Journal ArticleDOI
The global fire–productivity relationship
Juli G. Pausas,E. Ribeiro +1 more
TLDR
In this paper, the intermediate fire-productivity model has been validated across all world ecosystems, including Antarctica, and it has been suggested that on a global scale, fire activity changes along the productivity/aridity gradient following a humped relationship.Abstract:
Aim
It has been suggested that on a global scale, fire activity changes along the productivity/aridity gradient following a humped relationship, i.e. the intermediate fire–productivity hypothesis. This relation should be driven by differing relative roles of the main fire drivers (weather and fuel) along the productivity gradient. However, the full intermediate fire–productivity model across all world ecosystems remains to be validated.
Location
The entire globe, excluding Antarctica.
Methods
To test the intermediate fire–productivity hypothesis, we use the world ecoregions as a spatial unit and, for each ecoregion, we compiled remotely sensed fire activity, climate, biomass and productivity information. The regression coefficient between monthly MODIS fire activity and monthly maximum temperature in each ecoregion was considered an indicator of the sensitivity of fire to high temperatures in the ecoregion. We used linear and generalized additive models to test for the linear and humped relationships.
Results
Fire occurs in most ecoregions. Fire activity peaked in tropical grasslands and savannas, and significantly decreased towards the extremes of the productivity gradient. Both the sensitivity of fire to high temperatures and above-ground biomass increased monotonically with productivity. In other words, fire activity in low-productivity ecosystems is not driven by warm periods and is limited by low biomass; in contrast, in high-productivity ecosystems fire is more sensitive to high temperatures, and in these ecosystems, the available biomass for fires is high.
Main conclusion
The results support the intermediate fire–productivity model on a global scale and suggest that climatic warming may affect fire activity differently depending on the productivity of the region. Fire regimes in productive regions are vulnerable to warming (drought-driven fire regime changes), while in low-productivity regions fire activity is more vulnerable to fuel changes (fuel-driven fire regime changes).read more
Citations
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
Correspondence: Uncertainty in Climate-Vegetation Feedbacks on Fire Regimes Challenges Reliable Long-Term Projections of Burnt Area from Correlative Models
Lluís Brotons,Andrea Duane +1 more
TL;DR: In this article, a simple correlative model was used to project an increase in future burnt areas for the Mediterranean region, based on the assumption that fire-drought relationships currently measured under a given productivity gradient (i.e., sensitivity of fire activity to dry periods is stronger in cooler/productive sites) can be consistently used to infer new relationships arising in the future.
Journal ArticleDOI
The impacts of wildfires of different burn severities on vegetation structure across the western United States rangelands
Nelson Rios,Wendy Garnham +1 more
TL;DR: In this article , the impacts of large wildfires on rangeland fractional cover including annual forbs and grasses (AFG), perennial forbs (PFG), shrubs (SHR) and trees (TREE) across the western US were investigated.
Dissertation
Modelling resilience and sustainability of complex human-environment systems in agriculture and ecology
TL;DR: Across all 3 projects, modelled systems display complex behaviours, emphasizing the necessity of further development of models for complex human-environment systems that can provide a more complete understanding of system dynamics and potential futures.
Journal ArticleDOI
Does conserving roadless wildland increase wildfire activity in western US national forests
James D. Johnston,John B. Kilbride,Garrett W. Meigs,Garrett W. Meigs,Christopher J. Dunn,Robert E. Kennedy +5 more
TL;DR: The authors investigated the influence of these land use designations on fire ignitions, fire extent, and fire severity over the last three decades, and found that fire extent was greater in roadless areas than in roaded landscapes managed for multiple uses.
Journal ArticleDOI
Forest succession and climate variability interacted to control fire activity over the last four centuries in an Alaskan boreal landscape
TL;DR: This paper investigated the relative importance of climate and landscape flammability as drivers of fire activity in boreal forests by developing high-resolution records of fire history, and characterizing their centennial-scale relationships to temperature and vegetation dynamics.
References
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
Terrestrial Ecoregions of the World: A New Map of Life on Earth
Journal ArticleDOI
A global overview of drought and heat-induced tree mortality reveals emerging climate change risks for forests
Craig D. Allen,Alison K. Macalady,Haroun Chenchouni,Dominique Bachelet,Nate G. McDowell,Michel Vennetier,Thomas Kitzberger,Andreas Rigling,David D. Breshears,Edward H. Hogg,Patrick Gonzalez,Rod Fensham,Zhen Zhang,Jorge Castro,N.A. Demidova,Jong Hwan Lim,Gillian Allard,Steven W. Running,Akkin Semerci,Neil S. Cobb +19 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present the first global assessment of recent tree mortality attributed to drought and heat stress and identify key information gaps and scientific uncertainties that currently hinder our ability to predict tree mortality in response to climate change and emphasizes the need for a globally coordinated observation system.
Journal ArticleDOI
Warming and Earlier Spring Increase Western U.S. Forest Wildfire Activity
Anthony L. Westerling,Anthony L. Westerling,Hugo G. Hidalgo,Daniel R. Cayan,Daniel R. Cayan,Thomas W. Swetnam +5 more
TL;DR: It is shown that large wildfire activity increased suddenly and markedly in the mid-1980s, with higher large-wildfire frequency, longer wildfire durations, and longer wildfire seasons.
Journal ArticleDOI
The NCEP Climate Forecast System Reanalysis
Suranjana Saha,Shrinivas Moorthi,Hua-Lu Pan,Xingren Wu,Jiande Wang,Sudhir Nadiga,Patrick Tripp,Robert Kistler,John S. Woollen,David Behringer,Haixia Liu,Diane Stokes,Robert Grumbine,George Gayno,Jun Wang,Yu-Tai Hou,Hui-ya Chuang,Hann-Ming Henry Juang,Joe Sela,Mark Iredell,Russ Treadon,Daryl T. Kleist,Paul van Delst,Dennis Keyser,John Derber,Michael Ek,Jesse Meng,Helin Wei,Rongqian Yang,Stephen J. Lord,Huug van den Dool,Arun Kumar,Wanqiu Wang,Craig S. Long,Muthuvel Chelliah,Yan Xue,Boyin Huang,Jae-Kyung E. Schemm,Wesley Ebisuzaki,Roger Lin,Pingping Xie,Mingyue Chen,Shuntai Zhou,Wayne Higgins,Cheng-Zhi Zou,Quanhua Liu,Yong Chen,Yong Han,Lidia Cucurull,Richard W. Reynolds,Glenn Rutledge,Mitch Goldberg +51 more
TL;DR: The NCEP Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (CFSR) was completed for the 31-yr period from 1979 to 2009, in January 2010 as mentioned in this paper, which was designed and executed as a global, high-resolution coupled atmosphere-ocean-land surface-sea ice system to provide the best estimate of the state of these coupled domains over this period.
Journal ArticleDOI
Generalized Additive Models: An Introduction With R
TL;DR: Robinson, R. (2007). Generalized Additive Models: An Introduction With R.(2007).
Related Papers (5)
Fire in the Earth System
David M. J. S. Bowman,Jennifer K. Balch,Jennifer K. Balch,Jennifer K. Balch,Paulo Artaxo,William J. Bond,Jean M. Carlson,Mark A. Cochrane,Carla M. D'Antonio,Ruth DeFries,John Doyle,Sandy P. Harrison,Fay H. Johnston,Jon E. Keeley,Jon E. Keeley,Meg A. Krawchuk,Christian A. Kull,J. Brad Marston,Max A. Moritz,I. Colin Prentice,Christopher I. Roos,Andrew C. Scott,Thomas W. Swetnam,Guido R. van der Werf,Stephen J. Pyne +24 more