Global patterns in fire leverage: the response of annual area burnt to previous fire

2015 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 297 ◽  
Author(s):  
Owen F. Price ◽  
Juli G. Pausas ◽  
Navashni Govender ◽  
Mike Flannigan ◽  
Paulo M. Fernandes ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
National Parks ◽  
Prescribed Fire ◽  
Fire History ◽  
Global Analysis ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Climatic Variation ◽  
Sandy Desert ◽  
Global Test ◽  
Fire Area

Prescribed fire is practiced around the world to reduce the effect of unplanned fire, but we hypothesise that its effectiveness is proportional to the mean annual area burnt by unplanned fire, which varies among biomes. Fire history mapping was obtained for six global case studies from a range of biomes: Portugal, Spain (both Mediterranean), Alberta (boreal Canada), Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks (montane USA), the Sandy Desert (arid Australia) and Kruger National Park (South African savanna). Leverage is the unit reduction in unplanned fire area resulting from one unit of previous fire as measured at a regional scale over a long period. We calculated leverage for each case study using statistical modelling of annual area burnt, controlling for annual climatic variation. We combined the six leverage values with those from four previously published cases to conduct a global test of our hypothesis. Leverage was high in Portugal (~0.9) and moderate in the Sandy Desert (~0.3). However, the other case studies showed no evidence of leverage: burnt area was not influenced by past fire. In all regions, climatic variation had more influence than past area burnt on annual area burnt. The global analysis revealed a positive relationship between mean area burnt and leverage but only when outlying cases were removed. In biomes with low fire activity, prescribed fire is unlikely to reduce unplanned fire area at all, while for many others, the return for effort is likely to be low. Lessons derived from one biome cannot necessarily be applied to another.

scholarly journals Using the Landsat Burned Area Products to Derive Fire History Relevant for Fire Management and Conservation in the State of Florida, Southeastern USA

Fire ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 26
Author(s):  
Casey Teske ◽  
Melanie K. Vanderhoof ◽  
Todd J. Hawbaker ◽  
Joe Noble ◽  
John Kevin Hiers
Keyword(s):  
Prescribed Fire ◽  
Spatial Data ◽  
Fire History ◽  
Fire Management ◽  
Fire Behavior ◽  
Fire Risk ◽  
Behavior Modeling ◽  
Burned Area ◽  
Burned Areas ◽  
Burn Probability

Development of comprehensive spatially explicit fire occurrence data remains one of the most critical needs for fire managers globally, and especially for conservation across the southeastern United States. Not only are many endangered species and ecosystems in that region reliant on frequent fire, but fire risk analysis, prescribed fire planning, and fire behavior modeling are sensitive to fire history due to the long growing season and high vegetation productivity. Spatial data that map burned areas over time provide critical information for evaluating management successes. However, existing fire data have undocumented shortcomings that limit their use when detailing the effectiveness of fire management at state and regional scales. Here, we assessed information in existing fire datasets for Florida and the Landsat Burned Area products based on input from the fire management community. We considered the potential of different datasets to track the spatial extents of fires and derive fire history metrics (e.g., time since last burn, fire frequency, and seasonality). We found that burned areas generated by applying a 90% threshold to the Landsat burn probability product matched patterns recorded and observed by fire managers at three pilot areas. We then created fire history metrics for the entire state from the modified Landsat Burned Area product. Finally, to show their potential application for conservation management, we compared fire history metrics across ownerships for natural pinelands, where prescribed fire is frequently applied. Implications of this effort include increased awareness around conservation and fire management planning efforts and an extension of derivative products regionally or globally.

scholarly journals The influence of prescribed fire on the extent of wildfire in savanna landscapes of western Arnhem Land, Australia

2012 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 297 ◽  
Author(s):  
Owen F. Price ◽  
Jeremy Russell-Smith ◽  
Felicity Watt
Keyword(s):  
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ◽  
Greenhouse Gas ◽  
Prescribed Fire ◽  
Fire History ◽  
Prescribed Burning ◽  
Landsat Imagery ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Dry Season ◽  
Gas Emissions ◽  
Arnhem Land

Fire regimes in many north Australian savanna regions are today characterised by frequent wildfires occurring in the latter part of the 7-month dry season. A fire management program instigated from 2005 over 24 000 km2 of biodiversity-rich Western Arnhem Land aims to reduce the area and severity of late dry-season fires, and associated greenhouse gas emissions, through targeted early dry-season prescribed burning. This study used fire history mapping derived mostly from Landsat imagery over the period 1990–2009 and statistical modelling to quantify the mitigation of late dry-season wildfire through prescribed burning. From 2005, there has been a reduction in mean annual total proportion burnt (from 38 to 30%), and particularly of late dry-season fires (from 29 to 12.5%). The slope of the relationship between the proportion of early-season prescribed fire and subsequent late dry-season wildfire was ~–1. This means that imposing prescribed early dry-season burning can substantially reduce late dry-season fire area, by direct one-to-one replacement. There is some evidence that the spatially strategic program has achieved even better mitigation than this. The observed reduction in late dry-season fire without concomitant increase in overall area burnt has important ecological and greenhouse gas emissions implications. This efficient mitigation of wildfire contrasts markedly with observations reported from temperate fire-prone forested systems.

Ecological thresholds and the status of fire-sensitive vegetation in western Arnhem Land, northern Australia: implications for management

2009 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew C. Edwards ◽  
Jeremy Russell-Smith
Keyword(s):  
National Parks ◽  
Fire History ◽  
Fire Management ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Vegetation Types ◽  
Northern Australia ◽  
Study Region ◽  
Ecological Thresholds ◽  
Arnhem Land ◽  
The Status

The paper examines the application of the ecological thresholds concept to fire management issues concerning fire-sensitive vegetation types associated with the remote, biodiversity-rich, sandstone Arnhem Plateau, in western Arnhem Land, monsoonal northern Australia. In the absence of detailed assessments of fire regime impacts on component biota such as exist for adjoining Nitmiluk and World Heritage Kakadu National Parks, the paper builds on validated 16-year fire history and vegetation structural mapping products derived principally from Landsat-scale imagery, to apply critical ecological thresholds criteria as defined by fire regime parameters for assessing the status of fire-sensitive habitat and species elements. Assembled data indicate that the 24 000 km2 study region today experiences fire regimes characterised generally by high annual frequencies (mean = 36.6%) of large (>10 km2) fires that occur mostly in the late dry season under severe fire-weather conditions. Collectively, such conditions substantially exceed defined ecological thresholds for significant proportions of fire-sensitive indicator rain forest and heath vegetation types, and the long-lived obligate seeder conifer tree species, Callitris intratropica. Thresholds criteria are recognised as an effective tool for informing ecological fire management in a variety of geographic settings.

scholarly journals A century of changing fire management alters ungulate forage in a wildfire-dominated landscape

2019 ◽  
Vol 92 (5) ◽  
pp. 523-537 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelly M Proffitt ◽  
Jesse DeVoe ◽  
Kristin Barker ◽  
Rebecca Durham ◽  
Teagan Hayes ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prescribed Fire ◽  
Fire History ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Fire Management ◽  
Forage Quality ◽  
Wildfire Management ◽  
Winter Range ◽  
Forestry Practices ◽  
Summer Range ◽  
Straightforward Approach

Abstract Forestry practices such as prescribed fire and wildfire management can modify the nutritional resources of ungulates across broad landscapes. To evaluate the influences of fire and forest management on ungulate nutrition, we measured and compared forage quality and abundance among a range of land cover types and fire histories within 3 elk ranges in Montana. We used historical fire data to assess fire-related variations in elk forage from 1900 to 2015. Fire affected summer forage more strongly than winter forage. Between 1900–1990 and 1990–2015, elk summer range burned by wildfire increased 242–1772 per cent, whereas the area on winter range burned by wildfire was low across all decades. Summer forage quality peaked in recently burned forests and decreased as time since burn increased. Summer forage abundance peaked in dry forests burned 6–15 years prior and mesic forests burned within 5 years. Forests recently burned by wildfire had higher summer forage quality and herbaceous abundance than those recently burned by prescribed fire. These results suggest that the nutritional carrying capacity for elk varies temporally with fire history and management practices. Our methods for characterizing nutritional resources provide a relatively straightforward approach for evaluating nutritional adequacy and tracking changes in forage associated with disturbances such as fire.

scholarly journals Fifty-Seven-Year California Reanalysis Downscaling at 10 km (CaRD10). Part I: System Detail and Validation with Observations

2007 ◽  
Vol 20 (22) ◽  
pp. 5553-5571 ◽  
Author(s):  
Masao Kanamitsu ◽  
Hideki Kanamaru
Keyword(s):  
Time Scales ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Global Analysis ◽  
Regional Climate ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Surface Wind ◽  
Lateral Boundary ◽  
Climate Change Research ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
Precipitation Analysis

Abstract For the purpose of producing datasets for regional-scale climate change research and application, the NCEP–NCAR reanalysis for the period 1948–2005 was dynamically downscaled to hourly, 10-km resolution over California using the Regional Spectral Model. This is Part I of a two-part paper, describing the details of the downscaling system and comparing the downscaled analysis [California Reanalysis Downscaling at 10 km (CaRD10)] against observation and global analysis. An extensive validation of the downscaled analysis was performed using station observations, Higgins gridded precipitation analysis, and Precipitation-Elevation Regression on Independent Slopes Model (PRISM) precipitation analysis. In general, the CaRD10 near-surface wind and temperature fit better to regional-scale station observations than the NCEP–NCAR reanalysis used to force the regional model, supporting the premise that the regional downscaling is a viable method to attain regional detail from large-scale analysis. This advantage of CaRD10 was found on all time scales, ranging from hourly to decadal scales (i.e., from diurnal variation to multidecadal trend). Dynamically downscaled analysis provides ways to study various regional climate phenomena of different time scales because all produced variables are dynamically, physically, and hydrologically consistent. However, the CaRD10 is not free from problems. It suffers from positive bias in precipitation for heavy precipitation events. The CaRD10 is inaccurate near the lateral boundary where regional detail is damped by the lateral boundary relaxation. It is important to understand these limitations before the downscaled analysis is used for research.

Fire history and its drivers based on peatland charcoal analysis in the Changbai Mountains, north-east China, during the last 13 000 years

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (9) ◽  
pp. 841
Author(s):  
Meng Meng ◽  
Dongmei Jie ◽  
Dehui Li ◽  
Nannan Li ◽  
Baojian Liu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Forest Fires ◽  
Fire History ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Fire Frequency ◽  
Changbai Mountains ◽  
Mountain Forest ◽  
Archaeological Data ◽  
The Past ◽  
North East ◽  
Strict Regulation

The Changbai Mountains forest ecosystem is one of the best-preserved temperate mountain forest ecosystems in Asia. Since the establishment of the reserve in 1960, extensive forest fires have been excluded as a result of strict regulation and suppression efforts and thus fuels have accumulated for several decades. Due to the lack of historical fire records in the area, the risk of fire occurrence cannot be properly estimated. In this study, we used charcoal records to reconstruct the palaeo-fire frequency in the Changbai Mountains during the last 13000 years. The results indicate that fires were frequent during 13.0–11.0, 7.0–6.0, and 2.5–2.0 calender (cal) kyr before present (BP) and from 1.0 cal kyr BP to the present. The fire frequencies are largely consistent with other palaeoenvironmental records from the study area and we conclude that since 13.0 cal kyr BP fires were more frequent at the regional scale during intervals of a weak summer monsoon, caused by a cold and dry climate and the abundance of flammable trees. Archaeological data from the study area since 3.0 cal kyr BP indicate increasing human activity, which dominated the occurrence of local fires. In addition, intermittent volcanic activity influenced the occurrence of fires during the past millennium.

scholarly journals Wildfires and mass effects of dispersal disrupt the local uniformity of type I songs of Hermit Warblers in California

The Auk ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 137 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Brett J Furnas ◽  
Russ H Landers ◽  
Rauri C K Bowie
Keyword(s):  
Fire History ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Species Traits ◽  
Local Scale ◽  
Breeding Habitat ◽  
Type I ◽  
Ecological Processes ◽  
Dominant Type ◽  
Mass Effects ◽  
Pattern Dynamics

Abstract Hermit Warblers (Setophaga occidentalis) sing a formulaic, type I song to attract mates, in contrast to a repertoire of more complex, type II songs to defend territories. A single, dominant type I song, or a low diversity of type I songs, often occur within a geographic area. We provide the first comprehensive description of Hermit Warbler type I song variants throughout California, USA. We recorded type I songs from 1,588 males across 101 study sites in the state from April through July 2009–2014. Using those locations and a pre-existing range map of the species, we created a maximum entropy-based breeding habitat suitability map and classified the songs into 35 variants using a typological rubric. We validated consistent classification of songs for 87.5% of the birds. We then modeled the effects of recent fire history at the local scale (10 yr, 315 km2), the amount of breeding habitat at the regional scale (8,000 km2), and the distance between territories to examine factors involved in song sameness at the local scale. We found that the probability of different birds singing the same form declined with the amount of local fire, regional habitat, and distance, and that these findings were robust to uncertainty in our song classification rubric. Using a longitudinal analysis including additional data from 10 study areas revisited in 2019, we showed that song structure within forms had drifted since our initial visits 5–10 yr earlier, and that the evenness (e.g., Simpson’s measure) of song forms increased at locations that had been burned by wildfire between visits. Taken together, the results suggest that wildfires and the mass effects of dispersal of birds singing rival song forms disrupt the uniformity of type I songs locally. The results demonstrate how species traits, such as birdsong, can be used to disentangle the ecological processes that regulate observed patterns in biodiversity. Further investigation is recommended to determine whether song pattern dynamics reflect underlying genetic differences and habitat specializations among subpopulations.

Planned and unplanned fire regimes on public land in south-east Queensland

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (5) ◽  
pp. 326 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martyn Eliott ◽  
Tom Lewis ◽  
Tyron Venn ◽  
Sanjeev Kumar Srivastava
Keyword(s):  
Fire History ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
The Public ◽  
Asset Protection ◽  
Occurrence Data ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Service State ◽  
Open Forests

Land management agencies in Queensland conduct planned burning for a variety of reasons, principally for management of fuels for human asset protection and biodiversity management. Using Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service’s archived manually derived fire reports, this study considered the individual components of the fire regime (extent, frequency and season) to determine variation between planned and unplanned fire regimes in south-east Queensland. Overall, between 2004 and 2015, planned fire accounted for 31.6% and unplanned fire 68.4% of all fire on Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service state-managed land. Unplanned fire was more common in spring (September–October), and planned fire was more common in winter (June–August). Unplanned fire affected 71.4% of open forests and woodlands (148563ha), whereas 58.8% of melaleuca communities (8016ha) and 66.6% of plantations (2442ha) were burnt with planned fire. Mapping fire history at a regional scale can be readily done with existing publicly available datasets, which can be used to inform the assessment of planned burning effectiveness for human asset protection and the management of biodiversity. Fire management will benefit from the continued recording of accurate fire occurrence data, which allows for detailed fire regime mapping and subsequent adaptive management of fire regimes in the public domain.

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