resilience to reburning, measured by vegetation recovery relative to forests not exposed to recent prior fire. Previous shifts toward non-forested states were strongly reinforced by reburning. Ongoing losses of forests and their ecological values confirm the need for restoration interventions. However, given future wildfire and climate projections, there may also be opportunities presented by transformations toward fire-resistant and resilient vegetation types within portions of the landscape.

Public engagement in neighbourhood level wildfire mitigation and preparedness: case studies from Canada, the US and Australia.

PubMed

McGee, T K

2011-10-01

This study examined neighbourhood level wildfire mitigation programs being implemented in neighbourhoods in Canada (FireSmart-ForestWise), Australia (Community Fireguard) and the US (Firewise Communities). Semi-structured interviews were completed with 19 residents participating in the programs. A wide range of activities were completed as part of the three programs. Despite differences between the three programs, participants appeared to participate in the programs for three main reasons: Fire experience, agency involvement, and personal and family protection. A fire therefore provides a window of opportunity to engage residents in neighbourhood level wildfire mitigation programs. The neighbourhood level wildfire mitigation programs helped to reduce the wildfire risk, but also enhanced both community resilience and relationships between residents and government agencies. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Collaboration in Action: Office of Research and Development ...

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

The "Collaboration in Action: US EPA's Office of Research and Develop - Current Wildfire Research Program" was invited by the USDA's US Forest Service's Scientific Executive Committee to provide USFS scientific leadership active and potential future opportunities for cooperation/collaboration. Health impacts of wildfire smoke merit the attention and action of the US EPA and current research is supported in the ACE and SHC Research Programs. Wildland fire smoke research has taken on greater importance because the 1) contribution of wildland fire PM emissions relative to total US PM emissions is increasing, 2) the population health impacts are measurable and costly, 3) vulnerable and sensitive populations at-risk are increasing attendant to our aging U.S. population and the increasing area of the wildland-urban interface, and 4) health impacts of smoke could be minimized by identifying at-risk individuals and reducing their exposures. Examples are provided. The "Collaboration in Action: US EPA's Office of Research and Develop - Current Wildfire Research Program" was invited by the USDA's US Forest Service's Scientific Executive Committee to provide USFS scientific leadership active and potential future opportunities for cooperation/collaboration.

Cumulative effects of wildfires on forest dynamics in the eastern Cascade Mountains, USA.

PubMed

Reilly, Matthew J; Elia, Mario; Spies, Thomas A; Gregory, Matthew J; Sanesi, Giovanni; Lafortezza, Raffaele

2018-03-01

Wildfires pose a unique challenge to conservation in fire-prone regions, yet few studies quantify the cumulative effects of wildfires on forest dynamics (i.e., changes in structural conditions) across landscape and regional scales. We assessed the contribution of wildfire to forest dynamics in the eastern Cascade Mountains, USA from 1985 to 2010 using imputed maps of forest structure (i.e., tree size and canopy cover) and remotely sensed burn severity maps. We addressed three questions: (1) How do dynamics differ between the region as a whole and the unburned portion of the region? (2) How do dynamics vary among vegetation zones differing in biophysical setting and historical fire frequency? (3) How have forest structural conditions changed in a network of late successional reserves (LSRs)? Wildfires affected 10% of forests in the region, but the cumulative effects at this scale were primarily slight losses of closed-canopy conditions and slight gains in open-canopy conditions. In the unburned portion of the region (the remaining 90%), closed-canopy conditions primarily increased despite other concurrent disturbances (e.g., harvest, insects). Although the effects of fire were largely dampened at the regional scale, landscape scale dynamics were far more variable. The warm ponderosa pine and cool mixed conifer zones experienced less fire than the region as a whole despite experiencing the most frequent fire historically. Open-canopy conditions increased slightly in the mixed conifer zone, but declined across the ponderosa pine zone even with wildfires. Wildfires burned 30% of the cold subalpine zone, which experienced the greatest increase in open-canopy conditions and losses of closed-canopy conditions. LSRs were more prone to wildfire than the region as a whole, and experienced slight declines in late seral conditions. Despite losses of late seral conditions, wildfires contributed to some conservation objectives by creating open habitats (e.g., sparse early seral and woodland conditions) that otherwise generally decreased in unburned landscapes despite management efforts to increase landscape diversity. This study demonstrates the potential for wildfires to contribute to regional scale conservation objectives, but implications for management and biodiversity at landscape scales vary geographically among biophysical settings, and are contingent upon historical dynamics and individual species habitat preferences. © 2017 by the Ecological Society of America.

Fuel treatment impacts on estimated wildfire carbon loss from forests in Montana, Oregon, California, and Arizona

USGS Publications Warehouse

Stephens, Scott L.; Boerner, Ralph E.J.; Maghaddas, Jason J.; Maghaddas, Emily E.Y.; Collins, Brandon M.; Dow, Christopher B.; Edminster, Carl; Fiedler, Carl E.; Fry, Danny L.; Hartsough, Bruce R.; Keeley, Jon E.; Knapp, Eric E.; McIver, James D.; Skinner, Carl N.; Youngblood, Andrew P.

2012-01-01

Using forests to sequester carbon in response to anthropogenically induced climate change is being considered across the globe. A recent U.S. executive order mandated that all federal agencies account for sequestration and emissions of greenhouse gases, highlighting the importance of understanding how forest carbon stocks are influenced by wildfire. This paper reports the effects of the most common forest fuel reduction treatments on carbon pools composed of live and dead biomass as well as potential wildfire emissions from six different sites in four western U.S. states. Additionally, we predict the median forest product life spans and uses of materials removed during mechanical treatments. Carbon loss from modeled wildfire-induced tree mortality was lowest in the mechanical plus prescribed fire treatments, followed by the prescribed fire-only treatments. Wildfire emissions varied from 10–80 Mg/ha and were lowest in the prescribed fire and mechanical followed by prescribed fire treatments at most sites. Mean biomass removals per site ranged from approximately 30–60 dry Mg/ha; the median lives of products in first use varied considerably (from <10 to >50 years). Our research suggests most of the benefits of increased fire resistance can be achieved with relatively small reductions in current carbon stocks. Retaining or growing larger trees also reduced the vulnerability of carbon loss from wildfire. In addition, modeled vulnerabilities to carbon losses and median forest product life spans varied considerably across our study sites, which could be used to help prioritize treatment implementation.

Appendix 2: Risk-based framework and risk case studies. Risk assessment for wildfire in the Western United States.

Treesearch

David L. Peterson; Jeremy S. Littell

2012-01-01

Wildfire is one of the two most significant disturbance agents (the other being insects) in forest ecosystems of the Western United States, and in a warmer climate, will drive changes in forest composition, structure, and function (Dale et al. 2001, McKenzie et al. 2004). Although wildfire is highly stochastic in space and time, sufficient data exist to establish clear...

Changes in forest species composition and structure after stand-replacing wildfire in the mountains of southeastern Arizona

Treesearch

Ronald D. Quinn; Lin Wu

2005-01-01

A wildfire in the Chiricahua Mountains of southeastern Arizona apparently altered the long-term structure of the forest. The pre-fire canopy forest, which had not burned for 100 years, was an even mixture of Arizona pines and Rocky Mountain Douglas-firs. A decade later the new forest was numerically dominated by quaking aspen seedlings in clumps separated by persistent...

The effects of thinning and similar stand treatments on fire behavior in Western forests.

Treesearch

Russell T. Graham; Alan E. Harvey; Theresa B. Jain; Jonalea R. Tonn

1999-01-01

In the West, thinning and partial cuttings are being considered for treating millions of forested acres that are overstocked and prone to wildfire. The objectives of these treatments include tree growth redistribution, tree species regulation, timber harvest, wildlife habitat improvement, and wildfire-hazard reduction. Depending on the forest type and its structure,...

Community wildfire protection planning: is the Healthy Forests Restoration Act's vagueness genius?

Treesearch

Pamela J. Jakes; Kristen C. Nelson; Sherry A. Enzler; Sam Burns; Antony S. Cheng; Victoria Sturtevant; Daniel R. Williams; Alexander Bujak; Rachel F. Brummel; Stephanie Grayzeck-Souter; Emily Staychock

2011-01-01

The Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003 (HFRA) encourages communities to develop community wildfire protection plans (CWPPs) to reduce their wildland fire risk and promote healthier forested ecosystems. Communities who have developed CWPPs have done so using many different processes, resulting in plans with varied form and content. We analysed data from 13 case-...

Cicada emergence in southwestern riparian forest: Influences of wildfire and vegetation composition

Treesearch

D. Max Smith; Jeffrey Kelly; Deborah M. Finch

2006-01-01

Annually emerging cicadas are a numerically and ecologically dominant species in Southwestern riparian forests. Humans have altered disturbance regimes that structure these forests such that floods are less common and wildfires occur more frequently than was historically the case. Impacts of these changes on primary consumers such as riparian cicadas are unknown....

Forest wildfire, fuel reduction treatments, and landscape carbon stocks: a sensitivity analysis

Treesearch

John L. Campbell; Alan A. Ager

2013-01-01

Fuel reduction treatments prescribed in fire-suppressed forests of western North America pose an apparent paradox with respect to terrestrial carbon management. Such treatments have the immediate effect of reducing forest carbon stocks but likely reduce future carbon losses through the combustion and mortality caused by high-severity wildfires. Assessing the long-term...

Small area estimation in forests affected by wildfire in the Interior West

Treesearch

G. G. Moisen; J. A. Blackard; M. Finco

2004-01-01

Recent emphasis has been placed on estimating amount and characteristics of forests affected by wildfire in the Interior West. Data collected by FIA is intended for estimation over large geographic areas and is too sparse to construct sufficiently precise estimates within burn perimeters. This paper illustrates how recently built MODISbased maps of forest/nonforest and...

Mapping wildfire and clearcut harvest disturbances in boreal forests with Landsat time series data

Treesearch

Todd Schroeder; Michael A. Wulder; Sean P. Healey; Gretchen G. Moisen

2011-01-01

Information regarding the extent, timing andmagnitude of forest disturbance are key inputs required for accurate estimation of the terrestrial carbon balance. Equally important for studying carbon dynamics is the ability to distinguish the cause or type of forest disturbance occurring on the landscape. Wildfire and timber harvesting are common disturbances occurring in...

Mercury in terrestrial forested systems with highly elevated mercury deposition in southwestern China: The risk to insects and potential release from wildfires.

PubMed

Zhou, Jun; Wang, Zhangwei; Sun, Ting; Zhang, Huan; Zhang, Xiaoshan

2016-05-01

Forests are considered a pool of mercury in the global mercury cycle. However, few studies have investigated the distribution of mercury in the forested systems in China. Tieshanping forest catchment in southwest China was impacted by mercury emissions from industrial activities and coal combustions. Our work studied mercury content in atmosphere, soil, vegetation and insect with a view to estimating the potential for mercury release during forest fires. Results of the present study showed that total gaseous mercury (TGM) was highly elevated and the annual mean concentration was 3.51 ± 1.39 ng m(-2). Of the vegetation tissues, the mercury concentration follows the order of leaf/needle > root > bark > branch > bole wood for each species. Total ecosystem mercury pool was 103.5 mg m(-2) and about 99.4% of the mercury resides in soil layers (0-40 cm). The remaining 0.6% (0.50 mg m(-2)) of mercury was stored in biomass. The large mercury stocks in the forest ecosystem pose a serious threat for large pluses to the atmospheric mercury during potential wildfires and additional ecological stress to forest insect: dung beetles, cicada and longicorn, with mercury concentration of 1983 ± 446, 49 ± 38 and 7 ± 5 ng g(-1), respectively. Hence, the results obtained in the present study has implications for global estimates of mercury storage in forests, risks to forest insect and potential release to the atmosphere during wildfires. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Boreal Forests Sequester Large Amounts of Mercury over Millennial Time Scales in the Absence of Wildfire.

PubMed

Giesler, Reiner; Clemmensen, Karina E; Wardle, David A; Klaminder, Jonatan; Bindler, Richard

2017-03-07

Alterations in fire activity due to climate change and fire suppression may have profound effects on the balance between storage and release of carbon (C) and associated volatile elements. Stored soil mercury (Hg) is known to volatilize due to wildfires and this could substantially affect the land-air exchange of Hg; conversely the absence of fires and human disturbance may increase the time period over which Hg is sequestered. Here we show for a wildfire chronosequence spanning over more than 5000 years in boreal forest in northern Sweden that belowground inventories of total Hg are strongly related to soil humus C accumulation (R 2 = 0.94, p < 0.001). Our data clearly show that northern boreal forest soils have a strong sink capacity for Hg, and indicate that the sequestered Hg is bound in soil organic matter pools accumulating over millennia. Our results also suggest that more than half of the Hg stock in the sites with the longest time since fire originates from deposition predating the onset of large-scale anthropogenic emissions. This study emphasizes the importance of boreal forest humus soils for Hg storage and reveals that this pool is likely to persist over millennial time scales in the prolonged absence of fire.

Prescribed fires as ecological surrogates for wildfires: A stream and riparian perspective

USGS Publications Warehouse

Arkle, R.S.; Pilliod, D.S.

2010-01-01

Forest managers use prescribed fire to reduce wildfire risk and to provide resource benefits, yet little information is available on whether prescribed fires can function as ecological surrogates for wildfire in fire-prone landscapes. Information on impacts and benefits of this management tool on stream and riparian ecosystems is particularly lacking. We used a beyond-BACI (Before, After, Control, Impact) design to investigate the effects of a prescribed fire on a stream ecosystem and compared these findings to similar data collected after wildfire. For 3 years after prescribed fire treatment, we found no detectable changes in periphyton, macroinvertebrates, amphibians, fish, and riparian and stream habitats compared to data collected over the same time period in four unburned reference streams. Based on changes in fuels, plant and litter cover, and tree scorching, this prescribed fire was typical of those being implemented in ponderosa pine forests throughout the western U.S. However, we found that the extent and severity of riparian vegetation burned was substantially lower after prescribed fire compared to nearby wildfires. The early-season prescribed fire did not mimic the riparian or in-stream ecological effects observed following a nearby wildfire, even in catchments with burn extents similar to the prescribed fire. Little information exists on the effects of long-term fire exclusion from riparian forests, but a "prescribed fire regime" of repeatedly burning upland forests while excluding fire in adjacent riparian forests may eliminate an important natural disturbance from riparian and stream habitats.

Initial observations on using SAR to monitor wildfire scars in boreal forests

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kasischke, E. S.; Bourgeau-Chavez, L. L.; French, N. H. F.; Harrell, P.; Christensen, N. L., Jr.

1992-01-01

Initial observations on the effects of wildfires in black spruce forests on radar backscatter are presented. Airborne and spaceborne SAR imagery are utilized to illustrate two distinct fire signatures. A theory is presented to explain these differences.

Future Wildfire and Managed Fire Interactions in the Lake Tahoe Basin

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Scheller, R.; Kretchun, A.

2017-12-01

Managing large forested landscape in the context of a changing climate and altered disturbance regimes presents new challenges and require integrated assessments of forest disturbance, management, succession, and the carbon cycle. Successful management under these circumstances will require information about trade-offs among multiple objectives and opportunities for spatially optimized landscape-scale management. Improved information about the effects of climate on forest communities, disturbance feedbacks, and the effectiveness of mitigation strategies enables actionable options for landscape managers. We evaluated the effects of fire suppression, wildfires, and forest fuel (thinning) treatments on the long-term carbon storage potential for Lake Tahoe Basin (LTB) forests under various climate futures. We simulated management scenarios that encompass fuel treatments across the larger landscape, beyond the Wildland Urban Interface. We improved upon current fire modeling under climate change via an integrated fire modeling module that, a) explicitly captures the influence of climate, fuels, topography, active fire management (e.g., fire suppression), and fuel treatments, and b) can be parameterized from available data, e.g., remote sensing, field reporting, fire databases, expert opinion. These improvements increase geographic flexibility and decrease reliance on broad historical fire regime statistics - imperfect targets for a no analog future and require minimal parameterization and calibration. We assessed the interactions among fuel treatments, prescribe fire, fire suppression, and stochastically recurring wildfires. Predicted changes in climate and ignition patterns in response to future climatic conditions, vegetation dynamics, and fuel treatments indicate larger potential long-term effects on C emissions, forest structure, and forest composition than prior studies.

Assessing Wildfire Effects in North American Boreal Peatlands through Field and Remote Sensing Analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bourgeau-Chavez, L. L.; French, N. H. F.; Endres, S.; Kane, E. S.; Jenkins, L. K.; Hanes, C.; Battaglia, M., Jr.; de Groot, W.

2017-12-01

Wildfire is a natural disturbance factor in high northern latitude (HNL) ecosystems occurring primarily through lightning ignitions. However, there is evidence that frequency of wildfire in both boreal and arctic landscapes is increasing with climate change. Higher temperatures and reduced precipitation is leading to widespread seasonal drying in some HNL landscapes, thereby increasing wildfire frequency and severity. In 2014, Northwest Territories (NWT) Canada had a record breaking year of wildfire, burning over 3.4 million hectares of upland forests, peatlands, and even emergent wetlands. Fire activity occurred across seasons (spring, summer, and fall) in the Taiga Shield and Boreal Plains ecozones. Similar large fire years have occurred in boreal Alaska in 2004 and 2015. Under NASA ABoVE, boreal peatlands of Alberta and NWT Canada are the focus of both field and remote sensing studies to better understand their vulnerability and resiliency to wildfire. Landsat and radar satellite imagery are being used to develop remote sensing algorithms specific to peatlands to map and monitor not only burn severity but also organic soil moisture, peatland type (e.g. bog vs. fen) and biomass form (herbaceous, shrub, forest dominated). Field data analysis of tree recruitment, in situ moisture, burn severity, fuel loading and other biophysical parameters are currently being synthesized from three field seasons. The field and remote sensing data are being integrated with CanFIRE (a carbon emissions and fire effects model) to better understand the wildfire effects to peatlands. The spatial information allows for better quantification of the landscape heterogeneity of peatlands, thus providing new insights to landscape scale changes and allowing improved understanding of the implications of increasing wildfire in HNL ecosystems.

Cumulative watershed effects of fuel management in the Eastern United States

Treesearch

Russell LaFayette; Maureen T. Brooks; John P. Potyondy; Lisa Audin; Suzanne L. Krieger; Carl C. Trettin

2012-01-01

As a result of effective fire suppression activities over the last 75 years and a reduction in timber harvesting on the national forests, biomass has accumulated increasing the susceptibility of large and more severe wildfires. Reducing accumulated fuels is now a major management objective on the national forests. A combination of traditional silvicultural treatments...

A Bayesian approach to landscape ecological risk assessment applied to the upper Grande Ronde watershed, Oregon

Treesearch

Kimberley K. Ayre; Wayne G. Landis

2012-01-01

We present a Bayesian network model based on the ecological risk assessment framework to evaluate potential impacts to habitats and resources resulting from wildfire, grazing, forest management activities, and insect outbreaks in a forested landscape in northeastern Oregon. The Bayesian network structure consisted of three tiers of nodes: landscape disturbances,...

Changes in forest structure after a large, mixed-severity wildfire in ponderosa pine forests of the Black Hills, South Dakota, USA

Treesearch

Tara L. Keyser; Leigh B. Lentile; Frederick W. Smith; Wayne D. Shepperd

2008-01-01

We evaluated changes in forest structure related to fire severity after a wildfire in ponderosa pine forests of the Black Hills, South Dakota, where 25% burned at low, 48% at moderate, and 27% at high severity. We compared tree mortality, fine (FWD) and coarse woody debris (CWD) and tree regeneration in areas burned under different severity. With low severity,...

Ectomycorrhizal fungal succession coincides with shifts in organic nitrogen availability and canopy closure in post-wildfire jack pine forests

Treesearch

Stephen D. LeDuc; Erik A. Lilleskov; Thomas R. Horton; David E. Rothstein

2013-01-01

Successional changes in belowground ectomycorrhizal fungal (EMF) communities have been observed with increasing forest stand age; however, mechanisms behind this change remain unclear. It has been hypothesized that declines of inorganic nitrogen (N) and increases of organic N influence changes in EMF taxa over forest development. In a post-wildfire chronosequence of...

Relationships between prescribed burning and wildfire occurrence and intensity in pine-hardwood forests in north Mississippi, USA

Treesearch

Stephen Brewer; Corey Rogers

2006-01-01

Using Geographic Information Systems and US Forest Service data, we examined relationships between prescribed burning (from 1979 to 2000) and the incidence, size, and intensity of wildfires (from 1995 to 2000) in a landscape containing formerly fire-suppressed, closed-canopy hardwood and pine-hardwood forests. Results of hazard (failure) analyses did not show an...

Fuel treatment impacts on estimated wildfire carbon loss from forests in Montana, Oregon, California, and Arizona

Treesearch

Scott L. Stephens; Ralph E. J. Boerner; Jason J. Moghaddas; Emily E. Y. Moghaddas; Brandon M. Collins; Christopher B. Dow; Carl Edminster; Carl E. Fiedler; Danny L. Fry; Bruce R. Hartsough; Jon E. Keeley; Eric E. Knapp; James D. McIver; Carl N. Skinner; Andrew Youngblood

2012-01-01

Using forests to sequester carbon in response to anthropogenically induced climate change is being considered across the globe. A recent U.S. executive order mandated that all federal agencies account for sequestration and emissions of greenhouse gases, highlighting the importance of understanding how forest carbon stocks are influenced by wildfire. This paper reports...

Effects of wildfire on densities of secondary cavity-nesting birds in ponderosa pine forests of northern Arizona

Treesearch

Jill K. Dwyer; William M. Block

2000-01-01

Many catastrophic wildfires burned throughout forests in Arizona during the spring and summer of 1996 owing to severely dry conditions. One result of these fires was a loss of preexisting tree cavities for reproduction. In ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) forests most cavities are found in dead trees; therefore, snags are a very important habitat...

Patterns of conifer regeneration following high severity wildfire in ponderosa pine - dominated forests of the Colorado Front Range

Treesearch

Marin E. Chambers; Paula J. Fornwalt; Sparkle L. Malone; Michael Battaglia

2016-01-01

Many recent wildfires in ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa Lawson & C. Lawson) - dominated forests of the western United States have burned more severely than historical ones, generating concern about forest resilience. This concern stems from uncertainty about the ability of ponderosa pine and other co-occurring conifers to regenerate in areas where no...

Tested by fire: the cone fire and the lessons of an accidental experiment

Treesearch

Sussanne Maleki; Carl Featured: Skinner; Martin Ritchie

2007-01-01

Catastrophic wildfires burn every year in the forests of the Western United States. In the past, low-intensity wildfires were common and played an important ecological role that benefited these forests. But fire suppression policies over the last century have interrupted natural fire regimes. As a result, forests that were once characterized by an open structure and...

Personal PM2.5 exposure among wildland firefighters working at prescribed forest burns in southeastern United States

Treesearch

O Adetona; K Dunn; Gary Achtemeier; A Stock; L Naeher

2011-01-01

Wildland firefighters are primarily responsible forwildfire suppression in wildlands, including forests, grasslands, and brush, but also engage in prescribed burning. Prescribed burns, as opposed to wildfires, are intentionally set by firefighters and are used as a land management tool for improving forage value of the forests, and reducing wildfire hazard and...

An answer to a burning question: what will the Forest Service spend on fire suppression this summer?

Treesearch

Karen L. Abt; Jeffrey P. Prestemon; Krista M. Gebert

2009-01-01

Wildfire management has become an ever-larger part of Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and other land management agency appropriations and expenditures. In fiscal year (FY) 2008, the wildfire program budget was nearly 44 percent of initial Forest Service discretionary appropriations (U.S. Congress 2008). Total expenditures for suppression eventually...

Using WEPP technology to predict erosion and runoff following wildfire

Treesearch

William J. Elliot; Ina Sue Miller; Brandon D. Glaza

2006-01-01

Erosion following wildfire can be as much as 1000 times the erosion from an undisturbed forest. In August, 2005, the largest fire in the lower 48 states occurred in the Umatilla National Forest in Southeast Washington. Researchers from the Rocky Mountain Research Station assisted the forest in estimating soil erosion using three different applications of the WEPP model...

Modeling relationships among 217 fires using remote sensing of burn severity in southern pine forests

Treesearch

Sparkle L. Malone; Leda N. Kobziar; Christina L. Staudhammer; Amr Abd-Elrahman

2011-01-01

Pine flatwoods forests in the southeastern US have experienced severe wildfires over the past few decades, often attributed to fuel load build-up. These forest communities are fire dependent and require regular burning for ecosystem maintenance and health. Although prescribed fire has been used to reduce wildfire risk and maintain ecosystem integrity, managers are...

The national database of wildfire mitigation programs: state, county and local efforts reduce wildfire risk

Treesearch

Terry Haines; Cheryl Renner; Margaret Reams; James Granskog

2005-01-01

The growth of residential communities within forested areas has increased the danger to life and property from uncontrolled wildfire. In response, states, counties and local governments in the United States have dramatically increased their wildfire mitigation efforts. Policymakers and fire officials are employing a wide range of regulatory and voluntary wildfire risk...

Potential climate change impacts on fire intensity and key wildfire suppression thresholds in Canada

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wotton, B. M.; Flannigan, M. D.; Marshall, G. A.

2017-09-01

Much research has been carried out on the potential impacts of climate change on forest fire activity in the boreal forest. Indeed, there is a general consensus that, while change will vary regionally across the vast extent of the boreal, in general the fire environment will become more conducive to fire. Land management agencies must consider ways to adapt to these new conditions. This paper examines the impact of that changed fire environment on overall wildfire suppression capability. We use multiple General Circulation Models and carbon emission pathways to generate future fire environment scenarios for Canada’s forested region. We then use these scenarios with the Canadian Forest Fire Behaviour Prediction System and spatial coverages of the current forest fuel composition across the landscape to examine potential variation in key fire behaviour outputs that influence whether fire management resources can effectively suppress fire. Specifically, we evaluate how the potential for crown fire occurrence and active growth of fires changes with the changing climate. We also examine future fire behaviour through the lens of operational fire intensity thresholds used to guide decisions about resources effectiveness. Results indicate that the proportion of days in fire seasons with the potential for unmanageable fire will increase across Canada’s forest, more than doubling in some regions in northern and eastern boreal forest.

Impact of anthropogenic climate change on wildfire across western US forests

PubMed Central

Williams, A. Park

2016-01-01

Increased forest fire activity across the western continental United States (US) in recent decades has likely been enabled by a number of factors, including the legacy of fire suppression and human settlement, natural climate variability, and human-caused climate change. We use modeled climate projections to estimate the contribution of anthropogenic climate change to observed increases in eight fuel aridity metrics and forest fire area across the western United States. Anthropogenic increases in temperature and vapor pressure deficit significantly enhanced fuel aridity across western US forests over the past several decades and, during 2000–2015, contributed to 75% more forested area experiencing high (>1 σ) fire-season fuel aridity and an average of nine additional days per year of high fire potential. Anthropogenic climate change accounted for ∼55% of observed increases in fuel aridity from 1979 to 2015 across western US forests, highlighting both anthropogenic climate change and natural climate variability as important contributors to increased wildfire potential in recent decades. We estimate that human-caused climate change contributed to an additional 4.2 million ha of forest fire area during 1984–2015, nearly doubling the forest fire area expected in its absence. Natural climate variability will continue to alternate between modulating and compounding anthropogenic increases in fuel aridity, but anthropogenic climate change has emerged as a driver of increased forest fire activity and should continue to do so while fuels are not limiting. PMID:27791053

Potential changes in forest composition could reduce impacts of climate change on boreal wildfires.

PubMed

Terrier, Aurélie; Girardin, Martin P; Périé, Catherine; Legendre, Pierre; Bergeron, Yves

2013-01-01

There is general consensus that wildfires in boreal forests will increase throughout this century in response to more severe and frequent drought conditions induced by climate change. However, prediction models generally assume that the vegetation component will remain static over the next few decades. As deciduous species are less flammable than conifer species, it is reasonable to believe that a potential expansion of deciduous species in boreal forests, either occurring naturally or through landscape management, could offset some of the impacts of climate change on the occurrence of boreal wildfires. The objective of this study was to determine the potential of this offsetting effect through a simulation experiment conducted in eastern boreal North America. Predictions of future fire activity were made using multivariate adaptive regression splines (MARS) with fire behavior indices and ecological niche models as predictor variables so as to take into account the effects of changing climate and tree distribution on fire activity. A regional climate model (RCM) was used for predictions of future fire risk conditions. The experiment was conducted under two tree dispersal scenarios: the status quo scenario, in which the distribution of forest types does not differ from the present one, and the unlimited dispersal scenario, which allows forest types to expand their range to fully occupy their climatic niche. Our results show that future warming will create climate conditions that are more prone to fire occurrence. However, unlimited dispersal of southern restricted deciduous species could reduce the impact of climate change on future fire occurrence. Hence, the use of deciduous species could be a good option for an efficient strategic fire mitigation strategy aimed at reducing fire Propagation in coniferous landscapes and increasing public safety in remote populated areas of eastern boreal Canada under climate change.

The history and reliability of the USDA Forest Service wildfire reports.

Treesearch

Linda R. Donoghue

1982-01-01

Traces the history of USDA Forest Service fire reports, examines the most recent report, Form 5100-29, and discusses the reliability of information recorded on the 5100-29, factors influencing data accuracy, and reactions of the Ranger District personnel to wildfire reporting.

Simulated impacts of mountain pine beetle and wildfire disturbances on forest vegetation composition and carbon stocks in the Southern Rocky Mountains

USGS Publications Warehouse

Caldwell, Megan K.; Hawbaker, Todd J.; Briggs, Jenny S.; Cigan, P.W.; Stitt, Susan

2013-01-01

Forests play an important role in sequestering carbon and offsetting anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, but changing disturbance regimes may compromise the capability of forests to store carbon. In the Southern Rocky Mountains, a recent outbreak of mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae; MPB) has caused levels of tree mortality that are unprecedented in recorded history. To evaluate the long-term impacts of both this insect outbreak and another characteristic disturbance in these forests, high-severity wildfire, we simulated potential changes in species composition and carbon stocks using the Forest Vegetation Simulator (FVS). Simulations were completed for 3 scenarios (no disturbance, actual MPB infestation, and modeled wildfire) using field data collected in 2010 at 97 plots in the lodgepole pine-dominated forests of eastern Grand County, Colorado, which were heavily impacted by MPB after 2002. Results of the simulations showed that (1) lodgepole pine remained dominant over time in all scenarios, with basal area recovering to pre-disturbance levels 70–80 yr after disturbance; (2) wildfire caused a greater magnitude of change than did MPB in both patterns of succession and distribution of carbon among biomass pools; (3) levels of standing-live carbon returned to pre-disturbance conditions after 40 vs. 50 yr following MPB vs. wildfire disturbance, respectively, but took 120 vs. 150 yr to converge with conditions in the undisturbed scenario. Lodgepole pine forests appear to be relatively resilient to both of the disturbances we modeled, although changes in climate, future disturbance regimes, and other factors may significantly affect future rates of regeneration and ecosystem response.

Historical land-use influences the long-term stream turbidity response to a wildfire.

PubMed

Harrison, Evan T; Dyer, Fiona; Wright, Daniel W; Levings, Chris

2014-02-01

Wildfires commonly result in an increase in stream turbidity. However, the influence of pre-fire land-use practices on post-fire stream turbidity is not well understood. The Lower Cotter Catchment (LCC) in south-eastern Australia is part of the main water supply catchment for Canberra with land in the catchment historically managed for a mix of conservation (native eucalypt forest) and pine (Pinus radiata) plantation. In January 2003, wildfires burned almost all of the native and pine forests in the LCC. A study was established in 2005 to determine stream post-fire turbidity recovery within the native and pine forest areas of the catchment. Turbidity data loggers were deployed in two creeks within burned native forest and burned pine forest areas to determine turbidity response to fire in these areas. As a part of the study, we also determined changes in bare soil in the native and pine forest areas since the fire. The results suggest that the time, it takes turbidity levels to decrease following wildfire, is dependent upon the preceding land-use. In the LCC, turbidity levels decreased more rapidly in areas previously with native vegetation compared to areas which were previously used for pine forestry. This is likely because of a higher percentage of bare soil areas for a longer period of time in the ex-pine forest estate and instream stores of fine sediment from catchment erosion during post-fire storm events. The results of our study show that the previous land-use may exert considerable control over on-going turbidity levels following a wildfire.

Use of fire spread and hydrology models to target forest management on a municipal watershed

Treesearch

Anurag Srivastava; William J. Elliot; Joan Wu

2015-01-01

A small town relies on a forested watershed for its water supply. The forest is at risk for a wildfire. To reduce this risk, some of the watershed will be thinned followed by a prescribed burn. This paper reports on a study to evaluate the impact of such watershed disturbances on water yield. To target management activities, a fire spread model was applied to the...

Do investments in wildfire risk reduction lead to downstream watershed service outcomes? An integrated wildfire-erosion-economic analysis of return on investment from fuel treatments in Colorado

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wilson, C.; Jones, K.; Addington, R.; Cannon, J.; Cheng, T.; Gannon, B.; Kampf, S. K.; Saavedra, F.; Wei, Y.; Wolk, B.

2016-12-01

Large, severe wildfires negatively impact forested watersheds in the Western United States and jeopardize critical ecosystem services. Specifically, severe wildfires increase overland flow and runoff that contains sediment and debris, and cause other natural hazards such as floods. High erosion from burned watersheds can fill water supply reservoirs and clog water filtration systems, which has direct costs to water utilities in the form of increased water treatment costs and damage to infrastructure. With increasing wildfire risk due to global climate change and other factors, municipal water providers and users have been investing in management practices to reduce high-severity wildfire risk and increase source water security. In this research we integrate wildfire and erosion prediction models to estimate the return on investment from wildfire fuel treatments in the Upper South Platte watershed, southwest of Denver, Colorado. Denver Water and the U.S. Forest Service created the Forest-To-Faucets Partnership, one of the first payments for watershed services (PWS) programs in the United States. To date they have spent more than $30 million in the Upper South Platte to restore forests and conduct fuel reduction work across landownerships. However, due to the lack of appropriate analytical tools, it is still unclear what returns are being achieved with these investments, aside from the total number of acres treated. In this analysis we consider three treatment scenarios - current fuel treatment investments, a series of investments based on prioritization criteria, and investments based on accessibility - and model potential burn probability, fire severity and erosion. We then estimate the economic benefits of avoiding runoff using past expenditures by Denver Water and compare these to treatment costs. This research directly informs management practices in the Upper South Platte watershed and provides a framework that can inform decisions to optimize location, size, and type of wildfire treatments that maximize financial returns on investments, enhancing the resilience of forested watersheds to fire risk. More broadly, this project illustrates the evolution of PWS programs towards a more intensive analytical approach to estimating return on investments by linking ecological and economic outcomes.

Estimating the avoided fuel-reatment costs of wildfire

Treesearch

Geoffrey H. Donovan; Thomas C. Brown

2008-01-01

Although the importance of wildfire to fire-adapted ecosystems is widely recognized, wildfire management has historically placed less emphasis on the beneficial effects of wildfire. We estimate the avoided fuel treatment cost for 10 ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) stands on the Umatilla National Forest in the Pacific Northwest. Results show that...

Introduction to this special issue on statistics for wildfire processes

Treesearch

Marcia Gumpertz

2009-01-01

This special issue on statistics for wildfire processes brings together foresters, wildfire ecologists, statisticians, mathematicians, and economists. All of these disciplines bring different interests, approaches and expertise to the modeling of wildfire processes. It is not necessarily easy, however, to communicate across disciplines or follow the developments in a...

Interactive effects of wildfire and permafrost on microbial communities and soil processes in an Alaskan black spruce forest

USGS Publications Warehouse

Waldrop, M.P.; Harden, J.W.

2008-01-01

Boreal forests contain significant quantities of soil carbon that may be oxidized to CO2 given future increases in climate warming and wildfire behavior. At the ecosystem scale, decomposition and heterotrophic respiration are strongly controlled by temperature and moisture, but we questioned whether changes in microbial biomass, activity, or community structure induced by fire might also affect these processes. We particularly wanted to understand whether postfire reductions in microbial biomass could affect rates of decomposition. Additionally, we compared the short-term effects of wildfire to the long-term effects of climate warming and permafrost decline. We compared soil microbial communities between control and recently burned soils that were located in areas with and without permafrost near Delta Junction, AK. In addition to soil physical variables, we quantified changes in microbial biomass, fungal biomass, fungal community composition, and C cycling processes (phenol oxidase enzyme activity, lignin decomposition, and microbial respiration). Five years following fire, organic surface horizons had lower microbial biomass, fungal biomass, and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations compared with control soils. Reductions in soil fungi were associated with reductions in phenol oxidase activity and lignin decomposition. Effects of wildfire on microbial biomass and activity in the mineral soil were minor. Microbial community composition was affected by wildfire, but the effect was greater in nonpermafrost soils. Although the presence of permafrost increased soil moisture contents, effects on microbial biomass and activity were limited to mineral soils that showed lower fungal biomass but higher activity compared with soils without permafrost. Fungal abundance and moisture were strong predictors of phenol oxidase enzyme activity in soil. Phenol oxidase enzyme activity, in turn, was linearly related to both 13C lignin decomposition and microbial respiration in incubation studies. Taken together, these results indicate that reductions in fungal biomass in postfire soils and lower soil moisture in nonpermafrost soils reduced the potential of soil heterotrophs to decompose soil carbon. Although in the field increased rates of microbial respiration can be observed in postfire soils due to warmer soil conditions, reductions in fungal biomass and activity may limit rates of decomposition. ?? 2008 The Authors Journal compilation ?? 2008 Blackwell Publishing.

Wildfire and forest disease interaction lead to greater loss of soil nutrients and carbon

Treesearch

Richard C. Cobb; Ross K. Meentemeyer; David M. Rizzo

2016-01-01

Fire and forest disease have significant ecological impacts, but the interactions of these two disturbances are rarely studied. We measured soil C, N, Ca, P, and pH in forests of the Big Sur region of California impacted by the exotic pathogen Phytophthora ramorum, cause of sudden oak death, and the 2008 Basin wildfire complex. In Big Sur,...

Allocating Fire Mitigation Funds on the Basis of the Predicted Probabilities of Forest Wildfire

Treesearch

Ronald E. McRoberts; Greg C. Liknes; Mark D. Nelson; Krista M. Gebert; R. James Barbour; Susan L. Odell; Steven C. Yaddof

2005-01-01

A logistic regression model was used with map-based information to predict the probability of forest fire for forested areas of the United States. Model parameters were estimated using a digital layer depicting the locations of wildfires and satellite imagery depicting thermal hotspots. The area of the United States in the upper 50th percentile with respect to...

Fuel treatment effects on tree-based forest carbon storage and emissions under modeled wildfire scenarios

Treesearch

M. Hurteau; M. North

2009-01-01

Forests are viewed as a potential sink for carbon (C) that might otherwise contribute to climate change. It is unclear, however, how to manage forests with frequent fire regimes to maximize C storage while reducing C emissions from prescribed burns or wildfire. We modeled the effects of eight different fuel treatments on treebased C storage and release over a century,...

A comparison of the costs of forest service and contract fire crews in the Pacific Northwest.

Treesearch

Geoffrey H. Donovan

2005-01-01

Rising wildfire suppression expenditures on public land in the United States have led to increased scrutiny of wildfire management practices. One area that has received particular attention is the Forest Service's increasing reliance on contract fire crews. Because a contract crew rate includes several costs that are not included in the wage costs of a Forest...

Wildfire in the Pacific West: a brief history and implications for the future

Treesearch

James K. Agee

1989-01-01

Wildfire has been for millennia a natural component of our western forested wildlands. Its frequency, severity, and effects have varied depending on the specific environment, the type of fire, and the adaptations of the forest biota to fire. The socio-political environment in which these forests exist has had a much more significant impact on public and private policy...

Monitoring the Impacts of Wildfires on Forest Ecosystems and Public Health in the Exo-Urban Environment Using High-Resolution Satellite Aerosol Products from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS).

PubMed

Huff, Amy K; Kondragunta, Shobha; Zhang, Hai; Hoff, Raymond M

2015-01-01

Increasing development of exo-urban environments and the spread of urbanization into forested areas is making humans and forest ecosystems more susceptible to the risks associated with wildfires. Larger and more damaging wildfires are having a negative impact on forest ecosystem services, and smoke from wildfires adversely affects the public health of people living in exo-urban environments. Satellite aerosol measurements are valuable tools that can track the evolution of wildfires and monitor the transport of smoke plumes. Operational users, such as air quality forecasters and fire management officials, can use satellite observations to complement ground-based and aircraft measurements of wildfire activity. To date, wildfire applications of satellite aerosol products, such as aerosol optical depth (AOD), have been limited by the relatively coarse resolution of available AOD data. However, the new Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument on the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (S-NPP) satellite has high-resolution AOD that is ideally suited to monitoring wildfire impacts on the exo-urban scale. Two AOD products are available from VIIRS: the 750-m × 750-m nadir resolution Intermediate Product (IP) and the 6-km × 6-km resolution Environmental Data Record product, which is aggregated from IP measurements. True color (red, green, and blue [RGB]) imagery and a smoke mask at 750-m × 750-m resolution are also available from VIIRS as decision aids for wildfire applications; they serve as counterparts to AOD measurements by providing visible information about areas of smoke in the atmosphere. To meet the needs of operational users, who do not have time to process raw data files and need access to VIIRS products in near-real time (NRT), VIIRS AOD and RGB NRT imagery are available from the Infusing satellite Data into Environmental Applications (IDEA) web site. A key feature of IDEA is an interactive visualization tool that allows users to display tailored combinations of AOD and RGB imagery, as well as overlay the VIIRS smoke mask and fire hotspots at pixel resolution (~750-m × 750-m), and zoom into the county level. Two case studies of recent wildfires in the Western US are presented to show how operational users can access and display VIIRS aerosol products to monitor the transport of smoke plumes and evolution of fires in the exo-urban environment on the regional and county scales. The new National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Western Region Fire and Smoke Initiative is also discussed, which will enhance IDEA to allow visualization of VIIRS aerosol products down to the neighborhood scale. The new high-resolution VIIRS aerosol products can be used for NRT monitoring of human exposure to smoke, and they can be used to gauge the spread of fires and, thus, provide advanced warning for evacuations and fire suppression efforts, thereby reducing risks to human populations and forest ecosystems in the exo-urban environment.

Monitoring the Impacts of Wildfires on Forest Ecosystems and Public Health in the Exo-Urban Environment Using High-Resolution Satellite Aerosol Products from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS)

PubMed Central

Huff, Amy K; Kondragunta, Shobha; Zhang, Hai; Hoff, Raymond M

2015-01-01

Increasing development of exo-urban environments and the spread of urbanization into forested areas is making humans and forest ecosystems more susceptible to the risks associated with wildfires. Larger and more damaging wildfires are having a negative impact on forest ecosystem services, and smoke from wildfires adversely affects the public health of people living in exo-urban environments. Satellite aerosol measurements are valuable tools that can track the evolution of wildfires and monitor the transport of smoke plumes. Operational users, such as air quality forecasters and fire management officials, can use satellite observations to complement ground-based and aircraft measurements of wildfire activity. To date, wildfire applications of satellite aerosol products, such as aerosol optical depth (AOD), have been limited by the relatively coarse resolution of available AOD data. However, the new Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument on the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (S-NPP) satellite has high-resolution AOD that is ideally suited to monitoring wildfire impacts on the exo-urban scale. Two AOD products are available from VIIRS: the 750-m × 750-m nadir resolution Intermediate Product (IP) and the 6-km × 6-km resolution Environmental Data Record product, which is aggregated from IP measurements. True color (red, green, and blue [RGB]) imagery and a smoke mask at 750-m × 750-m resolution are also available from VIIRS as decision aids for wildfire applications; they serve as counterparts to AOD measurements by providing visible information about areas of smoke in the atmosphere. To meet the needs of operational users, who do not have time to process raw data files and need access to VIIRS products in near-real time (NRT), VIIRS AOD and RGB NRT imagery are available from the Infusing satellite Data into Environmental Applications (IDEA) web site. A key feature of IDEA is an interactive visualization tool that allows users to display tailored combinations of AOD and RGB imagery, as well as overlay the VIIRS smoke mask and fire hotspots at pixel resolution (~750-m × 750-m), and zoom into the county level. Two case studies of recent wildfires in the Western US are presented to show how operational users can access and display VIIRS aerosol products to monitor the transport of smoke plumes and evolution of fires in the exo-urban environment on the regional and county scales. The new National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Western Region Fire and Smoke Initiative is also discussed, which will enhance IDEA to allow visualization of VIIRS aerosol products down to the neighborhood scale. The new high-resolution VIIRS aerosol products can be used for NRT monitoring of human exposure to smoke, and they can be used to gauge the spread of fires and, thus, provide advanced warning for evacuations and fire suppression efforts, thereby reducing risks to human populations and forest ecosystems in the exo-urban environment. PMID:26078588

PREDICTING RISKS OF UNCHARACTERISTIC WILDFIRES: APPLICATION OF THE RISK ASSESSMENT PROCESS

EPA Science Inventory

The U.S. Forest Service is struggling with a legacy of over 100 years of fire suppression on the country's national forest lands and an increasing occurrence of uncharacteristically large, intense wildfires. This paper reviews the risk assessment process and describes how it can...

Assessing risks to multiple resources affected by wildfire and forest management using an integrated probabilistic framework

Treesearch

Steven P. Norman; Danny C. Lee; Sandra Jacobson; Christine Damiani

2010-01-01

The tradeoffs that surround forest management are inherently complex, often involving multiple temporal and spatial scales. For example, conflicts may result when fuel treatments are designed to mediate long-term fuel hazards, but activities could impair sensitive aquatic habitat or degrade wildlife habitat in the short term. This complexity makes it hard for managers...

Landscape-level strategies for forest fuel management.

Treesearch

C. Phillip Weatherspoon; Carl N. Skinner

1996-01-01

As a result largely of human activities during the past 150 years, fires in Sierra Nevada forests occur less frequently and cover much less area than they did historically but are much more likely to be large and severe when they do occur. High-severity wildfires are considered by many to be the greatest single threat to the integrity and sustainability of Sierra...

Methods to reduce forest residue volume after timber harvesting and produce black carbon

Treesearch

Deborah S. Page-Dumroese; Matt D. Busse; James G. Archuleta; Darren McAvoy; Eric Roussel

2017-01-01

Forest restoration often includes thinning to reduce tree density and improve ecosystem processes and function while also reducing the risk of wildfire or insect and disease outbreaks. However, one drawback of these restoration treatments is that slash is often burned in piles that may damage the soil and require further restoration activities. Pile burning is...

Medium-long term soil resilience against different disturbances: wildfires, silvicultural treatments and climate change

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hedo de Santiago, Javier; Borja, Manuel Esteban Lucas; de las Heras, Jorge

2016-04-01

Soils of semiarid Mediterranean forest ecosystems are very fragile and sensitive to changes due to different anthropogenic and natural disturbances. The increasing vulnerability of semiarid lands within this world framework has generated growing awareness in the field of research, with highly intensified study into soils properties. One of the main problems of Mediterranean forests is wildfire disturbance. Fire should be considered more an ecological factor but, in contrast to the role of fire, it is now a closely related factor to human action. On the other hand, to improve the recovery of forest communities after fire, silvicultural treatments are needed and, for that matter, another disturbance is added to the ecosystem. By last, climate change is also affecting the fire regime increasing fire frequency and burned area, enhancing the destructiveness to Mediterranean ecosystems. After all of these three disturbances, changes in vegetation dynamics and soil properties are expected to occur due to the plant-soil feedback. Soil plays an essential role in the forest ecosystem's fertility and stability and specifically soil microorganisms, which accomplish reactions to release soil nutrients for vegetation development, for that is essential to enlarge knowledge about soil properties resilience in semiarid forest ecosystems. Physico-chemical and microbiological soil properties, and enzyme activities have been studied in two Aleppo pine forest stands that have suffered three disturbances: 1) a wildfire event, 2) silvicultural treatments (thinning) and 3) an artificial drought (simulating climate change) and results showed that soil recovered after 15 years. Final results showed that soils have been recovered from the three disturbances at the medium-long term.

Wildfire Risk Management: Challenges and Opportunities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thompson, M.; Calkin, D. E.; Hand, M. S.; Kreitler, J.

2014-12-01

In this presentation we address federal wildfire risk management largely through the lens of economics, targeting questions related to costs, effectiveness, efficiency, and tradeoffs. Beyond risks to resources and assets such as wildlife habitat, watersheds, and homes, wildfires present financial risk and budgetary instability for federal wildfire management agencies due to highly variable annual suppression costs. Despite its variability, the costs of wildfire management have continued to escalate and account for an ever-growing share of overall agency budgets, compromising abilities to attain other objectives related to forest health, recreation, timber management, etc. Trends associated with a changing climate and human expansion into fire-prone areas could lead to additional suppression costs in the future, only further highlighting the need for an ability to evaluate economic tradeoffs in investments across the wildfire management spectrum. Critically, these economic analyses need to accurately capture the complex spatial and stochastic aspects of wildfire, the inherent uncertainty associated with monetizing environmental impacts of wildfire, the costs and effectiveness of alternative management policies, and linkages between pre-fire investments and active incident management. Investing in hazardous fuels reduction and forest restoration in particular is a major policy lever for pre-fire risk mitigation, and will be a primary focus of our presentation. Evaluating alternative fuel management and suppression policies could provide opportunities for significant efficiency improvements in the development of risk-informed management fire management strategies. Better understanding tradeoffs of fire impacts and costs can help inform policy questions such as how much of the landscape to treat and how to balance investments in treating new areas versus maintaining previous investments. We will summarize current data needs, knowledge gaps, and other factors influencing research and development on this critically important topic. Specifically we will focus on how to embed simulation models within an economic framework, how to link fire models with models of wildfire management expenditures, how to evaluate alternative management policies, and how to measure cost-effectiveness.

Dalmatian toadflax (Linaria dalmatica) response to wildfire in a Southwestern USA forest

Treesearch

Rita S. Dodge; Peter Z. Fule; Carolyn Hull Sieg

2008-01-01

Severe wildfires often facilitate the spread of exotic invasive species, such as Dalmatian toadflax (Linaria dalmatica). We hypothesized that toadflax growth and reproduction would increase with increasing burn severity in a ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa)-dominated forest. We measured toadflax density, cover, flowering stalks,...

Effects of wildfire severity on small mammals in northern Arizona ponderosa pine forests

Treesearch

Sean C. Kyle; William M. Block

2000-01-01

We examined effects of a varied-severity wildfire on the community structure of small mammals and populations of the 2 most abundant species, the deer mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus) and the gray-collared chipmunk (Tamias cinereicollis), in northern Arizona ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) forests. We examined 2...

Bird community specialization, bird conservation and disturbance: the role of wildfires.

PubMed

Clavero, Miguel; Brotons, Lluís; Herrando, Sergi

2011-01-01

1. Although niche theory predicts that disturbance should favour generalist species, the community-level implications of this pattern have been sparsely analysed. Here, we test the hypothesis that disturbance favours generalist species within communities, analysing effects of wildfires in bird communities in a Mediterranean climate area as a case study. 2. We use bird occurrence data in more than 500 1 × 1 km squares forming a gradient running from forest to completely burnt areas. The level of specialization of bird communities was estimated by means of three complementary species specialization indices, calculated for different landscape gradients and averaged at the community level (i.e. 1 × 1 km squares), and mean species rarity. 3. We also calculated mean habitat preferences along landscape gradients, as well as an index of conservation value and total species richness. 4. Different estimators of bird community specialization varied in contrasting fashion along the wildfire disturbance gradient, and thus we conclude that it is not justified to expect unique community responses to the sharp variations in habitat characteristics brought by wildfire disturbances. 5. Burnt areas tended to have rarer and urban-avoider bird species, whereas unburnt forests tended to have larger proportions of forest specialist species. 6. The mean conservation value of communities clearly increased towards the burnt extreme of the wildfire disturbance gradient, while this had a negligible effect on species richness. 7. Wildfires seem to play an important role for the maintenance of open-habitat, urban-avoider bird populations in Mediterranean landscapes and also to benefit a set of bird species of unfavourable European conservation status. 8. In this context, it cannot be unambiguously concluded that fire disturbance, even in a context in which fires are greatly favoured by human-related activities, leads to more functionally simplified communities dominated by generalist species. © 2010 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2010 British Ecological Society.

Wildfire smoke impacts activity and energetics of wild Bornean orangutans.

PubMed

Erb, W M; Barrow, E J; Hofner, A N; Utami-Atmoko, S S; Vogel, E R

2018-05-15

Indonesia's peatlands experience frequent and intense wildfires, producing hazardous smoke with consequences for human health, yet there is a lack of research into adverse effects on wildlife. We evaluated the effects of smoke on the activity and energy balance of Bornean orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus wurmbii) in a peat swamp forest at the Tuanan Research Station, Central Kalimantan. We collected behavioural data and urine samples from four adult flanged males before, during, and after wildfires between March 2015 and January 2016. During fires, particulate matter (PM 10 ) concentrations were hazardous. Orangutans increased rest time during and after the smoke period, and decreased travel time and distance and increased fat catabolism post-smoke. The increase in post-smoke ketones was not related to changes in caloric intake and was likely due to an increase in energy expenditure, possibly related to immune response. Results show that wildfire smoke negatively affects orangutan condition, and sustained research is needed to assess the magnitude of the threat to the long-term viability of this Critically Endangered species.

Rapid increases and time-lagged declines in amphibian occupancy after wildfire.

PubMed

Hossack, Blake R; Lowe, Winsor H; Corn, Paul Stephen

2013-02-01

Climate change is expected to increase the frequency and severity of drought and wildfire. Aquatic and moisture-sensitive species, such as amphibians, may be particularly vulnerable to these modified disturbance regimes because large wildfires often occur during extended droughts and thus may compound environmental threats. However, understanding of the effects of wildfires on amphibians in forests with long fire-return intervals is limited. Numerous stand-replacing wildfires have occurred since 1988 in Glacier National Park (Montana, U.S.A.), where we have conducted long-term monitoring of amphibians. We measured responses of 3 amphibian species to fires of different sizes, severity, and age in a small geographic area with uniform management. We used data from wetlands associated with 6 wildfires that burned between 1988 and 2003 to evaluate whether burn extent and severity and interactions between wildfire and wetland isolation affected the distribution of breeding populations. We measured responses with models that accounted for imperfect detection to estimate occupancy during prefire (0-4 years) and different postfire recovery periods. For the long-toed salamander (Ambystoma macrodactylum) and Columbia spotted frog (Rana luteiventris), occupancy was not affected for 6 years after wildfire. But 7-21 years after wildfire, occupancy for both species decreased ≥ 25% in areas where >50% of the forest within 500 m of wetlands burned. In contrast, occupancy of the boreal toad (Anaxyrus boreas) tripled in the 3 years after low-elevation forests burned. This increase in occupancy was followed by a gradual decline. Our results show that accounting for magnitude of change and time lags is critical to understanding population dynamics of amphibians after large disturbances. Our results also inform understanding of the potential threat of increases in wildfire frequency or severity to amphibians in the region. ©2012 Society for Conservation Biology.

Rapid increases and time-lagged declines in amphibian occupancy after wildfire

USGS Publications Warehouse

Hossack, Blake R.; Lowe, Winsor H.; Corn, Paul Stephen

2013-01-01

Climate change is expected to increase the frequency and severity of drought and wildfire. Aquatic and moisture-sensitive species, such as amphibians, may be particularly vulnerable to these modified disturbance regimes because large wildfires often occur during extended droughts and thus may compound environmental threats. However, understanding of the effects of wildfires on amphibians in forests with long fire-return intervals is limited. Numerous stand-replacing wildfires have occurred since 1988 in Glacier National Park (Montana, U.S.A.), where we have conducted long-term monitoring of amphibians. We measured responses of 3 amphibian species to fires of different sizes, severity, and age in a small geographic area with uniform management. We used data from wetlands associated with 6 wildfires that burned between 1988 and 2003 to evaluate whether burn extent and severity and interactions between wildfire and wetland isolation affected the distribution of breeding populations. We measured responses with models that accounted for imperfect detection to estimate occupancy during prefire (0-4 years) and different postfire recovery periods. For the long-toed salamander (Ambystoma macrodactylum) and Columbia spotted frog (Rana luteiventris), occupancy was not affected for 6 years after wildfire. But 7-21 years after wildfire, occupancy for both species decreased ≥ 25% in areas where >50% of the forest within 500 m of wetlands burned. In contrast, occupancy of the boreal toad (Anaxyrus boreas) tripled in the 3 years after low-elevation forests burned. This increase in occupancy was followed by a gradual decline. Our results show that accounting for magnitude of change and time lags is critical to understanding population dynamics of amphibians after large disturbances. Our results also inform understanding of the potential threat of increases in wildfire frequency or severity to amphibians in the region.

Four centuries of soil carbon and nitrogen change after stand-replacing fire in a forest landscape in the western Cascade Range of Oregon

Treesearch

T. W. Giesen; S. S. Perakis; K. Cromack

2008-01-01

Episodic stand-replacing wildfire is a significant disturbance in mesic and moist Douglas-frr (Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco) forests of the Pacific Northwest. We studied 24 forest stands with known fire histories in the western . Cascade Range in Oregon to evaluate long-tenn impacts of stand-replacing wildfire on carbon (C) and nitrogen (N)...

Probability of wildfire-induced tree mortality in an interior pine forest of northern California: effects of thinning and prescribed fire

Treesearch

Martin W. Ritchie; Carl N. Skinner; Todd A. Hamilton

2007-01-01

Awildfire at Blacks Mountain Experimental Forest provided the opportunity to observe fire severity at the point of transition between treated and untreated stands. At several locations in the forest, the wildfire burned from a dense stand of largely pole-size trees, into an area that had been recently treated with combinations of thinning and prescribed fire. These...

Plant community influence on soil microbial response after a wildfire in Sierra Nevada National Park (Spain).

PubMed

Bárcenas-Moreno, Gema; García-Orenes, Fuensanta; Mataix-Solera, Jorge; Mataix-Beneyto, Jorge

2016-12-15

Plant community influence on microbial response after fire has been studied in a Sierra Nevada National Park area affected by a wildfire in 2005. Two different plant communities adapted to different altitudes were selected to analyse possible differences on soil microbial recolonisation process after fire, in oak forest and high mountain shrub communities. Microbial abundance, activity and community composition were monitored to evaluate medium-term changes. Microbial abundance was studied by mean of microbial biomass carbon and plate count methods; microbial activity was analysed by microbial respiration and bacterial growth while microbial community composition was determined by analysing phospholipid fatty acid pattern. Under unburnt conditions oak forest showed higher nutrient content, pH and microbial abundance and activity values than the high mountain shrubs community. Different parameters studied showed different trends with time, highlighting important changes in microbial community composition in high mountain shrubs from first sampling to the second one. Post-fire recolonisation process was different depending on plant community studied. Highlighting fungal response and microbial activity were stimulated in burnt high mountain shrubs community whilst it was negatively affected in oak forest. Fire induced changes in oak forest were almost neutralized 20months after the fire, while high mountain shrubs community still showed fire-induced changes at the end of the study. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Biological effects of carbon nanotubes generated in forest wildfire ecosystems rich in resinous trees on native plants

PubMed Central

Dasgupta-Schubert, Nabanita; Borjas-García, Salomón; Tiwari, DK; Paraguay-Delgado, Francisco; Jiménez-Sandoval, Sergio; Alonso-Nuñez, Gabriel; Gómez-Romero, Mariela; Lindig-Cisneros, Roberto; Reyes De la Cruz, Homero

2017-01-01

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have a broad range of applications and are generally considered human-engineered nanomaterials. However, carbon nanostructures have been found in ice cores and oil wells, suggesting that nature may provide appropriate conditions for CNT synthesis. During forest wildfires, materials such as turpentine and conifer tissues containing iron under high temperatures may create chemical conditions favorable for CNT generation, similar to those in synthetic methods. Here, we show evidence of naturally occurring multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) produced from Pinus oocarpa and Pinus pseudostrobus, following a forest wildfire. The MWCNTs showed an average of 10 walls, with internal diameters of ∼2.5 nm and outer diameters of ∼14.5 nm. To verify whether MWCNT generation during forest wildfires has a biological effect on some characteristic plant species of these ecosystems, germination and development of seedlings were conducted. Results show that the utilization of comparable synthetic MWCNTs increased seed germination rates and the development of Lupinus elegans and Eysenhardtia polystachya, two plants species found in the burned forest ecosystem. The finding provides evidence that supports the generation and possible ecological functions of MWCNTs in nature. PMID:28828256

Biological effects of carbon nanotubes generated in forest wildfire ecosystems rich in resinous trees on native plants.

PubMed

Lara-Romero, Javier; Campos-García, Jesús; Dasgupta-Schubert, Nabanita; Borjas-García, Salomón; Tiwari, D K; Paraguay-Delgado, Francisco; Jiménez-Sandoval, Sergio; Alonso-Nuñez, Gabriel; Gómez-Romero, Mariela; Lindig-Cisneros, Roberto; Reyes De la Cruz, Homero; Villegas, Javier A

2017-01-01

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have a broad range of applications and are generally considered human-engineered nanomaterials. However, carbon nanostructures have been found in ice cores and oil wells, suggesting that nature may provide appropriate conditions for CNT synthesis. During forest wildfires, materials such as turpentine and conifer tissues containing iron under high temperatures may create chemical conditions favorable for CNT generation, similar to those in synthetic methods. Here, we show evidence of naturally occurring multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) produced from Pinus oocarpa and Pinus pseudostrobus, following a forest wildfire. The MWCNTs showed an average of 10 walls, with internal diameters of ∼2.5 nm and outer diameters of ∼14.5 nm. To verify whether MWCNT generation during forest wildfires has a biological effect on some characteristic plant species of these ecosystems, germination and development of seedlings were conducted. Results show that the utilization of comparable synthetic MWCNTs increased seed germination rates and the development of Lupinus elegans and Eysenhardtia polystachya , two plants species found in the burned forest ecosystem. The finding provides evidence that supports the generation and possible ecological functions of MWCNTs in nature.

Wildfire atlas of the northeastern and north central states.

Treesearch

Donald A. Haines; Von J. Johnson; William A. Main

1975-01-01

Describes patterns of forest fire activity across the northeastern and north central United States. Gives average dates of greening ad curing of herbaceous plants, medium size of fires in various fuels, and annual profiles of peak fire activity. It also examines combinations of major fire cause and day-of-week activity.

Wildfires Dynamics in Siberian Larch Forests

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ponomarev, Evgenii I.; Kharuk, Viacheslav I.; Ranson, Kenneth J.

2016-01-01

Wildfire number and burned area temporal dynamics within all of Siberia and along a south-north transect in central Siberia (45deg-73degN) were studied based on NOAA/AVHRR (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/ Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer) and Terra/MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) data and field measurements for the period 1996-2015. In addition, fire return interval (FRI) along the south-north transect was analyzed. Both the number of forest fires and the size of the burned area increased during recent decades (p < 0.05). Significant correlations were found between forest fires, burned areas and air temperature (r = 0.5) and drought index (The Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index, SPEI) (r = 0.43). Within larch stands along the transect, wildfire frequency was strongly correlated with incoming solar radiation (r = 0.91). Fire danger period length decreased linearly from south to north along the transect. Fire return interval increased from 80 years at 62 N to 200 years at the Arctic Circle (6633' N), and to about 300 years near the northern limit of closed forest stands (about 71+ N). That increase was negatively correlated with incoming solar radiation (r = 0.95). Keywords: wildfires; drought index; larch stands; fire return interval; fire frequency; burned area; climate-induced trends in Siberian wildfires

Wildfires in bamboo-dominated Amazonian forest: impacts on above-ground biomass and biodiversity.

PubMed

Barlow, Jos; Silveira, Juliana M; Mestre, Luiz A M; Andrade, Rafael B; Camacho D'Andrea, Gabriela; Louzada, Julio; Vaz-de-Mello, Fernando Z; Numata, Izaya; Lacau, Sébastien; Cochrane, Mark A

2012-01-01

Fire has become an increasingly important disturbance event in south-western Amazonia. We conducted the first assessment of the ecological impacts of these wildfires in 2008, sampling forest structure and biodiversity along twelve 500 m transects in the Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve, Acre, Brazil. Six transects were placed in unburned forests and six were in forests that burned during a series of forest fires that occurred from August to October 2005. Normalized Burn Ratio (NBR) calculations, based on Landsat reflectance data, indicate that all transects were similar prior to the fires. We sampled understorey and canopy vegetation, birds using both mist nets and point counts, coprophagous dung beetles and the leaf-litter ant fauna. Fire had limited influence upon either faunal or floral species richness or community structure responses, and stems <10 cm DBH were the only group to show highly significant (p = 0.001) community turnover in burned forests. Mean aboveground live biomass was statistically indistinguishable in the unburned and burned plots, although there was a significant increase in the total abundance of dead stems in burned plots. Comparisons with previous studies suggest that wildfires had much less effect upon forest structure and biodiversity in these south-western Amazonian forests than in central and eastern Amazonia, where most fire research has been undertaken to date. We discuss potential reasons for the apparent greater resilience of our study plots to wildfire, examining the role of fire intensity, bamboo dominance, background rates of disturbance, landscape and soil conditions.

Wildfires in Bamboo-Dominated Amazonian Forest: Impacts on Above-Ground Biomass and Biodiversity

PubMed Central

Barlow, Jos; Silveira, Juliana M.; Mestre, Luiz A. M.; Andrade, Rafael B.; Camacho D'Andrea, Gabriela; Louzada, Julio; Vaz-de-Mello, Fernando Z.; Numata, Izaya; Lacau, Sébastien; Cochrane, Mark A.

2012-01-01

Fire has become an increasingly important disturbance event in south-western Amazonia. We conducted the first assessment of the ecological impacts of these wildfires in 2008, sampling forest structure and biodiversity along twelve 500 m transects in the Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve, Acre, Brazil. Six transects were placed in unburned forests and six were in forests that burned during a series of forest fires that occurred from August to October 2005. Normalized Burn Ratio (NBR) calculations, based on Landsat reflectance data, indicate that all transects were similar prior to the fires. We sampled understorey and canopy vegetation, birds using both mist nets and point counts, coprophagous dung beetles and the leaf-litter ant fauna. Fire had limited influence upon either faunal or floral species richness or community structure responses, and stems <10 cm DBH were the only group to show highly significant (p = 0.001) community turnover in burned forests. Mean aboveground live biomass was statistically indistinguishable in the unburned and burned plots, although there was a significant increase in the total abundance of dead stems in burned plots. Comparisons with previous studies suggest that wildfires had much less effect upon forest structure and biodiversity in these south-western Amazonian forests than in central and eastern Amazonia, where most fire research has been undertaken to date. We discuss potential reasons for the apparent greater resilience of our study plots to wildfire, examining the role of fire intensity, bamboo dominance, background rates of disturbance, landscape and soil conditions. PMID:22428035

Relative importance of climate and mountain pine beetle outbreaks on the occurrence of large wildfires in the western USA.

PubMed

Mietkiewicz, Nathan; Kulakowski, Dominik

2016-12-01

Extensive outbreaks of bark beetles have killed trees across millions of hectares of forests and woodlands in western North America. These outbreaks have led to spirited scientific, public, and policy debates about consequential increases in fire risk, especially in the wildland-urban interface (WUI), where homes and communities are at particular risk from wildfires. At the same time, large wildfires have become more frequent across this region. Widespread expectations that outbreaks increase extent, severity, and/or frequency of wildfires are based partly on visible and dramatic changes in foliar moisture content and other fuel properties following outbreaks, as well as associated modeling projections. A competing explanation is that increasing wildfires are driven primarily by climatic extremes, which are becoming more common with climate change. However, the relative importance of bark beetle outbreaks vs. climate on fire occurrence has not been empirically examined across very large areas and remains poorly understood. The most extensive outbreaks of tree-killing insects across the western United States have been of mountain pine beetle (MPB; Dendroctonus ponderosae), which have killed trees over >650,000 km 2 , mostly in forests dominated by lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta). We show that outbreaks of MPB in lodgepole pine forests of the western United States have been less important than climatic variability for the occurrence of large fires over the past 29 years. In lodgepole pine forests in general, as well as those in the WUI, occurrence of large fires was determined primarily by current and antecedent high temperatures and low precipitation but was unaffected by preceding outbreaks. Trends of increasing co-occurrence of wildfires and outbreaks are due to a common climatic driver rather than interactions between these disturbances. Reducing wildfire risk hinges on addressing the underlying climatic drivers rather than treating beetle-affected forests. © 2016 by the Ecological Society of America.

Interactive effects of wildfire, forest management, and isolation on amphibian and parasite abundance

USGS Publications Warehouse

Hossack, Blake R.; Corn, P. Stephen; Winsor H. Lowe,; R. Kenneth Honeycutt,; Sean A. Parks,

2013-01-01

Projected increases in wildfire and other climate-driven disturbances will affect populations and communities worldwide, including host–parasite relationships. Research in temperate forests has shown that wildfire can negatively affect amphibians, but this research has occurred primarily outside of managed landscapes where interactions with human disturbances could result in additive or synergistic effects. Furthermore, parasites represent a large component of biodiversity and can affect host fitness and population dynamics, yet they are rarely included in studies of how vertebrate hosts respond to disturbance. To determine how wildfire affects amphibians and their parasites, and whether effects differ between protected and managed landscapes, we compared abundance of two amphibians and two nematodes relative to wildfire extent and severity around wetlands in neighboring protected and managed forests (Montana, USA). Population sizes of adult, male long-toed salamanders (Ambystoma macrodactylum) decreased with increased burn severity, with stronger negative effects on isolated populations and in managed forests. In contrast, breeding population sizes of Columbia spotted frogs (Rana luteiventris) increased with burn extent in both protected and managed protected forests. Path analysis showed that the effects of wildfire on the two species of nematodes were consistent with differences in their life history and transmission strategies and the responses of their hosts. Burn severity indirectly reduced abundance of soil-transmitted Cosmocercoides variabilis through reductions in salamander abundance. Burn severity also directly reduced C. variabilis abundance, possibly though changes in soil conditions. For the aquatically transmitted nematode Gyrinicola batrachiensis, the positive effect of burn extent on density of Columbia spotted frog larvae indirectly increased parasite abundance. Our results show that effects of wildfire on amphibians depend upon burn extent and severity, isolation, and prior land use. Through subsequent effects on the parasites, our results also reveal how changes in disturbance regimes can affect communities across trophic levels.

Using Multitemporal and Multispectral Airborne Lidar to Assess Depth of Peat Loss and Correspondence With a New Active Normalized Burn Ratio for Wildfires

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chasmer, L. E.; Hopkinson, C. D.; Petrone, R. M.; Sitar, M.

2017-12-01

Accuracy of depth of burn (an indicator of consumption) in peatland soils using prefire and postfire airborne light detection and ranging (lidar) data is determined within a wetland-upland forest environment near Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada. The relationship between peat soil burn depth and an "active" normalized burn ratio (ANBR) is also examined beneath partially and fully burned forest and understory canopies using state-of-the-art active reflectance from a multispectral lidar compared with normalized burn ratio (NBR) derived from Landsat 7 ETM+. We find significant correspondence between depth of burn, lidar-derived ANBR, and difference NBR (dNBR) from Landsat. However, low-resolution optical imagery excludes peatland burn losses in transition zones, which are highly sensitive to peat loss via combustion. The findings presented here illustrate the utility of this new remote sensing technology for expanding an area of research where it has previously been challenging to spatially detect and quantify such wildfire burn losses.

Investigation of the decline in reported smoking-caused wildfires in the USA from 2000 to 2011

Treesearch

David T. Butry; Jeffrey P. Prestemon; Douglas S. Thomas

2014-01-01

The number of smoking-caused wildfires has been falling nationwide. In national forests in 2011, smoking-caused wildfires represented only 10% of their 1980 level. No other cause of wildfire has experienced this level of decline. For 12 states, we evaluate the rate of smoking-caused wildfires and find it is a function of weather, other ignitions, the number of adult...

Predicting wildfire behavior in black spruce forests in Alaska.

Treesearch

Rodney A. Norum

1982-01-01

The current fire behavior system, when properly adjusted, accurately predicts forward rate of spread and flame length of wildfires in black spruce (Picea mariana (Mill.) B.S.P.) forests in Alaska. After fire behavior was observed and quantified, adjustment factors were calculated and assigned to the selected fuel models to correct the outputs to...

Disturbance from southern pine beetle, suppression, and wildfire affects vegetation composition in central Louisiana: a case study

Treesearch

T.W. Coleman; Alton Martin; J.R. Meeker

2010-01-01

We assessed plant composition and forest succession following tree mortality from infestation of southern pine beetle (Dendroctonus frontalis), associated suppression, and wildfire in two forest types, pine (Pinus spp.) with mixed hardwood and longleaf pine (P. palustris). In this case study, vegetation was...

Using rainwater harvesting techniques for firefighting in forest plantations

Treesearch

P. Garcia-Chevesich; R. Valdes-Pineda; D. Neary; R. Pizarro

2015-01-01

Fire is a natural component of forest ecosystems in parts of North America, South America, Europe, Australia, Africa and the Mediterranean region. These fires are usually uncontrolled wildfires in areas of ignitable vegetation but can also be prescribed fires set for vegetation management purposes. Wildfires are commonly characterised based on cause of ignition,...

Assessing the impact of emerging forest disease on wildfire using Landsat and KOMPSAT-2 data

Treesearch

Gang Chen; Yinan He; Angela De Santis; Guosheng Li; Richard Cobb; Ross K. Meentemeyer

2017-01-01

Environmental disturbance regimes are more frequently being altered by historically novel events and disturbance interactions, which may trigger reorganizations of new ecosystem states and processes. Here we examine synergies between emerging forest disease and wildfire to determine whether disease outbreak changes environmental drivers of burn severity using sudden...

Effects of Nitrogen Enrichment, Wildfire, and Harvesting on Forest-Soil Carbon and Nitrogen

Treesearch

Jennifer L. Parker; Ivan J. Fernandez; Lindsey E. Rustad; Stephen A. Norton

2001-01-01

Northern forest soils represent large reservoirs of C and N that may be altered by ecosystem perturbations. Soils at three paired watershed in Maine were investigated as case studies of experimentally elevated N deposition, wildfire, and whole-tree harvesting. Eight years of experimental (NH4)2SO4...

Accepting uncertainty, assessing risk: decision quality in managing wildfire, forest resource values, and new technology

Treesearch

Jeffrey G. Borchers

2005-01-01

The risks, uncertainties, and social conflicts surrounding uncharacteristic wildfire and forest resource values have defied conventional approaches to planning and decision-making. Paradoxically, the adoption of technological innovations such as risk assessment, decision analysis, and landscape simulation models by land management organizations has been limited. The...

The once and future forest: Consequences of mountain pine beetle treatment decisions

Treesearch

Nancy E. Gillette; David L. Wood; Sarah J. Hines; Justin B. Runyon; Jose F. Negron

2014-01-01

Entomologists and silviculturists have long recommended management of stand basal area and/or mean tree diameter to mitigate the risk of mountain pine beetle (MPB) (Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins) outbreaks while simultaneously reducing wildfire risk. In recent decades, however, wildfire suppression and reduced harvests in western North America have created a forest...

Interdependency of fire and global change: The southern U.S. as an example

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

Zerbe, J.I.

1995-06-01

In the US South, increasing population, air pollution, urbanization of forest lands, and possible changes in climate can influence broad changes in forests and the atmosphere. As a result emissions from biomass burning in forests assume greater significance. For 350 years, people in the US South have practices woods burning. This was once considered a bad practice, but it is now recognized that this can assist in site preparation, release of longleaf pine seedlings, and improving production of plantations. One of the concerns with burning, both controlled and wildfire, is the release of undesirable chemicals to the atmosphere. Encroachment ofmore » wildfires on inhabited areas can threaten human life and property. And important to global warming, wildfires and controlled burning release CO{sub 2} and add to increase in CO{sub 2} concentration. Climate warming as a result of global change can cause drier forests and an increase in severity and extent of wildfires. Climate-driven changes in the structure and composition of plant communities will alter the chemical and physical properties of fuels, thereby altering susceptibility to fires.« less

Community wildfire protection planning in the American West: homogeneity within diversity?

Treesearch

Jesse Abrams; Max Nielsen-Pincus; Travis Paveglio; Cassandra Moseley

2016-01-01

As large wildfires have become common across the American West, federal policies such as the Healthy Forests Restoration Act have empowered local communities to plan for their own wildfire protection. Here, we present an analysis of 113 community wildfire protection plans from 10 western states where large fires have recently occurred. These plans contain wide...

Assessing the expected effects of wildfire on vegetation condition on the Bridger-Teton National Forest, Wyoming, USA

Treesearch

J. H. Scott; D. J. Helmbrecht; M. P. Thompson

2014-01-01

Characterizing wildfire risk to a fire-adapted ecosystem presents particular challenges due to its broad spatial extent, inherent complexity, and the difficulty in defining wildfire-induced losses and benefits. Our approach couples stochastic wildfire simulation with a vegetation condition assessment framework to estimate the conditional and expected response of...

Aerial wildland firefighting resources in fire suppression activities: an example USDA Forest Service

Treesearch

A. González-Cabán

2011-01-01

Wildfires are a significant social problem affecting millions of people worldwide and causing major economic impacts at all levels. In the US, the severe fires of 1910 in Idaho and Montana galvanized a fire policy excluding fire from the ecosystem by the U.S.Department of Agriculture Forest Service (USDAFS). Fire management policy changed in 1935, 1978,1995, and 2001....

A simulation study of thinning and fuel treatments on a wildland-urban interface in eastern Oregon, USA

Treesearch

Alan A. Ager; Andrew J. McMahan; James J. Barrett; Charles W. McHugh

2007-01-01

We simulated long-term forest management activities on 16,000-ha wildland-urban interface in the Blue Mountains near La Grande, Oregon. The study area is targeted for thinning and fuels treatments on both private and Federally managed lands to address forest health and sustainability concerns and reduce the risk of severe wildfire. We modeled number of benchmark...

The carbon balance of reducing wildfire risk and restoring process: an analysis of 10-year post-treatment carbon dynamics in a mixed-conifer forest

Treesearch

Morgan L. Wiechmann; Matthew D. Hurteau; Malcolm P. North; George W. Koch; Lucie Jerabkova

2015-01-01

Forests sequester carbon from the atmosphere, helping mitigate climate change. In fire-prone forests, burn events result in direct and indirect emissions of carbon. High fire-induced tree mortality can cause a transition from a carbon sink to source, but thinning and prescribed burning can reduce fire severity and carbon loss when wildfire occurs. However, treatment...

Mite communities (Acari: Mesostigmata) in young and mature coniferous forests after surface wildfire.

PubMed

Kamczyc, Jacek; Urbanowski, Cezary; Pers-Kamczyc, Emilia

2017-06-01

Density, diversity and assemblage structure of Mesostigmata (cohorts Gamasina and Uropodina) were investigated in Scots pine forests differing in forest age (young: 9-40 years and mature: 83-101 years) in which wildfire occurred. This animal group belongs to the dominant acarine predators playing a crucial role in soil food webs and being important as biological control agents. In total, six forests (three within young and three within mature stands) were inspected in Puszcza Knyszyńska Forest Complex in May 2015. At each forest area, sampling was done from burned and adjacent control sites with steel cylinders for heat extraction of soil fauna. Data were analyzed statistically with nested ANOVA. We found a significant effect on mite density of both fire and forest age, with more mites in mature forests and control plots. In total, 36 mite taxa were identified. Mite diversity differed significantly between forest ages but not between burned versus control. Our study indicated that all studied forests are characterized by unique mite species and that the mite communities are dominated by different mite species depending on age forest and surface wildfire occurrence. Finally, canonical correspondence analysis ranked the mite assemblages from control mature, through burned young and burned mature, away from the control young.

Wildfires in Siberian Mountain Forest

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kharuk, V.; Ponomarev, E. I.; Antamoshkina, O.

2017-12-01

The annual burned area in Russia was estimated as 0.55 to 20 Mha with >70% occurred in Siberia. We analyzed Siberian wildfires distribution with respect to elevation, slope steepness and exposure. In addition, wildfires temporal dynamic and latitudinal range were analyzed. We used daily thermal anomalies derived from NOAA/AVHRR and Terra/MODIS satellites (1990-2016). Fire return intervals were (FRI) calculated based on the dendrochronology analysis of samples taken from trees with burn marks. Spatial distribution of wildfires dependent on topo features: relative burned area increase with elevation increase (ca. 1100 m), switching to following decrease. The wildfires frequency exponentially decreased within lowlands - highlands transition. Burned area is increasing with slope steepness increase (up to 5-10°). Fire return intervals (FRI) on the southfacing slopes are about 30% longer than on the north facing. Wildfire re-occurrence is decreasing exponentially: 90% of burns were caused by single fires, 8.5% by double fires, 1% burned three times, and on about 0.05% territory wildfires occurred four times (observed period: 75 yr.). Wildfires area and number, as well as FRI, also dependent on latitude: relative burned area increasing exponentially in norward direction, whereas relative fire number is exponentially decreasing. FRI increases in the northward direction: from 80 years at 62°N to 200 years at the Arctic Circle, and to 300 years at the northern limit of closed forests ( 71+°N). Fire frequency, fire danger period and FRI are strongly correlated with incoming solar radiation (r = 0.81 - 0.95). In 21-s century, a positive trend of wildfires number and area observed in mountain areas in all Siberia. Thus, burned area and number of fires in Siberia are significantly increased since 1990th (R2 =0.47, R2 =0.69, respectively), and that increase correlated with air temperatures and climate aridity increases. However, wildfires are essential for supporting fire-resistant species (e.g., Larix sibirica, L, dahurica and Pinus silvestris) reforestation and completion with non-fire-resistant species. This work was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, the Government of the Krasnoyarsk krai, the Krasnoyarsk Fund for Support of Scientific and Technological Activities (N 17-41-240475)

Wildfire contribution to world-wide desertification.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Neary, D.; Wittenberg, L.; Bautista, S.; Ffolliott, P.

2009-04-01

Wildfire is a natural phenomenon that began with the development of terrestrial vegetation in a lightning-filled atmosphere. Sediments from the Carboniferous Period (307-359 million years before the present) contain evidence of charcoal from post-fire ash slurry flows. As human populations developed in the Pleistocene and Holocene epochs, mankind transformed fire into one of its oldest tools. Human and natural ignited fires from lightning altered and steered the trajectories of ecosystem development in most parts of the world. Humans are now the primary source of forest and grass fire ignitions throughout the world. As human populations have increased and industrialized in the past two centuries, fire ignitions and burned areas have increased due to both sheer numbers of people and anthropogenic changes in the global climate. Recent scientific findings have bolstered the hypothesis that climate change is resulting in fire seasons starting earlier, lasting longer, burning greater areas, and being more severe Computer models point to the Western U.S., Mediterranean nations and Brazil as "hot spots" that will get extremes at their worst. The climatic change to drier and warmer conditions has the potential to aggravate wildfire conditions, resulting in burning over longer seasons, larger areas of vegetation conflagration, and higher fire severities. Wildfire is now driving desertification in some of the forest lands in the western United States. The areas of wildfire in the Southwest USA have increased dramatically in the past two decades from <10,000 ha yr-1 in the early 20th Century to over 230,000 ha yr-1 in the first decade of the 21st Century. Individual wildfires are now larger and produce higher severity burns than in the past. A combination of natural drought, climate change, excessive fuel loads, and increased ignition sources have produced the perfect conditions for fire-induced desertification. Portugal suffered the worst and second worst wildfire seasons in a three-year period (2003 - 2005). In 2005, 338,262 ha of forest land burned. This was a 77% increase over the 10-year burn average of 189,500 ha. Desertification is about the loss of the land's proper hydrologic function, biological productivity, and other ecosystem services as a result of human activities and climate change. It affects one third of the earth's surface and over a billion people. In the past, desertification was considered a problem of only arid, semi-arid, and dry sub-humid areas. However, humid zones can undergo desertification with the wrong combination of human impacts. The Amazon region is an example of where forest harvesting, shifting cut and burn agriculture, and large-scale grazing are producing desertification of a tropical rain forest on a large scale. Some of the environmental consequences of wildfires are vegetation destruction, plant species and type shifts, exotic plant invasions, wildlife habitat destruction, soil erosion, floods, watershed function decline, water supply disruption, and air pollution. All of these are immediate impacts. Some impacts will persist beyond the careers and lifetimes of individuals. Small, isolated areas do not produce noticeable desertification. But, the cumulative effect of multiple, large area, and adjacent fires can be landscape-level desertification. This paper examines wildfire contributions to desertification in regions of the world that are prone to wildfire and climate change.

Impacts of Wildfires on Land Surface Phenology of Western US Forests

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, J.; Zhang, X.

2017-12-01

Land surface phenology (LSP) characterizes seasonal dynamics of vegetation communities within a satellite pixel. The temporal variation of LSP has been widely associated with recent global climate change. However, few studies have focused on the influence of land disturbance, such as wildfire, on LSP variations, which is particularly true at a continental scale. Wildfire has increased in size and severity in the western United States (US) during last few decades. To explore wildfire impacts on LSP in the western US forest, we analyzed the start of growing season (SOS) integrated from the entire forest area, the burned area, and the unburned area, respectively. Specifically, SOS was derived from time series of daily MODIS surface reflectance product at 250 m using a hybrid piecewise logistic detection model. The annual burn perimeters during 2000-2014 were obtained from Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity maps to study the wildfire effect on the SOS in the subsequent years (2001-2015). The wildfire effect was analyzed at three levels: the entire western US, Environmental Protection Agency's Level III ecoregions, and states. Results show that wildfires basically advance SOS but have diverse effects with different regions and years. Comparing SOS in the burned areas with that in surrounding unburned areas from 2001-2015, it was found that the SOS shift was -3.4 days (-: earlier; +: later) on average in the western US forests, and varied from -16.1 to 13.1 days across ecoregions and from -11.4 to 4.3 days across states. Because of the small proportion of annual burned areas (<0.7%) over the entire region, the SOS shift in the burned areas had limited influences on the overall SOS, which caused shifts of -0.06 days over the entire western US, from -0.2 to 0.2 days across ecoregions, and -0.06 to 0.13 days across states. Overall, this study demonstrates that wildfires strongly impact SOS at local areas although the effect in the large region is relatively limited.

Improving Forest Wildfire Suppression Using Penetrating Reconnaissance And Real Time Data Transfer

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Greer, Jerry D.

1990-02-01

The suppression of a wildfire is analogous to a combat action. Fires, like battles, spread fast and suppression forces must be highly mobile. The enemy, (in this case) the wildfire, is lethal in that it kills or destroys forces, equipment, and natural resources left in its path. The suppression action must be carried on day and night until the "enemy" is contained. Both air operations and ground forces are used. Just as in a combat situation, wildfire suppression forces need penetrating reconnaissance with real time data transfer. This paper presents a review of the current system of intelligence gathering on a wildfire where aerial observers, infrared detectors, and ground intelligence officers gather data and either radio or carry the data to the command center. It then attempts to show how some current military reconnaissance systems might be applied to wildfire control processes. The payoffs would include improved safety for both air and ground forces and faster containment of the wildfire which would reduce forest resources lost and decrease the total monetary cost of the containment action.

The 2002 Rodeo-Chediski Wildfire's impacts on southwestern ponderosa pine ecosystems, hydrology, and fuels

Treesearch

Peter F. Ffolliott; Cody L. Stropki; Hui Chen; Daniel G. Neary

2011-01-01

The Rodeo-Chediski Wildfire burned nearly 462,600 acres in north-central Arizona in the summer of 2002. The wildfire damaged or destroyed ecosystem resources and disrupted the hydrologic functioning within the impacted ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) forests in a largely mosaic pattern. Impacts of the wildfire on ecosystem resources, factors important to hydrologic...

Incorporating fine-scale drought information into an eastern US wildfire hazard model

Treesearch

Matthew P. Peters; Louis R. Iverson

2017-01-01

Wildfires in the eastern United States are generally caused by humans in locations where human development and natural vegetation intermingle, e.g. the wildland–urban interface (WUI). Knowing where wildfire hazards are elevated across the forested landscape may help land managers and property owners plan or allocate resources for potential wildfire threats. In an...

Integrated wildfire risk assessment: Framework development and application on the Lewis and Clark National Forest in Montana, USA

Treesearch

Matthew P. Thompson; Joe Scott; Don Helmbrecht; Dave E. Calkin

2013-01-01

The financial, socioeconomic, and ecological impacts of wildfire continue to challenge federal land management agencies in the United States. In recent years, policymakers and managers have increasingly turned to the field of risk analysis to better manage wildfires and to mitigate losses to highly valued resources and assets (HVRAs). Assessing wildfire risk entails...

Post-wildfire management

Treesearch

Jonathan W. Long; Carl Skinner; Susan Charnley; Ken Hubbert; Lenya Quinn-Davidson; Marc Meyer

2014-01-01

Wildfires, especially large, severe, and unmanageable events, exert major influences on socioecological systems, not only through risks to life and property, but also losses of important values associated with mature forest stands. These events prompt decisions about post-wildfire management interventions, including short-term emergency responses, salvage logging, and...

The responses of understorey birds to forest fragmentation, logging and wildfires: An Amazonian synthesis

Treesearch

J. Barlow; C. A. Peres; L. M. P. Henr¡ques; P. C. Stouffer; J. M. Wunderle

2006-01-01

We combine mist-net data from 24 disturbance treatments taken from seven studies on the responses of understorey Amazonian birds to selective logging, single and recurrent wildfires, and habitat fragmentation. The different disturbance treatments had distinct effects on avian guild structure, and fire disturbance and the isolation of forest patches resulted in bird...

Infiltration and interrill erosion rates after a wildfire in western Montana, USA

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The 2000 Valley Complex wildfire burned in steep montane forests with ash cap soils in western Montana, USA. The effects of high burn severity on forest soil hydrologic function was examined using rainfall simulations (100 mm h-1 for 1 h) on 0.5-m2 plots. Infiltration rates and sediment yields and c...

High-severity wildfire effects on carbon stocks and emissions in fuels treated and untreated forest

Treesearch

Malcolm P. North; Matthew D. Hurteau

2011-01-01

Forests contain the world's largest terrestrial carbonstocks, but in seasonally dry environments stock stability can be compromised if burned by wildfire, emitting carbon back to the atmosphere. Treatments to reduce wildfireseverity can reduce emissions, but with an immediate cost of reducing carbonstocks. In this study we examine the tradeoffs in...

Evaluation of forest management systems under risk of wildfire

Treesearch

Kari Hyytiainen; Robert G. Haight

2010-01-01

We evaluate the economic efficiency of even- and uneven-aged management systems under risk of wildfire. The management problems are formulated for a mixed-conifer stand and approximations of the optimal solutions are obtained using simulation optimization. The Northern Idaho variant of the Forest Vegetation Simulator and its Fire and Fuels Extension is used to predict...

Pre-wildfire fuel treatments affect long-term ponderosa pine forest dynamics

Treesearch

Barbara A. Strom; Peter Z. Fule

2007-01-01

The 2002 Rodeo-Chediski fire, the largest wildfire in south-western USA history, burned over treated stands and adjacent untreated stands in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest, setting the stage for a natural experiment testing the effectiveness of fuel reduction treatments under conditions of extraordinary fire severity. In seven pairs of treated­ untreated study...

Fire effects assessment using FIA data in the northern and central Rocky Mountains

Treesearch

Theresa B. Jain; Ralph Their; Wilson Michael

2003-01-01

Wildfires of 2000 and 2001 burned thousands of hectares in the Northern Rocky Mountains. Within the fire parameters, 162 Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) plots burned in Idaho and Montana where pre-wildfire information on forest structure, vegetation composition, soil productivity, and surface fuels was documented; thus providing a unique opportunity to assess...

The relation between tree burn severity and forest structure in the Rocky Mountains

Treesearch

Theresa B. Jain; Russell T. Graham

2007-01-01

Many wildfire events have burned thousands of hectares across the western United States, such as the Bitterroot (Montana), Rodeo-Chediski (Arizona), Hayman (Colorado), and Biscuit (Oregon) fires. These events led to Congress enacting the Healthy Forest Restoration Act of 2003, which, with other policies, encourages federal and state agencies to decrease wildfire risks...

Impacts of wildfire recency and frequency on an Appalachian oak forest

Treesearch

Melissa A. Thomas-Van Gundy; Katharina U. Wood; James S. Rentch

2015-01-01

Cabwaylingo State Forest in southern West Virginia has experienced numerous anthropogenic wildfires over the past 36 years. In this case study, we assessed the relationship between fire frequency and recency and stand composition and structure, with emphasis on oak and its competitors. Frequent and recent fire was significantly correlated with reduced red maple...

Why can postwildfire runoff and erosion vary from negligible to extreme?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Noske, P.; Nyman, P.; Lane, P. N. J.; Van der Sant, R.; Sheridan, G. J.

2016-12-01

Soil surface properties vary with aridity, as does runoff and erosion after wildfire. Here we draw on studies conducted in different upland eucalypt forests of Victoria Australia, to compare and contrast the hydrological effects of wildfire. The study central to this presentation was conducted in two small (0.2-0.3 ha) dry forested headwater catchments burned during the 2009 Black Saturday wildfire. Surface runoff ratios during rainfall events approached 0.45 in the first year postwildfire. High runoff ratios in these dry forests were attributed to wildfire-induced soil water repellency and inherently low hydraulic conductivity. Average annual sediment yields peaked at 10 t ha-1 during the first year before declining dramatically to background levels, suggesting high-magnitude erosion processes may become limited by sediment availability on hillslopes. Surface runoff and erosion differed substantially between the equatorial and polar-facing catchments; this was most likely due to higher rates of infiltration and surface roughness on polar-facing slopes. Data collected from a plot scale study from 5 different burned forest locations of differing aridity produced a range of runoff ratios that support the findings of the central study. Additional data from burned catchments supporting wetter forests are also presented to further illustrate the contrast in rates of runoff and recovery from a different forest type. Results show that rates of postwildfire erosion and runoff in eucalypt forests in south-east Australia are highly variable. Large differences in erosion and runoff occur with relatively small changes in aridity.

Sources and Implications of Bias and Uncertainty in a Century of US Wildfire Activity Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Short, K.

2013-12-01

The statistical analysis of wildfire activity is a critical component of national wildfire planning, operations, and research in the United States (US). Wildfire activity data have been collected in the US for over a century. Yet, to this day, no single unified system of wildfire record-keeping exists. Data for analysis are generally harvested from archival summary reports from federal or interagency fire organizations; incident-level wildfire reporting systems of the federal, state, and local fire services; and, increasingly, remote-sensing programs. It is typical for research into wildfire activity patterns for all or part of the last century to require data from several of these sources and perhaps others. That work is complicated by the disunity of the various datasets and potentially compromised by inherent reporting biases, discussed here. The availability of wildfire records with the information content and geospatial precision generally sought for increasingly popular climatological analyses and the modeling of contemporary wildfire risk is limited to recent decades. We explain how the disunity and idiosyncrasies of US wildfire reporting have largely precluded true interagency, or all-lands, analyses of even recent wildfire activity and hamstrung some early risk modeling efforts. We then describe our efforts to acquire, standardize, error-check, compile, scrub, and evaluate the completeness of US federal, state, and local wildfire records from 1992-2011 for the national interagency Fire Program Analysis (FPA) application. The resulting FPA Fire-Occurrence Database (FPA FOD) includes nearly 1.6 million records from the 20-year period, with values for at least the following core data elements: location at least as precise as a Public Land Survey System section (2.6-km2 grid), discovery date, and final fire size. The FPA FOD is publicly available from the Research Data Archive of the US Department of Agriculture, Forest Service (http://dx.doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009). While necessarily incomplete in some aspects, the database is intended to facilitate fairly high-resolution geospatial analysis of wildfire activity over the past two decades, based on available information from the authoritative systems of record. Formal non-federal wildfire reporting has been on the rise over the past several decades, and users of national datasets like the FPA FOD must beware of state and local reporting biases to avoid drawing spurious conclusions when analysing the data. Apparent trends in the numbers and area burned by wildfires, for example, may be the result of multiple factors, including changes in climate, fuels, demographics (e.g. population density), fire-management policies, and - as we underscore here - levels of reporting.

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.

Social Networks and Adaptation to Environmental Change: The Case of Central Oregon's Fire-Prone Forest Landscape

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fischer, A.

2012-12-01

Social networks are the patterned interactions among individuals and organizations through which people refine their beliefs and values, negotiate meanings for things and develop behavioral intentions. The structure of social networks has bearing on how people communicate information, generate and retain knowledge, make decisions and act collectively. Thus, social network structure is important for how people perceive, shape and adapt to the environment. We investigated the relationship between social network structure and human adaptation to wildfire risk in the fire-prone forested landscape of Central Oregon. We conducted descriptive and non-parametric social network analysis on data gathered through interviews to 1) characterize the structure of the network of organizations involved in forest and wildfire issues and 2) determine whether network structure is associated with organizations' beliefs, values and behaviors regarding fire and forest management. Preliminary findings indicate that fire protection and forest-related organizations do not frequently communicate or cooperate, suggesting that opportunities for joint problem-solving, innovation and collective action are limited. Preliminary findings also suggest that organizations with diverse partners are more likely to hold adaptive beliefs about wildfire and work cooperatively. We discuss the implications of social network structure for adaptation to changing environmental conditions such as wildfire risk.

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.

Influence of habitat amount, arrangement, and use on population trend estimates of male Kirtland's warblers

USGS Publications Warehouse

Donner, D.M.; Probst, J.R.; Ribic, C.A.

2008-01-01

Kirtland's warblers (Dendroica kirtlandii) persist in a naturally patchy environment of young, regenerating jack pine forests (i.e., 5-23 years old) created after wildfires and human logging activities. We examined how changing landscape structure from 26 years of forest management and wildfire disturbances influenced population size and spatial dispersion of male Kirtland's warblers within their restricted breeding range in northern Lower Michigan, USA. The male Kirtland's warbler population was six times larger in 2004 (1,322) compared to 1979 (205); the change was nonlinear with 1987 and 1994 identified as significant points of change. In 1987, the population trend began increasing after a slowly declining trend prior to 1987, and the rate of increase appeared to slow after 1994. Total amount of suitable habitat and the relative area of wildfire-regenerated habitat were the most important factors explaining population trend. Suitable habitat increased 149% primarily due to increasing plantations from forest management. The relative amount and location of wildfire-regenerated habitat modified the distribution of males among various habitat types, and the spatial variation in their abundance across the primary breeding range. These findings indicate that the Kirtland's warbler male population shifted its use of habitat types temporally and spatially as the population increased and as the relative availability of habitats changed through time. We demonstrate that researchers and managers need to consider not only habitat quality, but the temporal and the spatial context of habitat availability and population levels when making habitat restoration decisions. ?? 2008 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

25 CFR 163.28 - Fire management measures.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... wildfire protection needs and extinguish forest or range fires on Indian land. No expenses for fighting a... are currently in use by public and private wildfire protection agencies adjacent to Indian... mutual aid in wildfire protection. This section does not apply to the rendering of emergency aid, or...

25 CFR 163.28 - Fire management measures.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

... wildfire protection needs and extinguish forest or range fires on Indian land. No expenses for fighting a... are currently in use by public and private wildfire protection agencies adjacent to Indian... mutual aid in wildfire protection. This section does not apply to the rendering of emergency aid, or...

25 CFR 163.28 - Fire management measures.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-04-01

... wildfire protection needs and extinguish forest or range fires on Indian land. No expenses for fighting a... are currently in use by public and private wildfire protection agencies adjacent to Indian... mutual aid in wildfire protection. This section does not apply to the rendering of emergency aid, or...

25 CFR 163.28 - Fire management measures.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... wildfire protection needs and extinguish forest or range fires on Indian land. No expenses for fighting a... are currently in use by public and private wildfire protection agencies adjacent to Indian... mutual aid in wildfire protection. This section does not apply to the rendering of emergency aid, or...

76 FR 44301 - Information Collection; Homeowner Risk Reduction Behaviors Concerning Wildfire Risks and Climate...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-07-25

... Behaviors Concerning Wildfire Risks and Climate Change Impacts AGENCY: Forest Service, USDA. ACTION: Notice... collection, Homeowner Risk Reduction Behaviors Concerning Wildfire Risks and Climate Change Impacts. The... undertake, and factors that influence these choices, particularly factors related to climate change impacts...

Selected 1966-69 interior Alaska wildfire statistics with long-term comparisons.

Treesearch

Richard J. Barney

1971-01-01

This paper presents selected interior Alaska forest and range wildfire statistics for the period 1966-69. Comparisons are made with the decade 1956-65 and the 30-year period 1940-69, which are essentially the total recorded statistical history on wildfires available for Alaska.

Wildfire risk as a socioecological pathology

USGS Publications Warehouse

Fischer, A. Paige; Spies, Thomas A; Steelman, Toddi A; Moseley, Cassandra; Johnson, Bart R.; Bailey, John D.; Ager, Alan A; Bourgeron, Patrick S.; Charnley, Susan; Collins, Brandon M.; Kline, Jeffrey D; Leahy, Jessica E; Littell, Jeremy; Millington, James D. A.; Nielsen-Pincus, Max; Olsen, Christine S; Paveglio, Travis B; Roos, Christopher I.; Steen-Adams, Michelle M; Stevens, Forrest R; Vukomanovic, Jelena; White, Eric M; Bowman, David M J S

2016-01-01

Wildfire risk in temperate forests has become a nearly intractable problem that can be characterized as a socioecological “pathology”: that is, a set of complex and problematic interactions among social and ecological systems across multiple spatial and temporal scales. Assessments of wildfire risk could benefit from recognizing and accounting for these interactions in terms of socioecological systems, also known as coupled natural and human systems (CNHS). We characterize the primary social and ecological dimensions of the wildfire risk pathology, paying particular attention to the governance system around wildfire risk, and suggest strategies to mitigate the pathology through innovative planning approaches, analytical tools, and policies. We caution that even with a clear understanding of the problem and possible solutions, the system by which human actors govern fire-prone forests may evolve incrementally in imperfect ways and can be expected to resist change even as we learn better ways to manage CNHS.

Coordination through databases can improve prescribed burning as a conservation tool to promote forest biodiversity.

PubMed

Ramberg, Ellinor; Strengbom, Joachim; Granath, Gustaf

2018-04-01

Prescribed fires are a common nature conservation practice. They are executed by several parties with limited coordination among them, and little consideration for wildfire occurrences and habitat requirements of fire-dependent species. Here, we gathered data on prescribed fires and wildfires in Sweden during 2011-2015 to (i) evaluate the importance and spatial extent of prescribed fires compared to wildfires and (ii) illustrate how a database can be used as a management tool for prescribed fires. We found that on average only 0.006% (prescribed 65%, wildfires 35%) of the Swedish forest burns per year, with 58% of the prescribed fires occurring on clearcuts. Also, both wildfires and prescribed fires seem to be important for the survival of fire-dependent species. A national fire database would simplify coordination and make planning and evaluation of prescribed fires more efficient. We propose an adaptive management strategy to improve the outcome of prescribed fires.

Southern Annular Mode drives multicentury wildfire activity in southern South America.

PubMed

Holz, Andrés; Paritsis, Juan; Mundo, Ignacio A; Veblen, Thomas T; Kitzberger, Thomas; Williamson, Grant J; Aráoz, Ezequiel; Bustos-Schindler, Carlos; González, Mauro E; Grau, H Ricardo; Quezada, Juan M

2017-09-05

The Southern Annular Mode (SAM) is the main driver of climate variability at mid to high latitudes in the Southern Hemisphere, affecting wildfire activity, which in turn pollutes the air and contributes to human health problems and mortality, and potentially provides strong feedback to the climate system through emissions and land cover changes. Here we report the largest Southern Hemisphere network of annually resolved tree ring fire histories, consisting of 1,767 fire-scarred trees from 97 sites (from 22 °S to 54 °S) in southern South America (SAS), to quantify the coupling of SAM and regional wildfire variability using recently created multicentury proxy indices of SAM for the years 1531-2010 AD. We show that at interannual time scales, as well as at multidecadal time scales across 37-54 °S, latitudinal gradient elevated wildfire activity is synchronous with positive phases of the SAM over the years 1665-1995. Positive phases of the SAM are associated primarily with warm conditions in these biomass-rich forests, in which widespread fire activity depends on fuel desiccation. Climate modeling studies indicate that greenhouse gases will force SAM into its positive phase even if stratospheric ozone returns to normal levels, so that climate conditions conducive to widespread fire activity in SAS will continue throughout the 21st century.

Fuels Inventories in the Los Alamos National Laboratory Region: 1997

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

Balice, R.G.; Oswald, B.P.; Martin, C.

1999-03-01

Fifty-four sites were surveyed for fuel levels, vegetational structures, and topographic characteristics. Most of the surveyed sites were on Los Alamos National Laboratory property, however, some surveys were also conducted on U.S. Forest Service property. The overall vegetation of these sites ranged from pinon-juniper woodlands to ponderosa pine forests to mixed conifer forests, and the topographic positions included canyons, mesas, and mountains. The results of these surveys indicate that the understory fuels are the greatest in mixed conifer forests and that overstory fuels are greatest in both mixed conifer forests and ponderosa pine forests on mesas. The geographic distribution ofmore » these fuels would suggest a most credible wildfire scenario for the Los Alamos region. Three major fires have occurred since 1954 and these fires behaved in a manner that is consistent with this scenario. The most credible wildfire scenario was also supported by the results of BEHAVE modeling that used the fuels inventory data as inputs. Output from the BEHAVE model suggested that catastrophic wildfires would continue to occur during any season with sufficiently dry, windy weather.« less

Ten Years of Forest Cover Change in the Sierra Nevada Detected Using Landsat Satellite Image Analysis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Potter, Christopher S.

2014-01-01

The Landsat Ecosystem Disturbance Adaptive Processing System (LEDAPS) methodology was applied to detected changes in forest vegetation cover for areas burned by wildfires in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California between the periods of 1975- 79 and 1995-1999. Results for areas burned by wildfire between 1995 and 1999 confirmed the importance of regrowing forest vegetation over 17% of the combined burned areas. A notable fraction (12%) of the entire 5-km (unburned) buffer area outside the 1995-199 fires perimeters showed decline in forest cover, and not nearly as many regrowing forest areas, covering only 3% of all the 1995-1999 buffer areas combined. Areas burned by wildfire between 1975 and 1979 confirmed the importance of disturbed (or declining evergreen) vegetation covering 13% of the combined 1975- 1979 burned areas. Based on comparison of these results to ground-based survey data, the LEDAPS methodology should be capable of fulfilling much of the need for consistent, low-cost monitoring of changes due to climate and biological factors in western forest regrowth following stand-replacing disturbances.

The role of forest fire severity on vegetation recovery after 18 years. Implications for forest management of Quercus suber L. in Iberian Peninsula

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Francos, Marcos; Úbeda, Xavier; Tort, Joan; Panareda, Josep María; Cerdà, Artemio

2016-10-01

Wildfires are a widespread phenomenon in Mediterranean environments. Wildfires result in different fire severities, and then in contrasting plant cover and floristic composition. This paper analyses the recovery of the vegetation eighteen years after a wildfire in Catalonia. The Pinus pinaster ssp. forest was affected by three different severities in July 1994, and studied the spring of 1995 and again in 2008. After eighteen years (2012), our research found that burnt sites constitute a dense forest with a broad variety of species, including many young pines, shrubs and herbaceous plants, but that the risk of fire remains very high, due to the large quantity of fuel and the flammability of the species. The management of the post-fire is critical when high severity fires take places, and it is recommended that high-severity fires must be avoided for a sustainable forest management. We recommend that once the timber (Pinus plantations) production is not profitable, Quercus suber L. and Pinus pinaster ssp. forest should be promoted, and pine plantations avoided.

Wildfire, wildlands, and people: understanding and preparing for wildfire in the wildland-urban interface - a Forests on the Edge report

Treesearch

S. M. Stein; J. Menakis; M. A. Carr; S. J. Comas; S. I. Stewart; H. Cleveland; L. Bramwell; V. C. Radeloff

2013-01-01

Fire has historically played a fundamental ecological role in many of America's wildland areas. However, the rising number of homes in the wildland-urban interface (WUI), associated impacts on lives and property from wildfire, and escalating costs of wildfire management have led to an urgent need for communities to become "fire-adapted." We present maps...

Seeking potential contributions to future carbon budget in conterminous US forests considering disturbances

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Fangmin; Pan, Yude; Birdsey, Richard A.; Chen, Jing M.; Dugan, Alexa

2017-11-01

Currently, US forests constitute a large carbon sink, comprising about 9 % of the global terrestrial carbon sink. Wildfire is the most significant disturbance influencing carbon dynamics in US forests. Our objective is to estimate impacts of climate change, CO2 concentration, and nitrogen deposition on the future net biome productivity (NBP) of US forests until the end of twenty-first century under a range of disturbance conditions. We designate three forest disturbance scenarios under one future climate scenario to evaluate factor impacts for the future period (2011-2100): (1) no wildfires occur but forests continue to age (Saging), (2) no wildfires occur and forest ages are fixed in 2010 (Sfixed_nodis), and (3) wildfires occur according to a historical pattern, consequently changing forest age (Sdis_age_change). Results indicate that US forests remain a large carbon sink in the late twenty-first century under the Sfixed_nodis scenario; however, they become a carbon source under the Saging and Sdis_age_change scenarios. During the period of 2011 to 2100, climate is projected to have a small direct effect on NBP, while atmospheric CO2 concentration and nitrogen deposition have large positive effects on NBP regardless of the future climate and disturbance scenarios. Meanwhile, responses to past disturbances under the Sfixed_nodis scenario increase NBP regardless of the future climate scenarios. Although disturbance effects on NBP under the Saging and Sdis_age_change scenarios decrease with time, both scenarios experience an increase in NBP prior to the 2050s and then a decrease in NBP until the end of the twenty-first century. This study indicates that there is potential to increase or at least maintain the carbon sink of conterminous US forests at the current level if future wildfires are reduced and age structures are maintained at a productive mix. The effects of CO2 on the future carbon sink may overwhelm effects of other factors at the end of the twenty-first century. Although our model in conjunction with multiple disturbance scenarios may not reflect the true conditions of future forests, it provides a range of potential conditions as well as a useful guide to both current and future forest carbon management.

Variation in tree mortality and regeneration affect forest carbon recovery following fuel treatments and wildfire in the Lake Tahoe Basin, California, USA.

PubMed

Carlson, Chris H; Dobrowski, Solomon Z; Safford, Hugh D

2012-06-28

Forest fuel treatments have been proposed as tools to stabilize carbon stocks in fire-prone forests in the Western U.S.A. Although fuel treatments such as thinning and burning are known to immediately reduce forest carbon stocks, there are suggestions that these losses may be paid back over the long-term if treatments sufficiently reduce future wildfire severity, or prevent deforestation. Although fire severity and post-fire tree regeneration have been indicated as important influences on long-term carbon dynamics, it remains unclear how natural variability in these processes might affect the ability of fuel treatments to protect forest carbon resources. We surveyed a wildfire where fuel treatments were put in place before fire and estimated the short-term impact of treatment and wildfire on aboveground carbon stocks at our study site. We then used a common vegetation growth simulator in conjunction with sensitivity analysis techniques to assess how predicted timescales of carbon recovery after fire are sensitive to variation in rates of fire-related tree mortality, and post-fire tree regeneration. We found that fuel reduction treatments were successful at ameliorating fire severity at our study site by removing an estimated 36% of aboveground biomass. Treated and untreated stands stored similar amounts of carbon three years after wildfire, but differences in fire severity were such that untreated stands maintained only 7% of aboveground carbon as live trees, versus 51% in treated stands. Over the long-term, our simulations suggest that treated stands in our study area will recover baseline carbon storage 10-35 years more quickly than untreated stands. Our sensitivity analysis found that rates of fire-related tree mortality strongly influence estimates of post-fire carbon recovery. Rates of regeneration were less influential on recovery timing, except when fire severity was high. Our ability to predict the response of forest carbon resources to anthropogenic and natural disturbances requires models that incorporate uncertainty in processes important to long-term forest carbon dynamics. To the extent that fuel treatments are able to ameliorate tree mortality rates or prevent deforestation resulting from wildfire, our results suggest that treatments may be a viable strategy to stabilize existing forest carbon stocks.

Variation in tree mortality and regeneration affect forest carbon recovery following fuel treatments and wildfire in the Lake Tahoe Basin, California, USA

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Background Forest fuel treatments have been proposed as tools to stabilize carbon stocks in fire-prone forests in the Western U.S.A. Although fuel treatments such as thinning and burning are known to immediately reduce forest carbon stocks, there are suggestions that these losses may be paid back over the long-term if treatments sufficiently reduce future wildfire severity, or prevent deforestation. Although fire severity and post-fire tree regeneration have been indicated as important influences on long-term carbon dynamics, it remains unclear how natural variability in these processes might affect the ability of fuel treatments to protect forest carbon resources. We surveyed a wildfire where fuel treatments were put in place before fire and estimated the short-term impact of treatment and wildfire on aboveground carbon stocks at our study site. We then used a common vegetation growth simulator in conjunction with sensitivity analysis techniques to assess how predicted timescales of carbon recovery after fire are sensitive to variation in rates of fire-related tree mortality, and post-fire tree regeneration. Results We found that fuel reduction treatments were successful at ameliorating fire severity at our study site by removing an estimated 36% of aboveground biomass. Treated and untreated stands stored similar amounts of carbon three years after wildfire, but differences in fire severity were such that untreated stands maintained only 7% of aboveground carbon as live trees, versus 51% in treated stands. Over the long-term, our simulations suggest that treated stands in our study area will recover baseline carbon storage 10–35 years more quickly than untreated stands. Our sensitivity analysis found that rates of fire-related tree mortality strongly influence estimates of post-fire carbon recovery. Rates of regeneration were less influential on recovery timing, except when fire severity was high. Conclusions Our ability to predict the response of forest carbon resources to anthropogenic and natural disturbances requires models that incorporate uncertainty in processes important to long-term forest carbon dynamics. To the extent that fuel treatments are able to ameliorate tree mortality rates or prevent deforestation resulting from wildfire, our results suggest that treatments may be a viable strategy to stabilize existing forest carbon stocks. PMID:22741762

Effects of climate change and wildfire on soil loss in the Southern Rockies Ecoregion

Treesearch

S. E. Litschert; D. M. Theobald; T. C. Brown

2014-01-01

Forests in the Southern Rockies Ecoregion surround the headwaters of several major rivers in the western and central US. Future climatic changes will increase the incidence of wildfire in those forests, and will likely lead to changes in downstream water quality, including sediment loads.We estimated soil loss under the historic climate and two IPCC climate change...

An optimization modeling approach to awarding large fire support wildfire helicopter contracts from the US Forest Service

Treesearch

Stephanie A. Snyder; Keith D. Stockmann; Gaylord E. Morris

2012-01-01

The US Forest Service used contracted helicopter services as part of its wildfire suppression strategy. An optimization decision-modeling system was developed to assist in the contract selection process. Three contract award selection criteria were considered: cost per pound of delivered water, total contract cost, and quality ratings of the aircraft and vendors....

Examining the potential of forest residue-based amendments for post-wildfire rehabilitation in Colorado, USA

Treesearch

Charles C. Rhoades; Kerri L. Minatre; Derek N. Pierson; Timothy S. Fegel; M. Francesca Cotrufo; Eugene F. Kelly

2017-01-01

Wildfire is a natural disturbance, though elemental losses and changes that occur during combustion and post-fire erosion can have long-term impacts on soil properties, ecosystem productivity, and watershed condition. Here we evaluate the potential of forest residue-based materials to rehabilitate burned soils. We compare soil nutrient and water availability, and plant...

Wildfire and the economic value of wilderness recreation

Treesearch

Jeffrey Englin; Thomas P. Holmes; Janet Lutz

2008-01-01

The idea that wildfires play an integral role in maintaining healthy forests has begun to change the ways that scientists, managers, and the general public view fire policy and programs. New approaches to forest management that seek to integrate natural disturbances with the provision of goods and services valued by people impose a greater need for a full accounting of...

Airtankers and wildfire management in the US Forest Service: examining data availability and exploring usage and cost trends

Treesearch

Matthew P. Thompson; David E. Calkin; Jason Herynk; Charles W. McHugh; Karen C. Short

2012-01-01

Evaluating the effectiveness and efficiency of fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft is a crucial component of strategic wildfire management and planning. In this manuscript, we focus on the economics of fire and aviation management within the US Forest Service. Substantial uncertainties challenge comprehensive analysis of airtanker use, prompting calls from federal...

Effects of topographic features on postfire exposed mineral soil in small watersheds

Treesearch

Mariana Dobre; Joan Q. Wu; William J. Elliot; Ina S. Miller; Theresa B. Jain

2014-01-01

Exposed mineral soil is an immediate result of forest fires with direct relevance on surface runoff and soil erosion. The goal of this study was to determine which topographic features influence the distribution of exposed mineral soil following wildfire in forested watersheds. In a field investigation 2 months after a simulated wildfire, ground cover was measured and...

FireSmart®-ForestWise: Managing Wildlife and Wildfire Risk in the Wildland/Urban Interface-a Canadian Case Study

Treesearch

Alan Westhaver; Richard D. Revel; Brad C. Hawkes

2007-01-01

Reducing the risk of losses from wildfires that threaten homes and communities is a growing priority in Canada. To reduce risk, “FireSmart®” standards have been adopted nationwide for managing forest fuel. However, these standards largely disregard interests of wildlife and conservation of wildlife habitat – thus raising concerns...

Infiltration and interrill erosion rates after a wildfire in western Montana, USA

Treesearch

Pete Robichaud; Joseph W. Wagenbrenner; Fredrick B. Pierson; Kenneth E. Spaeth; Louise E. Ashmun; Corey A. Moffet

2016-01-01

The 2000 Valley Complex wildfire burned in steep montane forests with ash cap soils in western Montana, USA. The effects of high soil burn severity on forest soil hydrologic function were examined using rainfall simulations (100mmh-1 for 1 h) on 0.5-m2 plots. Infiltration rates, sediment yields and sediment concentrations were compared among three treatments:...

Impact of wildfire on stream nutrient chemistry and ecosystem metabolism in boreal forest catchments of interior Alaska

Treesearch

Emma F. Betts; Jeremy B. Jones

2009-01-01

With climatic warming, wildfire occurrence is increasing in the boreal forest of interior Alaska. Loss of catchment vegetation during fire can impact streams directly through altered solute and debris inputs and changed light and temperature regimes. Over longer time scales, fire can accelerate permafrost degradation, altering catchment hydrology and stream nutrient...

Interactions of fuel treatments, wildfire severity, and carbon dynamics in dry conifer forests

Treesearch

Larissa L. Yocom Kent; Kristen L. Shive; Barbara A. Strom; Carolyn H. Sieg; Molly E. Hunter; Camille S. Stevens-Rumann; Peter Z. Fule

2015-01-01

Wildfires have been increasing in size and severity over recent decades. Forest managers use fuel treatments, including tree thinning and prescribed burning, to reduce the risk of high-severity fire. The impact of fuel treatments on carbon dynamics is not fully understood; previous research indicates that because carbon is removed during fuel treatments, the net effect...

Science basis for changing forest structure to modify wildfire behavior and severity

Treesearch

Russell T. Graham; Sarah McCaffrey; Theresa B. Jain

2004-01-01

Fire, other disturbances, physical setting, weather, and climate shape the structure and function of forests throughout the Western United States. More than 80 years of fire research have shown that physical setting, fuels, and weather combine to determine wildfire intensity (the rate at which it consumes fuel) and severity (the effect fire has on vegetation, soils,...

A comparison of bird communities in burned and salvage-logged, clearcut, and forested Florida Sand Pine scrub.

Treesearch

Cathryn H. Greenberg; Lawrence D. Harris; Daniel G Neary

1995-01-01

We hypothesized that similar bird assemblages will occur in like-structured habitat that results from both clearcutting and high-intensity wildfire followed by salvage logging. To test this, we compared bird communities of sand pine scrub in mature forest and three disturbance treatments (1) high-intensity wildfire, salvage logged, and naturally regenerated, (2)...

Rapid assessment of wildfire damage using Forest Inventory data: A case in Georgia

Treesearch

Richard A. Harper; John W. Coulsten; Jeffery A. Turner

2009-01-01

The rapid assessment of damage caused by natural disasters is essential for planning the appropriate amount of disaster relief funds and public communication. Annual Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) data provided initial estimates of damage to timberland in a timely manner to State leaders during the 2007 Georgia Bay Complex Wildfire in southeast Georgia. FIA plots...

Early response of ground layer plant communities to wildfire and harvesting disturbance in forested peatland ecosystems in northern Minnesota, USA

Treesearch

Erika R. Rowe; Anthony W. D' Amato; Brian J. Palik; John C. Almendinger

2017-01-01

A rare, stand-replacing fire in northern Minnesota, USA provided the opportunity to compare the effects of wildfire and timber harvesting in two peatland forest communities, nutrient-poor black spruce (Picea mariana) bogs (BSB) and nutrient-rich tamarack (Larix laricina) swamps (RTS). We found the response between the two...

Fuels Management Reduces Tree Mortality from Wildfires In Southeastern United States

Treesearch

Kenneth W. Outcalt; Dale D. Wade

2004-01-01

The objective was to determine the effectiveness of a regular prescribed burning program for reducing tree mortality in southern pine forests burned by wildfire. This study was conducted on public and industry lands in northeast Florida. On the Osceola National Forest, mean mortality was 3.5% in natural stands and 43% in plantations two growing seasons after a June...

Briefing: Climate and wildfire in western U.S. forests

Treesearch

Anthony Westerling; Tim Brown; Tania Schoennagel; Thomas Swetnam; Monica Turner; Thomas Veblen

2014-01-01

Wildfire in western U.S. federally managed forests has increased substantially in recent decades, with large (>1000 acre) fires in the decade through 2012 over five times as frequent (450 percent increase) and burned area over ten times as great (930 percent increase) as the 1970s and early 1980s. These changes are closely linked to increased temperatures and a...

Understanding Broadscale Wildfire Risks in a Human-Dominated Landscape

Treesearch

Jeffrey P. Prestemon; John M. Pye; David T. Butry; Thomas P. Holmes; D. Evan Mercer

2002-01-01

Broadscale statistical evaluations of wildfire incidence can answer policy relevant questions about the effectiveness of microlevel vegetation management and can identify subjects needing further study. A dynamic time series cross-sectional model was used to evaluate the statistical links between forest wildfire and vegetation management, human land use, and climatic...

Wildfires

MedlinePlus

Wildfires are fires that burn out of control in a natural area, like a forest, grassland, or prairie. They often begin unnoticed. They spread quickly, and can damage natural resources, destroy homes, and ...

Simulating post-wildfire forest trajectories under alternative climate and management scenarios.

PubMed

Tarancón, Alicia Azpeleta; Fulé, Peter Z; Shive, Kristen L; Sieg, Carolyn H; Meador, Andrew Sánchez; Strom, Barbara

Post-fire predictions of forest recovery under future climate change and management actions are necessary for forest managers to make decisions about treatments. We applied the Climate-Forest Vegetation Simulator (Climate-FVS), a new version of a widely used forest management model, to compare alternative climate and management scenarios in a severely burned multispecies forest of Arizona, USA. The incorporation of seven combinations of General Circulation Models (GCM) and emissions scenarios altered long-term (100 years) predictions of future forest condition compared to a No Climate Change (NCC) scenario, which forecast a gradual increase to high levels of forest density and carbon stock. In contrast, emissions scenarios that included continued high greenhouse gas releases led to near-complete deforestation by 2111. GCM-emissions scenario combinations that were less severe reduced forest structure and carbon stock relative to NCC. Fuel reduction treatments that had been applied prior to the severe wildfire did have persistent effects, especially under NCC, but were overwhelmed by increasingly severe climate change. We tested six management strategies aimed at sustaining future forests: prescribed burning at 5, 10, or 20-year intervals, thinning 40% or 60% of stand basal area, and no treatment. Severe climate change led to deforestation under all management regimes, but important differences emerged under the moderate scenarios: treatments that included regular prescribed burning fostered low density, wildfire-resistant forests composed of the naturally dominant species, ponderosa pine. Non-fire treatments under moderate climate change were forecast to become dense and susceptible to severe wildfire, with a shift to dominance by sprouting species. Current U.S. forest management requires modeling of future scenarios but does not mandate consideration of climate change effects. However, this study showed substantial differences in model outputs depending on climate and management actions. Managers should incorporate climate change into the process of analyzing the environmental effects of alternative actions.

13C NMR spectroscopy characterization of particle-size fractionated soil organic carbon in subalpine forest and grassland ecosystems.

PubMed

Shiau, Yo-Jin; Chen, Jenn-Shing; Chung, Tay-Lung; Tian, Guanglong; Chiu, Chih-Yu

2017-12-01

Soil organic carbon (SOC) and carbon (C) functional groups in different particle-size fractions are important indicators of microbial activity and soil decomposition stages under wildfire disturbances. This research investigated a natural Tsuga forest and a nearby fire-induced grassland along a sampling transect in Central Taiwan with the aim to better understand the effect of forest wildfires on the change of SOC in different soil particle scales. Soil samples were separated into six particle sizes and SOC was characterized by solid-state 13 C nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy in each fraction. The SOC content was higher in forest than grassland soil in the particle-size fraction samples. The O-alkyl-C content (carbohydrate-derived structures) was higher in the grassland than the forest soils, but the alkyl-C content (recalcitrant substances) was higher in forest than grassland soils, for a higher humification degree (alkyl-C/O-alkyl-C ratio) in forest soils for all the soil particle-size fractions. High humification degree was found in forest soils. The similar aromaticity between forest and grassland soils might be attributed to the fire-induced aromatic-C content in the grassland that offsets the original difference between the forest and grassland. High alkyl-C content and humification degree and low C/N ratios in the fine particle-size fractions implied that undecomposed recalcitrant substances tended to accumulate in the fine fractions of soils.

Evaluating Fire Risk in the Northeastern United States in the Past, Present, and Future

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Miller, D.; Bradley, R. S.

2017-12-01

One poorly understood consequence of climate change is its effects on extreme events such as wildfires. Robust associations between wildfire frequency and climatic variability have been shown to exist, indicating that future climate change may continue to have a significant effect on wildfire activity. The Northeastern United States (NEUS) has seen some of the most infamous and largest historic fires in North America, such as the Miramichi Fire of 1825 and the fires of 1947. Although return intervals for large fires in the NEUS are long (hundreds of years), wildfires have played a critical role in ecosystem development and forest structure in the region. Understanding and predicting fire occurrence and vulnerability in the NEUS, especially in a changing climate, is economically and culturally important yet remains difficult due to human impacts (i.e. fire suppression activities and human disturbance). Thus, an alternative method for investigating fire risk in the NEUS is needed. Here, we present a compilation of meteorological data collected from Automated Surface Observing Systems (ASOS) from the NEUS throughout the 20th century through present day. We use these data to compute fifteen common "fire danger indices" employed in the USA and Canada to investigate changes in the region's fire risk over time, as well as the skill of each of these indices at predicting wildfire activity relative to the historical record of fires in the NEUS. We use dynamically-downscaled regional climate model output for the 21st century to project future wildfire activity based on the fire danger indices capable of capturing historical fire activity in the NEUS. These projections will aid in predicting how fire risk in the NEUS will evolve with anticipated climate change.

Mercury distribution in two Sierran forest and one desert sagebrush steppe ecosystems and the effects of fire.

PubMed

Engle, Mark A; Sexauer Gustin, Mae; Johnson, Dale W; Murphy, James F; Miller, Wally W; Walker, Roger F; Wright, Joan; Markee, Melissa

2006-08-15

Mercury (Hg) concentration, reservoir mass, and Hg reservoir size were determined for vegetation components, litter, and mineral soil for two Sierran forest sites and one desert sagebrush steppe site. Mercury was found to be held primarily in the mineral soil (maximum depth of 60 to 100 cm), which contained more than 90% of the total ecosystem reservoir. However, Hg in foliage, bark, and litter plays a more dominant role in Hg cycling than the mineral soil. Mercury partitioning into ecosystem components at the Sierran forest sites was similar to that observed for other US forest sites. Vegetation and litter Hg reservoirs were significantly smaller in the sagebrush steppe system because of lower biomass. Data collected from these ecosystems after wildfire and prescribed burns showed a significant decrease in the Hg pool from certain reservoirs. No loss from mineral soil was observed for the study areas but data from fire severity points suggested that Hg in the upper few millimeters of surface soil may be volatilized due to exposure to elevated temperatures. Comparison of data from burned and unburned plots suggested that the only significant source of atmospheric Hg from the prescribed burn was combustion of litter. Differences in unburned versus burned Hg reservoirs at the forest wildfire site demonstrated that drastic reduction in the litter and above ground live biomass Hg reservoirs after burning had occurred. Sagebrush and litter were absent in the burned plots after a wildfire suggesting that both reservoirs were released during the fire. Mercury emissions due to fire from the forest prescribed burn, forest wildfire, and sagebrush steppe wildfire sites were roughly estimated at 2.0 to 5.1, 2.2 to 4.9, and 0.36+/-0.13 g ha(-1), respectively, with litter and vegetation being the most important sources.

Towards the development of full-fledged forest fire information systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baetens, J.; De Baets, B.

2012-12-01

Throughout the last decades much efforts have been spent in obtaining an increased understanding of wildfire dynamics and the way it is influenced by prevailing environmental conditions and settings, such as temperature, humidity, topography, vegetation abundance, and so on, since such a profound apprehension is a prerequisite for achieving enhanced wildfire prevention measures, as well as for optimizing fire fighting and disaster management. Amongst other things, this pursuit has culminated in the deployment of wildfire information systems, such as the Canadian Wildfire Information System (CWFIS), the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) and the United States Active Fire Mapping Program and Landscape Fire and Resource Management Planning Tools (LANDFIRE), which inform any interested stakeholder, be it a citizen or a government official, about the current fire risk, the extent and location of current fires, the inflammability of the vegetation, and so on. Taking into account the coverage of these systems, it should be clear that they strongly rely upon satellite imagery that is obtained from dedicated sensors, such as the Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board of NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites and the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) that is carried by NOAA satellites, or more general-purpose instruments on board of spacecrafts such as Landsat or SPOT. Yet, to this day the aforementioned information systems have not yet embraced the power of mathematical modeling in order to enable trustworthy forecasts of the spatio-temporal propagation of wildfires given their current extent, which would nonetheless be extremely useful for optimizing fire fighting and disaster management, taking appropriate preventive measures, and so on. The deployment of such full-fledged wildfire information systems requires a high-level integration of (real-time) satellite imagery, weather reports and forecasts, geographic information, and finally mathematical models that constitute a mathematization of the underlying environmental processes, and which are indispensable for attaining sound and trustworthy wildfire forecasts, just as their meteorological counterparts are exploited to yield meaningful weather forecasts. As a very first step towards the development of a full-fledged wildfire information system, we demonstrate how MODIS imagery, Anderson fuel maps and geographic information can be combined to achieve meaningful wildfire forecasts given the current extent of the considered wildfire. Such a high-level integration is illustrated for a wildfire that swept through a natural area in Arizona, United States, near the border with New Mexico, between days 148 and 166 of the year 2011. Taking into account the spatial discreteness of the exploited information, which follows from its storage in geographical information systems, we rely upon a spatially discrete mathematical model, i.e. a coupled-map lattice, for mimicking the spatio-temporal wildfire propagation that can be extended in a next stage. Since setting up a full-fledged wildfire information system requires a highly multidisciplinary approach in which foresters, mathematicians, computer scientists, physicists, ecologists and others need to be involved, we hope to stimulate the joint efforts in accomplishing this task by means of our contribution.

Forest responses to increasing aridity and warmth in the southwestern United States.

PubMed

Williams, A Park; Allen, Craig D; Millar, Constance I; Swetnam, Thomas W; Michaelsen, Joel; Still, Christopher J; Leavitt, Steven W

2010-12-14

In recent decades, intense droughts, insect outbreaks, and wildfires have led to decreasing tree growth and increasing mortality in many temperate forests. We compared annual tree-ring width data from 1,097 populations in the coterminous United States to climate data and evaluated site-specific tree responses to climate variations throughout the 20th century. For each population, we developed a climate-driven growth equation by using climate records to predict annual ring widths. Forests within the southwestern United States appear particularly sensitive to drought and warmth. We input 21st century climate projections to the equations to predict growth responses. Our results suggest that if temperature and aridity rise as they are projected to, southwestern trees will experience substantially reduced growth during this century. As tree growth declines, mortality rates may increase at many sites. Increases in wildfires and bark-beetle outbreaks in the most recent decade are likely related to extreme drought and high temperatures during this period. Using satellite imagery and aerial survey data, we conservatively calculate that ≈ 2.7% of southwestern forest and woodland area experienced substantial mortality due to wildfires from 1984 to 2006, and ≈ 7.6% experienced mortality associated with bark beetles from 1997 to 2008. We estimate that up to ≈ 18% of southwestern forest area (excluding woodlands) experienced mortality due to bark beetles or wildfire during this period. Expected climatic changes will alter future forest productivity, disturbance regimes, and species ranges throughout the Southwest. Emerging knowledge of these impending transitions informs efforts to adaptively manage southwestern forests.

Forest responses to increasing aridity and warmth in the southwestern United States

USGS Publications Warehouse

Williams, A.P.; Allen, Craig D.; Millar, C.I.; Swetnam, T.W.; Michaelsen, J.; Still, C.J.; Leavitt, Steven W.

2010-01-01

In recent decades, intense droughts, insect outbreaks, and wildfires have led to decreasing tree growth and increasing mortality in many temperate forests. We compared annual tree-ring width data from 1,097 populations in the coterminous United States to climate data and evaluated site-specific tree responses to climate variations throughout the 20th century. For each population, we developed a climate-driven growth equation by using climate records to predict annual ring widths. Forests within the southwestern United States appear particularly sensitive to drought and warmth. We input 21st century climate projections to the equations to predict growth responses. Our results suggest that if temperature and aridity rise as they are projected to, southwestern trees will experience substantially reduced growth during this century. As tree growth declines, mortality rates may increase at many sites. Increases in wildfires and bark-beetle outbreaks in the most recent decade are likely related to extreme drought and high temperatures during this period. Using satellite imagery and aerial survey data, we conservatively calculate that ≈2.7% of southwestern forest and woodland area experienced substantial mortality due to wildfires from 1984 to 2006, and ≈7.6% experienced mortality associated with bark beetles from 1997 to 2008. We estimate that up to ≈18% of southwestern forest area (excluding woodlands) experienced mortality due to bark beetles or wildfire during this period. Expected climatic changes will alter future forest productivity, disturbance regimes, and species ranges throughout the Southwest. Emerging knowledge of these impending transitions informs efforts to adaptively manage southwestern forests.

Size fractionation as a tool for separating charcoal of different fuel source and recalcitrance in the wildfire ash layer.

PubMed

Mastrolonardo, Giovanni; Hudspith, Victoria A; Francioso, Ornella; Rumpel, Cornelia; Montecchio, Daniela; Doerr, Stefan H; Certini, Giacomo

2017-10-01

Charcoal is a heterogeneous material exhibiting a diverse range of properties. This variability represents a serious challenge in studies that use the properties of natural charcoal for reconstructing wildfires history in terrestrial ecosystems. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that particle size is a sufficiently robust indicator for separating forest wildfire combustion products into fractions with distinct properties. For this purpose, we examined two different forest environments affected by contrasting wildfires in terms of severity: an eucalypt forest in Australia, which experienced an extremely severe wildfire, and a Mediterranean pine forest in Italy, which burned to moderate severity. We fractionated the ash/charcoal layers collected on the ground into four size fractions (>2, 2-1, 1-0.5, <0.5mm) and analysed them for mineral ash content, elemental composition, chemical structure (by IR spectroscopy), fuel source and charcoal reflectance (by reflected-light microscopy), and chemical/thermal recalcitrance (by chemical and thermal oxidation). At both sites, the finest fraction (<0.5mm) had, by far, the greatest mass. The C concentration and C/N ratio decreased with decreasing size fraction, while pH and the mineral ash content followed the opposite trend. The coarser fractions showed higher contribution of amorphous carbon and stronger recalcitrance. We also observed that certain fuel types were preferentially represented by particular size fractions. We conclude that the differences between ash/charcoal size fractions were most likely primarily imposed by fuel source and secondarily by burning conditions. Size fractionation can therefore serve as a valuable tool to characterise the forest wildfire combustion products, as each fraction displays a narrower range of properties than the whole sample. We propose the mineral ash content of the fractions as criterion for selecting the appropriate number of fractions to analyse. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Megafires in Chile 2017: Monitoring multiscale environmental impacts of burned ecosystems.

PubMed

de la Barrera, Francisco; Barraza, Francisco; Favier, Philomène; Ruiz, Vannia; Quense, Jorge

2018-05-17

During the summer of 2017, several megafires in South-Central Chile burned down forest plantations, native forests, shrublands and human settlements. National authorities identified the relevant effects of the wildfires on infrastructure and ecosystems. However, other indirect effects such as the risk of flooding or, increased air pollution were not assessed. The present study assesses: i) the geographic characterization of wildfires, ii) amount of damage to ecosystems and the severity of wildfires, iii) the effects of megafires on air quality in nearby and distant urban areas, and iv) identification of cities potentially exposed to landslides and flooding. We ran remote sensing analyses based on the Normalized Burn Ratio taken from Landsat imagery, "active fires" from MODIS, and ASTER GDEM. The particulate matter (PM 10 and PM 2.5 ) levels measured on 34 Chilean's municipalities were correlated with the burning area/distance ratio by Spearman correlation. Socionatural hazards were evaluated using multi-criteria analyses combining proximity to burned areas, severity, potential flow of water and sediments as indicated by the Digital Elevation Model, drainage networks and the location of human settlements. 91 burned areas were identified, covering 529,794 ha. The most affected ecosystems were forest plantations and native shrublands. We found significant correlations between burned area/distance ratios and PM 2.5 and PM 10 levels, leading to increased levels over the Chilean air quality standard in the most populated cities. 37 human settlements were at increased risk of landslides and flooding hazards after fires and eleven could now be characterized as dangerously exposed. The 2017 wildfires in Chile have had an impact at both a small and large scale, with far-reaching air pollutants dispersing and affecting >74% of the Chilean population. The impact of the wildfires was also extended over time, creating future potential for landslides and flooding, with the risk increasing in rainy seasons. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Spatial and temporal changes in land cover and its relation to the wildfire risk in Montes de Zuera (NE-Spain)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Iñiguez-Remón, E.; Badía-Villas, D.; Ibarra-Benlloch, P.

2012-04-01

Land cover changes in a territory can be as result of the diverse human activities, and also, by the dynamic natural ecosystem. The analysis of these changes constitutes a fundamental indicator in improving the knowledge towards a potential sustainable development (OSE, 2006). This paper analyzes the evolution of the land cover at detailed scale 1:5000, along the years 1957, 1984, and 2005, in the Montes de Zuera (UTM: 665000-680000 East /4640000-4650000 North), nearby Zaragoza city (NE-Spain). Despite they are located in the midst of the semiarid Central Ebro Basin, the area have an uncommon, extensive and dense forest cover. For these reasons, Montes de Zuera form part of the "Natura 2000 Network" of Aragon. Because this region has a high incidence of wildfires and, as a measure to prevent them, land cover changes have been analyzed in this study. To get this objective, a methodology is developed based on GIS and Remote Sensing tools, and this makes it possible to establish the relationship between the dynamic land cover and "fire hazard". According to FAO (1986), fire hazard is the measure of risk of wildfire, which is explained by the presence of combustible materials available to burn (Chuvieco et al, 2004). It is understood that the areas with major fire hazard present a high vulnerability to suffer vast wildfires. To develop this work, the type of vegetation, its distribution and the state of maturity of the forest masses are analyzed. Moreover, the wildfires that occurred during the last five decades have been located, and the forest masses and the processes (anthropic and natural) associated to them have been characterized in the regions affected by vast wildfires. Moreover, the cartography of fire hazard is obtained, and this is useful tool to fre prevention and to promote the sustainable management of the forest masses. Two regions with high rate of fire hazards are differentiated (region 1 and region 2). The Aleppo pine cover occupies the majority of the surface percentage (55 % in region 1; 58 % in region 2), have being stable for the past fifty years about 1/3 of these surfaces (38 % in region 1, and 32 % in region 2). Different wildfire preventive measures are proposed at spatial scale. Chuvieco, E., Salas J., de la Riva, J., Pérez, F. y Lana-Renault, N. (2004). Métodos para la integración de variables de riesgo: el papel de los sistemas de Información Geográfica, pp.144-158. In: Chuvieco, E., Martín, M.P. (Ed.): Nuevas tecnologías para la estimación del riesgo de incendios forestales. CSIC, Instituto de Economía y Geografía. Madrid. FAO (1986). Wildfire management terminology. Eds. FAO, Forest Resources Development Branch. Rome. OSE, Observatorio para la Sostenibilidad en España (2006). Cambios de ocupación del suelo en España. Implicaciones para la sostenibilidad. Madrid.

Assessing Lightning and Wildfire Hazard by Land Properties and Cloud to Ground Lightning Data with Association Rule Mining in Alberta, Canada

PubMed Central

Cha, DongHwan; Wang, Xin; Kim, Jeong Woo

2017-01-01

Hotspot analysis was implemented to find regions in the province of Alberta (Canada) with high frequency Cloud to Ground (CG) lightning strikes clustered together. Generally, hotspot regions are located in the central, central east, and south central regions of the study region. About 94% of annual lightning occurred during warm months (June to August) and the daily lightning frequency was influenced by the diurnal heating cycle. The association rule mining technique was used to investigate frequent CG lightning patterns, which were verified by similarity measurement to check the patterns’ consistency. The similarity coefficient values indicated that there were high correlations throughout the entire study period. Most wildfires (about 93%) in Alberta occurred in forests, wetland forests, and wetland shrub areas. It was also found that lightning and wildfires occur in two distinct areas: frequent wildfire regions with a high frequency of lightning, and frequent wild-fire regions with a low frequency of lightning. Further, the preference index (PI) revealed locations where the wildfires occurred more frequently than in other class regions. The wildfire hazard area was estimated with the CG lightning hazard map and specific land use types. PMID:29065564

Assessing Lightning and Wildfire Hazard by Land Properties and Cloud to Ground Lightning Data with Association Rule Mining in Alberta, Canada.

PubMed

Cha, DongHwan; Wang, Xin; Kim, Jeong Woo

2017-10-23

Hotspot analysis was implemented to find regions in the province of Alberta (Canada) with high frequency Cloud to Ground (CG) lightning strikes clustered together. Generally, hotspot regions are located in the central, central east, and south central regions of the study region. About 94% of annual lightning occurred during warm months (June to August) and the daily lightning frequency was influenced by the diurnal heating cycle. The association rule mining technique was used to investigate frequent CG lightning patterns, which were verified by similarity measurement to check the patterns' consistency. The similarity coefficient values indicated that there were high correlations throughout the entire study period. Most wildfires (about 93%) in Alberta occurred in forests, wetland forests, and wetland shrub areas. It was also found that lightning and wildfires occur in two distinct areas: frequent wildfire regions with a high frequency of lightning, and frequent wild-fire regions with a low frequency of lightning. Further, the preference index (PI) revealed locations where the wildfires occurred more frequently than in other class regions. The wildfire hazard area was estimated with the CG lightning hazard map and specific land use types.

Improving Air Support for Wildfire Management in the United States

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-09-01

1 It nearly torched the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and vital electrical infrastructure for all of Los Angeles County in the months that it...Initial Attack and Large Fire Suppression: Phase 1” ( USDA Forest Service, Department of Interior: 1995), x, accessed from http://www.fs.fed.us/fire...publications/aviation/nats1_report.pdf 5“Management Efficiency Assessment on Aviation Activities in the USDA Forest Service” (Management Analysis

Estimating mercury emissions resulting from wildfire in forests of the Western United States.

PubMed

Webster, Jackson P; Kane, Tyler J; Obrist, Daniel; Ryan, Joseph N; Aiken, George R

2016-10-15

Understanding the emissions of mercury (Hg) from wildfires is important for quantifying the global atmospheric Hg sources. Emissions of Hg from soils resulting from wildfires in the Western United States was estimated for the 2000 to 2013 period, and the potential emission of Hg from forest soils was assessed as a function of forest type and soil-heating. Wildfire released an annual average of 3100±1900kg-Hgy(-1) for the years spanning 2000-2013 in the 11 states within the study area. This estimate is nearly 5-fold lower than previous estimates for the study region. Lower emission estimates are attributed to an inclusion of fire severity within burn perimeters. Within reported wildfire perimeters, the average distribution of low, moderate, and high severity burns was 52, 29, and 19% of the total area, respectively. Review of literature data suggests that that low severity burning does not result in soil heating, moderate severity fire results in shallow soil heating, and high severity fire results in relatively deep soil heating (<5cm). Using this approach, emission factors for high severity burns ranged from 58 to 640μg-Hgkg-fuel(-1). In contrast, low severity burns have emission factors that are estimated to be only 18-34μg-Hgkg-fuel(-1). In this estimate, wildfire is predicted to release 1-30gHgha(-1) from Western United States forest soils while above ground fuels are projected to contribute an additional 0.9 to 7.8gHgha(-1). Land cover types with low biomass (desert scrub) are projected to release less than 1gHgha(-1). Following soil sources, fuel source contributions to total Hg emissions generally followed the order of duff>wood>foliage>litter>branches. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Long-term post-wildfire correlates with avian community dynamics in ponderosa pine forests [Chapter J

Treesearch

Jamie S. Sanderlin; William M. Block; Brenda E. Strohmeyer

2016-01-01

We used a 10-year data set to illustrate the long-term correlates of wildfire on avian species richness in the ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) forests of northern Arizona. This study was conducted in the vicinity of the Horseshoe and Hochderffer Fires, which occurred in 1996, and sampling began 1 year after the fires. Using point-count data from breeding...

Post-wildfire recovery of riparian vegetation during a period of water scarcity in the southwestern USA

Treesearch

D. Max Smith; Deborah M. Finch; Christian Gunning; Roy Jemison; Jeffrey F. Kelly

2009-01-01

Wildland fires occur with increasing frequency in southwestern riparian forests, yet little is known about the effects of fire on populations of native and exotic vegetation. From 2003 to 2006, we monitored recovering woody vegetation in wildfire sites in the bosque (riparian forest) along the Middle Rio Grande of central New Mexico, USA. To examine recovery potential...

Rill erosion in burned and salvage logged western montane forests: Effects of logging equipment type, traffic level, and slash treatment

Treesearch

J. W. Wagenbrenner; P. R. Robichaud; R. E. Brown

2016-01-01

Following wildfires, forest managers often consider salvage logging burned trees to recover monetary value of timber, reduce fuel loads, or to meet other objectives. Relatively little is known about the cumulative hydrologic effects of wildfire and subsequent timber harvest using logging equipment. We used controlled rill experiments in logged and unlogged (control)...

Lessons from the Hayman Fire: Forest understory responses to the scarify-and-seed postfire rehabilitation treatment

Treesearch

Paula J. Fornwalt

2009-01-01

In unburned forests, organic plant litter and live vegetation help stabilize the soil and promote water infiltration. Much of this plant material is consumed during severe wildfires, leaving the bare ground susceptible to elevated postfire water runoff and soil erosion (Shakesby and Doerr 2006). Severe wildfires can also produce a water-repellant layer in the soil that...

An evaluation of the Forest Service Hazardous Fuels Treatment Program—Are we treating enough to promote resiliency or reduce hazard?

Treesearch

Nicole M. Vaillant; Elizabeth D. Reinhardt

2017-01-01

The National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy recognizes that wildfire is a necessary natural process in many ecosystems and strives to reduce conflicts between fire-prone landscapes and people. In an effort to mitigate potential negative wildfire impacts proactively, the Forest Service fuels program reduces wildland fuels. As part of an internal program...

Influences of previous wildfires on change, resistance, and resilience to reburning in a montane southwestern landscape

Treesearch

Jonathan D. Coop; Lisa Holsinger; Sarah McClernan; Sean A. Parks

2015-01-01

Land use legacies and climate have altered fire regimes across montane forests of much of the southwestern US (Allen and others 2002), and several recent wildfires have been extremely large and severe (Dennison and others 2014). Large openings resulting from high-severity fire in former ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) and mixed conifer forests may be persistent given...

Predicting cumulative watershed effects of fuel management with improved WEPP technology

Treesearch

William J. Elliot; Joan Q. Wu

2005-01-01

The increase in severe wildfires in recent years is due in part to an abundance of fuels in forests. In an effort to protect values at risk, and decrease the severity of wildfires, forest managers have embarked on a major program of fuel reduction. Past research has shown that such fuel reduction may have minimal impact at a hillslope scale, but when numerous hillsides...

Fuel treatments alter the effects of wildfire in a mixed-evergreen forest, Oregon, USA.

Treesearch

Crystal L. Raymond; David L. Peterson

2005-01-01

We had the rare opportunity to quantify the relationship between fuels and fire severity using prefire surface and canopy fuel data and fire severity data after a wildfire. The study area is a mixed-evergreen forest of southwestern Oregon with a mixed-severity fire regime. Modeled fire behavior showed that thinning reduced canopy fuels, thereby decreasing the potential...

Soil respiration of the Dahurian Larch (Larix gmelinii) forest and the response to fire disturbance in Da Xing'an Mountains, China

Treesearch

Tongxin Hu; Long Sun; Haiqing Hu; David R. Weise; Futao Guo

2017-01-01

Despite the high frequency of wildfire disturbances in boreal forests in China, the effects of wildfires on soil respiration are not yet well understood. We examined the effects of fire severity on the soil respiration rate (Rs) and its component change in a Dahurian Larch (Larix gmelinii) in Northeast China. The results showed...

The role of wildfire, prescribed fire, and mountain pine beetle infestations on the population dynamics of black-backed woodpeckers in the Black Hills, South Dakota

Treesearch

Christopher T. Rota; Joshua J. Millspaugh; Mark A. Rumble; Chad P. Lehman; Dylan C. Kesler

2014-01-01

Wildfire and mountain pine beetle infestations are naturally occurring disturbances in western North American forests. Black-backed woodpeckers (Picoides arcticus) are emblematic of the role these disturbances play in creating wildlife habitat, since they are strongly associated with recently-killed forests. However, management practices aimed at reducing the economic...

Conflicting perspectives on spotted owls, wildfire, and forest restoration

Treesearch

Joseph L. Ganey; Ho Yi Wan; Samuel A. Cushman; Christina D. Vojta

2017-01-01

Evidence of increasing fire extent and severity in the western US in recent decades has raised concern over the effects of fire on threatened species such as the spotted owl (Strix occidentalis Xantus de Vesey), which nests in forests with large trees and high canopy cover that are vulnerable to high-severity wildfire. A dichotomy of views exists on the impact of high-...

Review of fuel treatment effectiveness in forests and rangelands and a case study from the 2007 megafires in central, Idaho, USA

Treesearch

Andrew T. Hudak; Ian Rickert; Penelope Morgan; Eva Strand; Sarah A. Lewis; Peter R. Robichaud; Chad Hoffman; Zachary A. Holden

2011-01-01

This report provides managers with the current state of knowledge regarding the effectiveness of fuel treatments for mitigating severe wildfire effects. A literature review examines the effectiveness of fuel treatments that had been previously applied and were subsequently burned through by wildfire in forests and rangelands. A case study focuses on WUI fuel treatments...

Impacts of wildfire on wildlife in Arizona: A synthesis

Treesearch

Shari L. Ketcham; John L. Koprowski

2013-01-01

Due to a century of fire suppression practices, the Madrean Archipelago regions in Arizona have accumulated excessive fuel loads that increase wildfire sizes, intensities, and frequencies. Wildfire induced structural changes in forest ecosystems can either benefit or adversely impact wildlife species. Therefore, it is imperative to understand how wildlife species react...

Amphibians and wildfire in the U.S. Northwest

Treesearch

Blake R. Hossack

2006-01-01

Recent evidence of amphibian declines along with outbreaks of large wildfires in western North American conifer forests has underscored our lack of knowledge about effects of fire on amphibians in these ecosystems. Understanding the connection between amphibian declines and wildfire is proving complex in some areas because the past century of fire suppression and other...

Biogeochemical impacts of wildfires over four millennia in a Rocky Mountain subalpine watershed.

PubMed

Dunnette, Paul V; Higuera, Philip E; McLauchlan, Kendra K; Derr, Kelly M; Briles, Christy E; Keefe, Margaret H

2014-08-01

Wildfires can significantly alter forest carbon (C) storage and nitrogen (N) availability, but the long-term biogeochemical legacy of wildfires is poorly understood. We obtained a lake-sediment record of fire and biogeochemistry from a subalpine forest in Colorado, USA, to examine the nature, magnitude, and duration of decadal-scale, fire-induced ecosystem change over the past c. 4250 yr. The high-resolution record contained 34 fires, including 13 high-severity events within the watershed. High-severity fires were followed by increased sedimentary N stable isotope ratios (δ15N) and bulk density, and decreased C and N concentrations--reflecting forest floor destruction, terrestrial C and N losses, and erosion. Sustained low sediment C : N c. 20-50 yr post-fire indicates reduced terrestrial organic matter subsidies to the lake. Low sedimentary δ15N c. 50-70 yr post-fire, coincident with C and N recovery, suggests diminishing terrestrial N availability during stand development. The magnitude of post-fire changes generally scaled directly with inferred fire severity. Our results support modern studies of forest successional C and N accumulation and indicate pronounced, long-lasting biogeochemical impacts of wildfires in subalpine forests. However, even repeated high-severity fires over millennia probably did not deplete C or N stocks, because centuries between high-severity fires allowed for sufficient biomass recovery. © 2014 The Authors. New Phytologist © 2014 New Phytologist Trust.

Dry forest resilience varies under simulated climate‐management scenarios in a central Oregon, USA landscape.

PubMed

Halofsky, Joshua S; Halofsky, Jessica E; Burcsu, Theresa; Hemstrom, Miles A

Determining appropriate actions to create or maintain landscapes resilient to climate change is challenging because of uncertainty associated with potential effects of climate change and their interactions with land management. We used a set of climate-informed state-and-transition models to explore the effects of management and natural disturbances on vegetation composition and structure under different future climates. Models were run for dry forests of central Oregon under a fire suppression scenario (i.e., no management other than the continued suppression of wildfires) and an active management scenario characterized by light to moderate thinning from below and some prescribed fire, planting, and salvage logging. Without climate change, area in dry province forest types remained constant. With climate change, dry mixed-conifer forests increased in area (by an average of 21–26% by 2100), and moist mixed-conifer forests decreased in area (by an average of 36–60% by 2100), under both management scenarios. Average area in dry mixed-conifer forests varied little by management scenario, but potential decreases in the moist mixed-conifer forest were lower with active management. With changing climate in the dry province of central Oregon, our results suggest the likelihood of sustaining current levels of dense, moist mixed-conifer forests with large-diameter, old trees is low (less than a 10% chance) irrespective of management scenario; an opposite trend was observed under no climate change simulations. However, results also suggest active management within the dry and moist mixed-conifer forests that creates less dense forest conditions can increase the persistence of larger-diameter, older trees across the landscape. Owing to projected increases in wildfire, our results also suggest future distributions of tree structures will differ from the present. Overall, our projections indicate proactive management can increase forest resilience and sustain some societal values, particularly in drier forest types. However, opportunities to create more disturbance-adapted systems are finite, all values likely cannot be sustained at current levels, and levels of resilience success will likely vary by dry province forest type. Land managers planning for a future without climate change may be assuming a future that is unlikely to exist.

Fluid Chemistry Dynamics Before and After Fire in the Jemez River Basin Critical Zone Observatory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chorover, J.; Perdrial, J. N.; Field, J. P.; Pelletier, J. D.; Pohlmann, M. A.; Losleben, M. V.; Lasharr, K.; Amistadi, M.; Brooks, P. D.; McIntosh, J. C.; Meixner, T.; Gallery, R.; Rich, V. I.; Rasmussen, C.; Schaap, M. G.; Breshears, D. D.

2013-12-01

The largest wildfire in New Mexico state history (prior to the Whitewater-Baldy fire of 2012) burned the eastern portion of the Jemez River Basin Critical Zone Observatory (JRB CZO) in June-July 2011. This Los Conchas fire burned large stands of ponderosa pine and mixed conifer (MC) forest within the East Fork Jemez River watershed generating massive post-fire erosion. We asked the question: What are the implications of wildfire on pulsed carbon and other bio-active element redistributions in impacted soils and catchments? As soon as possible following the fire, our research group installed sensor and sampler instrumentation in soil profiles in an intensively burned zero order basin (ZOB), enabling the initiation of comparisons to a similarly instrumented, unburned MC ZOB. The signal of biomass combustion was propagated through soil and stream. Post-burn solute fluxes were dominated by highly-aromatic character DOM, as well as elevated DIC, sulfate, chloride and non-hydrolyzing cation (Ca, Mg, K) concentrations deriving from biomass combustion. Supporting an apparent trend of increasing wildfire in western montane forests, the Thompson Ridge wildfire burned MC forest throughout much of the western previously unburned portion of the Valles Caldera National Preserve in June 2013, including the (until then) "unburned" MC ZOB sites comprising CZO sensor and sampler network arrays. Post-burn soil samples were collected for geochemical, physical, and microbial composition characterizations. Solute and gas fluxes were monitored in situ to compare CZ response following this high intensity burn to three years of pre-burn data. Results indicate that the post-fire pulse of water soluble, biomass-derived ions and carbon into underlying and downslope soils is generating landscape-scale element distribution that could affect recolonization by biota in the ensuing secondary succession.

Pattern and process of prescribed fires influence effectiveness at reducing wildfire severity in dry coniferous forests

USGS Publications Warehouse

Arkle, Robert S.; Pilliod, David S.; Welty, Justin L.

2012-01-01

We examined the effects of three early season (spring) prescribed fires on burn severity patterns of summer wildfires that occurred 1–3 years post-treatment in a mixed conifer forest in central Idaho. Wildfire and prescribed fire burn severities were estimated as the difference in normalized burn ratio (dNBR) using Landsat imagery. We used GIS derived vegetation, topography, and treatment variables to generate models predicting the wildfire burn severity of 1286–5500 30-m pixels within and around treated areas. We found that wildfire severity was significantly lower in treated areas than in untreated areas and significantly lower than the potential wildfire severity of the treated areas had treatments not been implemented. At the pixel level, wildfire severity was best predicted by an interaction between prescribed fire severity, topographic moisture, heat load, and pre-fire vegetation volume. Prescribed fire severity and vegetation volume were the most influential predictors. Prescribed fire severity, and its influence on wildfire severity, was highest in relatively warm and dry locations, which were able to burn under spring conditions. In contrast, wildfire severity peaked in cooler, more mesic locations that dried later in the summer and supported greater vegetation volume. We found considerable evidence that prescribed fires have landscape-level influences within treatment boundaries; most notable was an interaction between distance from the prescribed fire perimeter and distance from treated patch edges, which explained up to 66% of the variation in wildfire severity. Early season prescribed fires may not directly target the locations most at risk of high severity wildfire, but proximity of these areas to treated patches and the discontinuity of fuels following treatment may influence wildfire severity and explain how even low severity treatments can be effective management tools in fire-prone landscapes.

A spatial database of wildfires in the United States, 1992-2011

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Short, K. C.

2013-07-01

The statistical analysis of wildfire activity is a critical component of national wildfire planning, operations, and research in the United States (US). However, there are multiple federal, state, and local entities with wildfire protection and reporting responsibilities in the US, and no single, unified system of wildfire record-keeping exists. To conduct even the most rudimentary interagency analyses of wildfire numbers and area burned from the authoritative systems of record, one must harvest records from dozens of disparate databases with inconsistent information content. The onus is then on the user to check for and purge redundant records of the same fire (i.e. multijurisdictional incidents with responses reported by several agencies or departments) after pooling data from different sources. Here we describe our efforts to acquire, standardize, error-check, compile, scrub, and evaluate the completeness of US federal, state, and local wildfire records from 1992-2011 for the national, interagency Fire Program Analysis (FPA) application. The resulting FPA Fire-occurrence Database (FPA FOD) includes nearly 1.6 million records from the 20 yr period, with values for at least the following core data elements: location at least as precise as a Public Land Survey System section (2.6 km2 grid), discovery date, and final fire size. The FPA FOD is publicly available from the Research Data Archive of the US Department of Agriculture, Forest Service (doi:10.2737/RDS-2013-0009). While necessarily incomplete in some aspects, the database is intended to facilitate fairly high-resolution geospatial analysis of US wildfire activity over the past two decades, based on available information from the authoritative systems of record.

A spatial database of wildfires in the United States, 1992-2011

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Short, K. C.

2014-01-01

The statistical analysis of wildfire activity is a critical component of national wildfire planning, operations, and research in the United States (US). However, there are multiple federal, state, and local entities with wildfire protection and reporting responsibilities in the US, and no single, unified system of wildfire record keeping exists. To conduct even the most rudimentary interagency analyses of wildfire numbers and area burned from the authoritative systems of record, one must harvest records from dozens of disparate databases with inconsistent information content. The onus is then on the user to check for and purge redundant records of the same fire (i.e., multijurisdictional incidents with responses reported by several agencies or departments) after pooling data from different sources. Here we describe our efforts to acquire, standardize, error-check, compile, scrub, and evaluate the completeness of US federal, state, and local wildfire records from 1992-2011 for the national, interagency Fire Program Analysis (FPA) application. The resulting FPA Fire-Occurrence Database (FPA FOD) includes nearly 1.6 million records from the 20 yr period, with values for at least the following core data elements: location, at least as precise as a Public Land Survey System section (2.6 km2 grid), discovery date, and final fire size. The FPA FOD is publicly available from the Research Data Archive of the US Department of Agriculture, Forest Service (doi:10.2737/RDS-2013-0009). While necessarily incomplete in some aspects, the database is intended to facilitate fairly high-resolution geospatial analysis of US wildfire activity over the past two decades, based on available information from the authoritative systems of record.

Southern Annular Mode drives multicentury wildfire activity in southern South America

PubMed Central

Paritsis, Juan; Mundo, Ignacio A.; Veblen, Thomas T.; Kitzberger, Thomas; Williamson, Grant J.; Aráoz, Ezequiel; Bustos-Schindler, Carlos; González, Mauro E.; Grau, H. Ricardo; Quezada, Juan M.

2017-01-01

The Southern Annular Mode (SAM) is the main driver of climate variability at mid to high latitudes in the Southern Hemisphere, affecting wildfire activity, which in turn pollutes the air and contributes to human health problems and mortality, and potentially provides strong feedback to the climate system through emissions and land cover changes. Here we report the largest Southern Hemisphere network of annually resolved tree ring fire histories, consisting of 1,767 fire-scarred trees from 97 sites (from 22 °S to 54 °S) in southern South America (SAS), to quantify the coupling of SAM and regional wildfire variability using recently created multicentury proxy indices of SAM for the years 1531–2010 AD. We show that at interannual time scales, as well as at multidecadal time scales across 37–54 °S, latitudinal gradient elevated wildfire activity is synchronous with positive phases of the SAM over the years 1665–1995. Positive phases of the SAM are associated primarily with warm conditions in these biomass-rich forests, in which widespread fire activity depends on fuel desiccation. Climate modeling studies indicate that greenhouse gases will force SAM into its positive phase even if stratospheric ozone returns to normal levels, so that climate conditions conducive to widespread fire activity in SAS will continue throughout the 21st century. PMID:28827329

Wildfire effects on a ponderosa pine ecosystem: An Arizona case study

Treesearch

R. E. Campbell; Jr. Baker; P. F. Ffolliott; F. R. Larson; C. C. Avery

1977-01-01

A wildfire of variable severity swept through 717 acres (290 ha) of ponderosa pine forest in north-central Arizona in May 1972. Where the fire was intense it killed 90% of the small trees and 50% of the sawtimber, burned 2.6 in (6.5 cm) of forest floor to the mineral soil, and induced a water-repellent layer in the sandier soils. The reduced infiltration rates, which...

Recovery of carbon pools a decade after wildfire in black spruce forests of interior Alaska: effects of soil texture and landscape position

Treesearch

Gregory P. Houle; Evan S. Kane; Eric S. Kasischke; Carolyn M. Gibson; Merritt R. Turetsky

2017-01-01

We measured organic-layer (OL) recovery and carbon stocks in dead woody debris a decade after wildfire in black spruce (Picea mariana (Mill.) B.S.P.) forests of interior Alaska. Previous study at these research plots has shown the strong role that landscape position plays in governing the proportion of OL consumed during fire and revegetation after...

Surface fuel treatments in young, regenerating stands affect wildfire severity in a mixed conifer forest, eastside Cascade Range, Washington, USA

Treesearch

Christina Lyons-Tinsley; David L. Peterson

2012-01-01

Previous studies have debated the flammability of young regenerating stands, especially those in a matrix of mature forest, and no consensus has emerged as to whether young stands are inherently prone to high-severity wildfire. This topic has recently been addressed using spatial imagery, and weak inferences were made given the scale mismatch between the coarse...

Survival of Phytophthora ramorum following wildfires in the sudden oak death-impacted forests of the Big Sur region

Treesearch

Maia M. Beh; Margaret Metz; Kerri Frangioso; David Rizzo

2013-01-01

The summer of 2008 brought the first wildfires to occur in known Phytophthora ramorum-infested forests in California, with the largest individual fire burning in the Big Sur region of the central coast (Monterey County) (Metz et al. 2011). More than 100,000 ha in Big Sur were ultimately burned that summer, providing a natural experiment to examine...

Wildfires

MedlinePlus

... is an unplanned fire that burns in a natural area such as a forest, grassland, or prairie. Wildfires can: Often be caused by humans or lightning. Cause flooding or disrupt transportation, gas, power, and communications. Happen anywhere, anytime. Risk increases ...

The Application of a WEPP Technology to a Complex Watershed Analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Elliot, William; Miller, Ina Sue; Dobre, Mariana

2017-04-01

Forest restoration activities are essential in many forest stands, where previous management and fire suppression has resulted in stands with high density, diseased trees and excessive fuel loads. Trying to balance the watershed impacts of restoration activities such as thinning, selective harvesting, and prescribed fire against the significant impact of wildfire is challenging. The process is further aggravated by the necessity of a road network if management activities include timber removal. We propose to present an approach to a watershed analysis for a 3400-ha of fuel reduction project within an 18,0000-ha sensitive watershed in the Nez Perce National Forest in Northern Idaho, USA. The FlamMap fire spread model was first used to predict the distribution of potential fire severity on the landscape for the current fuel load, and for a landscape that had been treated by thinning and/or prescribed fire. FlamMap predicts the flame length by 30-m pixel as a function of fuel load and water content, wind speed, and slope steepness and aspect. The flame length distribution was then classified so that the distribution of burn severity (unburned, low, moderate and high severity) was similar to the distributions observed on recent wildfires in the Forest. The flame length classes determined for the current fuel loads were also used for the treated condition flame lengths, where predominantly unburned or low severity fire severities were predicted. The burn severity maps were uploaded to a web site that was developed to provide soil and management files reflecting burn severity and soil texture, formatted for the Geospatial interface to the Water Erosion Prediction Project (GeoWEPP). The study area was divided into 40 sub watersheds under 2.5 km2 each for GeoWEPP analysis. GeoWEPP was run for an undisturbed forest; for the burn severity following wildfire for the current and treated fuel loads; for prescribed fire, either broadcast or jack pot burn; and for thinning either by tractor or by skyline logging. The GeoWEPP erosion estimates by hillslope polygon were merged with the proposed treatment polygons to produce maps of erosion for each condition for each treatment polygon. Road network erosion was estimated using a new online GIS tool to estimate road segment length and steepness, and linking those topographic values to the WEPP model for erosion prediction by road segment. The results were summarized and compared to earlier estimates of sediment delivery using a locally-developed cumulative watershed effects analysis. The results were similar from both tools, in spite of using very different erosion estimation methods, and similar to regional observations of forest watershed sediment delivery ( 12.5 Mg/sq km). The study found that the erosion risk from wildfire was 5 times greater than sediment generated by forest management, justifying the proposed restoration activities to reduce fire risk. Sediment generated from the road network, however, was unacceptably high suggesting that methods improve road erosion prediction and/or to reduce road erosion are warranted.

Temporal and Spatial Wildfire Dynamics of Northern Siberia: Larch Forests and Insect Outbreak Areas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kharuk, Viacheslav; Antamoshkina, Olga; Ponomarev, Eugene

2017-04-01

Wildfire number and burned area temporal dynamics within all of Siberia and along a south-north transect in central Siberia (45 - 73°N) were studied based on NOAA/AVHRR and Terra/MODIS data and field measurements for the period since 1996. In addition, fire return interval along the south-north transect was analyzed. Third, pest outbreak (Siberian silkmoth) impact on the wildfires was studied. Both, number of forest fires and burned area in Siberia increased during recent decades. Significant correlations were found between forest fires, burned areas and air temperature (r = 0.5) and drought index (SPEI) (r = -0.43). Within larch stands along the transect wildfire frequency was strongly correlated with incoming solar radiation (r = 0.91). Fire danger period length decreased linearly from south to north along the transect. Fire return interval increased from 80 years at 62°N to 200 years at the Arctic Circle (66°33'N), and to about 300 years near the northern limit of closed forest stands ( 71+°N). That increase was negatively correlated with incoming solar radiation (r = -0.95). Siberian silkmoth outbreaks leads to an order of magnitude increase in burned area and fire frequency. Multiple fires turns former "dark needle conifer" taiga into grass and bush communities for decades.

Prescribed fire as a means of reducing forest carbon emissions in the western United States.

PubMed

Wiedinmyer, Christine; Hurteau, Matthew D

2010-03-15

Carbon sequestration by forested ecosystems offers a potential climate change mitigation benefit. However, wildfire has the potential to reverse this benefit In the western United States, climate change and land management practices have led to increases in wildfire intensity and size. One potential means of reducing carbon emissions from wildfire is the use of prescribed burning,which consumes less biomass and therefore releases less carbon to the atmosphere. This study uses a regional fire emissions model to estimate the potential reduction in fire emissions when prescribed burning is applied in dry, temperate forested systems of the western U.S. Daily carbon dioxide (CO(2)) fire emissions for 2001-2008 were calculated for the western U.S. for two cases: a default wildfire case and one in which prescribed burning was applied. Wide-scale prescribed fire application can reduce CO(2) fire emissions for the western U.S. by 18-25%1 in the western U.S., and by as much as 60% in specific forest systems. Although this work does not address important considerations such as the feasibility of implementing wide-scale prescribed fire management or the cumulative emissions from repeated prescribed burning, it does provide constraints on potential carbon emission reductions when prescribed burning is used.

Historical wildfire impacts on ponderosa pine tree overstories: An Arizona case study

Treesearch

Peter F. Ffolliott; Cody L. Stropki; Daniel G. Neary

2008-01-01

The Rodeo-Chediski Wildfire--the largest in Arizona's history--damaged or destroyed ecosystem resources and disrupted ecosystem functioning in a largely mosaic pattern throughout the ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) forests exposed to the burn. Impacts of this wildfire on tree overstories were studied for 5 years (2002 to 2007) on two watersheds...

Fire in the South 2: The southern wildfire risk assessment

Treesearch

A. Andreu; L.A. Hermansen-Baez

2008-01-01

The South is one of the fastest growing regions in the nation, with an estimated population growth of 1.5 million people per year. The South also consistently has the highest number of wildfires per year. Population growth is pushing housing developments further into natural and forested areas where most of these wildfires occur. This...

Measuring the effect of fuel treatments on forest carbon using landscape risk analysis

Treesearch

A.A. Ager; M.A. Finney; A. McMahan; J. Carthcart

2010-01-01

Wildfire simulation modelling was used to examine whether fuel reduction treatments can potentially reduce future wildfire emissions and provide carbon benefits. In contrast to previous reports, the current study modelled landscape scale effects of fuel treatments on fire spread and intensity, and used a probabilistic framework to quantify wildfire effects on carbon...

Wildfire risk as a socioecological pathology

Treesearch

A Paige Fischer; Thomas A Spies; Toddi A Steelman; Cassandra Moseley; Bart R Johnson; John D Bailey; Alan A Ager; Patrick Bourgeron; Susan Charnley; Brandon M Collins; Jeff Kline; Jessica E Leahy; Jeremy S Littell; James DA Millington; Max Nielsen-Pincus; Christine S Olsen; Travis B Paveglio; Christopher I Roos; Michelle M Steen-Adams; Forrest R Stevens; Jelena Vukomanovic; Eric White; David MJS Bowman

2016-01-01

Wildfire risk in temperate forests has become a nearly intractable problem that can be characterized as a socioecological “pathology”: that is, a set of complex and problematic interactions among social and ecological systems across multiple spatial and temporal scales. Assessments of wildfire risk could benefit from recognizing and accounting for these interactions in...

Harvesting morels after wildfire in Alaska.

Treesearch

Tricia L. Wurtz; Amy L. Wiita; Nancy S. Weber; David Pilz

2005-01-01

Morels are edible, choice wild mushrooms that sometimes fruit prolifically in the years immediately after an area has been burned by wildfire. Wildfires are common in interior Alaska; an average of 708,700 acres burned each year in interior Alaska between 1961 and 2000, and in major fire years, over 2 million acres burned. We discuss Alaska's boreal forest...

Community wildfire protection plans: enhancing collaboration and building scoial capacity

Treesearch

Daniel R. Williams; Pamela J. Jakes; Sam Burns; Antony Cheng

2009-01-01

The Healthy Forest Restoration Act of 2003 (HFRA) was enacted to reduce wildfire risk to communities and other at-risk lands through a collaborative process of planning, prioritizing and implementing hazardous fuel reduction projects. One of the key features of HFRA is the development of community wildfire protection plans (CWPPs). We studied the development of CWPPs...

Adapt to more wildfire in western North American forests as climate changes.

PubMed

Schoennagel, Tania; Balch, Jennifer K; Brenkert-Smith, Hannah; Dennison, Philip E; Harvey, Brian J; Krawchuk, Meg A; Mietkiewicz, Nathan; Morgan, Penelope; Moritz, Max A; Rasker, Ray; Turner, Monica G; Whitlock, Cathy

2017-05-02

Wildfires across western North America have increased in number and size over the past three decades, and this trend will continue in response to further warming. As a consequence, the wildland-urban interface is projected to experience substantially higher risk of climate-driven fires in the coming decades. Although many plants, animals, and ecosystem services benefit from fire, it is unknown how ecosystems will respond to increased burning and warming. Policy and management have focused primarily on specified resilience approaches aimed at resistance to wildfire and restoration of areas burned by wildfire through fire suppression and fuels management. These strategies are inadequate to address a new era of western wildfires. In contrast, policies that promote adaptive resilience to wildfire, by which people and ecosystems adjust and reorganize in response to changing fire regimes to reduce future vulnerability, are needed. Key aspects of an adaptive resilience approach are ( i ) recognizing that fuels reduction cannot alter regional wildfire trends; ( ii ) targeting fuels reduction to increase adaptation by some ecosystems and residential communities to more frequent fire; ( iii ) actively managing more wild and prescribed fires with a range of severities; and ( iv ) incentivizing and planning residential development to withstand inevitable wildfire. These strategies represent a shift in policy and management from restoring ecosystems based on historical baselines to adapting to changing fire regimes and from unsustainable defense of the wildland-urban interface to developing fire-adapted communities. We propose an approach that accepts wildfire as an inevitable catalyst of change and that promotes adaptive responses by ecosystems and residential communities to more warming and wildfire.

Adapt to more wildfire in western North American forests as climate changes

PubMed Central

Schoennagel, Tania; Balch, Jennifer K.; Brenkert-Smith, Hannah; Harvey, Brian J.; Mietkiewicz, Nathan; Morgan, Penelope; Moritz, Max A.; Rasker, Ray; Turner, Monica G.; Whitlock, Cathy

2017-01-01

Wildfires across western North America have increased in number and size over the past three decades, and this trend will continue in response to further warming. As a consequence, the wildland–urban interface is projected to experience substantially higher risk of climate-driven fires in the coming decades. Although many plants, animals, and ecosystem services benefit from fire, it is unknown how ecosystems will respond to increased burning and warming. Policy and management have focused primarily on specified resilience approaches aimed at resistance to wildfire and restoration of areas burned by wildfire through fire suppression and fuels management. These strategies are inadequate to address a new era of western wildfires. In contrast, policies that promote adaptive resilience to wildfire, by which people and ecosystems adjust and reorganize in response to changing fire regimes to reduce future vulnerability, are needed. Key aspects of an adaptive resilience approach are (i) recognizing that fuels reduction cannot alter regional wildfire trends; (ii) targeting fuels reduction to increase adaptation by some ecosystems and residential communities to more frequent fire; (iii) actively managing more wild and prescribed fires with a range of severities; and (iv) incentivizing and planning residential development to withstand inevitable wildfire. These strategies represent a shift in policy and management from restoring ecosystems based on historical baselines to adapting to changing fire regimes and from unsustainable defense of the wildland–urban interface to developing fire-adapted communities. We propose an approach that accepts wildfire as an inevitable catalyst of change and that promotes adaptive responses by ecosystems and residential communities to more warming and wildfire. PMID:28416662

78 FR 21590 - Coconino National Forest; Arizona; Flagstaff Watershed Protection Project

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-04-11

... also cause extensive damage to private municipal property should a high-intensity wildfire occur in... would be necessarily to implement the proposed activities. Treatments would include mechanical and hand thinning as well as prescribed fire on approximately 8,810 acres. Mechanical tree thinning would occur...

Physico-chemical and microbial perturbations of Andalusian pine forest soils following a wildfire.

PubMed

Rodríguez, Juana; González-Pérez, José A; Turmero, Adriana; Hernández, Manuel; Ball, Andrew S; González-Vila, Francisco J; Arias, M Enriqueta

2018-09-01

Wildfires are a recurrent disturbance in Mediterranean forests, triggered by high fuel load, high environmental temperature and low humidity. Although, human intervention is behind the initiation of most fire episodes, the situation is likely to worsen in the future due to the effects of climate change in the Mediterranean "hot-spot". Here we study chemical, physical and microbial characteristics of burnt soils from two well differentiated sites at Sierra de Cazorla, Segura and Las Villas Natural Park, Andalusia, (Spain) affected and unaffected by a wildfire, and followed their evolution for three years. The soils affected by a severe surface burn showed a significant increase in organic matter after 3years from the fire. Viable bacteria and fungi also increased, especially 2-3years post-burning. Substrate induced respiration (SIR) also increased significantly in burnt soil from site 1 (rendzina on carbonate) while a significant decrease was observed in the burnt soils sampled from site 2 (calcic luvisols) in samples taken one month after the wildfire. A recovery in both SIR and organic matter was observed after 2 and 3years. Of seven soil enzymes studied, only phosphatase activity was significantly higher in most burnt soils over the three years. Analysis of bacterial community diversity using clone libraries showed a recovery in the number of phyla in burnt soils after 2 and 3years in both sites, with an increase in Proteobacteria and Firmicutes and a decrease in Acidobacteria phyla. For Bacteroidetes, the percentages were lower in most burnt samples. This study reveals that if wildfire increases the organic matter availability, then the microbial community responds with increased activity and biomass production. Although fire exerts an initial impact on the soil bacterial community, its structure and functional profile soon recovers (after 2-3years) contributing to soil recovery. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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)

Effects of a large wildfire on vegetation structure in a variable fire mosaic.

PubMed

Foster, C N; Barton, P S; Robinson, N M; MacGregor, C I; Lindenmayer, D B

2017-12-01

Management guidelines for many fire-prone ecosystems highlight the importance of maintaining a variable mosaic of fire histories for biodiversity conservation. Managers are encouraged to aim for fire mosaics that are temporally and spatially dynamic, include all successional states of vegetation, and also include variation in the underlying "invisible mosaic" of past fire frequencies, severities, and fire return intervals. However, establishing and maintaining variable mosaics in contemporary landscapes is subject to many challenges, one of which is deciding how the fire mosaic should be managed following the occurrence of large, unplanned wildfires. A key consideration for this decision is the extent to which the effects of previous fire history on vegetation and habitats persist after major wildfires, but this topic has rarely been investigated empirically. In this study, we tested to what extent a large wildfire interacted with previous fire history to affect the structure of forest, woodland, and heath vegetation in Booderee National Park in southeastern Australia. In 2003, a summer wildfire burned 49.5% of the park, increasing the extent of recently burned vegetation (<10 yr post-fire) to more than 72% of the park area. We tracked the recovery of vegetation structure for nine years following the wildfire and found that the strength and persistence of fire effects differed substantially between vegetation types. Vegetation structure was modified by wildfire in forest, woodland, and heath vegetation, but among-site variability in vegetation structure was reduced only by severe fire in woodland vegetation. There also were persistent legacy effects of the previous fire regime on some attributes of vegetation structure including forest ground and understorey cover, and woodland midstorey and overstorey cover. For example, woodland midstorey cover was greater on sites with higher fire frequency, irrespective of the severity of the 2003 wildfire. Our results show that even after a large, severe wildfire, underlying fire histories can contribute substantially to variation in vegetation structure. This highlights the importance of ensuring that efforts to reinstate variation in vegetation fire age after large wildfires do not inadvertently reduce variation in vegetation structure generated by the underlying invisible mosaic. © 2017 by the Ecological Society of America.

Wildfire policy and management in England: an evolving response from Fire and Rescue Services, forestry and cross-sector groups

PubMed Central

McMorrow, Julia; Aylen, Jonathan

2016-01-01

Severe wildfires are an intermittent problem in England. The paper presents the first analysis of wildfire policy, showing its halting evolution over two decades. First efforts to coordinate wildfire management came from local fire operation groups, where stakeholders such as fire services, land owners and amenity groups shared knowledge and equipment to tackle the problem. A variety of structures and informal management solutions emerged in response to local needs. Knowledge of wildfire accumulated within regional and national wildfire forums and academic networks. Only later did the need for central emergency planning and the response to climate change produce a national policy response. Fire statistics have allowed wildfires to be spatially evidenced on a national scale only since 2009. National awareness of wildfire was spurred by the 2011 fire season, and the high-impact Swinley Forest fire, which threatened critical infrastructure and communities within 50 miles of London. Severe wildfire was included in the National Risk Register for the first time in 2013. Cross-sector approaches to wildfire proved difficult as government responsibility is fragmented along the hazard chain. Stakeholders such as the Forestry Commission pioneered good practice in adaptive land management to build fire resilience into UK forests. The grass-roots evolution of participatory solutions has also been a key enabling process. A coordinated policy is now needed to identify best practice and to promote understanding of the role of fire in the ecosystem. This article is part of a themed issue ‘The interaction of fire and mankind’. PMID:27216511

Wildfire policy and management in England: an evolving response from Fire and Rescue Services, forestry and cross-sector groups.

PubMed

Gazzard, Rob; McMorrow, Julia; Aylen, Jonathan

2016-06-05

Severe wildfires are an intermittent problem in England. The paper presents the first analysis of wildfire policy, showing its halting evolution over two decades. First efforts to coordinate wildfire management came from local fire operation groups, where stakeholders such as fire services, land owners and amenity groups shared knowledge and equipment to tackle the problem. A variety of structures and informal management solutions emerged in response to local needs. Knowledge of wildfire accumulated within regional and national wildfire forums and academic networks. Only later did the need for central emergency planning and the response to climate change produce a national policy response. Fire statistics have allowed wildfires to be spatially evidenced on a national scale only since 2009. National awareness of wildfire was spurred by the 2011 fire season, and the high-impact Swinley Forest fire, which threatened critical infrastructure and communities within 50 miles of London. Severe wildfire was included in the National Risk Register for the first time in 2013. Cross-sector approaches to wildfire proved difficult as government responsibility is fragmented along the hazard chain. Stakeholders such as the Forestry Commission pioneered good practice in adaptive land management to build fire resilience into UK forests. The grass-roots evolution of participatory solutions has also been a key enabling process. A coordinated policy is now needed to identify best practice and to promote understanding of the role of fire in the ecosystem.This article is part of a themed issue 'The interaction of fire and mankind'. © 2016 The Author(s).

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 fire resilience for multiple objectives in multi-owner landscapes. © 2018 by the Ecological Society of America.

Quantifying the Carbon Balance of Forest Restoration and Wildfire under Projected Climate in the Fire-Prone Southwestern US.

PubMed

Hurteau, Matthew D

2017-01-01

Climate projections for the southwestern US suggest a warmer, drier future and have the potential to impact forest carbon (C) sequestration and post-fire C recovery. Restoring forest structure and surface fire regimes initially decreases total ecosystem carbon (TEC), but can stabilize the remaining C by moderating wildfire behavior. Previous research has demonstrated that fire maintained forests can store more C over time than fire suppressed forests in the presence of wildfire. However, because the climate future is uncertain, I sought to determine the efficacy of forest management to moderate fire behavior and its effect on forest C dynamics under current and projected climate. I used the LANDIS-II model to simulate carbon dynamics under early (2010-2019), mid (2050-2059), and late (2090-2099) century climate projections for a ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) dominated landscape in northern Arizona. I ran 100-year simulations with two different treatments (control, thin and burn) and a 1 in 50 chance of wildfire occurring. I found that control TEC had a consistent decline throughout the simulation period, regardless of climate. Thin and burn TEC increased following treatment implementation and showed more differentiation than the control in response to climate, with late-century climate having the lowest TEC. Treatment efficacy, as measured by mean fire severity, was not impacted by climate. Fire effects were evident in the cumulative net ecosystem exchange (NEE) for the different treatments. Over the simulation period, 32.8-48.9% of the control landscape was either C neutral or a C source to the atmosphere and greater than 90% of the thin and burn landscape was a moderate C sink. These results suggest that in southwestern ponderosa pine, restoring forest structure and surface fire regimes provides a reasonable hedge against the uncertainty of future climate change for maintaining the forest C sink.

Quantifying the Carbon Balance of Forest Restoration and Wildfire under Projected Climate in the Fire-Prone Southwestern US

PubMed Central

2017-01-01

Climate projections for the southwestern US suggest a warmer, drier future and have the potential to impact forest carbon (C) sequestration and post-fire C recovery. Restoring forest structure and surface fire regimes initially decreases total ecosystem carbon (TEC), but can stabilize the remaining C by moderating wildfire behavior. Previous research has demonstrated that fire maintained forests can store more C over time than fire suppressed forests in the presence of wildfire. However, because the climate future is uncertain, I sought to determine the efficacy of forest management to moderate fire behavior and its effect on forest C dynamics under current and projected climate. I used the LANDIS-II model to simulate carbon dynamics under early (2010–2019), mid (2050–2059), and late (2090–2099) century climate projections for a ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) dominated landscape in northern Arizona. I ran 100-year simulations with two different treatments (control, thin and burn) and a 1 in 50 chance of wildfire occurring. I found that control TEC had a consistent decline throughout the simulation period, regardless of climate. Thin and burn TEC increased following treatment implementation and showed more differentiation than the control in response to climate, with late-century climate having the lowest TEC. Treatment efficacy, as measured by mean fire severity, was not impacted by climate. Fire effects were evident in the cumulative net ecosystem exchange (NEE) for the different treatments. Over the simulation period, 32.8–48.9% of the control landscape was either C neutral or a C source to the atmosphere and greater than 90% of the thin and burn landscape was a moderate C sink. These results suggest that in southwestern ponderosa pine, restoring forest structure and surface fire regimes provides a reasonable hedge against the uncertainty of future climate change for maintaining the forest C sink. PMID:28046079

Wildland fire emissions, carbon, and climate: Seeing the forest and the trees - A cross-scale assessment of wildfire and carbon dynamics in fire-prone, forested ecosystems

Treesearch

Rachel A. Loehman; Elizabeth Reinhardt; Karin L. Riley

2014-01-01

Wildfires are an important component of the terrestrial carbon cycle and one of the main pathways for movement of carbon from the land surface to the atmosphere. Fires have received much attention in recent years as potential catalysts for shifting landscapes from carbon sinks to carbon sources. Unless structural or functional ecosystem shifts occur, net carbon balance...

Abundance of Black-backed woodpeckers and other birds in relation to disturbance and forest structure in the Black Hills and Bear Lodge Mountains of South Dakota and Wyoming

Treesearch

Elizabeth A. Matseur

2017-01-01

Natural disturbances, such as wildfire and mountain pine beetle (Dentroctonus ponderosae, hereafter MPB) infestations, are two sources of large-scale disturbance that can significantly alter forest structure in the Black Hills. The Black Hills has recently experienced one of the largest MPB outbreaks in the last 100 years, along with varying levels of wildfires...

Wildfire may increase habitat quality for spring Chinook salmon in the Wenatchee River subbasin, WA, USA

Treesearch

Rebecca L. Flitcroft; Jeffrey A. Falke; Gordon H. Reeves; Paul F. Hessburg; Kris M. McNyset; Lee E. Benda

2016-01-01

Pacific Northwest salmonids are adapted to natural disturbance regimes that create dynamic habitat patterns over space and through time. However, human land use, particularly long-term fire suppression, has altered the intensity and frequency of wildfire in forested upland and riparian areas. To examine the potential impacts of wildfire on aquatic systems, we developed...

Evaluating alternative prescribed burning policies to reduce net economic damages from wildfire

Treesearch

D. Evan Mercer; Jeffrey P. Prestemon; David T. Butry; John M. Pye

2007-01-01

We estimate a wildfire risk model with a new measure of wildfire output, intensity-weighted risk and use it in Monte Carlo simulations to estimate welfare changes from alternative prescribed burning policies. Using Volusia County, Florida as a case study, an annual prescribed burning rate of 13% of all forest lands maximizes net welfare; ignoring the effects on...

Evidence of fuels management and fire weather influencing fire severity in an extreme fire event

Treesearch

Jamie M. Lydersen; Brandon M. Collins; Matthew L. Brooks; John R. Matchett; Kristen L. Shive; Nicholas A. Povak; Van R. Kane; Douglas F. Smith

2017-01-01

Following changes in vegetation structure and pattern, along with a changing climate, large wildfire incidence has increased in forests throughout the western U.S. Given this increase there is great interest in whether fuels treatments and previous wildfire can alter fire severity patterns in large wildfires. We assessed the relative influence of previous fuels...

Post-wildfire seeding in forests of the western United States: An evidence-based review

Treesearch

Donna Peppin; Peter Z. Fule; Carolyn Hull Sieg; Jan L. Beyers; Molly E. Hunter

2010-01-01

Broadcast seeding is one of the most widely used post-wildfire emergency response treatments intended to reduce soil erosion, increase vegetative ground cover, and minimize establishment and spread of non-native plant species. We conducted an evidence-based review to examine the effectiveness and effects of post-wildfire seeding treatments on soil stabilization, non-...

Outreach programs, peer pressure, and common sense: What motivates homeowners to mitigate wildfire risk?

Treesearch

Sarah M. McCaffrey; Melanie Stidham; Eric Toman; Bruce Shindler

2011-01-01

In recent years, altered forest conditions, climate change, and the increasing numbers of homes built in fire prone areas has meant that wildfires are affecting more people. An important part of minimizing the potential negative impacts of wildfire is engaging homeowners in mitigating the fire hazard on their land. It is therefore important to understand what makes...

Texas Disasters II: Utilizing NASA Earth Observations to Assist the Texas Forest Service in Mapping and Analyzing Fuel Loads and Phenology in Texas Grasslands

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Brooke, Michael; Williams, Meredith; Fenn, Teresa

2016-01-01

The risk of severe wildfires in Texas has been related to weather phenomena such as climate change and recent urban expansion into wild land areas. During recent years, Texas wild land areas have experienced sequences of wet and dry years that have contributed to increased wildfire risk and frequency. To prevent and contain wildfires, the Texas Forest Service (TFS) is tasked with evaluating and reducing potential fire risk to better manage and distribute resources. This task is made more difficult due to the vast and varied landscape of Texas. The TFS assesses fire risk by understanding vegetative fuel types and fuel loads. To better assist the TFS, NASA Earth observations, including Landsat and Moderate Resolution Imaging Specrtoradiometer (MODIS) data, were analyzed to produce maps of vegetation type and specific vegetation phenology as it related to potential wildfire fuel loads. Fuel maps from 2010-2011 and 2014-2015 fire seasons, created by the Texas Disasters I project, were used and provided alternating, complementary map indicators of wildfire risk in Texas. The TFS will utilize the end products and capabilities to evaluate and better understand wildfire risk across Texas.

Can post-wildfire Burned Area Emergency Response treatments mitigate watershed degradation?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Neary, D.; Ffolliott, P.; Bautista, S.; Wittenberg, L.

2009-04-01

Wildfire is a natural phenomenon that began with the development of terrestrial vegetation in a lightning-filled atmosphere 350 million years ago. As human populations developed in the Pleistocene and Holocene epochs, mankind transformed fire into one of its oldest tools. A negative impact of prime concern in the 21st Century is desertification. This term refers to land degradation, not the immediate creation of classical deserts. It is about the loss of the land's proper hydrologic function and biological productivity as a result of human activities and climate change. It affects 33% of the earth's surface and over a billion people. Fire-related desertification has a number of environmental, social, and economic consequences. The two key environmental consequences are soil erosion and exotic plant invasions. Wildfires typically have exotic plant species abundances ten times that of undisturbed forests (Neary et al. 2003). Seeding has been used for many years in the USA as a prime Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) treatment. Until recently, this seeding contributed to exotic plant invasions since fast-growing, but non native plants seeds were used. The use of native plant seeds and sterile hybrids has reduced this problem somewhat. Erosion after wildfires documented in the USA can be in the range of <1 to 370 Mg/ha, depending on fire severity, degree of water repellency, slope, and post-fire rainfall events. Soil losses in the high end of that range definitely exceed soil loss tolerances and contribute to desertification. Soil disturbance and degradation after wildfires is a function of fire severity, and the impacts can range from the minimal to catastrophic and long-lasting. The most obvious impact is the loss of organic matter from combustion of the forest floor. Changes in soil physical and chemical properties with high-severity wildfire can produce water repellency, aggravating rainfall runoff and erosion. Since soils take long times to form (50 to 75,000 years), degradation as a result of wildfire-related erosion or soil property changes can result in severe and rapid desertification. Soil degradation is a "one-way street" not easily reversed. Although trees can be replanted on burned sites, soil lost in erosion is rarely replaced, just rehabilitated. There are techniques to rehabilitate these degraded soils but they are quite expensive. Disruptions to soil micro-fauna and micro-flora can also reduce post-fire site vegetation productivity. An environmental consequence of wildfire related to soil disturbance, is the loss of hydrologic function. Again, the level of hydrologic function loss is related to fire severity. Although this ecosystem function tends to recover within 5 - 10 years after wildfire as vegetation cover returns, the immediate impacts can be considerable. The removal of the protective layer of the forest floor by combustion, and the development of water repellent layers in the soil combine to aggrevate flood potentials. Flood peak flows after wildfires with high percentages of high severity wildfire (>30%) commonly have increases of 10-fold. Higher increases (20 to 2,000 fold) have been measured as the percentage of high-severity soil damage approaches 100%. The other side of high flood runoff is the reduction in baseflow that sustains stream flow due to the reduction in rainfall infiltration. This has water supply implications for forested watersheds that are sources for municipal water supplies. In addition, post-wildfire ash slurry flows can substantially degrade the quality of municipal water sources. Although this phenomenon is relatively short lived (<2 years), it can have serious supply impacts. This paper examines the capabilities of BAER treatments in dealing with this problem.

Impacts of Wildfire on Interception Losses and Net Precipitation in a Sub-Alpine Rocky Mountain Watershed in Alberta, Canada.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Williams, C.; Silins, U.; Wagner, M. J.; Bladon, K. D.; Martens, A. M.; Anderson, A.; Stone, M.; Emelko, M. B.

2014-12-01

Interception of precipitation in sub-alpine forests is likely to be strongly reduced after wildfire, potentially producing large increases in net precipitation. Objectives of this study were to describe changes in rainfall and snow interception, and net precipitation after the severe 2003 Lost Creek wildfire as part of the Southern Rockies Watershed Project in the south-west Rocky Mountains of Alberta, Canada. Throughfall troughs and stemflow gauges were used to explore relationships between throughfall, stemflow, and net rainfall with variation in gross rainfall in burned and undisturbed stands during the summers of 2006-2008. These relationships were used to scale the effects of the wildfire on net rainfall for the first decade after the wildfire (2004-2013) using a 10 year rainfall record in the watershed. Annual snowpack surveys (5 snow courses in each of burned and reference stands) measured peak snowpack depth, density, and snow water equivalent (SWE) for this same period. Mean annual P was 1140 mm (684-1519 mm) during the first 10 years after the wildfire, with 61% falling as snow. Throughfall and stemflow in the burned forest accounted for 86% and 7% of gross rainfall, respectively, compared with 53% and 0.002% in the unburned stands in the summers of 2006-2008. Scaled rainfall interception relationships (=f(rainfall event size)) indicated annual increases in net rainfall were 192 mm/yr (133-347 mm) for 10 years after the fire. Similarly, mean increases in peak SWE were 134 mm/yr (93-216 mm). Collectively, the mean increase in net precipitation was 325 mm/yr (226-563 mm; 29%) for the first decade after the wildfire. Hydrologic forcing by increased net precipitation may be a particularly important element of wildfire impacts on sub-alpine watersheds. Furthermore, because of the very slow growth rates of sub-alpine forests, increases in net precipitation are likely to persist and affect precipitation-runoff relationships for decades in these environments.

Risk and Cooperation: Managing Hazardous Fuel in Mixed Ownership Landscapes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fischer, A. Paige; Charnley, Susan

2012-06-01

Managing natural processes at the landscape scale to promote forest health is important, especially in the case of wildfire, where the ability of a landowner to protect his or her individual parcel is constrained by conditions on neighboring ownerships. However, management at a landscape scale is also challenging because it requires cooperation on plans and actions that cross ownership boundaries. Cooperation depends on people's beliefs and norms about reciprocity and perceptions of the risks and benefits of interacting with others. Using logistic regression tests on mail survey data and qualitative analysis of interviews with landowners, we examined the relationship between perceived wildfire risk and cooperation in the management of hazardous fuel by nonindustrial private forest (NIPF) owners in fire-prone landscapes of eastern Oregon. We found that NIPF owners who perceived a risk of wildfire to their properties, and perceived that conditions on nearby public forestlands contributed to this risk, were more likely to have cooperated with public agencies in the past to reduce fire risk than owners who did not perceive a risk of wildfire to their properties. Wildfire risk perception was not associated with past cooperation among NIPF owners. The greater social barriers to private-private cooperation than to private-public cooperation, and perceptions of more hazardous conditions on public compared with private forestlands may explain this difference. Owners expressed a strong willingness to cooperate with others in future cross-boundary efforts to reduce fire risk, however. We explore barriers to cooperative forest management across ownerships, and identify models of cooperation that hold potential for future collective action to reduce wildfire risk.

Risk and cooperation: managing hazardous fuel in mixed ownership landscapes.

PubMed

Fischer, A Paige; Charnley, Susan

2012-06-01

Managing natural processes at the landscape scale to promote forest health is important, especially in the case of wildfire, where the ability of a landowner to protect his or her individual parcel is constrained by conditions on neighboring ownerships. However, management at a landscape scale is also challenging because it requires cooperation on plans and actions that cross ownership boundaries. Cooperation depends on people's beliefs and norms about reciprocity and perceptions of the risks and benefits of interacting with others. Using logistic regression tests on mail survey data and qualitative analysis of interviews with landowners, we examined the relationship between perceived wildfire risk and cooperation in the management of hazardous fuel by nonindustrial private forest (NIPF) owners in fire-prone landscapes of eastern Oregon. We found that NIPF owners who perceived a risk of wildfire to their properties, and perceived that conditions on nearby public forestlands contributed to this risk, were more likely to have cooperated with public agencies in the past to reduce fire risk than owners who did not perceive a risk of wildfire to their properties. Wildfire risk perception was not associated with past cooperation among NIPF owners. The greater social barriers to private-private cooperation than to private-public cooperation, and perceptions of more hazardous conditions on public compared with private forestlands may explain this difference. Owners expressed a strong willingness to cooperate with others in future cross-boundary efforts to reduce fire risk, however. We explore barriers to cooperative forest management across ownerships, and identify models of cooperation that hold potential for future collective action to reduce wildfire risk.

Compounding nonlinearities in the climate and wildfire system contribute to high uncertainty in estimates of future burned area in the western United State

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Williams, P.

2015-12-01

Ecological studies are increasingly recognizing the importance of atmospheric vapor-pressure deficit (VPD) as a driver of forest drought stress and disturbance processes such as wildfire. Because of the nonlinear Clausius-Clapeyron relationship between temperature and saturation vapor pressure, small variations in temperature can have large impacts on VPD, and therefore drought, particularly in warm, dry areas and particularly during the warm season. It is also clear that VPD and drought affect forest fire nonlinearly, as incremental drying leads to increasingly large burned areas. Forest fire is also affected by fuel amount and connectivity, which are promoted by vegetation growth in previous years, which is in turn promoted by lack of drought, highlighting the importance of nuances in the sequencing of natural interannual climate variations in modulating the impacts of drought on wildfire. The many factors affecting forest fire, and the nonlinearities embedded within the climate and wildfire systems, cause interannual variability in forest-fire area and frequency to be wildly variable and strongly affected by internal climate variability. In addition, warming over the past century has produced a background increase in forest fire frequency and area in many regions. In this talk I focus on the western United States and will explore whether the relationships between internal climate variability on forest fire area have been amplified by the effects of warming as a result of the compounding nonlinearities described above. I will then explore what this means for future burned area in the western United States and make the case that uncertainties in the future global greenhouse gas emissions trajectory, model projections of mean temperatures, model projections of precipitation, and model projections of natural climate variability translate to very large uncertainties in the effects of future climate variability on forest fire area in the United States and globally.

Multitemporal Modelling of Socio-Economic Wildfire Drivers in Central Spain between the 1980s and the 2000s: Comparing Generalized Linear Models to Machine Learning Algorithms

PubMed Central

Vilar, Lara; Gómez, Israel; Martínez-Vega, Javier; Echavarría, Pilar; Riaño, David; Martín, M. Pilar

2016-01-01

The socio-economic factors are of key importance during all phases of wildfire management that include prevention, suppression and restoration. However, modeling these factors, at the proper spatial and temporal scale to understand fire regimes is still challenging. This study analyses socio-economic drivers of wildfire occurrence in central Spain. This site represents a good example of how human activities play a key role over wildfires in the European Mediterranean basin. Generalized Linear Models (GLM) and machine learning Maximum Entropy models (Maxent) predicted wildfire occurrence in the 1980s and also in the 2000s to identify changes between each period in the socio-economic drivers affecting wildfire occurrence. GLM base their estimation on wildfire presence-absence observations whereas Maxent on wildfire presence-only. According to indicators like sensitivity or commission error Maxent outperformed GLM in both periods. It achieved a sensitivity of 38.9% and a commission error of 43.9% for the 1980s, and 67.3% and 17.9% for the 2000s. Instead, GLM obtained 23.33, 64.97, 9.41 and 18.34%, respectively. However GLM performed steadier than Maxent in terms of the overall fit. Both models explained wildfires from predictors such as population density and Wildland Urban Interface (WUI), but differed in their relative contribution. As a result of the urban sprawl and an abandonment of rural areas, predictors like WUI and distance to roads increased their contribution to both models in the 2000s, whereas Forest-Grassland Interface (FGI) influence decreased. This study demonstrates that human component can be modelled with a spatio-temporal dimension to integrate it into wildfire risk assessment. PMID:27557113

Multitemporal Modelling of Socio-Economic Wildfire Drivers in Central Spain between the 1980s and the 2000s: Comparing Generalized Linear Models to Machine Learning Algorithms.

PubMed

Vilar, Lara; Gómez, Israel; Martínez-Vega, Javier; Echavarría, Pilar; Riaño, David; Martín, M Pilar

2016-01-01

The socio-economic factors are of key importance during all phases of wildfire management that include prevention, suppression and restoration. However, modeling these factors, at the proper spatial and temporal scale to understand fire regimes is still challenging. This study analyses socio-economic drivers of wildfire occurrence in central Spain. This site represents a good example of how human activities play a key role over wildfires in the European Mediterranean basin. Generalized Linear Models (GLM) and machine learning Maximum Entropy models (Maxent) predicted wildfire occurrence in the 1980s and also in the 2000s to identify changes between each period in the socio-economic drivers affecting wildfire occurrence. GLM base their estimation on wildfire presence-absence observations whereas Maxent on wildfire presence-only. According to indicators like sensitivity or commission error Maxent outperformed GLM in both periods. It achieved a sensitivity of 38.9% and a commission error of 43.9% for the 1980s, and 67.3% and 17.9% for the 2000s. Instead, GLM obtained 23.33, 64.97, 9.41 and 18.34%, respectively. However GLM performed steadier than Maxent in terms of the overall fit. Both models explained wildfires from predictors such as population density and Wildland Urban Interface (WUI), but differed in their relative contribution. As a result of the urban sprawl and an abandonment of rural areas, predictors like WUI and distance to roads increased their contribution to both models in the 2000s, whereas Forest-Grassland Interface (FGI) influence decreased. This study demonstrates that human component can be modelled with a spatio-temporal dimension to integrate it into wildfire risk assessment.

Integrated wildfire risk assessment: framework development and application on the Lewis and Clark National Forest in Montana, USA.

PubMed

Thompson, Matthew P; Scott, Joe; Helmbrecht, Don; Calkin, Dave E

2013-04-01

The financial, socioeconomic, and ecological impacts of wildfire continue to challenge federal land management agencies in the United States. In recent years, policymakers and managers have increasingly turned to the field of risk analysis to better manage wildfires and to mitigate losses to highly valued resources and assets (HVRAs). Assessing wildfire risk entails the interaction of multiple components, including integrating wildfire simulation outputs with geospatial identification of HVRAs and the characterization of fire effects to HVRAs. We present an integrated and systematic risk assessment framework that entails 3 primary analytical components: 1) stochastic wildfire simulation and burn probability modeling to characterize wildfire hazard, 2) expert-based modeling to characterize fire effects, and 3) multicriteria decision analysis to characterize preference structures across at-risk HVRAs. We demonstrate application of this framework for a wildfire risk assessment performed on the Little Belts Assessment Area within the Lewis and Clark National Forest in Montana, United States. We devote particular attention to our approach to eliciting and encapsulating expert judgment, in which we: 1) adhered to a structured process for using expert judgment in ecological risk assessment, 2) used as our expert base local resource scientists and fire/fuels specialists who have a direct connection to the specific landscape and HVRAs in question, and 3) introduced multivariate response functions to characterize fire effects to HVRAs that consider biophysical variables beyond fire behavior. We anticipate that this work will further the state of wildfire risk science and will lead to additional application of risk assessment to inform land management planning. Copyright © 2012 SETAC.

Analyzing the transmission of wildfire exposure on a fire-prone landscape in Oregon, USA

Treesearch

Alan A. Ager; Michelle A. Day; Mark A. Finney; Ken Vance-Borland; Nicole M. Vaillant

2014-01-01

We develop the idea of risk transmission from large wildfires and apply network analyses to understand its importance on a 0.75 million ha US national forest. Wildfires in the western US frequently burn over long distances (e.g., 20–50 km) through highly fragmented landscapes with respect to ownership, fuels, management intensity, population density, and ecological...

Shrub succession on eight mixed-severity wildfires in western Montana, northeastern Oregon, and northern Idaho

Treesearch

Dennis E. Ferguson; John C. Byrne

2016-01-01

The response of 28 shrub species to wildfire burn severity was assessed for 8 wildfires on 6 national forests in the northern Rocky Mountains, USA. Stratified random sampling was used to choose 224 stands based on burn severity, habitat type series, slope steepness, stand height, and stand density, which resulted in 896 plots measured at approximately 2-year intervals...

Effects of wildfire on catchment runoff response: a modeling approach to detect changes in snow-dominated forested catchments

Treesearch

Jan Seibert; Jeffrey J. McDonnell; Richard D. Woodsmith

2010-01-01

Wildfire is an important disturbance affecting hydrological processes through alteration of vegetation cover and soil characteristics. The effects of fire on hydrological systems at the catchment scale are not well known, largely because site specific data from both before and after wildfire are rare. In this study a modelling approach was employed for change detection...

Quantifying the threat of unsuppressed wildfires reaching the adjacent wildland-urban interface on the Bridger-Teton National Forest, Wyoming

Treesearch

Joe H. Scott; Donald J. Helmbrecht; Sean A. Parks; Carol Miller

2012-01-01

An important objective for many federal land management agencies is to restore fire to ecosystems that have experienced fire suppression or exclusion over the last century. Managing wildfires for resource objectives (i.e., allowing wildfires to burn in the absence of suppression) is an important tool for restoring such fire-adapted ecosystems. To support management...

Nonmarket benefits of reducing environmental effects of potential wildfires in beetle-killed trees: A contingent valuation study

Treesearch

Maryam Tabatabaei; John B. Loomis; Daniel W. McCollum

2015-01-01

We estimated Colorado households’ nonmarket values for two forest management options for reducing intensity of future wildfires and associated nonmarket environmental effects wildfires. The first policy is the traditional harvesting of pine beetle-killed trees and burning of the slash piles of residual materials on-site. The second involves harvesting but moving the...

Interpreting federal policy at the local level: the wildland-urban interface concept in wildfire protection planning in the eastern United States

Treesearch

Stephanie A. Grayzeck-Souter; Kristen C. Nelson; Rachel F. Brummel; Pamela Jakes; Daniel R. Williams

2009-01-01

In 2003, the Healthy Forests Restoration Act (HFRA) called for USA communities at risk of wildfire to develop Community Wildfire Protection Plans (CWPPs) requiring local, state and federal actors to work together to address hazardous fuels reduction and mitigation efforts. CWPPs can provide the opportunity for local government to influence actions on adjacent public...

Accommodating non-market values in evaluation of wildfire management in the United States: Challenges and opportunities

Treesearch

Tyron J. Venn; David E. Calkin

2011-01-01

Forests in the United States generate many non-market benefits for society that can be enhanced and diminished by wildfire and wildfire management. The Federal Wildland Fire Management Policy (1995, updated 2001), and subsequent Guidance to the Implementation of that policy provided in 2009, require fire management priorities be set on the basis of values to be...

Assessing watershed-wildfire risks on National Forest System lands in the Rocky Mountain Region of the United States

Treesearch

Matthew P. Thompson; Joe Scott; Paul G. Langowski; Julie W. Gilbertson-Day; Jessica R. Haas; Elise M. Bowne

2013-01-01

Wildfires can cause significant negative impacts to water quality with resultant consequences for the environment and human health and safety, as well as incurring substantial rehabilitation and water treatment costs. In this paper we will illustrate how state-of-the-art wildfire simulation modeling and geospatial risk assessment methods can be brought to bear to...

Ensemble projections of wildfire activity and carbonaceous aerosol concentrations over the western United States in the mid-21st century

PubMed Central

Yue, Xu; Mickley, Loretta J.; Logan, Jennifer A.; Kaplan, Jed O.

2013-01-01

We estimate future wildfire activity over the western United States during the mid-21st century (2046–2065), based on results from 15 climate models following the A1B scenario. We develop fire prediction models by regressing meteorological variables from the current and previous years together with fire indexes onto observed regional area burned. The regressions explain 0.25–0.60 of the variance in observed annual area burned during 1980–2004, depending on the ecoregion. We also parameterize daily area burned with temperature, precipitation, and relative humidity. This approach explains ~0.5 of the variance in observed area burned over forest ecoregions but shows no predictive capability in the semi-arid regions of Nevada and California. By applying the meteorological fields from 15 climate models to our fire prediction models, we quantify the robustness of our wildfire projections at mid-century. We calculate increases of 24–124% in area burned using regressions and 63–169% with the parameterization. Our projections are most robust in the southwestern desert, where all GCMs predict significant (p<0.05) meteorological changes. For forested ecoregions, more GCMs predict significant increases in future area burned with the parameterization than with the regressions, because the latter approach is sensitive to hydrological variables that show large inter-model variability in the climate projections. The parameterization predicts that the fire season lengthens by 23 days in the warmer and drier climate at mid-century. Using a chemical transport model, we find that wildfire emissions will increase summertime surface organic carbon aerosol over the western United States by 46–70% and black carbon by 20–27% at midcentury, relative to the present day. The pollution is most enhanced during extreme episodes: above the 84th percentile of concentrations, OC increases by ~90% and BC by ~50%, while visibility decreases from 130 km to 100 km in 32 Federal Class 1 areas in Rocky Mountains Forest. PMID:24015109

Remobilisation of industrial lead depositions in ash during Australian wildfires.

PubMed

Wu, Liqin; Taylor, Mark Patrick; Handley, Heather K

2017-12-01

This study examined the recycling of lead (Pb) in ash from wildfires, its source and potential contribution to environmental contamination. Ash from wildfires was collected from four Australian sites following uncontrolled fires during 2012 to 2013 close to major urban populations in Sydney (New South Wales), Hobart (Tasmania) and Adelaide (South Australia). The samples were analysed for their total Pb concentration and Pb isotopic composition to determine the sources of Pb and the extent, if any, of industrial contamination and its recycling into the ecosystem. Median ash concentrations (23mg/kg) released from a wildfire close to Australia's largest city, Sydney, exceeded the median ash Pb concentrations from wildfires from the less populated locations of Hobart, Adelaide and NSW Central Coast. Lead isotopic compositions of Duffys Forest wildfire ash demonstrate that anthropogenic inputs from legacy leaded petrol depositions were the predominant source of contamination. Despite the cessation of leaded petrol use in Australia in 2002, historic petrol Pb deposits continue to be a substantial source of contamination in ash: petrol Pb contributed 35% of the Pb in the Woy Woy ash, 73% in Duffys Forest ash, 39% in Forcett ash and 5% in Cherryville ash. The remobilisation of legacy industrial Pb depositions by wildfires in ash results in it being a persistent and problematic contaminant in contemporary environmental systems because of its known toxicity. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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.

A high-resolution modelling approach on spatial wildfire distribution in the Tyrolean Alps

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Malowerschnig, Bodo; Sass, Oliver

2013-04-01

Global warming will cause increasing danger of wildfires in Austria, which can have long-lasting consequences on woodland ecosystems. The protective effect of forest can be severely diminished, leading to natural hazards like avalanches and rockfall. However, data on wildfire frequency and distribution have been sparse and incomplete for Austria. Long-lasting postfire degradation under adverse preconditions (steep slopes, limestone) was a common phenomenon in parts of the Tyrolean Alps several decades ago and should become relevant again under a changing fire frequency. The FIRIA project compiles historical wildfire data, information on fuel loads, fire weather indices (FWI) and vegetation recovery patterns. The governing climatic, topographic and socio-economic factors of forest fire distribution were assessed to trigger a distribution model of currently fire-prone areas in Tyrol. By collecting data from different sources like old newspapers archives and fire-fighter databases, we were able to build up a fire database of wildfire occurrences containing more than 1400 forest fires since the 15th century in Tyrol. For the period from 1993 to 2011, the database is widely complete and covers 482 fires. Using a non-parametrical statistical method it was possible to select the best suited fire weather index (FWI) for the prediction. The testing of 19 FWI's shows that it is necessary to use two discriminative indices to differentiate between summer and winter season. Together with compiled topographic, socio-economic, infrastructure and forest maps, the dataset was the base for a multifactorial analysis, performed by comparing the maximum entropy approach (Maxent) with an ensemble classifier (Random Forests). Both approaches have their background in the spatial habitat distribution and are easy to adapt to the requirements of a wildfire ignition model. The aim of this modelling approach was to determine areas which are particularly prone to wildfire. Due to the pronounced relief curvature we based our model on 100 x 100 m cells to identify individual slopes and their topography. The first provisional result is a map of fire probability under current climate conditions (fire hot-spots). Our modelling approach indicates the fire weather index as the main driver, which is followed closely by socioeconomic (population density) and infrastructure factors (roads density, aerial railways, building density). The leverage of the forest community or its management is rather low; the same applies to topographic influences like aspect or sea level. The derived fire hot-spots are either placed close to the valley ground or around touristic infrastructure, with an overall preference for inner alpine areas and south-facing slopes. In the next step, the impact of climate change on the distribution and frequency of fires will be assessed by calculating a climate change model adapted to the 1x1km INCA dataset and based on different regional climate change models. Finally, a selection of fire-hot-spots from the previous modelling steps will be used for enhanced 3D-modelling approaches of natural hazards after wildfire-driven deforestation.

Forest legacies, climate change, altered disturbance regimes, invasive species and water

USGS Publications Warehouse

Stohlgren, T.; Jarnevich, C.; Kumar, S.

2007-01-01

The factors that must be considered in seeking to predict changes in water availability has been examined. These factors are the following: forest legacies including logging, mining, agriculture, grazing, elimination of large carnivores, human-caused wildfire, and pollution; climate change and stream flow; altered disturbances such as frequency intensity and pattern of wildfires and insect outbreaks as well as flood control; lastly, invasive species like forest pests and pathogens. An integrated approach quantifying the current and past condition trends can be combined with spatial and temporal modeling to develop future change in forest structures and water supply. The key is a combination of geographic information system technologies with climate and land use scenarios, while preventing and minimizing the effects of harmful invasive species.

CASA Forest Cover Change Data Sets

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Potter, Christopher S.

2012-01-01

Deforestation and forest fires are global land cover changes that can be caused by both natural and human factors. Although monitoring forest fires in near-real time is critical for operational wildfire management, mapping historical wildfires in a spatially explicit fashion is also important for a number of reasons, including climate change studies (e.g., examining the relationship between rising temperatures and frequency of fires), fuel load management (e.g., deciding when and where to conduct controlled burns), and carbon cycle studies (e.g., quantifying how much CO2 is emitted by fires and for emissions reduction efforts under the United Nations programs for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation -- REDD).

A synthesis of post-fire Burned Area Reports from 1972 to 2009 for western US Forest Service lands: Trends in wildfire characteristics and post-fire stabilisation treatments and expenditures

Treesearch

Peter R. Robichaud; Hakjun Rhee; Sarah A. Lewis

2014-01-01

Over 1200 post-fire assessment and treatment implementation reports from four decades (1970s-2000s) of western US forest fires have been examined to identify decadal patterns in fire characteristics and the justifications and expenditures for the post-fire treatments. The main trends found were: (1) the area burned by wildfire increased over time and the rate of...

Integrating pixel- and polygon-based approaches to wildfire risk assessment: Application to a high-value watershed on the Pike and San Isabel National Forests, Colorado, USA

Treesearch

Matthew P. Thompson; Julie W. Gilbertson-Day; Joe H. Scott

2015-01-01

We develop a novel risk assessment approach that integrates complementary, yet distinct, spatial modeling approaches currently used in wildfire risk assessment. Motivation for this work stems largely from limitations of existing stochastic wildfire simulation systems, which can generate pixel-based outputs of fire behavior as well as polygon-based outputs of simulated...

Simulating future residential property losses from wildfire in Flathead County, Montana: Chapter 1

USGS Publications Warehouse

Prato, Tony; Paveglio, Travis B; Barnett, Yan; Silverstein, Robin; Hardy, Michael; Keane, Robert; Loehman, Rachel A.; Clark, Anthony; Fagre, Daniel B.; Venn, Tyron; Stockmann, Keith

2014-01-01

Wildfire damages to private residences in the United States and elsewhere have increased as a result of expansion of the wildland-urban interface (WUI) and other factors. Understanding this unwelcome trend requires analytical frameworks that simulate how various interacting social, economic, and biophysical factors influence those damages. A methodological framework is developed for simulating expected residential property losses from wildfire [E(RLW)], which is a probabilistic monetary measure of wildfire risk to residential properties in the WUI. E(RLW) is simulated for Flathead County, Montana for five, 10-year subperiods covering the period 2010-2059, under various assumptions about future climate change, economic growth, land use policy, and forest management. Results show statistically significant increases in the spatial extent of WUI properties, the number of residential structures at risk from wildfire, and E(RLW) over the 50-year evaluation period for both the county and smaller subareas (i.e., neighborhoods and parcels). The E(RLW) simulation framework presented here advances the field of wildfire risk assessment by providing a finer-scale tool that incorporates a set of dynamic, interacting processes. The framework can be applied using other scenarios for climate change, economic growth, land use policy, and forest management, and in other areas.

AmeriFlux US-Fwf Flagstaff - Wildfire

DOE Data Explorer

Dor, Sabina [Northern Arizona Univ., Flagstaff, AZ (United States); Kolb, Thomas [Northern Arizona Univ., Flagstaff, AZ (United States)

2016-01-01

This is the AmeriFlux version of the carbon flux data for the site US-Fwf Flagstaff - Wildfire. Site Description - Ponderosa pine forest subject to high severity stand replacing wild fire in 1996. Project webpage http://nau.edu/CEFNS/Forestry/Research/Carbon-Flux/Sites/.

Israel wildfires: future trends, impacts and mitigation strategies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wittenberg, Lea

2017-04-01

Forest fires in the Euro-Mediterranean region burn about 450,000 ha each year. In Israel, the frequency and extent of wildfires have been steadily increasing over the past decades, culminating in several large and costly fires in 2010, 2012 and 2016. The extensive development of forest areas since the 1950's and the accumulation of fuel in the forests, has led to increased occurrences of high intensity fires. Land-use changes and human population growth are the most prevailing and common determinant of wildfire occurrence and impacts. Climate extremes, possibly already a sign of regional climate change, are another frequent determinant of increasing wildfire risk. Therefore, the combination of extreme dry spells, high fuel loads and increased anthropogenic pressure on the open spaces result in an overall amplified wildfire risk. These fires not only cause loss of life and damage to properties but also carry serious environmental repercussions. Combustion of standing vegetation and the leaf litter leave the soil bare and vulnerable to runoff and erosion, thereby increasing risks of flooding. Today, all of Israel's open spaces, forests, natural parks, major metropolitan centers, towns and villages are embedded within the wildland urban interface (WUI). Typically, wildfires near or in the WUI occur on uplands and runoff generated from the burned area poses flooding risks in urban and agricultural zones located downstream. Post-fire management aims at reducing associated hazards as collapsing trees and erosion risk. Often the time interval between a major fire and the definition of priority sites is in the order of days-to-weeks since administrative procedures, financial estimates and implementation of post-fire salvage logging operations require time. Defining the magnitude of the burn scar and estimating its potential impact on runoff and erosion must therefore be done quickly. A post-fire burn severity, runoff and erosion model is a useful tool in estimating potential risks and management strategic. Moreover, national agencies and local authorities must decide on a range of post-fire measures to mitigate risks quickly since most large fires occur late in summer shortly before the winter season. Possible climate changes, socio-economic trends, and intense land use pressures are contributing factors in a national challenge to deal with forest fires along the WUI. However, in order to support integrated fire preparedness, response, management and recovery at the national, regional and local scales, stronger research and planning effort are required. This includes long-term monitoring programs and a systematic, standardized data acquisition scheme, compiling fire history, landscape-fire spread, mitigation and assessment of the immediate fire effects, land use changes and weather data. Knowledge of both short and long-term impacts of wildfire is essential for effective risk assessment, policy formulation and wildfire management.

Assessment of forest fuel loadings in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands

Treesearch

Thomas J. Brandeis; Christopher W. Woodall

2008-01-01

Quantification of the downed woody materials that comprise forest fuels has gained importance in Caribbean forest ecosystems due to the increasing incidence and severity of wildfires on island ecosystems. Because large-scale assessments of forest fuels have rarely been conducted for these ecosystems, forest fuels were assessed at 121 US Department of Agriculture forest...

Simulating high spatial resolution high severity burned area in Sierra Nevada forests for California Spotted Owl habitat climate change risk assessment and management.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Keyser, A.; Westerling, A. L.; Jones, G.; Peery, M. Z.

2017-12-01

Sierra Nevada forests have experienced an increase in very large fires with significant areas of high burn severity, such as the Rim (2013) and King (2014) fires, that have impacted habitat of endangered species such as the California spotted owl. In order to support land manager forest management planning and risk assessment activities, we used historical wildfire histories from the Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity project and gridded hydroclimate and land surface characteristics data to develope statistical models to simulate the frequency, location and extent of high severity burned area in Sierra Nevada forest wildfires as functions of climate and land surface characteristics. We define high severity here as BA90 area: the area comprising patches with ninety percent or more basal area killed within a larger fire. We developed a system of statistical models to characterize the probability of large fire occurrence, the probability of significant BA90 area present given a large fire, and the total extent of BA90 area in a fire on a 1/16 degree lat/lon grid over the Sierra Nevada. Repeated draws from binomial and generalized pareto distributions using these probabilities generated a library of simulated histories of high severity fire for a range of near (50 yr) future climate and fuels management scenarios. Fuels management scenarios were provided by USFS Region 5. Simulated BA90 area was then downscaled to 30 m resolution using a statistical model we developed using Random Forest techniques to estimate the probability of adjacent 30m pixels burning with ninety percent basal kill as a function of fire size and vegetation and topographic features. The result is a library of simulated high resolution maps of BA90 burned areas for a range of climate and fuels management scenarios with which we estimated conditional probabilities of owl nesting sites being impacted by high severity wildfire.

Modeling the impacts of wildfire on runoff and pollutant transport from coastal watersheds to the nearshore environment.

PubMed

Morrison, Katherine D; Kolden, Crystal A

2015-03-15

Wildfire is a common disturbance that can significantly alter vegetation in watersheds and affect the rate of sediment and nutrient transport to adjacent nearshore oceanic environments. Changes in runoff resulting from heterogeneous wildfire effects are not well-understood due to both limitations in the field measurement of runoff and temporally-limited spatial data available to parameterize runoff models. We apply replicable, scalable methods for modeling wildfire impacts on sediment and nonpoint source pollutant export into the nearshore environment, and assess relationships between wildfire severity and runoff. Nonpoint source pollutants were modeled using a GIS-based empirical deterministic model parameterized with multi-year land cover data to quantify fire-induced increases in transport to the nearshore environment. Results indicate post-fire concentration increases in phosphorus by 161 percent, sediments by 350 percent and total suspended solids (TSS) by 53 percent above pre-fire years. Higher wildfire severity was associated with the greater increase in exports of pollutants and sediment to the nearshore environment, primarily resulting from the conversion of forest and shrubland to grassland. This suggests that increasing wildfire severity with climate change will increase potential negative impacts to adjacent marine ecosystems. The approach used is replicable and can be utilized to assess the effects of other types of land cover change at landscape scales. It also provides a planning and prioritization framework for management activities associated with wildfire, including suppression, thinning, and post-fire rehabilitation, allowing for quantification of potential negative impacts to the nearshore environment in coastal basins. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Protecting your forest asset: managing risks in changing times

Treesearch

Lisa Jennings; Leslie Boby; Bill Hubbard; Mark Megalos

2013-01-01

Private forest owners control most of the southern forest resource and are critical to maintaining forest health in the South. Record droughts, rising temperatures, increased frequency and intensity of wildfires, insect and plant invasions, and more intense storm events all pose threats to the health of Southern forests. Scientists project that increases in temperature...

Impacts of climate change on large forest wildfire of Washington and Oregon

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, Z.; Davis, R. J.; Yost, A.; Cohen, W. B.

2014-12-01

Climate changes in the 21st century were projected to have major impact on wildfire. The state of Washington and Oregon contains a tightly coupled forest ecosystem and fire regime. The objective of this study was to examine the impact of future climate changes for large wildfire in the two states. MAXENT algorithm was used to develop a large forest wildfire suitability model using historical fire for the 1971-2000 time period and validated for 1981-2010 time period . Input variables include climate (e.g. July-August temperature) and topographic variables (e.g. elevation). The model test AUC of 0.77±0.1. Using the predicted versus expected curve and methods described by Hirzel and others (Hirzel et al. 2006), we reclassified the model into four classes; low suitability (0-0.36), moderate suitability 0.36-0.5), high suitability (0.5-0.75), and very high suitability (0.75-1.0). To examine the future climate change impact, climate scenarios (RCP 2.6, RCP 4.5, RCP 6.0, and RCP 8.5) from 33 different climate models were used to predict the large wildfire suitability from 1971-2100 using the NASA Earth Exchange (NEX) Downscaled Climate Projections (NEX-DCP30) dataset. Results from ensembles of all the climate scenarios showed that the area with high and very high suitability for large wildfire increased under all 4 climate scenarios from 1971 to 2100. However, under RCP 2.6, the area start to decline from 2080 while the other three scenarios keep increasing. On the extreme case of RCP 8.5, very high suitable area increases from less than 1% during 1971-2000 to 14.9% during 2070-2100. Details about temporal patterns for the study area and changes by ecoregions will be presented.

Assessing increasing susceptibility to wildfire at the wildland-urban fringe in the western United States

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kinoshita, A. M.; Hogue, T. S.

2013-05-01

Much of the western U.S. is increasingly susceptible to wildfire activity due to drier conditions, elevated fuel loads, and expanding urbanization. As population increases, development pushes the urban boundary further into wildlands, creating more potential for human interaction at the wildland-urban interface (WUI), primarily from human ignitions and fire suppression policies. The immediate impacts of wildfires include vulnerability to debris flows, flooding, and impaired water quality. Fires also alter longer-term hydrological and ecosystem behavior. The current study utilizes geospatial datasets to investigate historical wildfire size and frequency relative to the WUI for a range of cities across western North America. California, the most populous state in the U.S., has an extensive fire history. The decennial population and acres burned for four major counties (Los Angeles, San Bernardino, San Diego, and Shasta) in California show that increasing wildfire size and frequency follow urbanization trends, with high correlation between the last decade of burned area, urban-fringe proximity, and increasing population. Ultimately, results will provide information on urban fringe communities that are most vulnerable to the risks associated with wildfire and post-fire impacts. In light of evolving land use policies (i.e. forest management and treatment, development at the urban-fringe) and climate change, it is critical to advance our knowledge of the implications that these conditions pose to urban centers, communicate risks to the public, and ultimately provide guidance for wildfire management.

Modeling wildfire incident complexity dynamics.

PubMed

Thompson, Matthew P

2013-01-01

Wildfire management in the United States and elsewhere is challenged by substantial uncertainty regarding the location and timing of fire events, the socioeconomic and ecological consequences of these events, and the costs of suppression. Escalating U.S. Forest Service suppression expenditures is of particular concern at a time of fiscal austerity as swelling fire management budgets lead to decreases for non-fire programs, and as the likelihood of disruptive within-season borrowing potentially increases. Thus there is a strong interest in better understanding factors influencing suppression decisions and in turn their influence on suppression costs. As a step in that direction, this paper presents a probabilistic analysis of geographic and temporal variation in incident management team response to wildfires. The specific focus is incident complexity dynamics through time for fires managed by the U.S. Forest Service. The modeling framework is based on the recognition that large wildfire management entails recurrent decisions across time in response to changing conditions, which can be represented as a stochastic dynamic system. Daily incident complexity dynamics are modeled according to a first-order Markov chain, with containment represented as an absorbing state. A statistically significant difference in complexity dynamics between Forest Service Regions is demonstrated. Incident complexity probability transition matrices and expected times until containment are presented at national and regional levels. Results of this analysis can help improve understanding of geographic variation in incident management and associated cost structures, and can be incorporated into future analyses examining the economic efficiency of wildfire management.

Metagenomic assessment of the potential microbial nitrogen pathways in the rhizosphere of a mediterranean forest after a wildfire.

PubMed

Cobo-Díaz, José F; Fernández-González, Antonio J; Villadas, Pablo J; Robles, Ana B; Toro, Nicolás; Fernández-López, Manuel

2015-05-01

Wildfires are frequent in the forests of the Mediterranean Basin and have greatly influenced this ecosystem. Changes to the physical and chemical properties of the soil, due to fire and post-fire conditions, result in alterations of both the bacterial communities and the nitrogen cycle. We explored the effects of a holm oak forest wildfire on the rhizospheric bacterial communities involved in the nitrogen cycle. Metagenomic data of the genes involved in the nitrogen cycle showed that both the undisturbed and burned rhizospheres had a conservative nitrogen cycle with a larger number of sequences related to the nitrogen incorporation pathways and a lower number for nitrogen output. However, the burned rhizosphere showed a statistically significant increase in the number of sequences for nitrogen incorporation (allantoin utilization and nitrogen fixation) and a significantly lower number of sequences for denitrification and dissimilatory nitrite reductase subsystems, possibly in order to compensate for nitrogen loss from the soil after burning. The genetic potential for nitrogen incorporation into the ecosystem was assessed through the diversity of the nitrogenase reductase enzyme, which is encoded by the nifH gene. We found that nifH gene diversity and richness were lower in burned than in undisturbed rhizospheric soils. The structure of the bacterial communities involved in the nitrogen cycle showed a statistically significant increase of Actinobacteria and Firmicutes phyla after the wildfire. Both approaches showed the important role of gram-positive bacteria in the ecosystem after a wildfire.

Determinants of National Fire Plan Fuels Treatment Expenditures: A Revealed Preference Analysis for Northern New Mexico

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shepherd, Curt; Grimsrud, Kristine; Berrens, Robert P.

2009-10-01

The accumulation of fire fuels in forests throughout the world contributes significantly to the severity of wildfires. To combat the threat of wildfire, especially in the wildland-urban interface (WUI), US federal land management agencies have implemented a number of forest restoration and wildfire risk reduction programs. In the spirit of revealed preference analyses, the objective of this study is to investigate the pattern and determinants of National Fire Plan (NFP) expenditures for fuel reduction treatments in northern New Mexico (USA). Estimation results from a set of Generalized Estimating Equations models are mixed with respect to risk reduction hypotheses, and also raise issues regarding how risk reduction should be defined for a region characterized by both pockets of urban sprawl into the WUI and large areas of chronic rural poverty. Program preferences for project funding under the federal Collaborative Forest Restoration Program in New Mexico are shown to be distinctly different (e.g., exhibiting greater concern for social equity) than for other NFP-funded projects.

Spatiotemporal patterns of unburned areas within fire perimeters in the northwestern United States from 1984 to 2014

Treesearch

Arjan J. H. Meddens; Crystal A. Kolden; James A. Lutz; John T. Abatzoglou; Andrew T. Hudak

2018-01-01

A warming climate, fire exclusion, and land cover changes are altering the conditions that produced historical fire regimes and facilitating increased recent wildfire activity in the northwestern United States. Understanding the impacts of changing fire regimes on forest recruitment and succession, species distributions, carbon cycling, and ecosystem services is...

Harvesting systems for western stand health improvement cuttings

Treesearch

Bruce R. Hartsough; Bryce J. Stokes; Joseph F. McNeel; William F. Watson

1995-01-01

A significant percentage of the forested area in the western United States is comprised of stands that have been altered over time by human activities, especially fire suppression, and are now being damaged by droughts, insect attacks, and wildfires. These stands should be returned to a condition where "biotic and abiotic influences do not threaten resource...

Chapter 13: Effects of fuel and vegetation management activities on nonnative invasive plants

Treesearch

Erik J. Martinson; Molly E. Hunter; Jonathan P. Freeman; Philip N. Omi

2008-01-01

Twentieth century land use and management practices have increased the vertical and horizontal continuity of fuels over expansive landscapes. Thus the likelihood of large, severe wildfires has increased, especially in forest types that previously experienced more frequent, less severe fire (Allen and others 2002). Disturbances such as fire may promote nonnative plant...

Evidence of fuels management and fire weather influencing fire severity in an extreme fire event

USGS Publications Warehouse

Lydersen, Jamie M; Collins, Brandon M.; Brooks, Matthew L.; Matchett, John R.; Shive, Kristen L.; Povak, Nicholas A.; Kane, Van R.; Smith, Douglas F.

2017-01-01

Following changes in vegetation structure and pattern, along with a changing climate, large wildfire incidence has increased in forests throughout the western U.S. Given this increase there is great interest in whether fuels treatments and previous wildfire can alter fire severity patterns in large wildfires. We assessed the relative influence of previous fuels treatments (including wildfire), fire weather, vegetation and water balance on fire severity in the Rim Fire of 2013. We did this at three different spatial scales to investigate whether the influences on fire severity changed across scales. Both fuels treatments and previous low to moderate severity wildfire reduced the prevalence of high severity fire. In general, areas without recent fuels treatments and areas that previously burned at high severity tended to have a greater proportion of high severity fire in the Rim Fire. Areas treated with prescribed fire, especially when combined with thinning, had the lowest proportions of high severity. Proportion of the landscape burned at high severity was most strongly influenced by fire weather and proportional area previously treated for fuels or burned by low to moderate severity wildfire. The proportion treated needed to effectively reduce the amount of high fire severity fire varied by spatial scale of analysis, with smaller spatial scales requiring a greater proportion treated to see an effect on fire severity. When moderate and high severity fire encountered a previously treated area, fire severity was significantly reduced in the treated area relative to the adjacent untreated area. Our results show that fuels treatments and low to moderate severity wildfire can reduce fire severity in a subsequent wildfire, even when burning under fire growth conditions. These results serve as further evidence that both fuels treatments and lower severity wildfire can increase forest resilience.

Vegetation recovery after fire in the Klamath-Siskiyou region, southern Oregon

USGS Publications Warehouse

Hibbs, David; Jacobs, Ruth

2011-01-01

In July 2002, lightning strikes started five forest fires that merged into one massive wildfire in the Klamath-Siskiyou Ecoregion of southern Oregon. Aided by drought, severe weather conditions, dry fuels, and steep topography, the fire grew to more than 200,000 hectares of mostly public forest land. Known as the Biscuit Fire, it was Oregon's largest forest fire in more than 130 years and one of the largest wildfires on record in the United States. Discussions centered around why such a massive fire was happening, how large would it become, who was keeping communities and homes safe, and what would be the final economic and ecological outcome. Weeks later when the fire was out, conversations turned to other questions, including what, if anything, should happen for forest recovery.

Risk analysis procedure for post-wildfire natural hazards in British Columbia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jordan, Peter

2010-05-01

Following a severe wildfire season in 2003, and several subsequent damaging debris flow and flood events, the British Columbia Forest Service developed a procedure for analysing risks to public safety and infrastructure from such events. At the same time, the Forest Service undertook a research program to determine the extent of post-wildfire hazards, and examine the hydrologic and geomorphic processes contributing to the hazards. The risk analysis procedure follows the Canadian Standards Association decision-making framework for risk management (which in turn is based on international standards). This has several steps: identification of risk, risk analysis and estimation, evaluation of risk tolerability, developing control or mitigation strategies, and acting on these strategies. The Forest Service procedure deals only with the first two steps. The results are passed on to authorities such as the Provincial Emergency Program and local government, who are responsible for evaluating risks, warning residents, and applying mitigation strategies if appropriate. The objective of the procedure is to identify and analyse risks to public safety and infrastructure. The procedure is loosely based on the BAER (burned area emergency response) program in the USA, with some important differences. Our procedure focuses on identifying risks and warning affected parties, not on mitigation activities such as broadcast erosion control measures. Partly this is due to limited staff and financial resources. Also, our procedure is not multi-agency, but is limited to wildfires on provincial forest land; in British Columbia about 95% of forest land is in the publicly-owned provincial forest. Each fire season, wildfires are screened by size and proximity to values at risk such as populated areas. For selected fires, when the fire is largely contained, the procedure begins with an aerial reconnaissance of the fire, and photography with a hand-held camera, which can be used to make a preliminary map of vegetation burn severity if desired. The next steps include mapping catchment boundaries, field traverses to collect data on soil burn severity and water repellency, identification of unstable hillslopes and channels, and inspection of values at risk from hazards such as debris flows or flooding. BARC (burned area reflectance classification) maps based on satellite imagery are prepared for some fires, although these are typically not available for several weeks. Our objective is to make a preliminary risk analysis report available about two weeks after the fire is contained. If high risks to public safety or infrastructure are identified, the risk analysis reports may make recommendations for mitigation measures to be considered; however, acting on these recommendations is the responsibility of local land managers, local government, or landowners. Mitigation measures for some fires have included engineering treatments to reduce the hydrologic impact of logging roads, protective structures such as dykes or berms, and straw mulching to reduce runoff and erosion on severely burned areas. The Terrace Mountain Fire, with burned 9000 hectares in the Okanagan Valley in 2009, is used as an example of the application of the procedure.

Wildfire in the Critical Zone: Pyro-Geomorphic Feedbacks in Upland Forests

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sheridan, G. J.; Inbar, A.; Metzen, D.; Van der Sant, R.; Lane, P. N. J.; Nyman, P.

2017-12-01

Wildfire often triggers a dramatic geomorphic response, with erosion rates several orders of magnitude greater than background rates. The fact that wildfire is linked to increased soil erosion is well established, but could it also work the other way around? Is it possible that, over time, soil erosion could lead to an increase in wildfire? The proposed mechanism for this is a potential positive feedback between post-fire soil erosion, soil depth, and forest flammability. More fire-related erosion may, over time, lead to less soil water holding capacity, more open vegetation with drier fuels, more fire, and in turn more fire related erosion. These pyro-geomorphic feedbacks may help explain the co-evolved soil-vegetation-fire systems that are observed in the landscape. More broadly, the concept of "wildfire in the critical zone", with a greater emphasis on the interactions between fire, vegetation, hydrology, and geomorphology, may help us understand and predict the trajectory of change as the vegetation-soil-fire system responds and adjusts to the new climate forcing. This presentation will combine an extensive soil, vegetation, and post fire erosion experimental dataset, with conceptual and numerical modelling, to evaluate the significance of the potential pyro-geomorphic feedbacks described above.

Simulating post-wildfire forest trajectories under alternative climate and management scenarios

Treesearch

Alicia Azpeleta Tarancon; Peter Z. Fule; Kristen L. Shive; Carolyn H. Sieg; Andrew Sanchez Meador; Barbara Strom

2014-01-01

Post-fire predictions of forest recovery under future climate change and management actions are necessary for forest managers to make decisions about treatments. We applied the Climate-Forest Vegetation Simulator (Climate-FVS), a new version of a widely used forest management model, to compare alternative climate and management scenarios in a severely burned...

The nature of the beast: examining climate adaptation options in forests with stand-replacing fire regimes

Treesearch

Joshua S. Halofsky; Daniel C. Donato; Jerry F. Franklin; Jessica E. Halofsky; David L. Peterson; Brian J. Harvey

2018-01-01

Building resilience to natural disturbances is a key to managing forests for adaptation to climate change. To date, most climate adaptation guidance has focused on recommendations for frequent-fire forests, leaving few published guidelines for forests that naturally experience infrequent, stand-replacing wildfires. Because most such forests are inherently resilient to...

Recent findings related to measuring and modeling forest road erosion

Treesearch

W. J. Elliot; R. B. Foltz; P. R. Robichaud

2009-01-01

Sediment is the greatest pollutant of forest streams. In the absence of wildfire, forest road networks are usually the main source of sediment in forest watersheds. An understanding of forest road erosion processes is important to aid in predicting sediment delivery from roads to streams. The flowpath followed by runoff is the key to understanding road erosion...

Space-Based Sensorweb Monitoring of Wildfires in Thailand

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chien, Steve; Doubleday, Joshua; Mclaren, David; Davies, Ashley; Tran, Daniel; Tanpipat, Veerachai; Akaakara, Siri; Ratanasuwan, Anuchit; Mandl, Daniel

2011-01-01

We describe efforts to apply sensorweb technologies to the monitoring of forest fires in Thailand. In this approach, satellite data and ground reports are assimilated to assess the current state of the forest system in terms of forest fire risk, active fires, and likely progression of fires and smoke plumes. This current and projected assessment can then be used to actively direct sensors and assets to best acquire further information. This process operates continually with new data updating models of fire activity leading to further sensing and updating of models. As the fire activity is tracked, products such as active fire maps, burn scar severity maps, and alerts are automatically delivered to relevant parties.We describe the current state of the Thailand Fire Sensorweb which utilizes the MODIS-based FIRMS system to track active fires and trigger Earth Observing One / Advanced Land Imager to acquire imagery and produce active fire maps, burn scar severity maps, and alerts. We describe ongoing work to integrate additional sensor sources and generate additional products.

Driving Factors of Understory Evapotranspiration within a Siberian Larch Forest

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tobio, A.; Loranty, M. M.; Kropp, H.; Pena, H., III; Alexander, H. D.; Natali, S.; Kholodov, A. L.; Spawn, S.; Farmer, S.

2017-12-01

Amplified rates of climate change are causing alterations in vegetation productivity, hydrologic cycling, and wildfire severity and intensity in arctic ecosystems. Boreal larch forests in northeastern Siberia are a critical but understudied ecosystem that are affected by these modifications. These forests cover 2.5 million km2 with densities ranging from spare to thick. The current average canopy cover is at around 17% and is expected to increase with the observed increases in vegetation productivity and wildfire. These projected changes in forest density can alter the proportional contributions of over- and understory vegetation to whole ecosystem evapotranspiration. Low density boreal forests have much higher rates of understory evapotranspiration and can contribute as much as 80% to total ecosystem evapotranspiration, while the understory in high density forests is responsible for only around 15% of total ecosystem evapotranspiration. The objective of this research is to understand why there are changes in understory evapotranspiration with varying overstory density by looking at light levels, biomass, vegetation, and air and soil differences. To better learn about these differences in understory evapotranspiration in boreal larch forests the driving factors of evapotranspiration were measured within a burn scar with varying densities of high, medium, and low. Water fluxes were conducted using the static chamber technique under different environmental conditions. Furthermore, controlling factors of evapotranspiration such as photosynethically active radiation, vapor pressure deficit, soil moisture, moss cover, biomass, and leaf area index were measured or derived. In general, we found that low density areas have highest rates of evapotranspiration due to larger amount of biomass, and increased access to light, despite low levels of soil moisture. These results can help us understand how and why total ecosystem water exchange will change in boreal larch forests as they become denser.

Soil microbial communities and metabolic function of a Northern Alabama forest ecosystem

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Thinning, prescribed burning, and their combinations, are common forest management practices to restore degraded forest communities and to prevent uncontrollable wildfires. However, their impacts on soil microbial communities, which are vital to global element cycling, are traditionally overlooked. ...

The sensitivity of US wildfire occurrence to pre-season soil moisture conditions across ecosystems.

PubMed

Jensen, Daniel; Reager, John T; Zajic, Brittany; Rousseau, Nick; Rodell, Matthew; Hinkley, Everett

2018-01-01

It is generally accepted that year-to-year variability in moisture conditions and drought are linked with increased wildfire occurrence. However, quantifying the sensitivity of wildfire to surface moisture state at seasonal lead-times has been challenging due to the absence of a long soil moisture record with the appropriate coverage and spatial resolution for continental-scale analysis. Here we apply model simulations of surface soil moisture that numerically assimilate observations from NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission with the US Forest Service's historical Fire-Occurrence Database over the contiguous United States. We quantify the relationships between pre-fire-season soil moisture and subsequent-year wildfire occurrence by land-cover type and produce annual probable wildfire occurrence and burned area maps at 0.25-degree resolution. Cross-validated results generally indicate a higher occurrence of smaller fires when months preceding fire season are wet, while larger fires are more frequent when soils are dry. This result is consistent with the concept of increased fuel accumulation under wet conditions in the pre-season. These results demonstrate the fundamental strength of the relationship between soil moisture and fire activity at long lead-times and are indicative of that relationship's utility for the future development of national-scale predictive capability.

The sensitivity of US wildfire occurrence to pre-season soil moisture conditions across ecosystems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jensen, Daniel; Reager, John T.; Zajic, Brittany; Rousseau, Nick; Rodell, Matthew; Hinkley, Everett

2018-01-01

It is generally accepted that year-to-year variability in moisture conditions and drought are linked with increased wildfire occurrence. However, quantifying the sensitivity of wildfire to surface moisture state at seasonal lead-times has been challenging due to the absence of a long soil moisture record with the appropriate coverage and spatial resolution for continental-scale analysis. Here we apply model simulations of surface soil moisture that numerically assimilate observations from NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission with the USDA Forest Service’s historical Fire-Occurrence Database over the contiguous United States. We quantify the relationships between pre-fire-season soil moisture and subsequent-year wildfire occurrence by land-cover type and produce annual probable wildfire occurrence and burned area maps at 0.25 degree resolution. Cross-validated results generally indicate a higher occurrence of smaller fires when months preceding fire season are wet, while larger fires are more frequent when soils are dry. This is consistent with the concept of increased fuel accumulation under wet conditions in the pre-season. These results demonstrate the fundamental strength of the relationship between soil moisture and fire activity at long lead-times and are indicative of that relationship’s utility for the future development of national-scale predictive capability.

Wildfire, Fuels Reduction, and Herpetofaunas across Diverse Landscape Mosaics in Northwestern Forests

USGS Publications Warehouse

Bury, R. Bruce

2004-01-01

The herpetofauna (amphibians and reptiles) of northwestern forests (U.S.A.) is diverse, and many species are locally abundant. Most forest amphibians west of the Cascade Mountain crest are associated with cool, cascading streams or coarse woody material on the forest floor, which are characteristics of mature forests. Extensive loss and fragmentation of habitat resulted from logging across approximately 50% of old-growth forests in northern California and approximately 80% of stands in Oregon and Washington. There is a complex landscape mosaic and overlap of northern and southern biotic elements in the Klamath-Siskiyou Region along the Oregon and California border, creating a biodiversity hotspot. The region experiences many low-severity fires annually, punctuated by periodic major fires, including the Biscuit fire, the largest in North America in 2002. In the fire's northern portion, severe fire occurred on >50% of stands of young, managed trees but on only about 25a??33% of old-growth stands. This suggests that the legacy of timber harvest may produce fire-prone stands. Calls for prescribed fire and thinning to reduce fuel loads will remove large amounts of coarse woody material from forests, which reduces cover for amphibians and alters nutrient inputs to streams. Our preliminary evidence suggests no negative effects of wildfire on terrestrial amphibians, but stream amphibians decrease following wildfire. Most reptiles are adapted to open terrain, so fire usually improves their habitat. Today, the challenge is to maintain biodiversity in western forests in the face of intense political pressures designed to 'prevent' catastrophic fires. We need a dedicated research effort to understanding how fire affects biota and to proactively investigate outcomes of fuel-reduction management on wildlife in western forests.

Estimating mercury emissions resulting from wildfire in forests of the Western United States

USGS Publications Warehouse

Webster, Jackson; Kane, Tyler J.; Obrist, Daniel; Ryan, Joseph N.; Aiken, George R.

2016-01-01

Understanding the emissions of mercury (Hg) from wildfires is important for quantifying the global atmospheric Hg sources. Emissions of Hg from soils resulting from wildfires in the Western United States was estimated for the 2000 to 2013 period, and the potential emission of Hg from forest soils was assessed as a function of forest type and soil-heating. Wildfire released an annual average of 3100 ± 1900 kg-Hg y− 1 for the years spanning 2000–2013 in the 11 states within the study area. This estimate is nearly 5-fold lower than previous estimates for the study region. Lower emission estimates are attributed to an inclusion of fire severity within burn perimeters. Within reported wildfire perimeters, the average distribution of low, moderate, and high severity burns was 52, 29, and 19% of the total area, respectively. Review of literature data suggests that that low severity burning does not result in soil heating, moderate severity fire results in shallow soil heating, and high severity fire results in relatively deep soil heating (< 5 cm). Using this approach, emission factors for high severity burns ranged from 58 to 640 μg-Hg kg-fuel− 1. In contrast, low severity burns have emission factors that are estimated to be only 18–34 μg-Hg kg-fuel− 1. In this estimate, wildfire is predicted to release 1–30 g Hg ha− 1 from Western United States forest soils while above ground fuels are projected to contribute an additional 0.9 to 7.8 g Hg ha− 1. Land cover types with low biomass (desert scrub) are projected to release less than 1 g Hg ha− 1. Following soil sources, fuel source contributions to total Hg emissions generally followed the order of duff > wood > foliage > litter > branches.

Airborne wildfire intelligence system: a decision support tool for wildland fire managers in Alberta

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Campbell, Doug; Born, Wally G.; Beck, Judi; Bereska, Bill; Frederick, Kurt; Hua, Sun

2002-03-01

The Airborne Wildfire Intelligence System (AWIS) defines the state-of-the-art in remotely sensed wildfire intelligence. AWIS is a commercial, automated, intelligence service, delivering GIS integrated fire intelligence, classified interpretive and analysis layers, and higher level decision support products for wildfires in near real time via the Internet. The AWIS effort illustrates flexible and dynamic cooperation between industry and government to combine technology with field knowledge and experience into an effective, optimized end-user tool. In Alberta the Forest Protection Division of the department of Sustainable Resource Development uses AWIS for several applications: holdover and wildfire hotspot detection, fire front and burned area perimeter mapping, strategic and tactical support through 3D visualization, research into the effects of fire and its severity and to document burn patterns across the landscape. A discussion of all of the scientific themes behind the AWIS is outside the scope of this paper, however, the science of sub-element detection will be reviewed. An independent study has been conducted by the Forest Engineering Research Institute of Canada (FERIC) to investigate the capability of a variety of thermal infrared remote sensing systems to detect small and subtle hotspots in an effort to identify the strengths and weaknesses thereof. As a result of this work, method suitability guidelines have been established to match appropriate infrared technology with a given wildfire management objective.

Transferability of habitat suitability models for nesting woodpeckers associated with wildfire

Treesearch

Quresh S. Latif; Vicki Saab; Jeff P. Hollenbeck; Jonathan G. Dudley

2016-01-01

Following wildfire, forest managers are challenged with meeting both socioeconomic demands (e.g., salvage logging) and mandates requiring habitat conservation for disturbance-associated wildlife (e.g., woodpeckers). Habitat suitability models for nesting woodpeckers can be informative, but tests of model transferability are needed to understand how broadly...

White-headed woodpecker nesting ecology after wildfire

Treesearch

Catherine S. Wightman; Victoria A. Saab; Chris Forristal; Kim Mellen-Mclean; Amy Markus

2010-01-01

Within forests susceptible to wildfire and insect infestations, land managers need to balance dead tree removal and habitat requirements for wildlife species associated with snags. We used Mahalanobis distance methods to develop predictive models of white-headed woodpecker (Picoides albolarvatus) nesting habitat in postfire ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa)-dominated...

Managing smoke from wildfires and prescribed burning in southern Australia

Treesearch

Alan Wain; Graham Mills; Lachlan McCaw; Timothy Brown

2009-01-01

In Australia the responsibility for management of forests and other public lands rests largely with state governments, and multiple government agencies may be involved in fire management. Whether resulting from wildfire, fuel reduction, or silvicultural operations, biomass burning often stimulates community concerns about hazards from fine particulates and chemical...

Fire, Drought, and Forest Management Influences on Pine/Hardwood Ecosystems in the Southern Appalachians

Treesearch

J.M. Vose; B.D. Clinton; W.T. Swank

1993-01-01

Establishment and maintenance of pitch pine/hardwood ecosystems in the southern Appalachians depends on intense wildfire. These ecosystems typically have a substantial evergreen shrub component (Kalmia latifolia) which limits regeneration of future overstory species. Wildfires provide microsite conditions conducive to pine regeneration and reduce...

Modeling wildfire incident complexity dynamics

Treesearch

Matthew P. Thompson

2013-01-01

Wildfire management in the United States and elsewhere is challenged by substantial uncertainty regarding the location and timing of fire events, the socioeconomic and ecological consequences of these events, and the costs of suppression. Escalating U.S. Forest Service suppression expenditures is of particular concern at a time of fiscal austerity as swelling fire...

Early warning of active fire hotspots through NASA FIRMS fire information system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ilavajhala, S.; Davies, D.; Schmaltz, J. E.; Murphy, K. J.

2014-12-01

Forest fires and wildfires can threaten ecosystems, wildlife, property, and often, large swaths of populations. Early warning of active fire hotspots plays a crucial role in planning, managing, and mitigating the damaging effects of wildfires. The NASA Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS) has been providing active fire location information to users in easy-to-use formats for the better part of last decade, with a view to improving the alerting mechanisms and response times to fight forest and wildfires. FIRMS utilizes fires flagged as hotspots by the MODIS instrument flying aboard the Aqua and Terra satellites and sends early warning of detected hotspots via email in near real-time or as daily and weekly summaries. The email alerts can also be customized to send alerts for a particular region of interest, a country, or a specific protected area or park. In addition, a web mapping component, named "Web Fire Mapper" helps query and visualize hotspots. A newer version of Web Fire Mapper is being developed to enhance the existing visualization and alerting capabilities. Plans include supporting near real-time imagery from Aqua and Terra satellites to provide a more helpful context while viewing fires. Plans are also underway to upgrade the email alerts system to provide mobile-formatted messages and short text messages (SMS). The newer version of FIRMS will also allow users to obtain geo-located image snapshots, which can be imported into local GIS software by stakeholders to help further analyses. This talk will discuss the FIRMS system, its enhancements and its role in helping map, alert, and monitor fire hotspots by providing quick data visualization, querying, and download capabilities.

Responses of dead forest fuel moisture to climate change

Treesearch

Yongqiang Liu

2016-01-01

Forest fuel moisture is an important factor for wildland fire behavior. Predicting future wildfire trends and controlled burned conditions is essential to effective natural resource management, but the associated effects of forest fuel moisture remain uncertain. This study investigates the responses of dead forest fuel moisture to climate change in the...

Impact air quality by wildfire and agricultural fire in Mexico city 2015

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mendoza Campos, Alejandra; Agustín García Reynoso, José; Castro Romero, Telma Gloria; Carbajal Pérez, José Noel; Mar Morales, Bertha Eugenia; Gerardo Ruiz Suárez, Luis

2016-04-01

A forest fire is a large-scale process natural combustion where different types of flora and fauna of different sizes and ages are consumed. Consequently, forest fires are a potential source of large amounts of air pollutants that must be considered when trying to relate emissions to the air quality in neighboring cities of forest areas as in the Valley of Mexico. The size, intensity and occurrence of a forest fire directly dependent variables such as weather conditions, topography, vegetation type and its moisture content and the mass of fuel per hectare. An agricultural fire is a controlled combustion, which occurred a negligence can get out of control and increase the burned area or the possibly become a wildfire. Once a fire starts, the dry combustible material is consumed first. If the energy release is large and of sufficient duration, drying green material occurs live, with subsequent burning it. Under proper fuel and environmental conditions, this process can start a chain reaction. These events occur mainly in the dry season. Forest fires and agriculture fires contribute directly in the increase of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere; The main pollutants emitted to the atmosphere by a wildfire are the PM10, PM2.5, NOx and VOC's, the consequences have by fire are deforestation, soil erosion or change of structure and composition of forests (Villers, 2006), also it affects ecosystems and the health of the population. In this study the impact of air quality for the emissions of particulate matter less than ten microns PM10, by wildfire and agricultural fire occurred on the same day and same place, the study was evaluated in Mexico City the Delegation Milpa Alta in the community of San Lorenzo Tlacoyucan, the fire occurred on 3rd March, 2015, the wildfire duration 12 hours consuming 32 hectares of oak forest and the agricultural fire duration 6 hours consumed 16 hectares of corn. To evaluate the impact of air quality the WRF-Chem, WRF-Fire and METv3 models were used, four scenarios were made, in the first forest fire emissions were included, in the second agricultural fire emissions were included, the third was the difference between agricultural burning and forest fire and the last stage model without fire emissions. In making the interpolation of the modeled scenarios forest and agricultural fires the impact of air quality in the Valley of Mexico was obtained by increasing the concentration of particles smaller than ten micrometers PM10, with the results of the modeling are obtained that the PM10 concentration is ten times higher in the wildfire regarding agricultural fire. By making interpolation between this difference and considering the fire scenario without emissions by that date, a maximum PM10 concentration was 170μg /m3 during the hours of the fires, which exceeds the Mexican standard NOM-025-SSA1-2014 that provides that the maximum allowable limit of exposure to particulate matter less than ten microns is 75μg/m3 on average 24 hours, forest and agricultural fires have an impact of 226% in the PM10 air quality affecting ecosystems and human health

Life-cycle GHG emissions of electricity from syngas produced by pyrolyzing woody biomass

Treesearch

Hongmei Gu; Richard Bergman

2015-01-01

Low-value residues from forest restoration activities in the western United States intended to mitigate effects from wildfire, climate change, and pests and disease need a sustainable market to improve the economic viability of treatment. Converting biomass into bioenergy is a potential solution. Life-cycle assessment (LCA) as a sustainable metric tool can assess the...

Climate change and fire management in the mid-Atlantic region

Treesearch

Kenneth L. Clark; Nicholas Skowronski; Heidi Renninger; Robert Scheller

2014-01-01

In this review, we summarize the potential impacts of climate change on wildfire activity in the mid-Atlantic region, and then consider how the beneficial uses of prescribed fire could conflict with mitigation needs for climate change, focusing on patters of carbon (C) sequestration by forests in the region. We use a synthesis of field studies, eddy flux tower...

Reconstructing fire history in central Mongolia from tree-rings

Treesearch

Amy E. Hessl; Uyanga Ariya; Peter Brown; Oyunsannaa Byambasuren; Tim Green; Gordon Jacoby; Elaine Kennedy Sutherland; Baatarbileg Nachin; R. Stockton Maxwell; Neil Pederson; Louis De Grandpre; Thomas Saladyga; Jacques C. Tardif

2012-01-01

Rising temperatures are expected to increase wildfire activity in many regions of the world. Over the last 60 years in Mongolia, mean annual temperatures have increased ~2°C and the recorded frequency and spatial extent of forest and steppe fires have increased. Few long records of fire history exist to place these recent changes in a historical perspective. The...

75 FR 3193 - Information Collection; Annual Wildfire Summary Report

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-01-20

... addressed to Tim Melchert, Fire and Aviation Management, National Interagency Fire Center, Forest Service... Forest Service State and Private Forestry Cooperative Fire Program. The program provides supplemental funding for State and local fire fighting agencies. The Forest Service works cooperatively with State and...

Short and long-term carbon balance of bioenergy electricity production fueled by forest treatments

Treesearch

Katherine C. Kelsey; Kallie L. Barnes; Michael G. Ryan; Jason C. Neff

2014-01-01

Forests store large amounts of carbon in forest biomass, and this carbon can be released to the atmosphere following forest disturbance or management. In the western US, forest fuel reduction treatments designed to reduce the risk of high severity wildfire can change forest carbon balance by removing carbon in the form of biomass, and by altering future potential...

Potential influence of wildfire in modulating climate-induced forest redistribution in a central Rocky Mountain landscape

USGS Publications Warehouse

Campbell, John L.; Shinneman, Douglas

2017-01-01

IntroductionClimate change is expected to impose significant tension on the geographic distribution of tree species. Yet, tree species range shifts may be delayed by their long life spans, capacity to withstand long periods of physiological stress, and dispersal limitations. Wildfire could theoretically break this biological inertia by killing forest canopies and facilitating species redistribution under changing climate. We investigated the capacity of wildfire to modulate climate-induced tree redistribution across a montane landscape in the central Rocky Mountains under three climate scenarios (contemporary and two warmer future climates) and three wildfire scenarios (representing historical, suppressed, and future fire regimes).MethodsDistributions of four common tree species were projected over 90 years by pairing a climate niche model with a forest landscape simulation model that simulates species dispersal, establishment, and mortality under alternative disturbance regimes and climate scenarios.ResultsThree species (Douglas-fir, lodgepole pine, subalpine fir) declined in abundance over time, due to climate-driven contraction in area suitable for establishment, while one species (ponderosa pine) was unable to exploit climate-driven expansion of area suitable for establishment. Increased fire frequency accelerated declines in area occupied by Douglas-fir, lodgepole pine, and subalpine fir, and it maintained local abundance but not range expansion of ponderosa pine.ConclusionsWildfire may play a larger role in eliminating these conifer species along trailing edges of their distributions than facilitating establishment along leading edges, in part due to dispersal limitations and interspecific competition, and future populations may increasingly depend on persistence in locations unfavorable for their establishment.

The Role of Wildfire, Prescribed Fire, and Mountain Pine Beetle Infestations on the Population Dynamics of Black-Backed Woodpeckers in the Black Hills, South Dakota

PubMed Central

Rota, Christopher T.; Millspaugh, Joshua J.; Rumble, Mark A.; Lehman, Chad P.; Kesler, Dylan C.

2014-01-01

Wildfire and mountain pine beetle infestations are naturally occurring disturbances in western North American forests. Black-backed woodpeckers (Picoides arcticus) are emblematic of the role these disturbances play in creating wildlife habitat, since they are strongly associated with recently-killed forests. However, management practices aimed at reducing the economic impact of natural disturbances can result in habitat loss for this species. Although black-backed woodpeckers occupy habitats created by wildfire, prescribed fire, and mountain pine beetle infestations, the relative value of these habitats remains unknown. We studied habitat-specific adult and juvenile survival probabilities and reproductive rates between April 2008 and August 2012 in the Black Hills, South Dakota. We estimated habitat-specific adult and juvenile survival probability with Bayesian multi-state models and habitat-specific reproductive success with Bayesian nest survival models. We calculated asymptotic population growth rates from estimated demographic rates with matrix projection models. Adult and juvenile survival and nest success were highest in habitat created by summer wildfire, intermediate in MPB infestations, and lowest in habitat created by fall prescribed fire. Mean posterior distributions of population growth rates indicated growing populations in habitat created by summer wildfire and declining populations in fall prescribed fire and mountain pine beetle infestations. Our finding that population growth rates were positive only in habitat created by summer wildfire underscores the need to maintain early post-wildfire habitat across the landscape. The lower growth rates in fall prescribed fire and MPB infestations may be attributed to differences in predator communities and food resources relative to summer wildfire. PMID:24736502

A comparison of effects from prescribed fires and wildfires managed for resource objectives in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks

USGS Publications Warehouse

Nesmith, C.B.; Caprio, Anthony C.; Pfaff, Anne H.; McGinnis, Thomas W.; Keeley, Jon E.

2011-01-01

Current goals for prescription burning are focused on measures of fuel consumption and changes in forest density. These benchmarks, however, do not address the extent to which prescription burning meets perceived ecosystem needs of heterogeneity in burning, both for overstory trees and understory herbs and shrubs. There are still questions about how closely prescribed fires mimic these patterns compared to natural wildfires. This study compared burn patterns of prescribed fires and managed unplanned wildfires to understand how the differing burning regimes affect ecosystem properties. Measures of forest structure and fire severity were sampled in three recent prescribed fires and three wildfires managed for resource objectives in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. Fine scale patterns of fire severity and heterogeneity were compared between fire types using ground-based measures of fire effects on fuels and overstory and understory vegetation. Prescribed fires and wildfires managed for resource objectives displayed similar patterns of overstory and understory fire severity, heterogeneity, and seedling and sapling survival. Variation among plots within the same fire was always greater than between fire types. Prescribed fires can provide burned landscapes that approximate natural fires in many ways. It is recognized that constraints placed on when wildfires managed for resource objectives are allowed to burn freely may bias the range of conditions that might have been experienced under more natural conditions. Therefore they may not exactly mimic natural wildfires. Overall, the similarity in fire effects that we observed between prescribed fires and managed wildfires indicate that despite the restrictions that are often placed on prescribed fires, they appear to be creating post-fire conditions that approximate natural fires when assessed on a fine spatial scale.

The role of wildfire, prescribed fire, and mountain pine beetle infestations on the population dynamics of black-backed woodpeckers in the black hills, South Dakota.

PubMed

Rota, Christopher T; Millspaugh, Joshua J; Rumble, Mark A; Lehman, Chad P; Kesler, Dylan C

2014-01-01

Wildfire and mountain pine beetle infestations are naturally occurring disturbances in western North American forests. Black-backed woodpeckers (Picoides arcticus) are emblematic of the role these disturbances play in creating wildlife habitat, since they are strongly associated with recently-killed forests. However, management practices aimed at reducing the economic impact of natural disturbances can result in habitat loss for this species. Although black-backed woodpeckers occupy habitats created by wildfire, prescribed fire, and mountain pine beetle infestations, the relative value of these habitats remains unknown. We studied habitat-specific adult and juvenile survival probabilities and reproductive rates between April 2008 and August 2012 in the Black Hills, South Dakota. We estimated habitat-specific adult and juvenile survival probability with Bayesian multi-state models and habitat-specific reproductive success with Bayesian nest survival models. We calculated asymptotic population growth rates from estimated demographic rates with matrix projection models. Adult and juvenile survival and nest success were highest in habitat created by summer wildfire, intermediate in MPB infestations, and lowest in habitat created by fall prescribed fire. Mean posterior distributions of population growth rates indicated growing populations in habitat created by summer wildfire and declining populations in fall prescribed fire and mountain pine beetle infestations. Our finding that population growth rates were positive only in habitat created by summer wildfire underscores the need to maintain early post-wildfire habitat across the landscape. The lower growth rates in fall prescribed fire and MPB infestations may be attributed to differences in predator communities and food resources relative to summer wildfire.

Impact of wildfire and slope aspect on soil temperature in a mountainous environment

USGS Publications Warehouse

Ebel, Brian A.

2012-01-01

Soil temperature changes after landscape disturbance impact hydrology, ecology, and geomorphology. This study used field measurements to examine wildfire and aspect effects on soil temperatures. Combustion of the litter and duff layers on north-facing slopes removed pre-fire aspect-driven soil temperature controls.Wildfire is one of the most significant disturbances in mountainous landscapes and can affect soil temperature, which can in turn impact ecologic and geomorphologic processes. This study measured the temperature in near-surface soil (i.e., top 30 cm) during the first summer after a wildfire. In mountainous environments, aspect can also affect soil temperature, so north- vs. south-facing aspects were compared using a fully factorial experimental design to explore the effects of both wildfire and aspect on soil temperature. The data showed major wildfire impacts on soil temperatures on north-facing aspects (unburned ∼4–5°C cooler, on average) but little impact on south-facing aspects. Differences in soil temperatures between north-facing and south-facing unburned aspects (north ∼5°C cooler, on average) were also observed. The data led to the conclusion that, for this field site during the summer period, the forest canopy and litter and duff layers on north-facing slopes (when unburned) substantially decreased mean soil temperatures and temperature variability. The sparse trees on south-facing slopes caused little to no difference in soil temperatures following wildfire in south-facing soils for unburned compared with burned conditions. The results indicate that wildfire can reduce or even remove aspect impacts on soil temperature by combusting the forest canopy and litter and duff layers, which then homogenizes soil temperatures across the landscape.

Mapping forest vegetation for the western United States using modified random forests imputation of FIA forest plots

Treesearch

Karin Riley; Isaac C. Grenfell; Mark A. Finney

2016-01-01

Maps of the number, size, and species of trees in forests across the western United States are desirable for many applications such as estimating terrestrial carbon resources, predicting tree mortality following wildfires, and for forest inventory. However, detailed mapping of trees for large areas is not feasible with current technologies, but statistical...

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,...

Fortifying the forest: Thinning and burning increase resistance to a bark beetle outbreak and promote forest resilience

Treesearch

Sharon M. Hood; Stephen Baker; Anna Sala

2016-01-01

Fire frequency in low-elevation coniferous forests in western North America has greatly declined since the late 1800s. In many areas, this has increased tree density and the proportion of shade-tolerant species, reduced resource availability, and increased forest susceptibility to forest insect pests and high-severity wildfire. In response, treatments are...

Have changing forests conditions contributed to pollinator decline in the southeastern United States?

Treesearch

James L. Hanula; Scott Horn; Joseph J. O' Brien

2015-01-01

Two conservation goals of the early 20th century, extensive reforestation and reduced wildfire through fire exclusion, may have contributed to declining pollinator abundance as forests became denser and shrub covered. To examine how forest structure affects bees we selected 5 stands in each of 7 forest types including: cleared forest; dense young pines; thinned young...

A spatial database for restoration management capability on national forests in the Pacific Northwest USA

Treesearch

Chris Ringo; Alan A. Ager; Michelle A. Day; Sarah Crim

2016-01-01

Understanding the capacity to reduce wildfire risk and restore dry forests on Western national forests is a key part of prioritizing new accelerated restoration programs initiated by the Forest Service. Although a number of social and biophysical factors influence the ability to implement restoration programs, one key driver is the suite of forest plan land...

Assessment of forest fuel loadings in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands

Treesearch

Thomas Brandeis; Christopher Woodall

2009-01-01

Quantification of the downed woody materials that comprise forest fuels has gained importance in Caribbean forest ecosystems due to the increasing incidence and severity of wildfires on island ecosystems. Because large-scale assessments of forest fuels have rarely been conducted for these ecosystems, forest fuels were assessed at 121 U.S. Department of Agriculture,...

Collaborative restoration effects on forest structure in ponderosa pine-dominated forests of Colorado

Treesearch

Jeffery B. Cannon; Kevin J. Barrett; Benjamin M. Gannon; Robert N. Addington; Mike A. Battaglia; Paula J. Fornwalt; Gregory H. Aplet; Antony S. Cheng; Jeffrey L. Underhill; Jennifer S. Briggs; Peter M. Brown

2018-01-01

In response to large, severe wildfires in historically fire-adapted forests in the western US, policy initiatives, such as the USDA Forest Service’s Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program (CFLRP), seek to increase the pace and scale of ecological restoration. One required component of this program is collaborative adaptive management, in which monitoring...

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...

Extensive wildfires, climate change, and an abrupt state change in subalpine ribbon forests, Colorado.

PubMed

Calder, W John; Shuman, Bryan

2017-10-01

Ecosystems may shift abruptly when the effects of climate change and disturbance interact, and landscapes with regularly patterned vegetation may be especially vulnerable to abrupt shifts. Here we use a fossil pollen record from a regularly patterned ribbon forest (alternating bands of forests and meadows) in Colorado to examine whether past changes in wildfire and climate produced abrupt vegetation shifts. Comparing the percentages of conifer pollen with sedimentary δ 18 O data (interpreted as an indicator of temperature or snow accumulation) indicates a first-order linear relationship between vegetation composition and climate change with no detectable lags over the past 2,500 yr (r = 0.55, P < 0.001). Additionally, however, we find that the vegetation changed abruptly within a century of extensive wildfires, which were recognized in a previous study to have burned approximately 80% of the surrounding 1,000 km 2 landscape 1,000 yr ago when temperatures rose ~0.5°C. The vegetation change was larger than expected from the effects of climate change alone. Pollen assemblages changed from a composition associated with closed subalpine forests to one similar to modern ribbon forests. Fossil pollen assemblages then remained like those from modern ribbon forests for the following ~1,000 yr, providing a clear example of how extensive disturbances can trigger persistent new vegetation states and alter how vegetation responds to climate. © 2017 by the Ecological Society of America.

A global assessment of wildfire risks to human and environmental water security

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Robinne, François-Nicolas; Parisien, Marc-André; Flannigan, Mike; Miller, Carol; Bladon, Kevin D.

2017-04-01

Extreme wildfire events extensively affect hydrosystem stability and generate an important threat to the reliability of the water supply for human and natural communities. While actively studied at the watershed scale, the development of a global vision of wildfire risk to water security has only been undertaken recently, pointing at potential water security concerns in an era of global changes. In order to address this concern, we propose a global-scale analysis of the wildfire risk to surface water supplies based on the Driving forces-Pressures-States-Impacts-Responses (DPSIR) framework. This framework relies on the cause-and-effect relationships existing between the five categories of the DPSIR chain. Based on the literature, we gathered an extensive set of spatial indicators relevant to fire-induced hydrological hazards and water consumption patterns by human and natural communities. Each indicator was assigned a DPSIR category. Then, we collapsed the information in each category using a principal component analysis in order to extract the most relevant pixel-based information provided by each spatial indicator. Finally, we compiled our five categories using an additive indexation process to produce a spatially-explicit index of the wildfire-water risk (WWR). For comparison purposes, we aggregated index scores by global hydrological regions, or hydrobelts, for analysis. Overall, our results show a distinct pattern of medium-to-high risk levels in areas where sizeable wildfire activity, water resources, and water consumption are concomitant, which mainly encompasses temperate and sub-tropical zones. A closer look at hydrobelts reveals differences in the factors driving the risk, with fire activity being the primary factor of risk in the circumboreal forest, and freshwater resource density being prevalent in tropical areas. We also identified major urban areas across the world whose source waters should be protected from extreme fire events, particularly when they are dependent on mountainous headwaters. This study offers new insights towards a better understanding of global water security issues that can inform and help guide international water governance.

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.

Using NASA Satellite Observations to Map Wildfire Risk in the United States for Allocation of Fire Management Resources

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Farahmand, A.; Reager, J. T., II; Behrangi, A.; Stavros, E. N.; Randerson, J. T.

2017-12-01

Fires are a key disturbance globally acting as a catalyst for terrestrial ecosystem change and contributing significantly to both carbon emissions and changes in surface albedo. The socioeconomic impacts of wildfire activities are also significant with wildfire activity results in billions of dollars of losses every year. Fire size, area burned and frequency are increasing, thus the likelihood of fire danger, defined by United States National Interagency Fire Center (NFIC) as the demand of fire management resources as a function of how flammable fuels (a function of ignitability, consumability and availability) are from normal, is an important step toward reducing costs associated with wildfires. Numerous studies have aimed to predict the likelihood of fire danger, but few studies use remote sensing data to map fire danger at scales commensurate with regional management decisions (e.g., deployment of resources nationally throughout fire season with seasonal and monthly prediction). Here, we use NASA Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment (GRACE) assimilated surface soil moisture, NASA Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) vapor pressure deficit, NASA Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) enhanced vegetation index products and landcover products, along with US Forest Service historical fire activity data to generate probabilistic monthly fire potential maps in the United States. These maps can be useful in not only government operational allocation of fire management resources, but also improving understanding of the Earth System and how it is changing in order to refine predictions of fire extremes.

Spanish Network on Effects of Wildfires on Soils. The view after 5 years of networking

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jordán, Antonio; Mataix-Solera, Jorge; Cerdà, Artemi

2013-04-01

1. WHAT IS FUEGORED? The Spanish Thematic Network "Effects of Wildfires on Soils" (FUEGORED, http://grupo.us.es/fuegored) has been working for over 5 years at becoming a point of reference for the study of fire-affected soils and restoration strategies. FUEGORED started in 2007, originally scheduled to run three years, as a result of the interest of Spanish researchers for developing better strategies and scientific interchange of ideas, people and collaboration between research groups. The first steps towards the establishment of a working group were a series of fieldtrips through Spain (2003), USA (2004) and Portugal (2005), where discussions about problems and research strategies arised. In its early years the network was supported by the former Ministry of Science and Innovation. This is a project to review scientific knowledge developed to date and discuss and propose future developments in scientific research about the effects of wildfires on soils. The objectives of the network are to promote and disseminate scientific research findings, provide technical and management information, and facilitate transference of knowledge between scientists, forest managers, students and society. 2. WHO IS IN THE NETWORK? The research group consists of the leading names of Spanish science in the topic and young talents, which are currently developing the most innovative research lines. Currently, the network is formed by 245 members, researchers from over 30 Spanish universities and research centers to provide the experience of decades of scientific and technical work in areas affected by forest fires and outstanding foreign researchers from Europe, Australia and America, including countries such as Australia, Italy, Lithuania, Portugal, UK, USA and others. Forest managers and technicians from various institutions are also present. 3. MAIN ACHIEVEMENTS Four international congresses have been promoted by the network in Valencia, 2008, Seville, 2009, Santiago de Compostela, 2010 and Tenerife, 2012 (the next meeting will be held in Barcelona in 2014). In addition, several contributions, courses and workshops have been celebrated in Spanish or international forums as the EGU General Assembly, the International Meeting of Fire Effects on Soil Properties (FESP2011 and forthcoming FESP2013) and the International Conference on Geomorphology have been also sponsored. Other activities include the publication of book series (two volumes have been published: Cerdá and Jordán, 2010; Cerdà and Mataix-Solera, 2009. The third one is currently in preparation), books of abstracts (Díaz-Raviña et al., 2010; Jordán et al., 2009), a series of technical reports (in preparation) and special issues in international journals (in, for example, Catena, Geoderma, Environmental Research or the International Journal of Wildland Fire). A four-monthly journal (FLAMMA; http://grupo.us.es/fuegored/flamma) is published regularly since 2010 with an increasing audience and issues scheduled until 2014. Also, the network has promoted voluntary environmental actions and educational activities. 4. MAIN CHALLENGES The next challenges are to continue promoting the interaction between scientists, decision makers, forest management staff and end-users and to establish new connections with European institutions and research groups. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The Spanish Thematic Network "Effects of Wildfires on Soils" was supported between 2007 and 2009 by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (projects CGL2007-28764-E 2007-2008 and CGL2008-01632-E 2009). REFERENCES Cerdà, A. Jordán, A. (Eds.). 2010. Actualización de Métodos y Técnicas para el Estudio de los Suelos Afectados por Incendios Forestales [Updated methods and techniques for the study of soils affected by wildfires; in Spanish]. Cátedra de Divulgació de la Ciència, Universitat de València, FUEGORED 2010. Valencia. 521 pp. ISBN: 978-84-370-7887-8. Cerdà, A., Mataix-Solera, J. (Eds). 2009. Efectos de los incendios forestales sobre los suelos en España. El estado de la cuestión visto por los científicos españoles [Effects of wildfires on soils in Spain. The state of the question as seen by Spanish scientists; in Spanish]. Càtedra de Divulgació de la Ciència. Universitat de Valencia. 529 pp. ISBN: 978-84-370-7653-9. Díaz Raviña, M., Benito, E., Carballas, T., Fontúrbel, M.T., Vega , J.A.(Eds.). 2010. Research and post-fire Management: Soil Protection and Rehabilitation Techniques for Burnt Forest Ecosystems. IIAG (CSIC). Santiago de Compostela. 326 pp. ISBN: 978-84-8408-583-6. Jordán, A., Zavala, L.M. de la Rosa, J.M., Knicker, H., González-Pérez, J.A., González-Vila, F.J. (Eds.). 2009. Advances in forest fire effects on soils 2009. IRNAS-CSIC-Universidad de Sevilla. Sevilla. 144 pp. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10261/18162. FUEGORED INTERNATIONAL MEETINGS FUEGORED2008. I International Meeting Effects of Wildfires son Soils. 03-05 December 2008. Valencia/Enguera/Alcoi, Spain. FUEGORED2009. II International Meeting Effects of Wildfires son Soils. 04-06 November 2009. Sevilla/Cortegana, Spain. FUEGORED2010. III International Meeting Effects of Wildfires son Soils Research and post-fire Management: Soil Protection and Rehabilitation Techniques for Burnt Forest Ecosystems 06-08 October 2010. Santiago de Compostela, Spain. FUEGORED2012. IV International Meeting Effects of Wildfires son Soils 24-27 October 2012. Puerto de la Cruz, Spain.

Vulnerabilities of ecosystems across U.S. National Parks to biome shifts, wildfire changes, and invasive species due to climate change

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gonzalez, P.; Eigenbrod, F.; Early, R.; Wang, F.; Notaro, M.; Williams, J. W.

2016-12-01

U.S. national parks conserve globally unique biodiversity. Yet, historical impacts of climate change and future vulnerabilities threaten species and ecosystems across this system of protected areas. Spatial analyses of historical climate and downscaled future climate projections show climate trends across the system. Spatial analyses of vegetation and wildfire (using a dynamic global vegetation model), habitat fragmentation (using remote sensing-derived land cover), and invasive species introduction and establishment show patterns of future vulnerability across the 50 U.S. states and 412 U.S. national parks. Results reveal high historical and projected temperature increases and precipitation changes, projected increases of wildfire across western U.S. national parks, high vulnerability to biome shifts and habitat fragmentation of up to one-third of National Park System area, and high vulnerability to invasive species of one-ninth of National Park System area. Ecosystems in the Sierra Nevada, Cascade Range, desert Southwest, and Laurentian Great Lakes are highly vulnerable to upslope and poleward shifts of the North America sequence of biomes: temperate shrubland - temperate broadleaf forest - temperate mixed forest - temperate conifer forest - subalpine and boreal forest - alpine and tundra. These areas include Grand Canyon, Mount Rainier, and Yosemite National Parks. The southwestern U.S., including Grand Canyon and Sequoia National Parks, is vulnerable to increases in wildfire. The eastern and midwestern U.S., including Great Smokey Mountains and Voyageurs National Parks, are highly vulnerable to invasive species. These results identify vulnerable areas and potential refugia to help prioritize areas for future natural resource management actions and biodiversity conservation in U.S. national parks.

Effects of fire suppression under a changing climate in Pacific Northwest mixed-pine forests

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hanan, E. J.; Tague, C.; Bart, R. R.; Kennedy, M. C.; Abatzoglou, J. T.; Kolden, C.; Adam, J. C.

2017-12-01

The frequency of large and severe wildfires has increased over recent decades in many regions across the Western U.S., including the Pacific and Inland Northwest. This increase is likely driven in large part by wildfire suppression, which has promoted fuel accumulation in western landscapes. Recent studies also suggest that anthropogenic climate change intensifies wildfire activity by increasing fuel aridity. However, the contribution of these drivers to observed changes in fire regime is not well quantified at regional scales. Understanding the relative influence of climate and fire suppression is crucial for both projecting the effects of climate change on future fire spread, and for developing site-specific fuel management strategies under a new climate paradigm. To quantify the extent to which fire suppression and climate change have contributed to increases in wildfire activity in the Pacific Northwest, we conduct a modeling experiment using the ecohydrologic model RHESSys and the coupled stochastic fire spread model WMFire. Specifically, we use historical climate inputs from GCMs, combined with fire suppression scenarios to gauge the extent to which these drivers promote the spread of severe wildfires in Johnson Creek, a large (565-km2) mixed-pine dominated subcatchment of the Southfork Salmon River; part of the larger Columbia River Basin. We run 500 model iterations for suppressed, intermediate, and unsuppressed fire management scenarios, both with and without climate change in a factorial design, focusing on fire spread surrounding two extreme fire years in Johnson Creek (1998 and 2007). After deriving fire spread "fingerprints" for each combination of possible drivers, we evaluate the extent to which these fingerprints match observations in the fire record. We expect that climate change plays a role in the spread of large and severe wildfires in Johnson Creek, but the magnitude of this effect is mediated by prior suppression. Preliminary results suggest that management strategies aimed at reducing the extent of contiguous even-aged fuels may help curtail climate-driven increases in wildfire severity in Pacific Northwest watersheds.

Longer-term Stream Nitrogen Dynamics after Wildfire and Salvage Harvesting: Implications for Management Concepts based on Trajectories of Post-disturbance Watershed Recovery.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Silins, U.; Emelko, M. B.; Bladon, K. D.; Stone, M.; Williams, C.; Martens, A. M.; Wagner, M. J.

2015-12-01

Biogeochemical processes reflecting interaction of vegetation and hydrology govern long-term export of nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and carbon over successional time scales. While management concepts of watershed "recovery" from disturbance back towards pre-disturbance conditions are often considered over much shorter timescales, few studies have directly explored watershed biogeochemical responses to disturbance long enough to directly document the longer-term trajectory of responses to severe land disturbance on nitrogen export. The objectives of this study were to document both the initial magnitude and patterns of longer-term recovery of stream nitrogen after the 2003 Lost Creek wildfire over nine years in front ranges of the Rocky Mountains in south-west Alberta, Canada. The study was conducted in seven instrumented catchments (4-14 km2), including burned, burned and salvage logged, and unburned (reference) conditions since 2004. Total nitrogen (TN) and nitrate (NO3-) concentrations and area-normalized yields were greater and more variable in burned and post-fire salvage logged catchments when compared with unburned catchments. Large initial increases in stream TN and NO3- production 1-3 years after both wildfire and post-fire salvage logging declined strongly to levels similar to, or below that of unburned watersheds 4-6 years after the fire, and continued to decline (although more slowly) 7-9 years after the wildfire. Post-fire salvage logging produced lower impacts on TN and NO3- in streams and these effects declined even more rapidly compared to the effects of wildfire alone. These changes closely corresponded to the early trajectory of establishment and rapid juvenile growth of post-fire regenerating forest vegetation in both catchment groups. While the concept of hydrologic recovery from disturbance is both a practical and meaningful concept for integrated landscape management for protection of forest water resources, the benchmark for "recovery" based on present conditions in undisturbed forests may vary widely depending on forest age and successional status.

The Effects of Wildfire on Mortality and Resources for an Arboreal Marsupial: Resilience to Fire Events but Susceptibility to Fire Regime Change

PubMed Central

Banks, Sam C.; Knight, Emma J.; McBurney, Lachlan; Blair, David; Lindenmayer, David B.

2011-01-01

Background Big environmental disturbances have big ecological effects, yet these are not always what we might expect. Understanding the proximate effects of major disturbances, such as severe wildfires, on individuals, populations and habitats will be essential for understanding how predicted future increases in the frequency of such disturbances will affect ecosystems. However, researchers rarely have access to data from immediately before and after such events. Here we report on the effects of a severe and extensive forest wildfire on mortality, reproductive output and availability of key shelter resources for an arboreal marsupial. We also investigated the behavioural response of individuals to changed shelter resource availability in the post-fire environment. Methodology/Principal Findings We fitted proximity-logging radiotransmitters to mountain brushtail possums (Trichosurus cunninghami) before, during and after the 2009 wildfires in Victoria, Australia. Surprisingly, we detected no mortality associated with the fire, and despite a significant post-fire decrease in the proportion of females carrying pouch young in the burnt area, there was no short-term post-fire population decline. The major consequence of this fire for mountain brushtail possums was the loss of over 80% of hollow-bearing trees. The types of trees preferred as shelter sites (highly decayed dead standing trees) were those most likely to collapse after fire. Individuals adapted to resource decline by being more flexible in resource selection after the fire, but not by increased resource sharing. Conclusions/Significance Despite short-term demographic resilience and behavioural adaptation following this fire, the major loss of decayed hollow trees suggests the increased frequency of stand-replacing wildfires predicted under climate change will pose major challenges for shelter resource availability for hollow-dependent fauna. Hollow-bearing trees are typically biological legacies of previous forest generations in post-fire regrowth forests but will cease to be recruited to future regrowth forests if the interval between severe fires becomes too rapid for hollow formation. PMID:21826221

Increased Wildfire Risk Driven by Climate and Development Interactions in the Bolivian Chiquitania, Southern Amazonia.

PubMed

Devisscher, Tahia; Anderson, Liana O; Aragão, Luiz E O C; Galván, Luis; Malhi, Yadvinder

2016-01-01

Wildfires are becoming increasingly dominant in tropical landscapes due to reinforcing feedbacks between land cover change and more severe dry conditions. This study focused on the Bolivian Chiquitania, a region located at the southern edge of Amazonia. The extensive, unique and well-conserved tropical dry forest in this region is susceptible to wildfires due to a marked seasonality. We used a novel approach to assess fire risk at the regional level driven by different development trajectories interacting with changing climatic conditions. Possible future risk scenarios were simulated using maximum entropy modelling with presence-only data, combining land cover, anthropogenic and climatic variables. We found that important determinants of fire risk in the region are distance to roads, recent deforestation and density of human settlements. Severely dry conditions alone increased the area of high fire risk by 69%, affecting all categories of land use and land cover. Interactions between extreme dry conditions and rapid frontier expansion further increased fire risk, resulting in potential biomass loss of 2.44±0.8 Tg in high risk area, about 1.8 times higher than the estimates for the 2010 drought. These interactions showed particularly high fire risk in land used for 'extensive cattle ranching', 'agro-silvopastoral use' and 'intensive cattle ranching and agriculture'. These findings have serious implications for subsistence activities and the economy in the Chiquitania, which greatly depend on the forestry, agriculture and livestock sectors. Results are particularly concerning if considering the current development policies promoting frontier expansion. Departmental protected areas inhibited wildfires when strategically established in areas of high risk, even under drought conditions. However, further research is needed to assess their effectiveness accounting for more specific contextual factors. This novel and simple modelling approach can inform fire and land management decisions in the Chiquitania and other tropical forest landscapes to better anticipate and manage large wildfires in the future.

Increased Wildfire Risk Driven by Climate and Development Interactions in the Bolivian Chiquitania, Southern Amazonia

PubMed Central

Devisscher, Tahia; Anderson, Liana O.; Aragão, Luiz E. O. C.; Galván, Luis; Malhi, Yadvinder

2016-01-01

Wildfires are becoming increasingly dominant in tropical landscapes due to reinforcing feedbacks between land cover change and more severe dry conditions. This study focused on the Bolivian Chiquitania, a region located at the southern edge of Amazonia. The extensive, unique and well-conserved tropical dry forest in this region is susceptible to wildfires due to a marked seasonality. We used a novel approach to assess fire risk at the regional level driven by different development trajectories interacting with changing climatic conditions. Possible future risk scenarios were simulated using maximum entropy modelling with presence-only data, combining land cover, anthropogenic and climatic variables. We found that important determinants of fire risk in the region are distance to roads, recent deforestation and density of human settlements. Severely dry conditions alone increased the area of high fire risk by 69%, affecting all categories of land use and land cover. Interactions between extreme dry conditions and rapid frontier expansion further increased fire risk, resulting in potential biomass loss of 2.44±0.8 Tg in high risk area, about 1.8 times higher than the estimates for the 2010 drought. These interactions showed particularly high fire risk in land used for ‘extensive cattle ranching’, ‘agro-silvopastoral use’ and ‘intensive cattle ranching and agriculture’. These findings have serious implications for subsistence activities and the economy in the Chiquitania, which greatly depend on the forestry, agriculture and livestock sectors. Results are particularly concerning if considering the current development policies promoting frontier expansion. Departmental protected areas inhibited wildfires when strategically established in areas of high risk, even under drought conditions. However, further research is needed to assess their effectiveness accounting for more specific contextual factors. This novel and simple modelling approach can inform fire and land management decisions in the Chiquitania and other tropical forest landscapes to better anticipate and manage large wildfires in the future. PMID:27632528

Monitoring burned and unburned hillslopes from North Carolina to southern California: insights into hydrologic and geomorphic controls on disturbance-recovery cycles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mirus, B. B.; Kean, J. W.; Smith, J. B.; Staley, D. M.; Wooten, R.; Cattanach, B.; Rengers, F. K.; McGuire, L.; Godt, J.; Lu, N.

2017-12-01

On steep hillslopes, vegetation often provides an important ecosystem function by preventing landsliding, debris flows, and floods, thereby protecting human lives and infrastructure. Disturbances that disrupt vegetation - from wildfire and forest clearing to landslides themselves - can abruptly alter hillslope hydrologic and geomorphic processes thereby increasing the threat of these natural hazards. Two major challenges from a hazard assessment perspective are: (1) quantifying disturbance impacts on near-surface hydrologic responses, and (2) understanding the relevant processes and timescales associated with disturbance-recovery cycles. These challenges are complicated by the limited availability of long-term monitoring in pre- and post-disturbance environments. Therefore, many tools designed to provide rapid situational awareness and improve disaster preparedness and response rely on temporally invariant parameterization or locally derived empirical relations that are not necessarily transferrable across different geologic or climatic settings. Here we examine hillslope hydrologic response in landslide-prone terrain across the continental US, from the West Coast to Appalachia, to explore these issues related to disturbance-recovery cycles. Wildfire is a recurring disturbance along the actively uplifting mountains in semi-arid southern California, and heavy winter storms arriving from the Pacific are frequently able to produce debris flows in recently burned areas. Although wildfire is less common in the much wetter Cascades and Coast Ranges of Oregon and Washington, frequent landslides and forest clearing disturbances also influence hillslope hydrology and slope stability. In contrast, the recent wildfires in Tennessee, Georgia, and North Carolina have highlighted critical knowledge gaps related to post-fire hydrology and natural hazards in the geologically stable and humid sub-tropical southeastern US, where severe wildfires are less common than other disturbances. Our continuous monitoring from several burned and unburned hillslopes across these diverse geologic and climatic settings reveals variations in the disturbance impacts and recovery timescales, as well as the need for further monitoring, modeling, and synthesis across regions and scales.

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...

Human Health Impacts of Forest Fires in the Southern United States: A Literature Review

Treesearch

Cynthia T. Fowler

2003-01-01

Forestry management practices can shape patterns of health, illness, and disease. A primary goal for owners federal, state, andprivate forests is to crap ecosystem management plans that simultaneously optimize forest health and human health. Fire-a major forest management issue in the United States-complicates these goals. Wildfires are natural phenomena with...

Developing New Coastal Forest Restoration Products Based on Landsat, ASTER, and MODIS Data

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-06-01

hydrology, wildfire, and conversion to non-forest land use. In some cases, such forest disturbance has led to forest loss or loss of regeneration capacity...classification of bald cypress and tupelo gum trees in Thematic Mapper imagery,” Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing, vol. 63, pp. 717–725, 1997. [14

Historical (1860) forest structure in ponderosa pine forests of the northern Front Range, Colorado

Treesearch

Peter M. Brown; Michael A. Battaglia; Paula J. Fornwalt; Benjamin Gannon; Laurie S. Huckaby; Chad Julian; Antony S. Cheng

2015-01-01

Management of many dry conifer forests in western North America is focused on promoting resilience to future wildfires, climate change, and land use impacts through restoration of historical patterns of forest structure and disturbance processes. Historical structural data provide models for past resilient conditions that inform the design of silvicultural treatments...

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...

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...

Statistical analysis of large wildfires

Treesearch

Thomas P. Holmes; Robert J. Jr. Huggett; Anthony L. Westerling

2008-01-01

Large, infrequent wildfires cause dramatic ecological and economic impacts. Consequently, they deserve special attention and analysis. The economic significance of large fires is indicated by the fact that approximately 94 percent of fire suppression costs on U.S. Forest Service land during the period 1980-2002 resulted from a mere 1.4 percent of the fires (Strategic...

Regimes of dry convection above wildfires: Idealized numerical simulations and dimensional analysis

Treesearch

Michael T. Kiefer; Matthew D. Parker; Joseph J. Charney

2009-01-01

Wildfires are capable of inducing atmospheric circulations that result predominantly from large temperature anomalies produced by the fire. The fundamental dynamics through which a forest fire and the atmosphere interact to yield different convective regimes is still not well understood. This study uses the Advanced Regional Prediction System (ARPS) model to...

Assessing the cocmpatibility of fuel treatments, wildfire risk, and conservation of Northern Spotted Owl habitats and populations in the eastern Cascades

EPA Science Inventory

Land managers are faced with conundrum when tasked with maintaining populations of threatened Northern Spotted Owl (NSO; Strix occidentalis caurina) while reducing wildfire risk in dry, fire-prone forests of the inland northwest. The USDI Fish and Wildlife Service Final Recovery...

Protection from erosion following wildfire

Treesearch

Peter R. Robichaud; William J. Elliot

2006-01-01

Erosion in the first year after a wildfire can be up to three orders of magnitude greater than the erosion from undisturbed forests. To mitigate potential postfire erosion, various erosion control treatments are applied on highly erodible areas with downstream resources in need of protection. Because postfire erosion rates generally decline by an order of magnitude for...

Estimation of wildfire size and risk changes due to fuels treatments

Treesearch

M. A. Cochrane; C. J. Moran; M. C. Wimberly; A. D. Baer; M. A. Finney; K. L. Beckendorf; J. Eidenshink; Z. Zhu

2012-01-01

Human land use practices, altered climates, and shifting forest and fire management policies have increased the frequency of large wildfires several-fold. Mitigation of potential fire behaviour and fire severity have increasingly been attempted through pre-fire alteration of wildland fuels using mechanical treatments and prescribed fires. Despite annual treatment of...

Cooperative Efforts in Fuels Management

Treesearch

Gerald L. Adams

1995-01-01

Our forests have been neglected or protected to death, creating an extreme wildfire risk in wildland urban intermix communities. We as agencies and organizations are just now beginning to understand that the fuel problems we have across the western states are not a single agency problem, but "our problem." Wildfires do not respect boundaries, be they...

Surface fuel loadings within mulching treatments in Colorado coniferous forests

Treesearch

Mike A. Battaglia; Monique E. Rocca; Charles C. Rhoades; Michael G. Ryan

2010-01-01

Recent large-scale, severe wildfires in the western United States have prompted extensive mechanical fuel treatment programs to reduce potential wildfire size and severity. Fuel reduction prescriptions typically target non-merchantable material so approaches to mechanically treat and distribute residue on site are becoming increasingly common. We examined how mulch...

Wildfires in Chernobyl-contaminated forests and risks to the population and the environment: a new nuclear disaster about to happen?

PubMed

Evangeliou, Nikolaos; Balkanski, Yves; Cozic, Anne; Hao, Wei Min; Møller, Anders Pape

2014-12-01

Radioactive contamination in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia after the Chernobyl accident left large rural and forest areas to their own fate. Forest succession in conjunction with lack of forest management started gradually transforming the landscape. During the last 28 years dead wood and litter have dramatically accumulated in these areas, whereas climate change has increased temperature and favored drought. The present situation in these forests suggests an increased risk of wildfires, especially after the pronounced forest fires of 2010, which remobilized Chernobyl-deposited radioactive materials transporting them thousand kilometers far. For the aforementioned reasons, we study the consequences of different forest fires on the redistribution of (137)Cs. Using the time frequency of the fires that occurred in the area during 2010, we study three scenarios assuming that 10%, 50% and 100% of the area are burnt. We aim to sensitize the scientific community and the European authorities for the foreseen risks from radioactivity redistribution over Europe. The global model LMDZORINCA that reads deposition density of radionuclides and burnt area from satellites was used, whereas risks for the human and animal population were calculated using the Linear No-Threshold (LNT) model and the computerized software ERICA Tool, respectively. Depending on the scenario, whereas between 20 and 240 humans may suffer from solid cancers, of which 10-170 may be fatal. ERICA predicts insignificant changes in animal populations from the fires, whereas the already extreme radioactivity background plays a major role in their living quality. The resulting releases of (137)Cs after hypothetical wildfires in Chernobyl's forests are classified as high in the International Nuclear Events Scale (INES). The estimated cancer incidents and fatalities are expected to be comparable to those predicted for Fukushima. This is attributed to the fact that the distribution of radioactive fallout after the wildfires occurred to the intensely populated Western Europe, whereas after Fukushima it occurred towards the Pacific Ocean. The situation will be exacerbated near the forests not only due to the expected redistribution of refractory radionuclides (also trapped there), but also due to the nutritional habits of the local human and animal population. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The estimation of territiry predeposition to wildfires

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Panchenko, Ekaterina; Dukarev, Anatoly

2010-05-01

Wildfires have significant environmental effects. The indirect damages because of fires are an emission of various combustion products such as aerosols, greenhouse gases and carcinogen. Analysis of smoke emission show that from 1 ha burning area emitted aerosols from 0.2 to 1 ton. The aim of our research is to estimate biomass burning emission: Biomass Burning Emission=BA x FL x CE x EF, where BA is Burned Area (ha); FL is forest litter cover (cm); CE is Combustion Efficiency (0-1), depends on a class of fire danger; EF is Emission Factor (kg emitted / kg dry-mass burnt). Consequently for estimation of biomass burning emission it is necessary to analyze of territory predisposition to wildfires and give characteristic of combustion material types for detection fire hazard, for prognosis fire origin and extension. Prognosis of occurrence of wildfires and definition of emissions is possible by means of data of depth forest litter, types of vegetation and type of landscapes including concrete weather conditions (seasons, length of arid period, current temperature, wind speed and its direction). The investigated object is the territory Tomskii district near to the city of Tomsk (56° 31 N-85°08 E) - with the population more than 500 thousand people. The conducted analysis of investigated territory and the calculation will be basic prognostic model for researching wildfires.

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.

Hayman Fire case study: Summary [RMRS-GTR-114

Treesearch

Russell T. Graham

2003-01-01

Historically, wildfires burned Western forests creating and maintaining a variety of forest compositions and structures (Agee 1993). Prior to European settlement lightning along with Native Americans ignited fires routinely across many forested landscapes. After Euro-American settlement, fires continued to be quite common with fires ignited by settlers, railroads, and...

An introduction to the economics of forest disturbance

Treesearch

Thomas P. Holmes; Jeffrey P. Prestemon; Karen L. Abt

2008-01-01

Increasing severity of recent wildfires, storms, pest outbreaks, and biological invasions has intensified concern among governmental agencies, private enterprises, and the general public regarding the future of forest resources. Economic analysis can help decision-makers understand the causes and consequences of forest disturbances, as well as evaluate trade offs, and...

The efficacy of salvage logging in reducing subsequent fire severity in conifer-dominated forests of Minnesota, U.S.A.

PubMed

Fraver, Shawn; Jain, Theresa; Bradford, John B; D'Amato, Anthony W; Kastendick, Doug; Palik, Brian; Shinneman, Doug; Stanovick, John

2011-09-01

Although primarily used to mitigate economic losses following disturbance, salvage logging has also been justified on the basis of reducing fire risk and fire severity; however, its ability to achieve these secondary objectives remains unclear. The patchiness resulting from a sequence of recent disturbances-blowdown, salvage logging, and wildfire-provided an excellent opportunity to assess the impacts of blowdown and salvage logging on wildfire severity. We used two fire-severity assessments (tree-crown and forest-floor characteristics) to compare post-wildfire conditions among three treatment combinations (Blowdown-Salvage-Fire, Blowdown-Fire, and Fire only). Our results suggest that salvage logging reduced the intensity (heat released) of the subsequent fire. However, its effect on severity (impact to the system) differed between the tree crowns and forest floor: tree-crown indices suggest that salvage logging decreased fire severity (albeit with modest statistical support), while forest-floor indices suggest that salvage logging increased fire severity. We attribute the latter finding to the greater exposure of mineral soil caused by logging operations; once exposed, soils are more likely to register the damaging effects of fire, even if fire intensity is not extreme. These results highlight the important distinction between fire intensity and severity when formulating post-disturbance management prescriptions.

Temporal characterisation of soil-plant natural recovery related to fire severity in burned Pinus halepensis Mill. forests.

PubMed

Moya, D; González-De Vega, S; García-Orenes, F; Morugán-Coronado, A; Arcenegui, V; Mataix-Solera, J; Lucas-Borja, M E; De Las Heras, J

2018-05-28

Despite Mediterranean ecosystems' high resilience to fire, both climate and land use change, and alterations in fire regimes increase their vulnerability to fire by affecting the long-term natural recovery of ecosystem services. The objective of this work is to study the effects of fire severity on biochemical soil indicators, such as chemical composition or enzymatic activity, related to time after fire and natural vegetation recovery (soil-plant interphase). Soil samples from three wildfires occurring 3, 15 and 21 years ago were taken in the south-eastern Iberian Peninsula (semiarid climate). Sampling included three fire severity levels in naturally regenerated (and changing to shrublands) Pinus halepensis Mill. forests. In the short-term post-fire period, phosphorus concentration, electrical conductivity and urease activity were positively linked to fire severity, and also influenced β-glucosidade activity in a negative relationship. During the 15-21-year post-fire period, the effects related to medium-high fire severity were negligible and soil quality indicators were linked to natural regeneration success. The results showed that most soil properties recovered in the long term after fire (21 years). These outcomes will help managers and stakeholders to implement management tools to stabilise soils and to restore burned ecosystems affected by medium-high fire severity. Such knowledge can be considered in adaptive forest management to reduce the negative effects of wildfires and desertification, and to improve the resilience of vulnerable ecosystems in a global change scenario. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Differences in human versus lightning fires between urban and rural areas of the boreal forest in interior Alaska

USGS Publications Warehouse

Calef, Monika; Varvak, Anna; McGuire, A. David

2017-01-01

In western North America, the carbon-rich boreal forest is experiencing warmer temperatures, drier conditions and larger and more frequent wildfires. However, the fire regime is also affected by direct human activities through suppression, ignition, and land use changes. Models are important predictive tools for understanding future conditions but they are based on regional generalizations of wildfire behavior and weather that do not adequately account for the complexity of human–fire interactions. To achieve a better understanding of the intensity of human influence on fires in this sparsely populated area and to quantify differences between human and lightning fires, we analyzed fires by both ignition types in regard to human proximity in urban (the Fairbanks subregion) and rural areas of interior Alaska using spatial (Geographic Information Systems) and quantitative analysis methods. We found substantial differences in drivers of wildfire: while increases in fire ignitions and area burned were caused by lightning in rural interior Alaska, in the Fairbanks subregion these increases were due to human fires, especially in the wildland urban interface. Lightning fires are starting earlier and fires are burning longer, which is much more pronounced in the Fairbanks subregion than in rural areas. Human fires differed from lightning fires in several ways: they started closer to settlements and highways, burned for a shorter duration, were concentrated in the Fairbanks subregion, and often occurred outside the brief seasonal window for lightning fires. This study provides important insights that improve our understanding of the direct human influence on recently observed changes in wildfire regime with implications for both fire modeling and fire management.

Impact of Wildfire on Solute Release in Forested Catchments, Jemez River, New Mexico, USA

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sanchez, R. A.; Meixner, T.; McIntosh, J. C.; Chorover, J.

2017-12-01

Wildfires represent a large disturbance to the hydrology and biogeochemistry of forested catchments. The number, size and severity of wildfires have significantly increased in the western United States since 1990. Nutrients and other elements (e.g. Ca) that were taken up and stored by biomass are released from burned vegetation during forest fires and transported downgradient via overland flow, shallow subsurface flow, and/or deep groundwater flow. Ash accumulations on hillslopes may also store particulate carbon and contain elevated concentrations of elements that maybe leached into surface and ground water over extended periods of time. In 2013, the Thompson Ridge wildfire burned headwater catchments in the Jemez River Basin Critical Zone Observatory (JRB-CZO) within the Valles Caldera National Preserve, New Mexico USA. The burn severity and area impacted were different in the three headwater catchments. This study investigated the impact of the wildfire on surface water quality, including how the fire-induced impacts evolved with time, and how biogeochemical processes controlled post-fire solute concentrations in the surface water. Comparison of pre- and post-fire surface water solute chemistry shows increases in major cations and anions following fire. Increases in nitrate and sulfate concentrations in streams after the wildfire were likely from leaching of burned biomass. The elevated NO3- and SO42- concentrations persisted for over two years, and were even higher during spring snowmelt. Meanwhile, base cation concentrations increased immediately, within a few weeks after the fire, likely related to leaching from combusted organic matter; and, over a period of approximately two months, base cation concentrations returned to pre-fire levels. Trace element behavior was also altered by fire. For example, while pre-fire aluminum concentrations in stream flow increased significantly during the wet seasons (snowmelt and monsoons), the post-fire observations do not show significant changes with increase in discharge.

Status of native fishes in the western United States and issues for fire and fuels management

Treesearch

Bruce Rieman; Danny Lee; Dave Burns; Robert Gresswell; Michael Young; Rick Stowell; John Rinne; Philip Howell

2003-01-01

Conservation of native fishes and changing patterns in wildfire and fuels are defining challenges for managers of forested landscapes in the western United States. Many species and populations of native fishes have declined in recorded history and some now occur as isolated remnants of what once were larger more complex systems. Land management activities have been...

Abundance of wind scorpions (Solifugae: Eremobatidae) in riparian forests disturbed by grazing, fire, and flood in Central New Mexico, USA

Treesearch

D. Max Smith; Deborah M. Finch

2011-01-01

Historically, flood was the primary disturbance structuring riparian plant and animal communities in the southwestern United States. In many areas, however, livestock grazing and wildfire occur more frequently than flooding. Research has shown that changes in flood and fire frequency affect the composition of riparian surface-active arthropod communities (Bess et al....

Evaluation of native plant seeds and seeding in the east-side central Cascades ponderosa pine zone

Treesearch

Nan C. Vance

2010-01-01

In dry, open coniferous forests of the montane West, stand-replacing wildfires and land use activities alter the composition and abundance of native grasses and forbs by degrading the habitat and accelerating the invasion of exotic annuals. On these lands, native forbs and grasses delayed or prevented from recovery by natural processes may require intervention through...

An assessment of factors associated with damage to tree crowns from the 1987 wildfires in northern California

Treesearch

C. Phillip Weatherspoon; Carl N. Skinner

1995-01-01

Relationships between (1) degree of damage caused by the 1987 fires in northern California and (2) prior management activities, fuelbed characteristics, and site/stand factors were studied on the Hayfork Ranger District of the Shasta-Trinity National Forests. Postfire aerial photography was used to assess scorch and consumption of tree crowns (the selected measure of...

Seasonal-to-interannual variation in biomass burning over the contiguous United States

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, K. M.; Lau, W. K. M.; Ichoku, I.; Pereira, G.; Darmenov, A.; da Silva, A. M., Jr.; Ellison, L.

2017-12-01

The intensity and frequency of wildfires are strongly affected by climatic factors, such as droughts and heat waves, which are governed by weather and climate dynamics. . Climatic impacts on wildfire and biomass burning can be complex involving not only natural variability, but also human activities. In this study, we examine the seasonality of occurrences and intensity of fires and climatic impact as a function of underlying biomes over the CONUS, using fire pixel data from MODIS instruments on-board Terra and Aqua. Results show that there are three distinct fire seasons, i.e., summer (June to August), spring (March-April), and Fall (September-October). In the evergreen needle leaf region where most fires occur, the fire season peaks in mid boreal summer. In this region, fires tend to start early (June) in southern US, and late (August) in northern US. Double peaks are distinctive features in grass land and crop land. Double peaks in crop land (spring and fall) appear to be associated with agricultural practices. However, the two peaks in grass land (spring and summer) are due to natural wildfires, associated with changes in seasonal weather pattern. To better understand the potential climatic impact on fire, we examine relationships between fire weather index (FWI) and fire pixel counts. Fire pixel count has a strong correlation with FWI in evergreen needle leaf forest, deciduous broad leaf forest, and open shrub land. However, no significant linear relations are found in crop land, grass land, and mixed forest. The implications of these findings, and possible impacts of atmospheric teleconnecon on the fire season in the CONUS will also be discussed.

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.

Moving beyond traditional fire management practices to better minimize community vulnerability to wildfire in southern California

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Syphard, A. D.; Keeley, J. E.; Brennan, T. J.

2010-12-01

Wildfires are an important natural process in southern California, but they also present a major hazard for human life and property. The region leads the nation in fire-related losses, and since 2001, wildfires have damaged or destroyed more than 10,000 homes. As human ignitions have increased along with urban development and population growth, fire frequency has also surged, and most home losses occur in large fires when ignitions coincide with Santa Ana windstorms. As the region accommodates more growth in the future, the wildfire threat promises to continue. We will thus explore how a broader, more comprehensive approach to fire management could improve upon traditional approaches for reducing community vulnerability. The traditional approach to mitigating fire risk, in addition to fire suppression, has been to reduce fuel through construction of fuel breaks. Despite increasing expenditure on these treatments, there has been little empirical study of their role in controlling large fires. We will present the results of a study in which we constructed and analyzed a spatial database of fuel breaks in southern California national forests. Our objective was to better understand characteristics of fuel breaks that affect the behavior of large fires and to map where fires and fuel breaks most commonly intersect. We found that fires stopped at fuel breaks 22-47% of the time, depending on the forest, and the reason fires stopped was invariably related to firefighter access and management activities. Fire weather and fuel break condition were also important. The study illustrates the importance of strategic location of fuel breaks because they have been most effective where they provided access for firefighting activities. While fuel breaks have played a role in controlling wildfires at the Wildland Urban Interface, we are evaluating alternative approaches for reducing community vulnerability, including land use planning. Recent research shows that the amount and spatial arrangement of human infrastructure, such as roads and housing developments, strongly influences wildfire patterns. Therefore, we hypothesize that the spatial arrangement and location of housing development is likely to affect the susceptibility of lives and property to fire. In other words, potential for urban loss may be greatest at specific housing densities, spatial patterns of development, and locations of development. If these risk factors can be identified, mapped, and modeled, it is possible that vulnerability to wildfire could be substantially minimized through careful planning for future development - especially because future development will likely increase the region’s fire risk. To address these possibilities, we are evaluating past housing loss in relation to land use planning, in conjunction with other variables that influence fire patterns. We are also exploring alternative future scenarios to identify optimum land use planning strategies for minimizing fire risk.

Southern California Disasters II

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nicholson, Heather; Todoroff, Amber L.; LeBoeuf, Madeline A.

2015-01-01

The USDA Forest Service (USFS) has multiple programs in place which primarily utilize Landsat imagery to produce burn severity indices for aiding wildfire damage assessment and mitigation. These indices provide widely-used wildfire damage assessment tools to decision makers. When the Hyperspectral Infrared Imager (HyspIRI) is launched in 2022, the sensor's hyperspectral resolution will support new methods for assessing natural disaster impacts on ecosystems, including wildfire damage to forests. This project used simulated HyspIRI data to study three southern California fires: Aspen, French, and King. Burn severity indices were calculated from the data and the results were quantitatively compared to the comparable USFS products currently in use. The final results from this project illustrate how HyspIRI data may be used in the future to enhance assessment of fire-damaged areas and provide additional monitoring tools for decision support to the USFS and other land management agencies.

Characterization of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and metals in ashes released from a forest fire

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Campos, I.; Abrantes, N.; Pereira, P.; Vale, C.; Ferreira, A.; Keizer, J. J.

2012-04-01

Wildfires have become a permanent source of environmental and societal concerns. Whilst the impacts of wildfire on hydrological and erosion processes are well documented, the stocks and export of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and heavy metals have received considerably less research attention. The ashes produced by wildfires, which include polluting substances such as PAHs and metals, are subject to transport processes by wind and especially by overland flow and water infiltrating into the soil and possibly reaching ground water bodies. In the framework of the FIRECNUTS project, we are studying the stocks of PAHs and selected metals in recently burnt forest stands in north-central Portugal, and their subsequent export by overland flow. The present work, however, will focus on the stocks in the ashes, both immediately after wildfire and three months later. These ashes were collected at two burnt slopes with contrasting forest types, i.e. a eucalypt and a maritime pine stand, the two pre-dominant forest types in the study region. The sixteen PAHs identified by US EPA as priority contaminants were analysed by gas chromatograph, after extraction and column clean up. The contents of vanadium (V), chromium (Cr), cobalt (Co), nickel (Ni), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb) were analysed by inductively coupled plasma- mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), after an acid digestion, while mercury (Hg) was analysed by pyrolysis atomic absorption spectrometry with gold amalgamation. The total concentration of PAHs immediately after the wildfire ranged from 314 ng/g dry weight in the maritime pine stand to 597 ng/g dry weight in the eucalypt stand. Three months later, the total concentration has decreased with 33% in the pine stand but only half (16%) in the eucalypt stand. The composition the PAHs by ring size was dominated by three-rings PAHs. This was true for all samples. The concentrations of various metals differed for the two sampling occasions but not in straightforward manners. Some metals (Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Cd, Pb and Hg) revealed higher contents immediately after the fire, whereas others (V, Cr and As) did three months later. The present results underline the importance of furthering the knowledge about contamination of soil and water by ashes from wildfires and the associated risks in terms of ecotoxicological effects, both in-situ and in downstream aquatic systems. Keywords: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH); heavy metals; stocks; ash; wildfires

The way to a healthy future for National Forest ecosystems in the West : what role can silviculture and prescribed fire play?

Treesearch

Douglas W. MacCleery

1995-01-01

The 1994 wildfires in the U.S. West have highlighted a problem of forest health and fuel buildups that has been increasing for decades. In many Western forest ecosystems, forest biomass per acre has risen substantially since the 1940s and many forests have dense, fire-prone understories. If current trends continue, there will be: 1) increasing risks to National Forest...

Seeing the forest for the trees: utilizing modified random forests imputation of forest plot data for landscape-level analyses

Treesearch

Karin L. Riley; Isaac C. Grenfell; Mark A. Finney

2015-01-01

Mapping the number, size, and species of trees in forests across the western United States has utility for a number of research endeavors, ranging from estimation of terrestrial carbon resources to tree mortality following wildfires. For landscape fire and forest simulations that use the Forest Vegetation Simulator (FVS), a tree-level dataset, or “tree list”, is a...

Normalized algorithm for mapping and dating forest disturbances and regrowth for the United States

Treesearch

Liming He; Jing M. Chen; Shaoliang Zhang; Gustavo Gomez; Yude Pan; Kevin McCullough; Richard Birdsey; Jeffrey G. Masek

2011-01-01

Forest disturbances such as harvesting, wildfire and insect infestation are critical ecosystem processes affecting the carbon cycle. Because carbon dynamics are related to time since disturbance, forest stand age that can be used as a surrogate for major clear-cut/fire disturbance information has recently been recognized as an important input to forest carbon cycle...

Invasive Species as Ecological Threat: Is Restoration an Alternative to Fear-based Resource Management?

Treesearch

Paul H. Gobster

2005-01-01

Invasive species is a hot topic in the USDA Forest Service these days. Along with wildfire, land conversion and unmanaged recreation, Chief Dale Bosworth has called invasive species one of the `Four Threats` needing the attention of Forest Service land managers and researchers (USDA Forest Service 2004). My unit of the Forest Service, the North Central Research...

State of mid-atlantic region forests in 2000

Treesearch

Kenneth W. Stolte; Barbara L. Conkling; Stephanie Fulton; M. Patricia Bradley

2012-01-01

Wet and warm climate, mountainous topography, and deep rich soils produced one of the most magnificent and diverse temperate forests in the world. In 1650 the Mid-Atlantic forests covered 95 percent of the region, but were greatly reduced in 1900 by extensive tree harvesting, and conversion to farms and pastures. Settlement of forests also led to severe wildfires, soil...

State of mid-atlantic region forests in 2000-Summary Report

Treesearch

Kenneth W. Stolte

2012-01-01

Wet and warm climate, mountainous topography, and deep rich soils produced one of the most magnificent and diverse temperate forests in the world. In 1650 the Mid-Atlantic forests covered 95 percent of the region, but were greatly reduced in 1900 by extensive tree harvesting, and conversion to farms and pastures. Settlement of forests also led to severe wildfires, soil...

Managed wildfire effects on forest resilience and water in the Sierra Nevada

Treesearch

Gabrielle Boisramé; Sally Thompson; Brandon Collins; Scott Stephens

2017-01-01

Fire suppression in many dry forest types has left a legacy of dense, homogeneous forests. Such landscapes have high water demands and fuel loads, and when burned can result in catastrophically large fires. These characteristics are undesirable in the face of projected warming and drying in the western US. Alternative forest and fire treatments based on managed...

The influence of forest management on vulnerability of forests to severe weather

Treesearch

Robert H. Beach; Erin O. Sills; Tzu-Ming Liu; Subhrendu Pattanayak

2010-01-01

Excessive wind, ice, and snow regularly cause major disturbances to forests in many parts of the world, significantly impacting both ecological conditions and economic returns to forest landowners. These events cause immediate losses for landowners, and the broken and uprooted trees left in the wake of a storm increase the risk that wildfires, disease, and pest...

Fire emissions in central Siberia

Treesearch

Douglas J. McRae; Steve P. Baker; Yuri N. Samsonov; Galina A. Ivanova

2009-01-01

Wildfires in the Russian boreal forest zone are estimated to typically burn 12-14 million hectares (ha) annually [Cahoon et al. 1994; Conard and Ivanova 1997; Conard et al. 2002; Dixon and Krankina 1993; Kasischke et al. 1999]. Boreal forests contain about 21 percent of global forest area and 28 percent of global forest carbon [Dixon et al. 1994], yet data on the...

Assessing the impacts of federal forest planning on wildfire risk-mitigation in the Pacific Northwest, USA

Treesearch

Alan A. Ager; Michelle A. Day; Karen C. Short; Cody R. Evers

2016-01-01

We analyzed the impact of amenity and biodiversity protection as mandated in national forest plans on the implementation of hazardous fuel reduction treatments aimed at protecting the wildland urban interface (WUI) and restoring fire resilient forests. We used simulation modeling to delineate areas on national forests that can potentially transmit fires to...

Reality check: Shedding new light on the restoration needs of mixed-conifer forests

Treesearch

Marie Oliver; Thomas Spies; Andrew. Merschel

2014-01-01

Until recently, scientific understanding of the history and ecology of the Pacific Northwest's mixed-conifer forests east of the Cascade Range was minimal. As a result, forest managers have had limited ability to restore the health of publicly owned forests that show signs of acute stress caused by insects, disease, grazing, logging, and wildfire. A...

Tamarack and black spruce adventitious root patterns are similar in their ability to estimate organic layer depths in northern temperate forests

Treesearch

Timothy J. Veverica; Evan S. Kane; Eric S. Kasischke

2012-01-01

Organic layer consumption during forest fires is hard to quantify. These data suggest that the adventitious root methods developed for reconstructing organic layer depths following wildfires in boreal black spruce forests can also be applied to mixed tamarack forests growing in temperate regions with glacially transported soils.

Conserving old-growth forest diversity in disturbance-prone landscapes.

Treesearch

Thomas A. Spies; Miles A. Hemstrom; Andrew Youngblood; Susan Hummel

2006-01-01

A decade after its creation, the Northwest Forest Plan is contributing to the conservation of old growth forests on federal land. However, the success and outlook for the plan are questionable in the dry provinces, where losses of old growth to wildfire have been relatively high and risks of further loss remain. We summarize the state of knowledge of old-growth forests...

Torpor and basking after a severe wildfire: mammalian survival strategies in a scorched landscape.

PubMed

Matthews, Jaya K; Stawski, Clare; Körtner, Gerhard; Parker, Cassandra A; Geiser, Fritz

2017-02-01

Wildfires can completely obliterate above-ground vegetation, yet some small terrestrial mammals survive during and after fires. As knowledge about the physiological and behavioural adaptations that are crucial for post-wildfire survival is scant, we investigated the thermal biology of a small insectivorous marsupial (Antechinus flavipes) after a severe forest fire. Some populations of antechinus survived the fire in situ probably by hiding deep in rocky crevices, the only fire-proof sites near where they were trapped. We hypothesised that survival in the post-fire landscape was achieved by decreasing daytime activity and using torpor frequently to save energy. Indeed, daytime activity was less common and torpor expression was substantially higher (≥2-fold) at the post-fire site than observed in an unburnt control site and also in comparison to a laboratory study, both when food was provided ad libitum and withheld. Basking in the post-fire site was also recorded, which was likely used to further reduce energy expenditure. Our data suggest that torpor and basking are used by this terrestrial mammal to reduce energy and foraging requirements, which is important in a landscape where food and shelter are limited and predation pressure typically is increased.

Some Wildfire Ignition Causes Pose More Risk of Destroying Houses than Others

PubMed Central

Penman, Trent D.; Price, Owen F.

2016-01-01

Many houses are at risk of being destroyed by wildfires. While previous studies have improved our understanding of how, when and why houses are destroyed by wildfires, little attention has been given to how these fires started. We compiled a dataset of wildfires that destroyed houses in New South Wales and Victoria and, by comparing against wildfires where no houses were destroyed, investigated the relationship between the distribution of ignition causes for wildfires that did and did not destroy houses. Powerlines, lightning and deliberate ignitions are the main causes of wildfires that destroyed houses. Powerlines were 6 times more common in the wildfires that destroyed houses data than in the wildfires where no houses were destroyed data and lightning was 2 times more common. For deliberate- and powerline-caused wildfires, temperature, wind speed, and forest fire danger index were all significantly higher and relative humidity significantly lower (P < 0.05) on the day of ignition for wildfires that destroyed houses compared with wildfires where no houses were destroyed. For all powerline-caused wildfires the first house destroyed always occurred on the day of ignition. In contrast, the first house destroyed was after the day of ignition for 78% of lightning-caused wildfires. Lightning-caused wildfires that destroyed houses were significantly larger (P < 0.001) in area than human-caused wildfires that destroyed houses. Our results suggest that targeting fire prevention strategies around ignition causes, such as improving powerline safety and targeted arson reduction programmes, and reducing fire spread may decrease the number of wildfires that destroy houses. PMID:27598325

Some Wildfire Ignition Causes Pose More Risk of Destroying Houses than Others.

PubMed

Collins, Kathryn M; Penman, Trent D; Price, Owen F

2016-01-01

Many houses are at risk of being destroyed by wildfires. While previous studies have improved our understanding of how, when and why houses are destroyed by wildfires, little attention has been given to how these fires started. We compiled a dataset of wildfires that destroyed houses in New South Wales and Victoria and, by comparing against wildfires where no houses were destroyed, investigated the relationship between the distribution of ignition causes for wildfires that did and did not destroy houses. Powerlines, lightning and deliberate ignitions are the main causes of wildfires that destroyed houses. Powerlines were 6 times more common in the wildfires that destroyed houses data than in the wildfires where no houses were destroyed data and lightning was 2 times more common. For deliberate- and powerline-caused wildfires, temperature, wind speed, and forest fire danger index were all significantly higher and relative humidity significantly lower (P < 0.05) on the day of ignition for wildfires that destroyed houses compared with wildfires where no houses were destroyed. For all powerline-caused wildfires the first house destroyed always occurred on the day of ignition. In contrast, the first house destroyed was after the day of ignition for 78% of lightning-caused wildfires. Lightning-caused wildfires that destroyed houses were significantly larger (P < 0.001) in area than human-caused wildfires that destroyed houses. Our results suggest that targeting fire prevention strategies around ignition causes, such as improving powerline safety and targeted arson reduction programmes, and reducing fire spread may decrease the number of wildfires that destroy houses.

Synchronous Wildfire Activity Rise and Mire Deforestation at the Triassic–Jurassic Boundary

PubMed Central

Petersen, Henrik I.; Lindström, Sofie

2012-01-01

The end-Triassic mass extinction event (∼201.4 million years ago) caused major faunal and floral turnovers in both the marine and terrestrial realms. The biotic changes have been attributed to extreme greenhouse warming across the Triassic–Jurassic (T–J) boundary caused by massive release of carbon dioxide and/or methane related to extensive volcanism in the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (CAMP), resulting in a more humid climate with increased storminess and lightning activity. Lightning strikes are considered the primary source of wildfires, producing charcoal, microscopically recognized as inertinite macerals. The presence of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) of pyrolytic origin and allochthonous charcoal in siliciclastic T–J boundary strata has suggested widespread wildfire activity at the time. We have investigated largely autochthonous coal and coaly beds across the T–J boundary in Sweden and Denmark. These beds consist of predominantly organic material from the in situ vegetation in the mires, and as the coaly beds represent a substantial period of time they are excellent environmental archives. We document a remarkable increase in inertinite content in the coal and coaly beds across the T–J boundary. We show estimated burning temperatures derived from inertinite reflectance measurements coupled with palynological data and conclude that pre-boundary late Rhaetian mire wildfires included high-temperature crown fires, whereas latest Rhaetian–Sinemurian mire wildfires were more frequent but dominated by lower temperature surface fires. Our results suggest a major change in the mire ecosystems across the T–J boundary from forested, conifer dominated mires to mires with a predominantly herbaceous and shrubby vegetation. Contrary to the overall regional vegetation for which onset of recovery commenced in the early Hettangian, the sensitive mire ecosystem remained affected during the Hettangian and did not start to recover until around the Hettangian–Sinemurian boundary. Decreasing inertinite content through the Lower Jurassic suggests that fire activity gradually resumed to considerable lower levels. PMID:23077574

Regional constraints to biological nitrogen fixation in post-fire forest communities

USGS Publications Warehouse

Yelenik, Stephanie; Perakis, Steven S.; Hibbs, David

2013-01-01

Biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) is a key ecological process that can restore nitrogen (N) lost in wildfire and shape the pace and pattern of post-fire forest recovery. To date, there is limited information on how climate and soil fertility interact to influence different pathways of BNF in early forest succession. We studied asymbiotic (forest floor and soil) and symbiotic (the shrub Ceanothus integerrimus) BNF rates across six sites in the Klamath National Forest, California, USA. We used combined gradient and experimental phosphorus (P) fertilization studies to explore cross-site variation in BNF rates and then related these rates to abiotic and biotic variables. We estimate that our measured BNF rates 22 years after wildfire (6.1–12.1 kg N·ha-1·yr-1) are unlikely to fully replace wildfire N losses. We found that asymbiotic BNF is P limited, although this is not the case for symbiotic BNF in Ceanothus. In contrast, Ceanothus BNF is largely driven by competition from other vegetation: in high-productivity sites with high potential evapotranspiration (Et), shrub biomass is suppressed as tree biomass increases. Because shrub biomass governed cross-site variation in Ceanothus BNF, this competitive interaction led to lower BNF in sites with high productivity and Et. Overall, these results suggest that the effects of nutrients play a larger role in driving asymbiotic than symbiotic fixation across our post-fire sites. However, because symbiotic BNF is 8–90x greater than asymbiotic BNF, it is interspecific plant competition that governs overall BNF inputs in these forests.

Methods to Reduce Forest Residue Volume after Timber Harvesting and Produce Black Carbon.

PubMed

Page-Dumroese, Deborah S; Busse, Matt D; Archuleta, James G; McAvoy, Darren; Roussel, Eric

2017-01-01

Forest restoration often includes thinning to reduce tree density and improve ecosystem processes and function while also reducing the risk of wildfire or insect and disease outbreaks. However, one drawback of these restoration treatments is that slash is often burned in piles that may damage the soil and require further restoration activities. Pile burning is currently used on many forest sites as the preferred method for residue disposal because piles can be burned at various times of the year and are usually more controlled than broadcast burns. In many cases, fire can be beneficial to site conditions and soil properties, but slash piles, with a large concentration of wood, needles, forest floor, and sometimes mineral soil, can cause long-term damage. We describe several alternative methods for reducing nonmerchantable forest residues that will help remove excess woody biomass, minimize detrimental soil impacts, and create charcoal for improving soil organic matter and carbon sequestration.

The potential for mycobiont sharing between shrubs and seedlings to facilitate tree establishment after wildfire at Alaska arctic treeline

Treesearch

Rebecca E. Hewitt; F. Stuart Chapin; Teresa N. Hollingsworth; D. Lee Taylor

2017-01-01

Root-associated fungi, particularly ectomycorrhizal fungi (EMF), are critical symbionts of all boreal tree species. Although climatically driven increases in wildfire frequency and extent have been hypothesized to increase vegetation transitions from tundra to boreal forest, fire reduces mycorrhizal inoculum. Therefore, changes in mycobiont inoculum may potentially...

Evidence of compounded disturbance effects on vegetation recovery following high-severity wildfire and spruce beetle outbreak

Treesearch

Amanda R. Carlson; Jason S. Sibold; Timothy J. Assal; Jose F. Negron

2017-01-01

Spruce beetle (Dendroctonus rufipennis) outbreaks are rapidly spreading throughout subalpine forests of the Rocky Mountains, raising concerns that altered fuel structures may increase the ecological severity of wildfires. Although many recent studies have found no conclusive link between beetle outbreaks and increased fire size or canopy mortality, few studies have...

Wildfire ignition-distribution modelling: a comparative study in the Huron-Manistee National Forest, Michigan, USA

Treesearch

Avi Bar Massada; Alexandra D. Syphard; Susan I. Stewart; Volker C. Radeloff

2012-01-01

Wildfire ignition distribution models are powerful tools for predicting the probability of ignitions across broad areas, and identifying their drivers. Several approaches have been used for ignition-distribution modelling, yet the performance of different model types has not been compared. This is unfortunate, given that conceptually similar species-distribution models...