Ecological Foundations for Fire Management in North American Forest and Shrubland Ecosystems

Ecological Foundations for Fire Management in North American Forest and Shrubland Ecosystems
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages: 102
Release: 2009
Genre: Ecosystem management
ISBN:

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This synthesis provides an ecological foundation for management of the diverse ecosystems and fire regimes of North America, based on scientific principles of fire interactions with vegetation, fuels, and biophysical processes. Although a large amount of scientific data on fire exists, most of those data have been collected at small spatial and temporal scales. Thus, it is challenging to develop consistent science-based plans for large spatial and temporal scales where most fire management and planning occur. Understanding the regional geographic context of fire regimes is critical for developing appropriate and sustainable management strategies and policy. The degree to which human intervention has modified fire frequency, intensity, and severity varies greatly among different ecosystems, and must be considered when planning to alter fuel loads or implement restorative treatments. Detailed discussion of six ecosystems--ponderosa pine forest (western North America), chaparral (California), boreal forest (Alaska and Canada), Great Basin sagebrush (intermountain West), pine and pine-hardwood forests (Southern Appalachian Mountains), and longleaf pine (Southeastern United States)-- illustrates the complexity of fire regimes and that fire management requires a clear regional focus that recognizes where conflicts might exist between fire hazard reduction and resource needs. In some systems, such as ponderosa pine, treatments are usually compatible with both fuel reduction and resource needs, whereas in others, such as chaparral, the potential exists for conflicts that need to be closely evaluated. Managing fire regimes in a changing climate and social environment requires a strong scientific basis for developing fire management and policy.

Fire, Climate Change, and Carbon Cycling in the Boreal Forest

Fire, Climate Change, and Carbon Cycling in the Boreal Forest
Author: Eric S. Kasischke
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 490
Release: 2012-08-22
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0387216294

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A discussion of the direct and indirect mechanisms by which fire and climate interact to influence carbon cycling in North American boreal forests. The first section summarizes the information needed to understand and manage fires' effects on the ecology of boreal forests and its influence on global climate change issues. Following chapters discuss in detail the role of fire in the ecology of boreal forests, present data sets on fire and the distribution of carbon, and treat the use of satellite imagery in monitoring these regions as well as approaches to modeling the relevant processes.

Wildfire and Forest Management

Wildfire and Forest Management
Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Natural Resources. Subcommittee on Public Lands and Environmental Regulation
Publisher:
Total Pages: 88
Release: 2013
Genre: Forest management
ISBN:

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Plant-Fire Interactions

Plant-Fire Interactions
Author: Víctor Resco de Dios
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 212
Release: 2020-03-17
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 3030411923

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This book provides a unique exploration of the inter-relationships between the science of plant environmental responses and the understanding and management of forest fires. It bridges the gap between plant ecologists, interested in the functional and evolutionary consequences of fire in ecosystems, with foresters and fire managers, interested in effectively reducing fire hazard and damage. This innovation in this study lies in its focus on the physiological responses of plants that are of relevance for predicting forest fire risk, behaviour and management. It covers the evolutionary trade-offs in the resistance of plants to fire and drought, and its implications for predicting fuel moisture and fire risk; the importance of floristics and plant traits, in interaction with landform and atmospheric conditions, to successfully predict fire behaviour, and provides recommendations for pre- and post- fire management, in relation with the functional composition of the community. The book will be particularly focused on examples from Mediterranean environments, but the underlying principles will be of broader utility.

Forest Disturbances and Climate Feedbacks in a Mixedwood Boreal Forest

Forest Disturbances and Climate Feedbacks in a Mixedwood Boreal Forest
Author: Md. Abdul Halim
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2020
Genre:
ISBN:

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Boreal forests play a critical role in global climate via important biophysical and biogeochemical feedbacks. Large-scale disturbances, particularly fire and harvesting, significantly affect these feedbacks by altering the surface and stand attributes, and can impact boreal forests' role in the global climate system. Surface- and stand-attribute-driven feedbacks change rapidly in early successional stages, making them challenging to model. As the frequency and intensity of disturbances in boreal forests are predicted to increase, a vast landscape with proportionally more young forests is likely to result. Understanding these feedbacks during early stand development is thus more critical than ever before. Scarcity of data on key biophysical (e.g., albedo, soil temperature) and biogeochemical (e.g., soil greenhouse gas fluxes) processes during early stand development has been noted, particularly in mixedwood boreal forests. Using a series of micrometeorological towers in fire and harvesting chronosequences of a mixedwood boreal forest of northwestern Ontario, we studied combined effects of vegetation cover and climate warming on the surface soil (~2 cm depth) temperature in post-disturbance stands, and the patterns and drivers of surface albedo and soil CO2 and CH4 fluxes during early stand development stages in post-fire and post-harvest stands. A proxy-year analysis indicated that surface soil temperature in winter and spring was lower in a warm year compared to a baseline year, and the magnitude of this difference varied with vegetation cover (Chapter 2). Albedo differences between post-fire and post-harvest stands were most pronounced during winter and spring and primarily driven by stand age and species composition (Chapter 3). We also found that CO2 effluxes were lower in post-fire stands compared to post-harvest stands; post-fire stands were never a source, but some young post-harvest stands were a net source of CH4 . The magnitude in flux difference between post-fire and post-harvest stands varied with stand age and was affected by environmental variables such as soil temperature, moisture, pH, and litter depth (Chapter 4). These findings are critical for understanding dynamics in soil temperature, albedo, and soil carbon fluxes during early successional stages and useful for climate-smart boreal forest management.

Fire Regimes: Spatial and Temporal Variability and Their Effects on Forests

Fire Regimes: Spatial and Temporal Variability and Their Effects on Forests
Author: Yves Bergeron
Publisher: MDPI
Total Pages: 433
Release: 2018-04-13
Genre: Science
ISBN: 3038423904

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This book is a printed edition of the Special Issue "Fire Regimes: Spatial and Temporal Variability and Their Effects on Forests" that was published in Forests

Effects of Timber Harvest Following Wildfire in Western North America

Effects of Timber Harvest Following Wildfire in Western North America
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages: 60
Release: 2009
Genre: Post-fire forest management
ISBN:

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This synthesis provides an ecological foundation for management of the diverse ecosystems and fire regimes of North America, based on scientific principles of fire interactions with vegetation, fuels, and biophysical processes. Although a large amount of scientific data on fire exists, most of those data have been collected at small spatial and temporal scales. Thus, it is challenging to develop consistent science-based plans for large spatial and temporal scales where most fire management and planning occur. Understanding the regional geographic context of fire regimes is critical for developing appropriate and sustainable management strategies and policy. The degree to which human intervention has modified fire frequency, intensity, and severity varies greatly among different ecosystems, and must be considered when planning to alter fuel loads or implement restorative treatments. Detailed discussion of six ecosystems--ponderosa pine forest (western North America), chaparral (California), boreal forest (Alaska and Canada), Great Basin sagebrush (intermountain West), pine and pine-hardwood forests (Southern Appalachian Mountains), and longleaf pine (Southeastern United States)--illustrates the complexity of fire regimes and that fire management requires a clear regional focus that recognizes where conflicts might exist between fire hazard reduction and resource needs. In some systems, such as ponderosa pine, treatments are usually compatible with both fuel reduction and resource needs, whereas in others, such as chaparral, the potential exists for conflicts that need to be closely evaluated. Managing fire regimes in a changing climate and social environment requires a strong scientific basis for developing fire management and policy. --

Mixed Severity Fires

Mixed Severity Fires
Author: Dominick A. DellaSala
Publisher: Elsevier
Total Pages: 452
Release: 2024-06-21
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 0443137919

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The second edition of Mixed Severity Fires: Nature’s Phoenix focuses on wildfire as a keystone ecological process that has shaped plant and animal communities for over 400 million years. The book will describe the renewal process that follows wildfires in forests and chaparral ecosystems as "nature’s phoenix" by drawing from examples of wildfire effects in several regions of the world.In addition, the book will describe management and policies that have contributed to wildfire problems, including climate change and land-use practices incompatible with nature’s phoenix and what must happen to get to coexistence with wildfires that are not going away no matter how much we try to suppress or alter fire behavior. This second edition of Mixed Severity Fires: Nature’s Phoenix provides a comprehensive reference for documenting and synthesizing fire's ecological role. Comprehensive and complete reference on wildfire ecology that includes the latest science and citations Debunks debates on wildfire management that can be used by conservation groups and decision-makers to shift egregious wildfire policies Contains a broad synthesis of the ecology of mixed- and high-severity fires, covering such topics as vegetation, birds, mammals, insects, aquatics, and management actions

Biomass Burning and Its Inter-Relationships with the Climate System

Biomass Burning and Its Inter-Relationships with the Climate System
Author: John L. Innes
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 357
Release: 2006-04-11
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0306479591

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JOHN L. INNES University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada The interactions between biomass burning and climate have been brought into focus by a number of recent events. Firstly, the Framework Convention on Climate Change and, more recently, the Kyoto Protocol, have drawn the attention of policy makers and others to the importance of biomass burning in relation to atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations. Secondly, the use of prescribed fires has become a major management tool in some countries; with for example the area with fuel treatments (which include prescribed burns and mechanical treatments) having increased on US National Forest System lands from 123,000 ha in 1985 to 677,000 ha in 1998. Thirdly, large numbers of forest fires in Indonesia, Brazil, Australia and elsewhere in 1997 and 1998 received unprecedented media attention. Consequently, it is appropriate that one of the Wengen Workshops on Global Change Research be devoted to the relationships between biomass burning and climate. This volume includes many of the papers presented at the workshop, but is also intended to act as a contribution to the state of knowledge on the int- relationships between biomass burning and climate change. Previous volumes on biomass burning (e. g. Goldammer 1990,Levine 1991a, Crutzen and Goldammer 1993, Levine 1996a, 1996b, Van Wilgen et al. 1997) have stressed various aspects of the biomass–climate issue, and provide a history of the development of our understanding of the many complex relationships that are involved.