Relations between tree-ring widths, climate, and annual area burned in the boreal forest of Alberta

1995 ◽  
Vol 25 (11) ◽  
pp. 1746-1755 ◽  
Author(s):  
C.P.S. Larsen ◽  
G.M. MacDonald
Keyword(s):  
Boreal Forest ◽  
Tree Ring ◽  
National Park ◽  
Ring Width ◽  
Weather Conditions ◽  
Fire Weather ◽  
Severity Rating ◽  
Area Burned ◽  
Positive Correlations ◽  
Wood Buffalo National Park

Ring-width chronologies from three white spruce (Piceaglauca (Moench) Voss) and two jack pine (Pinusbanksiana Lamb.) sites in the boreal forest of northern Alberta were constructed to determine whether they could provide proxy records of monthly weather, summer fire weather, and the annual area burned by wildfires in Wood Buffalo National Park. All but one of the standard and residual chronologies exhibited significant positive correlations with June precipitation in the growth year, and all but three of the chronologies exhibited positive correlations with precipitation in June, July, or August of the previous year. Three of the residual chronologies also exhibited negative correlations with June temperature in the growth year. Four of the standard and residual chronologies exhibited significant correlations with the Seasonal Severity Rating fire weather variable from Fort Smith, N.W.T. Four of the standard chronologies and three of the residual chronologies exhibited significant correlations with the annual area burned in Wood Buffalo National Park. Significant correlations were also found for some of the standard and residual chronologies with fire weather and annual area burned in the previous year. These results suggest that ring widths and annual area burned in this portion of the boreal forest are sensitive to similar weather conditions. Tree-ring records may therefore provide a useful means of examining decadal to centennial length relations between climate and annual area burned in the boreal forest.

scholarly journals Dendroclimatological Analysis of Wild Pear Pyrus Pyraster (L.) Burgsd. From Biedrusko Military Area (West Poland) — Preliminary Study

2016 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Cedro ◽  
Wojciech Antkowiak
Keyword(s):  
Tree Ring ◽  
Ring Width ◽  
Weather Conditions ◽  
Tree Ring Width ◽  
Pointer Years ◽  
Preliminary Study ◽  
Pear Trees ◽  
Positive Correlations ◽  
Previous Summer ◽  
Pyrus Pyraster

Abstract European wild pear (Pyrus pyraster, syn. Pyrus communis subsp. pyraster L.) is widely distributed in Europe, but rarely studied by dendrochronologists. This preliminary study was aimed to assess the age and effect of climate on tree-ring width in the largest Polish population of P. pyraster, in Biedrusko military area (western Poland). On the basis of samples from 21 trees, a chronology (BIE) was constructed, covering 45 years (1963–2007). Mean tree-ring width in the studied trees is 1.92 mm. The performed analyses (pointer years, correlations, and response function) indicate that tree-ring width is strongly dependent on weather conditions in the year preceding formation of the tree-ring. Annual rings of pear trees were wide after cold and rainy previous summer and after rainy previous October, while in the current year, ring width was affected by insolation in February and temperature in August (positive correlations) and precipitation in May (negative correlation). The low similarity of the ring-width pattern and effect of climate on tree-ring width between this population and a wild pear population from the Bielinek Reserve, located 200 km away, indicate that tree-ring width in this species is strongly dependent on habitat and there is a need to continue dendrochronological analyses.

scholarly journals Fire history and climate-growth response of Abies spectabilis : A case from Langtang National Park, Nepal Himalaya

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 3-12
Author(s):  
S. Basnet ◽  
N. P. Gaire ◽  
P. K. Chhetri
Keyword(s):  
Tree Ring ◽  
Radial Growth ◽  
National Park ◽  
Fire History ◽  
Ring Width ◽  
Negative Influence ◽  
Himalayan Region ◽  
Fire Scars ◽  
Fire Event ◽  
Abies Spectabilis

This study presents the potential of a conifer species (Abies spectabilis D. Don) to reconstruct fire history by using dendro chronological technique along with thedendroclimatic response in Langtang National Park, Central Himalaya of Nepal. For the fire history reconstruction, altogether eight cross-sections samples from fire affected eight trees and another 20 tree-cores from 10 trees with visible fire scars were taken. In the case of dendroclimatic study, 24 healthy cores of A. spectabilis were selected from the 40 cores extracted from 19 trees. The standard dendro chronological methodology was used for sample preparation and analysis. A 199-year long ring-width chronology of A. spectabilis spanning from 1818 to 2016 AD was developed. In spite of visible fire burn in near bark-surface, no potential fire scars are seen in inner parts in the cross-section samples. However, 12 cores showed that three fire burns occurred simultaneously in the forest area in the years 1917−1918, 1969−1970 and 2009−2010, respectively. Tree-ring-based fire event-record is found to be concurrent to the local people's perceptions/experience about the past fire history in the area. Tree growth climate relationship showed sensitive responses to both growing and non-growing season’s temperature and precipitation variability. Summer temperature had positive influence on growth of the species. Precipitation of monsoon and autumn were found to have negative influence on radial growth whereas pre-monsoon precipitation had positive association with tree radial-growth. This preliminary assessment shows that there is a huge potential of tree-ring research for long-term fire history in the region and helps us to better understand the role of fire in the ecology and management in the Himalayan region. The study can also be replicated in other fire-affected areas of the Himalayan region by using fire sensitive species in the sampling.

Empirical models of forest fire initial attack success probabilities: the effects of fuels, anthropogenic linear features, fire weather, and management

2006 ◽  
Vol 36 (12) ◽  
pp. 3155-3166 ◽  
Author(s):  
M Cecilia Arienti ◽  
Steven G Cumming ◽  
Stan Boutin
Keyword(s):  
Failure Probability ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Black Spruce ◽  
Weather Conditions ◽  
Fire Weather ◽  
Initial Attack ◽  
Linear Features ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Forest Fuels ◽  
Area Burned

Canadian fire managers seek to contain fires below some target size (here 3 ha) by initial attack (IA). Suppression failures occur when fire size at IA exceeds this target (a response failure) or if an initially small fire cannot be contained below it (a containment failure). We examined the effects of cause, season, forest fuels, anthropogenic linear features, weather, and fire management (response time, size at IA) on the probability of these two types of suppression failures, using multiple logistic regression on 1196 fires that occurred within the boreal mixedwood forest of northeastern Alberta during 1995–2002. The frequencies of containment (7%) and response failures (10%) were similar, but the latter accounted for 85% of the area burned. Response failure probability was greater for fires caused by lightning than those caused by humans and increased with longer response times, local abundance of black spruce in summer, and pine fuel under severe fire weather. We found no effect of linear features or other fuel types. Containment failure probability was related to size at IA and fire weather conditions. Our models suggest that a reduction in area burned might be possible if additional fire-specific factors affecting response failure probability could be incorporated into operational decisions.

Fire Regime and the Abundance of Red Pine

1993 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 241 ◽  
Author(s):  
MD Flannigan
Keyword(s):  
Fire Regime ◽  
Fire Behavior ◽  
Rare Event ◽  
Weather Conditions ◽  
Red Pine ◽  
Fire Intensity ◽  
Fire Weather ◽  
Fire Weather Index ◽  
Area Burned ◽  
Forward Stepwise

Red pine (Pinus resinosa Ait.) is a fire-dependent species. This study examines the relationship between the fire regime and the abundance of red pine. The fire regime is represented by components of the Canadian Fire Weather Index System and outputs from the Canadian Fire Behavior Prediction System as well as the average area burned and the percentage of conifers of each forest section. Extreme as well as averages values were used in this analysis as a large forest fire is a rare event that can occur on only a few days of the year under extreme fire weather conditions. Results from a forward-stepwise regression explained about 70% of die variance in red pine volume (abundance) data. Variables selected in the regression analysis included extreme headfire intensity, area burned and average drought code. These results suggest that abundance of red pine and other fire affected tree species is directly related to the aspects of the fire regime such as fire intensity.

scholarly journals Landscape composition influences local pattern of fire size in the eastern Canadian boreal forest: role of weather and landscape mosaic on fire size distribution in mixedwood boreal forest using the Prescribed Fire Analysis System

2010 ◽  
Vol 19 (8) ◽  
pp. 1099 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christelle Hély ◽  
C. Marie-Josée Fortin ◽  
Kerry R. Anderson ◽  
Yves Bergeron
Keyword(s):  
Boreal Forest ◽  
Prescribed Fire ◽  
Boreal Forests ◽  
Weather Conditions ◽  
Landscape Composition ◽  
Burned Area ◽  
Fire Size ◽  
Fire Cycle ◽  
Area Burned ◽  
Analysis System

Wildfire simulations were carried out using the Prescribed Fire Analysis System (PFAS) to study the effect of landscape composition on fire sizes in eastern Canadian boreal forests. We used the Lake Duparquet forest as reference, plus 13 forest mosaic scenarios whose compositions reflected lengths of fire cycle. Three fire weather risks based on duff moisture were used. We performed 100 simulations per risk and mosaic, with topography and hydrology set constant for the reference. Results showed that both weather and landscape composition significantly influenced fire sizes. Weather related to fire propagation explained almost 79% of the variance, while landscape composition and weather conditions for ignition explained ∼14 and 2% respectively. In terms of landscape, burned area increased with increasing presence of shade-tolerant species, which are related to long fire cycles. Comparisons among the distributions of cumulated area burned from scenarios plus those from the Société de Protection des Forêts contre le Feu database archives showed that PFAS simulated realistic fire sizes using the 80–100% class of probable fire extent. Future analyses would best be performed on a larger region as the limited size of the study area could not capture fires larger than 11 000 ha, which represent 3% of fires but 65% of the total area burned at the provincial scale.

Impact of climate change on area burned in Alberta's boreal forest

2007 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cordy Tymstra ◽  
Mike D. Flannigan ◽  
Owen B. Armitage ◽  
Kimberley Logan
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Boreal Forest ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Weather Data ◽  
Change Scenario ◽  
Climate Change Scenarios ◽  
Fire Weather ◽  
Fire Weather Index ◽  
Area Burned ◽  
Northern Alberta

Eight years of fire weather data from sixteen representative weather stations within the Boreal Forest Natural Region of Alberta were used to compile reference weather streams for low, moderate, high, very high and extreme Fire Weather Index (FWI) conditions. These reference weather streams were adjusted to create daily weather streams for input into Prometheus – the Canadian Wildland Fire Growth Model. Similar fire weather analyses were completed using Canadian Regional Climate Model (CRCM) output for northern Alberta (174 grid cells) to generate FWI class datasets (temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, Fine Fuel Moisture Code, Duff Moisture Code and Drought Code) for 1 ×, 2 × and 3 × CO2 scenarios. The relative differences between the CRCM scenario outputs were then used to adjust the reference weather streams for northern Alberta. Area burned was calculated for 21 fires, fire weather classes and climate change scenarios. The area burned estimates were weighted based on the historical frequency of area burned by FWI class, and then normalized to derive relative area burned estimates for each climate change scenario. The 2 × and 3 × CO2 scenarios resulted in a relative increase in area burned of 12.9 and 29.4% from the reference 1 × CO2 scenario.

scholarly journals Relationships Between Climatic Variables and Tree-Ring Width of Silver Fir (Abies alba Mill.) in Kozara National Park (Bosnia and Herzegovina)

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-27
Author(s):  
Jelena Subotić ◽  
Vojislav Dukić ◽  
Tatjana Popov ◽  
Goran Trbić ◽  
Zoran Maunaga ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Correlation Analysis ◽  
Tree Ring ◽  
Bosnia And Herzegovina ◽  
Radial Growth ◽  
National Park ◽  
Sampling Site ◽  
Ring Width ◽  
Abies Alba ◽  
Silver Fir ◽  
Tree Ring Width

Silver fir (Abies alba Mill.) is the most common conifer species in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The paper describes the development of a silver fir master tree-ring chronology from Kozara National Park and analyzes the influence of the climate conditions on tree-ring widths. The knowledge concerning the effect of climate on cambium activity and, as a result, on tree growth is of great importance for silviculture, which is particularly complex in terms of deterioration of health condition. Four sites were selected for sampling at Kozara National Park. At each sampling site, 15 dominant trees were drilled with Pressler’s increment borer at breast height. The development of chronology included three steps: i) cross-dating of a series of tree-ring width and checking of their quality using the COFECHA program, ii) data standardization in the ARSTAN program, and iii) master chronology development. Correlation analysis was performed in order to determine the links between tree-ring width and climate (primarily temperature and precipitation). In the 88-year-long master chronology, pointer years analysis identified five positive and nine negative years. Correlation analysis revealed that precipitation had stronger and more significant impact on silver fir radial growth, particularly at the beginning of the growing season, in April and May (r=0.175 and r=0.318, respectively), and in the crucial July−September period (r in the range of 0.143−0.222). The highest negative correlation coefficient with temperature was determined for September of the previous year (r=-0.282) and then for summer months (July and August) of the current year (r=-0.184 and r=-0.272, respectively). In addition, statistically significant correlation between radial growth and the Forestry Aridity Index was determined (r=-0.390). The results of tree-ring width climate analysis obtained in this study are in accordance with other studies carried out in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in the surrounding area.

scholarly journals Annual growth trends and response to weather of larch trees at Järvselja Training and Experimental Forest Center stands (Estonia)

2015 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-129 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maris Hordo ◽  
Vivika Kängsepp ◽  
Taavi Kannimäe ◽  
Priit Kask
Keyword(s):  
Tree Ring ◽  
Tree Growth ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Ring Width ◽  
Weather Conditions ◽  
Radial Increment ◽  
Weather Variables ◽  
Larch Species ◽  
Growth Variation ◽  
Annual Resolution

AbstractLarch is widely used in tree-ring studies, while tree-ring width and signature years provide information on environmental changes with annual resolution. The aim of the study was to build tree-ring (TR), early- (EW) and latewood (LW) width chronologies by larch species (Hybrid, European, Russian, Japanese, Kuril), and to study the response of the radial increment of larches to weather at Järvselja forest stands by using correlation, redundancy analysis, and the pointer year method. The increment cores were collected from 233 trees in Järvselja larch stands during autumn 2014. The increment cores were collected from 24 stands and divided into five groups by larch species. High EPS values (≥ 0.887) for the larch species in all groups indicate that a sufficient number of trees was included in the chronologies to be representable. The results show that different species have a similar sensitivity to various weather variables. Among the factors influencing the size of radial growth of larches were the weather conditions prevailing in the autumn of the previous year and the spring of the current year. An overall RDA revealed that 63.9% of tree growth variation in larch species was explained by the considered weather variables (F = 4.925,p< 0.001). The pointer year analysis distinguished between several common extreme pointer years by larch species; it revealed a significant response to the winter temperature and the temperature in spring. However, these weather characteristics are very complex and the causes that can affect tree growth may vary from year to year.

scholarly journals Influence of climatic conditions and air pollution on radial growth of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) in Szczecin’s city forests

2018 ◽  
Vol 79 (2) ◽  
pp. 105-112
Author(s):  
Anna Cedro ◽  
Bernard Cedro
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Pinus Sylvestris ◽  
Tree Ring ◽  
Scots Pine ◽  
Radial Growth ◽  
Ring Width ◽  
Weather Conditions ◽  
Tree Ring Width ◽  
Relative Growth ◽  
Chemical Factory

Abstract The aim of the present work was to characterize the growth – climate relationship of pines growing in the Szczecin city forests in intensively used recreational areas and to identify the effect of air pollutants emitted by a nearby chemical factory on tree-ring width. Our research area was located in the Głębokie forest complex, which is one of the most frequently visited. The chemical factory Police that produces fertilizers is located at a distance 11 km away from the study plot. The largest emissions of pollutants from the factory in terms of volume occurred in the 1980s and early 1990s. Wood samples were collected from Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) with the Pressler borer from 30 trees and examined using standard dendrochronological methodology. The result was a local chronology of 169 years from 1848–2016. Dendroclimatological analyses indicated that the weather conditions at the turn from winter to spring are the dominant factors influencing radial growth. For example, higher than average temperatures in February, March and April result in a wide tree-ring in the upcoming growth season. Following Nowacki and Abram’s method, we also determined the relative growth change in order to delimit the timeframe when air pollution potentially alters tree-ring width. Due to the lack of data for the period 1848–1945, the increasing and decreasing relative growth could not be linked to specific events. For the period 1944–1972 however, we observed and increase in the tree-ring width, which in this case can be attributed to favorable weather conditions. The final period, 1973–1991, on the other hand showed the strongest decline in annual growth throughout our chronology and this was largely due to the nearby chemical factories, which released huge amounts of pollution into the atmosphere during this period. At present, despite new technologies and a decrease in overall production by the nearby chemical factory, we found a negative trend in ring width dynamics indicating a need for pollutant monitoring and further research.

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