scholarly journals Relative Contributions of Forest Vegetation, Land Cover, Topography and Climate in Explaining Fire Regime Patterns (1974–2005) in Peninsular Spain

ISRN Forestry ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Antonio Vázquez de la Cueva
Keyword(s):  
Land Cover ◽  
Forest Fires ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Forest Vegetation ◽  
Relevant Variable ◽  
Explanatory Variables ◽  
Disturbance Factor ◽  
Explained Variance ◽  
Fire Incidence

The relevance of forest fires as a major disturbance factor in vegetation composition, dynamics, and structure is increasing in several ecosystem types. In order to develop adaptation procedures and to strengthen the resilience under future altered fire regimes, it is important to gain a greater understanding of the factors involved in regional fire regimes. This paper evaluates the relative contributions of forest vegetation, land cover, topography, and climate in explaining the fire regime patterns. The analyses were performed independently for 15 territory types delimited according to potential vegetation criteria. Redundancy analysis was used to enable the simultaneous ordination of the response (fire regime) and the explanatory variables. The results reveal important differences among the 15 territories. The explained variance ranged from low to medium depending on the territory. However, for the five territories with greatest fire incidence, the variance explained was more than 39%. The proportion of territory covered by forest (derived from land cover information) was found to be the most relevant variable. Unexpectedly, the type of forest vegetation (derived from forest inventory data) appears to have played, at least in this approach and for some territories, a secondary role in explaining the registered fire regime patterns.

scholarly journals Forest Fire Regime in a Mediterranean Ecosystem: Unraveling the Mutual Interrelations between Rainfall Seasonality, Soil Moisture, Drought Persistence, and Biomass Dynamics

Fire ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 49
Author(s):  
Nunzio Romano ◽  
Nadia Ursino
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Soil Water ◽  
Forest Fires ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Mediterranean Ecosystem ◽  
Water Retention Capacity ◽  
Soil Water Retention ◽  
Retention Capacity ◽  
Rainfall Frequency

Frequent and severe droughts typically intensify wildfires provided that there is enough fuel in situ. The extent to which climate change may influence the fire regime and long time-scale hydrological processes may soften the effect of inter-annual climate change and, more specifically, whether soil-water retention capacity can alleviate the harsh conditions resulting from droughts and affect fire regimes, are still largely unexplored matters. The research presented in this paper is a development of a previous investigation and shows in what way, and to what extent, rainfall frequency, dry season length, and hydraulic response of different soil types drive forest fires toward different regimes while taking into consideration the typical seasonality of the Mediterranean climate. The soil-water holding capacity, which facilitates biomass growth in between fire events and hence favors fuel production, may worsen the fire regime as long dry summers become more frequent, such that the ecosystem’s resilience to climate shifts may eventually be undermined.

Strong anthropogenic signals in historic forest fire regime: a detailed spatiotemporal case study from south-central Norway

2013 ◽  
Vol 43 (9) ◽  
pp. 836-845 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ken Olaf Storaunet ◽  
Jørund Rolstad ◽  
Målfrid Toeneiet ◽  
Ylva-li Blanck
Keyword(s):  
Forest Fires ◽  
Boreal Forests ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Fire Severity ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Fire Scars ◽  
Time Intervals ◽  
Slash And Burn ◽  
South Central

To better understand the historic range of variability in the fire regime of Fennoscandian boreal forests we cross-dated 736 fire scars of remnant Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) wood samples in a 3.6 km2 section of the Trillemarka-Rollagsfjell Reserve of south-central Norway. Using a kernel range application in GIS we spatially delineated 57 individual forest fires between 1350 and the present. We found a strong anthropogenic signal in the fire regime from 1600 and onwards: (i) infrequent variably sized fires prior to 1600 shifted to frequent fires gradually decreasing in size during the 1600s and 1700s, with only a few small fires after 1800; (ii) time intervals between fires and the hazard of burning showed substantial differences pre- and post-1600; (iii) fire seasonality changed from late- to early-season fires from the 1626 fire and onwards; and (iv) fire severity decreased gradually over time. Written sources corroborated our results, narrating a history where anthropogenic forest fires and slash-and-burn cultivation expanded with the increasing population from the late 1500s. Concurrently, timber resources increased in value, gradually forcing slash-and-burn cultivators to abandon fires on forest land. Our results strengthen and expand previous Fennoscandian findings on the anthropogenic influence of historic fire regimes.

scholarly journals Le régime des incendies de forêt en Valais: influences climatiques et anthropiques | Forest fire regimes in Valais: climatic and human influences

2010 ◽  
Vol 161 (11) ◽  
pp. 442-449 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Zumbrunnen ◽  
Matthias Bürgi ◽  
Harald Bugmann
Keyword(s):  
Forest Fire ◽  
Forest Fires ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Combustible Material ◽  
Determining Factors ◽  
Before And After ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Alps ◽  
In Fire

Forest fire regimes are particularly sensitive to variations in the climate and to human influences. In the Alps both the manner in which the land is used and climatic changes, in particular rises in temperature and the frequency of drought periods, are probably going to bring about considerable modifications in fire regimes. The history of these fires in Valais in the 20th century is however still little known, as is the influence of the different determining factors. From a study of documentary archives we have therefore reconstituted the history of forest fires in Valais from 1904 to 2008. We then tried to establish whether or not the fire regime had evolved during this time by comparing descriptive statistics from the first and the second halves of the period under study. By means of correlation analyses we could then find what factors had a significant influence on the occurrence of fires. What emerges is that forest fire activity moved towards the plain in the course of the 20 century, probably on account of the increase in population density at lower altitudes. The seasonality of the fires also evolved: there was an outbreak of fires in the spring during the second half of the period under study, whereas in the first half fires mostly occurred in summer. On the other hand the frequency of the fires and the surface area burned annually did not differ significantly in the periods before and after 1955. As for the balance between factors determining the frequency of fires and the surface burned annually, there has been a modification in the period under study. Although drought was a decisive factor in the first decades of the 20 century, afterwards it seems to have declined in importance, being supplanted by other factors, notably the availability of combustible material. The fact that at present the forest fire regime is apparently regulated by factors other than the climate means it is possible to envisage concrete measures in order to limit fire risks.

scholarly journals Global assessment and mapping of ecological vulnerability to wildfires

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fátima Arrogante-Funes ◽  
Inmaculada Aguado ◽  
Emilio Chuvieco
Keyword(s):  
Forest Fires ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Conservation Status ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Natural Phenomenon ◽  
Ecological Value ◽  
Ecological Vulnerability ◽  
The Face

Abstract. Fire is a natural phenomenon that has played a critical role in transforming the environment and maintaining biodiversity at a global scale. However, the plants in some habitats have not developed strategies for recovery from fire or have not adapted to the changes taking place in their fire regimes. Maps showing ecological vulnerability to fires could contribute to environmental management policies in the face of global change scenarios. The main objective of this study is to assess and map ecological vulnerability to fires on a global scale. To this end, we created ecological value and post-fire regeneration delay indices on the basis of existing global databases. Two ecological value indices were identified: biological distinction and conservation status. For the post-fire regeneration delay index, various factors were taken into account, including the type of fire regime, the increase in the frequency and intensity of forest fires and the potential soil erosion they can cause. These indices were combined by means of a qualitative cross-tabulation to create a new index evaluating ecological vulnerability to fire. The results showed that global ecological value could be reduced by as much as 50 %, due to fire perturbation of ecosystems that are poorly adapted to it. The terrestrial biomes most affected are the tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forest; tundra; mangroves; tropical and subtropical coniferous forests; and tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests.

The potential and limitations of long-term fire regime reconstructions in Eastern Siberia based on sedimentary charcoal and low-temperature fire markers 

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisabeth Dietze ◽  
Kai Mangelsdorf ◽  
Jasmin Weise ◽  
Heidrun Matthes ◽  
Simeon Lisovski ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Low Temperature ◽  
Boreal Forest ◽  
High Latitude ◽  
Forest Fires ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Transport Processes ◽  
Eastern Siberia ◽  
Climate Data

<p>Forest fires are an important factor in the global carbon cycle and high latitude ecosystems. Eastern Siberian tundra, summergreen larch-dominated boreal forest on permafrost and evergreen boreal forest have characteristic fire regimes with varying fire intensities. Yet, it is unknown which role fire plays in long-term climate-vegetation-permafrost feedbacks and how high-latitude fire regimes and ecosystems will change in a warmer world. To learn from fire regime shifts during previous interglacials, prior to human presence, we use lake-sedimentary charcoal as proxy for high-intensity forest fires and monosaccharide anhydrides (i.e. levoglucosan, mannosan, galactosan: MA) as molecular proxies for low-temperature biomass burning, typical for surface fires in modern larch forest. However, MA pathways from source to sink and their stability in sediments are very poorly constrained. Recently, Dietze et al. (2020) found MA in up to 420 kyr old sediment of Lake El’gygytgyn (ICDP Site 5011-1), NE Siberia, suggesting that they are suitable proxies for fires in summergreen boreal forests. Surprisingly, the ratios of the MA isomers were exceptionally low compared to published emission ratios from modern combustions.</p><p>To understand what MA from Arctic lake sediments tell us, we have analyzed the MA and charcoal composition in modern lake surface sediments of Lake El’gygytgyn and three East Siberian lakes and we compare them to late glacial-to-interglacial El’gygytgyn records. The three Siberian lakes were chosen to represent spatial analogues to the El’gygytgyn conditions during MIS 5e and 11c. We discuss first results of the modern sediments in context of recent MODIS- and Landsat-based fire extents and biome-specific land cover data, a wind field modelling using climate data over eastern Siberia, and lake-catchment configurations from TDX-DEM analysis to assess potential fire proxy source areas and regional-to-local transport processes. Thereby, we provide insights into the meaning of sedimentary fire proxies, crucial for a sound reconstruction of long-term fire regime histories.</p>

scholarly journals A stochastic Forest Fire Model for future land cover scenarios assessment

2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 2161-2167 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. D'Andrea ◽  
P. Fiorucci ◽  
T. P. Holmes
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Cellular Automata ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Simulation Model ◽  
Forest Fire ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Forest Types ◽  
Fire Model ◽  
Forest Fire Model

Abstract. 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.

scholarly journals People, El Niño southern oscillation and fire in Australia: fire regimes and climate controls in hummock grasslands

2016 ◽  
Vol 371 (1696) ◽  
pp. 20150343 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Bliege Bird ◽  
Douglas W. Bird ◽  
Brian F. Codding
Keyword(s):  
El Niño ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
El Nino ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
El Niño Southern Oscillation ◽  
El Nino Southern Oscillation ◽  
Fire Size ◽  
Antecedent Rainfall ◽  
Fire Incidence

While evidence mounts that indigenous burning has a significant role in shaping pyrodiversity, the processes explaining its variation across local and external biophysical systems remain limited. This is especially the case with studies of climate–fire interactions, which only recognize an effect of humans on the fire regime when they act independently of climate. In this paper, we test the hypothesis that an anthropogenic fire regime (fire incidence, size and extent) does not covary with climate. In the lightning regime, positive El Niño southern oscillation (ENSO) values increase lightning fire incidence, whereas La Niña (and associated increases in prior rainfall) increase fire size. ENSO has the opposite effect in the Martu regime, decreasing ignitions in El Niño conditions without affecting fire size. Anthropogenic ignition rates covary positively with high antecedent rainfall, whereas fire size varies only with high temperatures and unpredictable winds, which may reduce control over fire spread. However, total area burned is similarly predicted by antecedent rainfall in both regimes, but is driven by increases in fire size in the lightning regime, and fire number in the anthropogenic regime. We conclude that anthropogenic regimes covary with climatic variation, but detecting the human–climate–fire interaction requires multiple measures of both fire regime and climate. This article is part of the themed issue ‘The interaction of fire and mankind’.

Wildland - urban interface housing growth during the 1990s in California, Oregon, and Washington

2007 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 255 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger B. Hammer ◽  
Volker C. Radeloff ◽  
Jeremy S. Fried ◽  
Susan I. Stewart
Keyword(s):  
Land Cover ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Wildland Fire ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Growth Patterns ◽  
Wildland Urban Interface ◽  
Assessment Protocol ◽  
Housing Growth ◽  
State Region ◽  
Housing Units

In the present study, we examine housing growth in California, Oregon, and Washington in the wildland–urban interface (WUI), the area where homes and other structures abut or intermingle with wildland vegetation. We combine housing density information from the 1990 and 2000 USA censuses with land cover information from the 1992/93 National Land Cover Dataset to demarcate the location and extent of the WUI and its growth, both in terms of area and number of housing units during the 1990s. We overlay the WUI with coarse-scale fire regime condition class information to evaluate implications for wildland fire management. During the 1990s, WUI area in the three-state region increased by 5218 km2 (10.9%) to nearly 53 000 km2 and the number of housing units in the WUI increased over 1 million units (17.6%) and in 2000 encompassed 6.9 million units, 43% of all housing in the region. Over a million new homes were constructed in the WUI, comprising 61% of the new homes constructed in the region. By 2000, there was far more intermix WUI (75% of the WUI area and 64% of the WUI housing units) than interface WUI. Expansion of the WUI accounted for only 13% of WUI housing unit growth and WUI that existed in 1990 encompassed 98% of WUI housing units in 2000. In 2000, there were nearly 1.5 million WUI housing units in areas with 0–35-year fire return intervals and 3.4 million in areas with 35–100+ year fire return intervals. In both these fire regimes, the majority of WUI housing units (66% and 90% respectively) are in areas with a current condition outside the historic range of variability. Housing growth patterns in this three-state region are exacerbating wildland fire problems in the WUI. Any long-term solution to wildland fire issues in the western United States will have to address housing growth patterns. Using a consistent, nationally applicable assessment protocol, the present study reveals the vast extent of WUI in the west coast states and its growth in the 1990s, and provides a foundation for consistent monitoring efforts.

Spatial patterns of forest fires in Canada, 1980 - 1999

2006 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 361 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc-André Parisien ◽  
Vernon S. Peters ◽  
Yonghe Wang ◽  
John M. Little ◽  
Erin M. Bosch ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Multivariate Analysis ◽  
Spatial Patterns ◽  
Forest Fires ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Anthropogenic Factors ◽  
Fire Size ◽  
Spatial Metrics ◽  
Additional Information ◽  
Heterogeneous Landscapes

The present study characterized the spatial patterns of forest fires in 10 fire-dominated ecozones of Canada by using a database of mapped fires ≥200 ha from 1980 to 1999 (n = 5533 fires). Spatial metrics were used individually to compare measures of fire size, shape (eccentricity and complexity), clustering, and geographic orientation among ecozones and were used concurrently in a multivariate analysis. In addition, a set of factors that influence the fire regime at the ecozone level – topography, climate, fuels, and anthropogenic factors – was compared with the metric outputs. We found significant differences in all spatial metrics among ecozones. The multivariate analysis showed that the Montane Cordillera ecozone, which covers most of British Columbia, had the most distinctive fires: its fires were smaller, less complex, and had a more regular distribution. The fire regime descriptors of ecozones were useful to interpret the spatial variation of some spatial metrics, such as fire size, eccentricity, and clustering, but provided little insight into the mechanisms of patterns of fire complexity, which were shown to be sensitive to data quality. Our results provide additional information about the creation of spatially heterogeneous landscapes. Furthermore, they illustrate the potential use of spatial metrics for a more detailed characterization of fire regimes and provide novel information for ecosystems-based land management.

scholarly journals Assessing Wildfire Regimes in Indigenous Lands of the Brazilian Savannah-Like Cerrado

Fire ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 34
Author(s):  
Pedro Melo ◽  
Javier Sparacino ◽  
Daihana Argibay ◽  
Vicente Sousa Júnior ◽  
Roseli Barros ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Forest Fires ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Google Earth ◽  
Dry Season ◽  
Burned Area ◽  
Burned Areas ◽  
Brazilian Savannah ◽  
Indigenous Lands

The Brazilian savannah-like Cerrado is classified as a fire-dependent biome. Human activities have altered the fire regimes in the region, and as a result, not all fires have ecological benefits. The indigenous lands (ILs) of the Brazilian Cerrado have registered the recurrence of forest fires. Thus, the diagnosis of these events is fundamental to understanding the burning regimes and their consequences. The main objective of this paper is to evaluate the fire regimes in Cerrado’s indigenous lands from 2008 to 2017. We used the Landsat time series, at 30 m spatial resolution, available in the Google Earth Engine platform to delineate the burned areas. We used precipitation data from a meteorological station to define the rainy season (RS), early dry season (EDS), middle dry season (MDS), and late dry season (LDS) periods. During 2008–2017, our results show that the total burned area in the indigenous lands and surrounding area was 2,289,562 hectares, distributed in 14,653 scars. Most fires took place between June and November, and the annual burned area was quite different in the years studied. It was also possible to identify areas with high fire recurrence. The fire regime patterns described here are the first step towards understanding the fire regimes in the region and establishing directions to improve management strategies and guide public policies.

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