scholarly journals Comparing selected fire regime condition class (FRCC) and LANDFIRE vegetation model results with tree-ring data

2010 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tyson L. Swetnam ◽  
Peter M. Brown
Keyword(s):  
Tree Ring ◽  
Ponderosa Pine ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Reference Conditions ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Vegetation Types ◽  
Tree Ring Data ◽  
Map Data ◽  
Fire Regime Condition Class

Fire Regime Condition Class (FRCC) has been developed as a nationally consistent interagency method in the US to assess degree of departure between historical and current fire regimes and vegetation structural conditions across differing vegetation types. Historical and existing vegetation map data also are being developed for the nationwide LANDFIRE project to aid in FRCC assessments. Here, we compare selected FRCC and LANDFIRE vegetation characteristics derived from simulation modeling with similar characteristics reconstructed from tree-ring data collected from 11 forested sites in Utah. Reconstructed reference conditions based on trees present in 1880 compared with reference conditions modeled by the Vegetation Dynamics Development Tool for individual Biophysical Settings (BpS) used in FRCC and LANDFIRE assessments showed significance relationships for ponderosa pine, aspen, and mixed-conifer BpS but not for spruce–fir, piñon–juniper, or lodgepole pine BpS. LANDFIRE map data were found to be ~58% accurate for BpS and ~60% accurate for existing vegetation types. Results suggest that limited sampling of age-to-size relationships by different species may be needed to help refine reference condition definitions used in FRCC assessments, and that more empirical data are needed to better parameterize FRCC vegetation models in especially low-frequency fire types.

scholarly journals A reconstruction of the recent fire regimes of Majete Wildlife Reserve, Malawi, using remote sensing

Fire Ecology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Willem A. Nieman ◽  
Brian W. van Wilgen ◽  
Alison J. Leslie
Keyword(s):  
Remote Sensing ◽  
Fire Management ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Dry Season ◽  
Annual Rainfall ◽  
Vegetation Types ◽  
Local Evidence ◽  
Hot Dry Season ◽  
Wildlife Reserve

Abstract Background Fire is an important process that shapes the structure and functioning of African savanna ecosystems, and managers of savanna protected areas use fire to achieve ecosystem goals. Developing appropriate fire management policies should be based on an understanding of the determinants, features, and effects of prevailing fire regimes, but this information is rarely available. In this study, we report on the use of remote sensing to develop a spatially explicit dataset on past fire regimes in Majete Wildlife Reserve, Malawi, between 2001 and 2019. Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) images were used to evaluate the recent fire regime for two distinct vegetation types in Majete Wildlife Reserve, namely savanna and miombo. Additionally, a comparison was made between MODIS and Visible Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) images by separately evaluating selected aspects of the fire regime between 2012 and 2019. Results Mean fire return intervals were four and six years for miombo and savanna vegetation, respectively, but the distribution of fire return intervals was skewed, with a large proportion of the area burning annually or biennially, and a smaller proportion experiencing much longer fire return intervals. Variation in inter-annual rainfall also resulted in longer fire return intervals during cycles of below-average rainfall. Fires were concentrated in the hot-dry season despite a management intent to restrict burning to the cool-dry season. Mean fire intensities were generally low, but many individual fires had intensities of 14 to 18 times higher than the mean, especially in the hot-dry season. The VIIRS sensors detected many fires that were overlooked by the MODIS sensors, as images were collected at a finer scale. Conclusions Remote sensing has provided a useful basis for reconstructing the recent fire regime of Majete Wildlife Reserve, and has highlighted a current mismatch between intended fire management goals and actual trends. Managers should re-evaluate fire policies based on our findings, setting clearly defined targets for the different vegetation types and introducing flexibility to accommodate natural variation in rainfall cycles. Local evidence of the links between fires and ecological outcomes will require further research to improve fire planning.

scholarly journals Fire regimes, biodiversity conservation and prescribed-burning programs

2012 ◽  
Vol 124 (1) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Malcolm Gill
Keyword(s):  
Biodiversity Conservation ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Prescribed Burning ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Royal Commission ◽  
Vegetation Types ◽  
Protection Of Life ◽  
Conservation Of Biodiversity ◽  
Safe Working

In the trend towards the domestication, or taming, of fire regimes in Victoria, Australia, the level of prescribed burning has been stepped up due to a recommendation from the 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission. While prescribed burning programs may be instituted for a number of reasons, especially the protection of life and property, they have consequences for the conservation of biodiversity. Not all vegetation types can be prescribed burned because the weather does not always allow it to occur under safe working conditions; where prescribed burning programs are carried out, unplanned fires may still occur. Thus, the general issue is the effect on biodiversity of both prescribed and unplanned fires, neither alone. Here, the importance to biodiversity conservation of all the components of the fire regime– interval, season, intensity and type (peat fire or otherwise) – and their domain of variability is emphasized. If conservation of biodiversity is to be guaranteed in a changing fire world, then much more knowledge about the systems being managed, gained in large part through effective monitoring, is needed. Issues such as targets and some assumptions of management are addressed here.

scholarly journals Low-frequency noise inδ13C andδ18O tree ring data: A case study ofPinus uncinatain the Spanish Pyrenees

2010 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. n/a-n/a ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Esper ◽  
David C. Frank ◽  
Giovanna Battipaglia ◽  
Ulf Büntgen ◽  
Christopher Holert ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tree Ring ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Frequency Noise ◽  
Low Frequency Noise ◽  
Tree Ring Data ◽  
Spanish Pyrenees

scholarly journals Fire History of the Lamar River Drainage, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

1989 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 169-173
Author(s):  
Stephen Barrett ◽  
Stephen Arno
Keyword(s):  
Yellowstone National Park ◽  
National Park ◽  
Fire History ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Lodgepole Pine ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Pine Forests ◽  
River Drainage ◽  
Tree Ring Data ◽  
History Of

This study's goal is to document the fire history of the Lamar River drainage, southeast of Soda Butte Creek in the Absaroka Mountains of northeastern Yellowstone National Park (YNP). Elsewhere in YNP investigators have documented very long-interval fire regimes for lodgepole pine forests occurring on rhyolitic derived soils (Romme 1982, Romme and Despain 1989) and short-interval fire regimes for the Douglas-fir/grassland types (Houston 1973). No fire regime information was available for lodgepole pine forests on andesitic derived soils, such as in the Lamar drainage. This study will provide managers with a more complete understanding of YNP natural fire history, and the data will supplement the park's Geographic Information System (GIS) data base. Moreover, most of the study area was severely burned in 1988 and historical tree ring data soon will be lost to attrition of potential sample trees.

Fire history in ponderosa pine landscapes of Grand Canyon National Park: is it reliable enough for management and restoration?

2006 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 433 ◽  
Author(s):  
William L. Baker
Keyword(s):  
Ponderosa Pine ◽  
National Park ◽  
Fire History ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Grand Canyon ◽  
Fire Risk ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Grand Canyon National Park ◽  
High Severity ◽  
The Impact

Reconstructing fire regimes of the past can provide a valuable frame of reference for understanding the impact of human land uses on contemporary fire and forest structure, but methods for reconstructing past fire regimes are under re-evaluation. In the present article, a common method of characterizing surface fire regimes, using composite fire intervals from fire scars, is shown to significantly underestimate the length of the fire rotation and population mean fire interval in Grand Canyon landscapes where these parameters are known. Also, the evidence and interpretation that past high-severity fire was uncommon in ponderosa pine landscapes in Grand Canyon National Park are challenged. Together, these two concerns mean that an alternative characterization of the fire regime, which has very different implications, cannot be excluded. Management aimed at lowering fire risk, as a means of restoration, does not presently have a sound scientific basis, if it uses the composite fire interval as a measure of the fire regime or is based on fire history research that lacks adequate analysis of past high-severity fire.

Implementation of mid-scale fire regime condition class mapping

2008 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 390 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louis Provencher ◽  
Jeff Campbell ◽  
Jan Nachlinger
Keyword(s):  
Fire Regime ◽  
Reference Conditions ◽  
Soil Survey ◽  
Additional Information ◽  
Big Sagebrush ◽  
Natural Range ◽  
The Common ◽  
Data Layers ◽  
Fire Regime Condition Class ◽  
Natural Range Of Variability

We used mid-scale Fire Regime Condition Class (FRCC) mapping to provide Hawthorne Army Depot in the Mount Grant area of Nevada, USA, with data layers to plan fuels restoration projects to meet resource management goals. FRCC mapping computes an index of the departure of existing conditions from the natural range of variability, and consists of five primary steps: (1) mapping the Potential Natural Vegetation Types (PNVT) based on interpretation of a soil survey; (2) refining PNVTs based on additional information; (3) modelling the natural range of variability (NRV) per PNVT; (4) using field verification, calculation and mapping of departure of current distribution of structural vegetation classes interpreted by remote sensing (IKONOS 4-m resolution satellite imagery) from the NRV; and (5) mapping structural vegetation classes that differ from reference conditions. Pinyon–juniper and mountain mahogany woodlands were found within the NRV, whereas departure increased from moderate for low and big sagebrush PNVTs and mixed desert shrub to high for riparian mountain meadow. Several PNVTs showed departures that were close to FRCC class limits. The common recommendation to reach the NRV was to decrease the percentage of late-development closed and cheatgrass-dominant classes, thus increasing the percentage of early and mid-development classes.

scholarly journals Influence of sampling and disturbance history on climatic sensitivity of temperature-limited conifers

The Holocene ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (10) ◽  
pp. 1574-1587 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miloš Rydval ◽  
Daniel L Druckenbrod ◽  
Miroslav Svoboda ◽  
Volodymyr Trotsiuk ◽  
Pavel Janda ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tree Ring ◽  
Ring Width ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
High Elevation ◽  
Climate Signal ◽  
High Frequency Response ◽  
Climatic Trends ◽  
Tree Ring Data ◽  
Temperature Signal ◽  
Romanian Carpathians

Accurately capturing medium- to low-frequency trends in tree-ring data is vital to assessing climatic response and developing robust reconstructions of past climate. Non-climatic disturbance can affect growth trends in tree-ring-width (RW) series and bias climate information obtained from such records. It is important to develop suitable strategies to ensure the development of chronologies that minimize these medium- to low-frequency biases. By performing high density sampling (760 trees) over a ~40-ha natural high-elevation Norway spruce ( Picea abies) stand in the Romanian Carpathians, this study assessed the suitability of several sampling strategies for developing chronologies with an optimal climate signal for dendroclimatic purposes. There was a roughly equal probability for chronologies (40 samples each) to express a reasonable ( r = 0.3–0.5) to non-existent climate signal. While showing a strong high-frequency response, older/larger trees expressed the weakest overall temperature signal. Although random sampling yielded the most consistent climate signal in all sub-chronologies, the outcome was still sub-optimal. Alternative strategies to optimize the climate signal, including very high replication and principal components analysis, were also unable to minimize this disturbance bias and produce chronologies adequately representing climatic trends, indicating that larger scale disturbances can produce synchronous pervasive disturbance trends that affect a large part of a sampled population. The Curve Intervention Detection (CID) method, used to identify and reduce the influence of disturbance trends in the RW chronologies, considerably improved climate signal representation (from r = 0.28 before correction to r = 0.41 after correction for the full 760 sample chronology over 1909–2009) and represents a potentially important new approach for assessing disturbance impacts on RW chronologies. Blue intensity (BI) also shows promise as a climatically more sensitive variable which, unlike RW, does not appear significantly affected by disturbance. We recommend that studies utilizing RW chronologies to investigate medium- to long-term climatic trends also assess disturbance impact on those series.

scholarly journals Testing for anthropogenic influence on fire regime for a 600-year period in the Jaksha area, Komi Republic, East European Russia

2004 ◽  
Vol 34 (10) ◽  
pp. 2027-2036 ◽  
Author(s):  
Igor Drobyshev ◽  
Mats Niklasson ◽  
Per Angelstam ◽  
Przemyslaw Majewski
Keyword(s):  
Human Impact ◽  
Tree Ring ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Ring Width ◽  
Komi Republic ◽  
European Russia ◽  
Statistical Relationship ◽  
East European ◽  
Tree Ring Data ◽  
A Site

In an attempt to quantitatively evaluate the natural versus anthropogenic signal in site fire histories, the statistical relationship between dendrochronologically dated fire events and tree-ring chronologies (deemed to be an independent proxy for climate variation) was analyzed for 14 sites in a 2600-km2 area of pine-dominated forests in the Komi Republic (East European Russia) over the period from 1424 to 1954. We developed a cumulative measure of statistical fit between two types of fire events (early- and late-season fires) and ring-width chronologies of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) (total ring- and latewood-width chronologies). For a given site, the statistical fit between fires and tree-ring data tended to decrease with an increasing proportion of unique fire years. Distance from a site to the nearest village (deemed to be a proxy of human impact) explained 50% of the variation in statistical fit between fires and tree-ring data. The fit decreased in the majority of the sites from the earlier (1424–1700) to the later (1700–1960) periods. We interpret this to be a result of increased human impact on the fire regime since 1700 due to intensified colonization of the area.

scholarly journals Century-Scale Fire Dynamics in a Savanna Ecosystem

Fire ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leys ◽  
Griffin ◽  
Larson ◽  
McLauchlan
Keyword(s):  
Tree Ring ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Landscape Fragmentation ◽  
Fire Frequency ◽  
Relative Role ◽  
Fire Dynamics ◽  
Fire Scars ◽  
Tree Ring Reconstruction ◽  
In Fire

(1) Background: Frequent fire, climate variability, and human activities collectively influence savanna ecosystems. The relative role of these three factors likely varies on interannual, decadal, and centennial timescales. Here, we tested if Euro-American activities uncoupled drought and fire frequencies relative to previous centuries in a temperate savanna site. (2) Methods: We combined records of fire frequency from tree ring fire scars and sediment charcoal abundance, and a record of fuel type based on charcoal particle morphometry to reconstruct centennial scale shifts in fire frequency and fuel sources in a savanna ecosystem. We also tested the climate influence on fire occurrence with an independently derived tree-ring reconstruction of drought. We contextualized these data with historical records of human activity. (3) Results: Tree fire scars revealed eight fire events from 1822–1924 CE, followed by localized suppression. Charcoal signals highlight 13 fire episodes from 1696–2001. Fire–climate coupling was not clearly evident both before and after Euro American settlement The dominant fuel source shifted from herbaceous to woody fuel during the early-mid 20th century. (4) Conclusions: Euro-American settlement and landscape fragmentation disrupted the pre-settlement fire regime (fire frequency and fuel sources). Our results highlight the potential for improved insight by synthesizing interpretation of multiple paleofire proxies, especially in fire regimes with mixed fuel sources.

Mixed-severity fire regimes in dry forests of southern interior British Columbia, Canada

2012 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 88-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily K. Heyerdahl ◽  
Ken Lertzman ◽  
Carmen M. Wong
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Ponderosa Pine ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Fire Severity ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Douglas Fir ◽  
Dry Forests ◽  
Ponderosa Pine Forests ◽  
Fire Scar ◽  
High Severity

Historical fire severity is poorly characterized for dry forests in the interior west of North America. We inferred a multicentury history of fire severity from tree rings in Douglas-fir ( Pseudotsuga menziesii var. glauca (Beissn.) Franco) – ponderosa pine ( Pinus ponderosa Douglas ex P. Lawson & C. Lawson) forests in the southern interior of British Columbia, Canada. In 2 ha plots distributed systematically over 1105 ha, we determined the dates of fire scars, indicators of low-severity fire, from 125 trees and inferred dates of even-aged cohorts, potential indicators of high-severity fire, from establishment dates of 1270 trees. Most (76%) of the 41 plots contained fire-scarred trees with a mean plot-composite fire scar interval of 21 years (1700–1900). Most (76%) also contained one or two cohorts. At the plot scale, we inferred that the fire regime at most plots was of mixed severity through time (66%) and at the remaining plots of low (20%), high (10%), or unknown (4%) severity through time. We suggest that across our study area, the fire regime was mixed severity over the past several centuries, with low-severity fires most common and often extensive but small, high-severity disturbances also occasionally occurred. Our results present strong evidence for the importance of mixed-severity fire regimes in which low-severity fires dominate in interior Douglas-fir – ponderosa pine forests in western Canada.

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