Do fuel treatments decrease forest mortality or increase streamflow? A case study from the Sierra Nevada (USA)

Ecohydrology ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan R. Bart ◽  
Mohammad Safeeq ◽  
Joseph W. Wagenbrenner ◽  
Carolyn T. Hunsaker
Keyword(s):  
Sierra Nevada ◽  
Fuel Treatments ◽  
Forest Mortality

scholarly journals Comparing Modeled Emissions from Wildfire and Prescribed Burning of Post-Thinning Fuel: A Case Study of the 2016 Pioneer Fire

Fire ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 22
Author(s):  
Josh Hyde ◽  
Eva K. Strand
Keyword(s):  
Air Quality ◽  
Prescribed Fire ◽  
Prescribed Burning ◽  
Effective Means ◽  
National Forest ◽  
Conifer Forest ◽  
Mixed Conifer ◽  
Fuel Treatments ◽  
Mixed Conifer Forest

Prescribed fire is often used by land managers as an effective means of implementing fuel treatments to achieve a variety of goals. Smoke generated from these activities can put them at odds with air quality regulations. We set out to characterize the emission tradeoff between wildfire and prescribed fire in activity fuels from thinning in a case study of mixed conifer forest within the Boise National Forest in central Idaho. Custom fuelbeds were developed using information from the forest and emissions were modeled and compared for four scenarios, as follows: Untreated fuels burned in wildfire (UNW), prescribed fire in activity fuels left from thinning (TRX), a wildfire ignited on the post-treatment landscape (PTW), and the combined emissions from TRX followed by PTW (COM). The modeled mean total emissions from TRX were approximately 5% lower, compared to UNW, and between 2–46% lower for individual pollutants. The modeled emissions from PTW were approximately 70% lower than UNW. For the COM scenario, emissions were not significantly different from the UNW scenario for any pollutants, but for CO2. However, for the COM scenario, cumulative emissions would have been comprised of two events occurring at separate times, each with lower emissions than if they occurred at once.

Using proverbs to study local perceptions of climate change: a case study in Sierra Nevada (Spain)

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
María Garteizgogeascoa ◽  
David García-del-Amo ◽  
Victoria Reyes-García
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sierra Nevada ◽  
Local Perceptions

Mesoscale Variations of the Atmospheric Snow Line over the Northern Sierra Nevada: Multiyear Statistics, Case Study, and Mechanisms

2013 ◽  
Vol 70 (3) ◽  
pp. 916-938 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin R. Minder ◽  
David E. Kingsmill
Keyword(s):  
Sierra Nevada ◽  
Horizontal Resolution ◽  
Weather Research And Forecasting ◽  
Forecasting Model ◽  
Mountain Ranges ◽  
Snow Line ◽  
Free Air ◽  
Close Proximity ◽  
Microphysical Parameterization

Abstract Observations from several mountain ranges reveal that the height of the transition from snowfall to rainfall, the snow line, can intersect the terrain at an elevation hundreds of meters below its elevation in the free air upwind. This mesoscale lowering of the snow line affects both the accumulation of mountain snowpack and the generation of storm runoff. A unique multiyear view of this behavior based on data from profiling radars in the northern Sierra Nevada deployed as part of NOAA’s Hydrometeorology Testbed is presented. Data from 3 yr of storms show that the mesoscale lowering of the snow line is a feature common to nearly all major storms, with an average snow line drop of 170 m. The mesoscale behavior of the snow line is investigated in detail for a major storm over the northern Sierra Nevada. Comparisons of observations from sondes and profiling radars with high-resolution simulations using the Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF) show that WRF is capable of reproducing the observed lowering of the snow line in a realistic manner. Modeling results suggest that radar profiler networks may substantially underestimate the lowering by failing to resolve horizontal snow line variations in close proximity to the mountainside. Diagnosis of model output indicates that pseudoadiabatic processes related to orographic blocking, localized cooling due to melting of orographically enhanced snowfall, and spatial variations in hydrometeor melting distance all play important roles. Simulations are surprisingly insensitive to model horizontal resolution but have important sensitivities to microphysical parameterization.

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