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Estimation of post-fire vegetation recovery in boreal forests using solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) data Int. J. Wildland Fire (IF 2.627) Pub Date : 2021-02-11 Meng Guo; Jing Li; Fangbing Yu; Shuai Yin; Shubo Huang; Lixiang Wen
The estimation of post-fire vegetation recovery is essential for forest management and wildfire policy-making. In the last few decades, vegetation indices have been widely used to monitor post-fire vegetation recovery by comparison with the pre-fire state. In this study, vegetation recovery is estimated using Solar-Induced chlorophyll Fluorescence (SIF), which is a by-product of photosynthesis and
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Long-term fire effects on vegetation and topsoil properties in beech forests of Manjaca Mountain (western Bosnia and Herzegovina) Int. J. Wildland Fire (IF 2.627) Pub Date : 2021-02-04 Marijana Kapovic Solomun; Carla S. S. Ferreira; Saša Eremija; Radislav Tošic; Nemanja Lazovic; Goran Cešljar
Wildfires are an important driver of land degradation, with detrimental impacts on soil properties, usually leading to decreasing soil fertility and erosion, which affect vegetation recovery. This study investigates the long-term impact of wildfires on topsoil horizons and vegetation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where land degradation is causing significant economic and ecological losses. Ten years after
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Contrasting prescription burning and wildfires in California Sierra Nevada national parks and adjacent national forests Int. J. Wildland Fire (IF 2.627) Pub Date : 2021-02-04 Jon E. Keeley; Anne Pfaff; Anthony C. Caprio
History of prescription burning and wildfires in the three Sierra Nevada National Park Service (NPS) parks and adjacent US Forest Service (USFS) forests is presented. Annual prescription (Rx) burns began in 1968 in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, followed by Yosemite National Park and Lassen Volcanic National Park. During the last third of the 20th century, USFS national forests adjacent to
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A multivariate approach to assess the structural determinants of large wildfires: evidence from a Mediterranean country Int. J. Wildland Fire (IF 2.627) Pub Date : 2021-02-04 David Sousa; Frederico Cruz-Jesus; André Sousa; Marco Painho
This paper analyses the factors behind wildfire propagation in a Mediterranean European country, Portugal, using a set of variables related to vegetation and climatic, topography and human aspects. Spatial cluster analysis was used to find homogeneous regions, and two-part regression models were used to model the contribution of the different elements driving extensive fire propagation. Our findings
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Moisture content variation of ground vegetation fuels in boreal mesic and sub-xeric mineral soil forests in Finland Int. J. Wildland Fire (IF 2.627) Pub Date : 2021-02-01 Henrik Lindberg; Tuomas Aakala; Ilkka Vanha-Majamaa
Forest fire risk in Finland is estimated with the Finnish Forest Fire Index (FFI), which predicts the fuel moisture content (FMC) of the forest floor. We studied the FMC variation of four typical ground vegetation fuels, Pleurozium schreberi, Hylocomium splendens, Dicranum spp., and Cladonia spp., and raw humus in mature and recently clear-cut stands. Of these, six were sub-xeric Pinus sylvestris stands
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Effects of fuel spatial distribution on wildland fire behaviour Int. J. Wildland Fire (IF 2.627) Pub Date : 2021-01-27 Adam L. Atchley; Rodman Linn; Alex Jonko; Chad Hoffman; Jeffrey D. Hyman; Francois Pimont; Carolyn Sieg; Richard S. Middleton
The distribution of fuels is recognised as a key driver of wildland fire behaviour. However, our understanding of how fuel density heterogeneity affects fire behaviour is limited because of the challenges associated with experiments that isolate fuel heterogeneity from other factors. Advances in fire behaviour modelling and computational resources provide a means to explore fire behaviour responses
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Medium-term effects of straw helimulching on post-fire vegetation recovery in shrublands in north-west Spain Int. J. Wildland Fire (IF 2.627) Pub Date : 2021-01-27 Cristina Fernández
Straw mulch is commonly applied to land after high-severity wildfires because of its effectiveness in reducing post-fire runoff and erosion. However, information about the effect on vegetation recovery is still scarce and usually limited to the first 2 years after wildfire. In this study, the effects of straw helimulching on vegetation recovery and species composition were assessed in 30 experimental
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Guidelines for effective evaluation and comparison of wildland fire occurrence prediction models Int. J. Wildland Fire (IF 2.627) Pub Date : 2021-01-29 Nathan Phelps; Douglas G. Woolford
Daily, fine-scale spatially explicit wildland fire occurrence prediction (FOP) models can inform fire management decisions. Many different data-driven modelling methods have been used for FOP. Several studies use multiple modelling methods to develop a set of candidate models for the same region, which are then compared against one another to choose a final model. We demonstrate that the methodologies
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Extent and effect of the 2019-20 Australian bushfires on upland peat swamps in the Blue Mountains, NSW Int. J. Wildland Fire (IF 2.627) Pub Date : 2021-01-22 Kirstie A. Fryirs; Kirsten L. Cowley; Natalie Hejl; Anthony Chariton; Nicole Christiansen; Rachael Y. Dudaniec; Will Farebrother; Lorraine Hardwick; Timothy Ralph; Adam Stow; Grant Hose
The devastating bushfires of the 2019–20 summer are arguably the most costly natural disaster in Australian recorded history. What is little known is that these fires severely affected the temperate highland peat swamps on sandstone (THPSS), a form of upland wetland that occurs in the water supply catchments of Sydney in the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area and National Park. During the fires
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Pre-season fire management planning: the use of Potential Operational Delineations to prepare for wildland fire events Int. J. Wildland Fire (IF 2.627) Pub Date : 2020-12-16 S. Michelle Greiner; Courtney A. Schultz; Chad Kooistra
US fire scientists are developing Potential Wildfire Operational Delineations, also known as ‘PODs’, as a pre-fire season planning tool to promote safe and effective wildland fire response, strengthen risk management approaches in fire management and better align fire management objectives. PODs are a collaborative planning approach based on spatial analytics to identify potential wildfire control
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Quantifying merging fire behaviour phenomena using unmanned aerial vehicle technology Int. J. Wildland Fire (IF 2.627) Pub Date : 2020-12-10 Alexander Filkov; Brett Cirulis; Trent Penman
Catastrophic wildfires are often a result of dynamic fire behaviours. They can cause rapid escalation of fire behaviour, increasing the danger to ground-based emergency personnel. To date, few studies have characterised merging fire behaviours outside the laboratory. The aim of this study was to develop a simple, fast and accurate method to track fire front propagation using emerging technologies to
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Wildfire dynamics and impacts on a tropical Andean oak forest Int. J. Wildland Fire (IF 2.627) Pub Date : 2020-11-10 Mauricio Aguilar-Garavito; Paola Isaacs-Cubides; J. Sebastian Ruiz-Santacruz; Jordi Cortina-Segarra
Wildfires have increasingly damaged Andean tropical forests. However, both a poor understanding of wildfire dynamics and ecosystem response limits awareness about the magnitude of the problem and design management strategies. We estimate the impacts and significant drivers of wildfires by dating and mapping recent wildfires in an Andean tropical forest area, the Iguaque mountains. A large part of Iguaque
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PeatFire: an agent-based model to simulate fire ignition and spreading in a tropical peatland ecosystem Int. J. Wildland Fire (IF 2.627) Pub Date : 2020-11-11 Kirana Widyastuti; Muhammad Ali Imron; Subyantoro Tri Pradopo; Hatma Suryatmojo; Bertha Maya Sopha; Allan Spessa; Uta Berger
The increased frequency and spread of tropical peat fires over the last two decades have attracted global attention because they cause significant environmental and health impacts at local to global scales. To understand the relative importance of key factors controlling tropical peatland burning events, we developed PeatFire, an agent-based model simulating the interaction between human-induced ignitions
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Operationalising homeowner wildfire risk mitigation in fire-prone areas Int. J. Wildland Fire (IF 2.627) Pub Date : 2020-11-12 Hugh Walpole; Sarah McCaffrey; Claire Rapp; Robyn Wilson
A significant amount of research has examined what motivates people living in fire-prone areas to mitigate their wildfire risk (i.e. engage in activities that reduce vulnerability and the effects of a wildfire on an individual’s property). However, drawing overarching conclusions from this research is difficult because of the myriad of ways researchers have measured and analysed wildfire risk mitigation
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The space–time cube as an approach to quantifying future wildfires in California Int. J. Wildland Fire (IF 2.627) Pub Date : 2020-11-13 Diana Moanga; Gregory Biging; John Radke; Van Butsic
Throughout history California has been subjected to large catastrophic wildfires and the trend seems to be accelerating in recent years. We analysed and mapped the spatial–temporal patterns of predicted wildfire occurrence across California from 2000 until the end of the century. We identified areas that are extremely vulnerable to wildfires and analysed the threat to the wildland–urban interface and
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Examining the relationship between elections and wildfires Int. J. Wildland Fire (IF 2.627) Pub Date : 2020-11-04 Yiannis Kountouris
This paper examines the relationship between local elections and wildfire. Using data of wildfires in Greek municipalities between 2000 and 2010, I estimate models comparing wildfire outcomes in local election years against non-election years. I find that wildfire occurrence and burned area are systematically lower in the years around local elections. In municipalities where incumbents run for re-election
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Spatial and temporal dynamics of live fuel moisture content in eastern Mediterranean woodlands are driven by an interaction between climate and community structure Int. J. Wildland Fire (IF 2.627) Pub Date : 2020-11-05 Avi Bar-Massada; Edwin Lebrija-Trejos
The initiation and spread of wildfires depend, among others, on the live fuel moisture content (LFMC) in plants. Whereas the intrinsic and environmental drivers of LFMC in individual plants are fairly well understood, less is known about ecological interactions potentially affecting LFMC in diverse plant communities. Here, we asked how the interaction between climate and species diversity affects the
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Small fires, frequent clouds, rugged terrain and no training data: a methodology to reconstruct fire history in complex landscapes Int. J. Wildland Fire (IF 2.627) Pub Date : 2020-11-05 Davide Fornacca; Guopeng Ren; Wen Xiao
An automated burned area extraction routine that attempts to overcome the particular difficulties of remote sensing applications in complex landscapes is presented and tested in the mountainous region of northwest Yunnan, China. In particular, the lack of burned samples to use for training and testing, the rugged relief, the small size of fires and the constant presence of clouds during the rainy season
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Quantifying production of hot firebrands using a fire-resistant fabric Int. J. Wildland Fire (IF 2.627) Pub Date : 2020-10-28 Sampath Adusumilli; Tyler Hudson; Nathan Gardner; David L. Blunck
Identifying the number of firebrands generated during wildfires is an important aspect of understanding their propagation. A key challenge in quantifying the number of firebrands released is to distinguish those that are ‘hot’ and could lead to further fire spread from the total number released. Recently, a fire-resistant fabric was used to quantify the number of ‘hot’ firebrands released from different
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A critical review of fuel accumulation models used in Australian fire management Int. J. Wildland Fire (IF 2.627) Pub Date : 2020-10-28 Hilyati H. Zazali; Isaac N. Towers; Jason J. Sharples
Various classifications of fuel accumulation models are used to describe the complex temporal relationship between fuel loads and vegetation dynamics. Fuel accumulation models are an important tool in wildfire management as fuel is the only component that can be directly controlled by fire managers. Here we discuss various strengths and limitations of analytical fuel accumulation models that exist
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Spatial databases and techniques to assist with prescribed fire management in the south-east Queensland bioregion Int. J. Wildland Fire (IF 2.627) Pub Date : 2020-10-29 Sanjeev Kumar Srivastava; Tom Lewis; Linda Behrendorff; Stuart Phinn
This paper identifies key fire history and fire-related spatial databases that can be utilised for effective planning and assessment of prescribed burns in south-eastern Queensland. To ensure that appropriate fire regimes are maintained for specific management objectives (e.g. biodiversity conservation or risk management), and to assist fire managers with planning prescribed fire and post-fire assessments
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Monetising the savings of remotely sensed data and information in Burn Area Emergency Response (BAER) wildfire assessment Int. J. Wildland Fire (IF 2.627) Pub Date : 2020-10-22 Richard Bernknopf; Yusuke Kuwayama; Reily Gibson; Jessica Blakely; Bethany Mabee; T. J. Clifford; Brad Quayle; Justin Epting; Terry Hardy; David Goodrich
We used a value of information approach to demonstrate the cost-effectiveness of using satellite imagery as part of the Burn Area Emergency Response (BAER), a US federal program that identifies imminent post-wildfire threats to human life and safety, property and critical natural or cultural resources. We compared the costs associated with producing a Burn Area Reflectance Classification map and implementing
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Towards resilient health systems for increasing climate extremes: insights from the 2019–20 Australian bushfire season Int. J. Wildland Fire (IF 2.627) Pub Date : 2020-10-16 Aparna Lal; Mahomed Patel; Arnagretta Hunter; Christine Phillips
The public health emergency associated with the 2019–20 bushfires in Australia was a wake-up call to increase the resilience of our health systems to respond to climate extremes. We must combine our understanding of predictions of extreme weather events with our knowledge on emergency preparedness and response to protect the health of citizens.
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Soil moisture as an indicator of growing-season herbaceous fuel moisture and curing rate in grasslands Int. J. Wildland Fire (IF 2.627) Pub Date : 2020-10-16 Sonisa Sharma; J. D. Carlson; Erik S. Krueger; David M. Engle; Dirac Twidwell; Samuel D. Fuhlendorf; Andres Patrignani; Lei Feng; Tyson E. Ochsner
Soil moisture depletion during the growing season can induce plant water stress, thereby driving declines in grassland fuel moisture and accelerating curing. These drying and curing dynamics and their dependencies on soil moisture are inadequately represented in fire danger models. To elucidate these relationships, grassland fuelbed characteristics and soil moisture were monitored in nine patches of
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Widespread fire years in the US–Mexico Sky Islands are contingent on both winter and monsoon precipitation Int. J. Wildland Fire (IF 2.627) Pub Date : 2020-10-12 Alexis H. Arizpe; Donald A. Falk; Connie A. Woodhouse; Thomas W. Swetnam
The climate of the south-western United States and northern Mexico borderlands is marked by a bimodal precipitation regime with the majority of moisture arriving during the cool season via Pacific frontal storm systems, and intense convective storms during the North American Monsoon (NAM). The fire season occurs primarily during the arid foresummer in May and June, before the development of the NAM
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High-severity wildfire potential – associating meteorology, climate, resource demand and wildfire activity with preparedness levels Int. J. Wildland Fire (IF 2.627) Pub Date : 2020-10-09 Alison C. Cullen; Travis Axe; Harry Podschwit
National and regional preparedness level (PL) designations support decisions about wildfire risk management. Such decisions occur across the fire season and influence pre-positioning of resources in areas of greatest fire potential, recall of personnel from off-duty status, requests for back-up resources from other areas, responses to requests to share resources with other regions during fire events
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Spatial correlates of forest and land fires in Indonesia Int. J. Wildland Fire (IF 2.627) Pub Date : 2020-09-29 Z. D. Tan; L. R. Carrasco; D. Taylor
Biomass fires in Indonesia emit high levels of greenhouse gases and particulate matter, key contributors to global climate change and poor air quality in south-east Asia. In order to better understand the drivers of biomass fires across Indonesia over multiple years, we examined the distribution and probability of fires in Sumatra, Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo) and Papua (western New Guinea) over
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How to measure the economic health cost of wildfires – A systematic review of the literature for northern America Int. J. Wildland Fire (IF 2.627) Pub Date : 2020-10-01 Ruth Dittrich; Stuart McCallum
There has been an increasing interest in the economic health cost from smoke exposure from wildfires in the past 20 years, particularly in the north-western USA that is reflected in an emergent literature. In this review, we provide an overview and discussion of studies since 2006 on the health impacts of wildfire smoke and of approaches for the estimation of the associated economic cost. We focus
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Pine afforestation, herriza and wildfire: a tale of soil erosion and biodiversity loss in the Mediterranean region Int. J. Wildland Fire (IF 2.627) Pub Date : 2020-09-15 Fernando Ojeda
From a western society’s perspective, wildfires are catastrophic events that jeopardise biodiversity and cause soil erosion, not to mention risk to human lives and properties. However, many Mediterranean-type ecosystems are not only resilient to wildfires but sensitive to the lack of wildfires. This communication focuses on the Mediterranean heathland or herriza as a paradigmatic fire-prone ecosystem
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The influence of prescribed burning and wildfire on lidar-estimated forest structure of the New Jersey Pinelands National Reserve Int. J. Wildland Fire (IF 2.627) Pub Date : 2020-09-17 Timothy A. Warner; Nicholas S. Skowronski; Inga La Puma
Prescribed burning is a common land management tool used to reduce fuels, emulate the effects of wildfire and increase heterogeneity in fire-prone ecosystems. However, the forest structure created by prescribed burning is likely to be dissimilar to that produced by wildfire. We used three-dimensional estimates of canopy bulk density (CBD) from lidar data to explore the relationship between fire type
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Patterns and trends in simultaneous wildfire activity in the United States from 1984 to 2015 Int. J. Wildland Fire (IF 2.627) Pub Date : 2020-09-18 Harry Podschwit; Alison Cullen
The simultaneous occurrence of wildfire can hinder firefighting effectiveness via multiple mechanisms that might explain historical resource demand trends. We validate this hypothesis by using data from the Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (MTBS) project to determine if simultaneous wildfire occurrence is correlated with preparedness levels and examine potential changes in simultaneous wildfire activity
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Seasonal fine fuel and coarse woody debris dynamics in north Australian savannas Int. J. Wildland Fire (IF 2.627) Pub Date : 2020-09-10 Cameron Yates; Harry MacDermott; Jay Evans; Brett P. Murphy; Jeremy Russell-Smith
Several studies have separately explored accumulation of the dominant fuels (grass, fine litter (<6 mm diameter) and coarse woody debris (CWD, 6–50 mm diameter)) in north Australian savannas. We report an analysis of two longitudinal datasets describing how these three fuel components covary in abundance throughout the year in eucalypt-dominated savanna over a rainfall gradient of 700–1700 mm mean
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Modelling evacuation decision-making in the 2016 Chimney Tops 2 fire in Gatlinburg, TN Int. J. Wildland Fire (IF 2.627) Pub Date : 2020-09-02 Erica D. Kuligowski; Emily H. Walpole; Ruggiero Lovreglio; Sarah McCaffrey
As wildfires occurring at the wildland–urban interface (WUI) continue to become more severe, there is an increasing need to understand human behaviour in these situations, and evacuation decision-making in particular. To contribute to this understanding, an online survey (using both mail and online sampling methods) was disseminated to households impacted by the 2016 Chimney Tops 2 fire in Tennessee
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Effect of weather forecast errors on fire growth model projections Int. J. Wildland Fire (IF 2.627) Pub Date : 2020-08-31 Trent D. Penman; Dan A. Ababei; Jane G. Cawson; Brett A. Cirulis; Thomas J. Duff; William Swedosh; James E. Hilton
Fire management agencies use fire behaviour simulation tools to predict the potential spread of a fire in both risk planning and operationally during wildfires. These models are generally based on underlying empirical or quasi-empirical relations and rarely are uncertainties considered. Little attention has been given to the quality of the input data used during operational fire predictions. We examined
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A method for creating a burn severity atlas: an example from Alberta, Canada Int. J. Wildland Fire (IF 2.627) Pub Date : 2020-08-25 Ellen Whitman; Marc-André Parisien; Lisa M. Holsinger; Jane Park; Sean A. Parks
Wildland fires are globally widespread, constituting the primary forest disturbance in many ecosystems. Burn severity (fire-induced change to vegetation and soils) has short-term impacts on erosion and post-fire environments, and persistent effects on forest regeneration, making burn severity data important for managers and scientists. Analysts can create atlases of historical and recent burn severity
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Quantifying surface severity of the 2014 and 2015 fires in the Great Slave Lake area of Canada Int. J. Wildland Fire (IF 2.627) Pub Date : 2020-08-25 Nancy H. F. French; Jeremy Graham; Ellen Whitman; Laura L. Bourgeau-Chavez
The focus of this paper was the development of surface organic layer severity maps for the 2014 and 2015 fires in the Great Slave Lake area of the Northwest Territories and Alberta, Canada, using multiple linear regression models generated from pairing field data with Landsat 8 data. Field severity data were collected at 90 sites across the region, together with other site metrics, in order to develop
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Microbial communities of upland peat swamps were no different 1 year after a hazard reduction burn Int. J. Wildland Fire (IF 2.627) Pub Date : 2020-08-07 Nicole A. Christiansen; Kirstie A. Fryirs; Timothy J. Green; Grant C. Hose
Fire in wetlands is poorly understood, yet hazard reduction burns are a common management practice and bushfires are becoming increasingly prevalent because of climate change. Fire may have long-lasting implications for the microbial component of these wetland ecosystems that regulate carbon and nutrient cycling. The extremely fire-prone Blue Mountains World Heritage Area in south-eastern Australia
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Accuracy and spatiotemporal distribution of fire in the Brazilian biomes from the MODIS burned-area products Int. J. Wildland Fire (IF 2.627) Pub Date : 2020-08-07 Nickolas Castro Santana; Osmar Abílio de Carvalho; Roberto Arnaldo Trancoso Gomes; Renato Fontes Guimarães
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) products are the most used in burned-area monitoring, on regional and global scales. This research aims to evaluate the accuracy of the MODIS burned-area and active-fire products to describe fire patterns in Brazil in the period 2001–2015. The accuracy analysis, in the year 2015, compared the MODIS products (MCD45/MCD64) and the burned areas
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Goal setting and Indigenous fire management: a holistic perspective Int. J. Wildland Fire (IF 2.627) Pub Date : 2020-08-11 William Nikolakis; Emma Roberts; Ngaio Hotte; Russell Myers Ross
After generations of fire-suppression policy, Indigenous fire management (IFM) is being reactivated as one way to mitigate wildfire in fire-prone ecosystems. Research has documented that IFM also mitigates carbon emissions, improves livelihoods and enhances well-being among participants. This study documents the goals of the Yunesit’in and Xeni Gwet’in First Nations as they develop a fire management
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Soil water repellency after wildfires in the Blue Ridge Mountains, United States Int. J. Wildland Fire (IF 2.627) Pub Date : 2020-08-12 Jingjing Chen; Luke A. Pangle; John P. Gannon; Ryan D. Stewart
It is not well understood if wildfires induce soil water repellency in broadleaf deciduous forests, such as those endemic to the Blue Ridge Mountains of the eastern United States. In 2016, widespread wildfires provided an opportunity to study soil water repellency in this region. We selected sites in four locations with low to moderate burn severities, along with unburned controls. We estimated soil
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The effect of low-intensity prescribed burns in two seasons on litterfall biomass and nutrient content Int. J. Wildland Fire (IF 2.627) Pub Date : 2020-08-13 J. Espinosa; J. Madrigal; V. Pando; A. C. de la Cruz; M. Guijarro; C. Hernando
Litterfall production and composition, fall pattern and nutrient content were studied in a mixed stand of Pinus nigra and Pinus pinaster (El Pozuelo), as well as in a pure stand of Pinus nigra (Beteta) in the Cuenca Mountains in order to determine the effect of two-season prescribed burning treatments. Needles were the most abundant fraction. Pinecone fraction decreased after burning in the mixed stand
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Effects of fuel morphology on ember generation characteristics at the tree scale Int. J. Wildland Fire (IF 2.627) Pub Date : 2020-08-19 Tyler R. Hudson; Ryan B. Bray; David L. Blunck; Wesley Page; Bret Butler
This work reports characteristics of embers generated by torching trees and seeks to identify the important physical and biological factors involved. The size of embers, number flux and propensity to ignite spot fires (i.e. number flux of ‘hot’ embers) are reported for several tree species under different combinations of number (one, three or five) and moisture content (11–193%). Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga
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Analysis of fire frequency on the Talladega National Forest, USA, 1998-2018 Int. J. Wildland Fire (IF 2.627) Pub Date : 2020-06-15 Jonathan Stober; Krista Merry; Pete Bettinger
Fire is an essential ecological process and management tool for many forested landscapes, particularly the pine (Pinus spp.) forests of the southern USA. Within the Talladega National Forest in Alabama, where restoration and maintenance of pine ecosystems is a priority, fire frequency (both wild and prescribed) was assessed using a geographical process applied to a fire history database. Two methods
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Quantifying how sources of uncertainty in combustible biomass propagate to prediction of wildland fire emissions Int. J. Wildland Fire (IF 2.627) Pub Date : 2020-06-16 Maureen C. Kennedy; Susan J. Prichard; Donald McKenzie; Nancy H. F. French
Smoke emissions from wildland fires contribute to concentrations of atmospheric particulate matter and greenhouse gases, influencing public health and climate. Prediction of emissions is critical for smoke management to mitigate the effects on visibility and air quality. Models that predict emissions require estimates of the amount of combustible biomass. When measurements are unavailable, fuel maps
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Effects of fuel characteristics on horizontal spread rate and ground surface temperatures of smouldering duff Int. J. Wildland Fire (IF 2.627) Pub Date : 2020-07-06 Daniel A. Cowan; Wesley G. Page; Bret W. Butler; David L. Blunck
The slow-moving flameless burning of wildland fuels (i.e. smouldering) can be difficult to detect and challenging to extinguish. Although previous research involving the smouldering of organic fuels (e.g. cotton, cellulose, peat) has investigated the influence of various fuel characteristics (e.g. moisture content, inorganic content, bulk density) on spread rate and surface temperatures, the smouldering
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Interpopulation variation in germination response to fire-related cues and after-ripening in seeds of the evergreen perennial Anigozanthos flavidus (Haemodoraceae) Int. J. Wildland Fire (IF 2.627) Pub Date : 2020-07-13 Hongyuan Ma; Todd E. Erickson; Jeffrey L. Walck; David J. Merritt
Variations in the degree of seed dormancy expressed among conspecific populations provide a basis for improving understanding of the mechanisms controlling species persistence, especially in fire-prone ecosystems. We investigated seed germination of 12 Anigozanthos flavidus populations in response to various fire-related cues that included exposure to karrikinolide, glyceronitrile and smoke water at
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A wildfire in an Amazonian canga community maintained important ecosystem properties Int. J. Wildland Fire (IF 2.627) Pub Date : 2020-07-20 Luciula Cunha Barbosa; Pedro Lage Viana; Grazielle Sales Teodoro; Cecílio Frois Caldeira; Silvio Junio Ramos; Markus Gastauer
Because wildfires alter plant communities, we describe the effects of a single fire event on the composition and diversity of Amazonian ferruginous savannas, locally known as cangas. We installed 20 observation plots in burned and unburned parts of a homogeneous canga site from the Carajás Massif. The single fire event shifted community composition slightly, increased functional richness and the abundance
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Comparing the performance of daily forest fire danger summary metrics for estimating fire activity in southern Australian forests Int. J. Wildland Fire (IF 2.627) Pub Date : 2020-07-22 M. P. Plucinski; A. L. Sullivan; W. L. McCaw
Fire danger indices integrate weather and fuel variables to indicate the potential for wildland fires to ignite, spread, resist suppression and cause damage. McArthur’s Forest Fire Danger Index (FFDI) is applied across much of Australia, with the forecast daily maximum value used to inform fire management planning decisions and issuance of public warnings. Variations in daily maximum FFDI and the hourly
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The effect of ignition protocol on the spread rate of grass fires: a comment on the conclusions of Sutherland et al. (2020) Int. J. Wildland Fire (IF 2.627) Pub Date : 2020-07-28 Miguel G. Cruz; Andrew L. Sullivan; Rachel Bessell; James S. Gould
Sutherland et al. (2020) used simulations from a physics-based numerical fire behaviour model to investigate the effect of the ignition protocol (namely length, direction and rate of ignition) on the spread rates measured in experimental fires. They concluded that the methods used by Cruz et al. (2015) were inadequate as the fires were not spreading at the pseudo-steady state when rate of spread measurements
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Generating annual estimates of forest fire disturbance in Canada: the National Burned Area Composite Int. J. Wildland Fire (IF 2.627) Pub Date : 2020-08-05 R. J. Hall; R. S. Skakun; J. M. Metsaranta; R. Landry; R.H. Fraser; D. Raymond; M. Gartrell; V. Decker; J. Little
Determining burned area in Canada across fire management agencies is challenging because of different mapping scales and methods. The inconsistent removal of unburned islands and water features from within burned polygon perimeters further complicates the problem. To improve the determination of burned area, the Canada Centre for Mapping and Earth Observation and the Canadian Forest Service developed
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Effects of policy change on wildland fire management strategies: evidence for a paradigm shift in the western US? Int. J. Wildland Fire (IF 2.627) Pub Date : 2020-08-05 Jesse D. Young; Alexander M. Evans; Jose M. Iniguez; Andrea Thode; Marc D. Meyer; Shaula J. Hedwall; Sarah McCaffrey; Patrick Shin; Ching-Hsun Huang
In 2009, new guidance for wildland fire management in the United States expanded the range of strategic options for managers working to reduce the threat of high-severity wildland fire, improve forest health and respond to a changing climate. Markedly, the new guidance provided greater flexibility to manage wildland fires to meet multiple resource objectives. We use Incident Status Summary reports
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Fire, plant species richness and plants of significance to Australian desert Aboriginal people Int. J. Wildland Fire (IF 2.627) Pub Date : 2020-06-09 Neil Burrows; Paul Rampant; Graham Loewenthal; Allan Wills
A survey was undertaken in the Great Sandy Desert, Western Australia, to document changes in total plant species richness and the richness of plants of significance to Aboriginal people, with time since fire. Species richness was highest in the early post-fire seral stages, then declined with time as ‘fire ephemerals’ completed their life cycle. Culturally significant plants, which comprised ~42% of
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Carbon balance and fire emissions in Andean cypress (Austrocedrus chilensis) forests of Patagonia, Argentina Int. J. Wildland Fire (IF 2.627) Pub Date : 2020-06-08 Guillermo Emilio Defossé; María Marcela Godoy; María Lila Bertolin
Wildfires are disturbances that affect forest structure and dynamics. Forests and the atmosphere interact in different ways; one is by emitting carbon (C) through wildfires and recapturing it by photosynthesis of regrowing vegetation. Estimation of C emissions and uptake allows monitoring and inventorying C at stand, landscape, or regional levels. We indirectly estimated C and other greenhouse gas
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Long-term changes in masticated woody fuelbeds in northern California and southern Oregon, USA Int. J. Wildland Fire (IF 2.627) Pub Date : 2020-06-05 Warren P. Reed; J. Morgan Varner; Eric E. Knapp; Jesse K. Kreye
Mechanical mastication is a fuels treatment that shreds midstorey trees and shrubs into a compacted woody fuel layer to abate fire hazards in fire-prone ecosystems. Increased surface fuel loading from mastication may, however, lead to undesirable fire intensity, long-duration flaming or smouldering, and undesirable residual tree mortality. Two major questions facing fuels managers are: how long do
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Forest fires in Mexico: an approach to estimate fire probabilities Int. J. Wildland Fire (IF 2.627) Pub Date : 2020-06-03 Luis Galván; Víctor Magaña
The probabilities of forest fires in Mexico are estimated using information on precipitation and temperature, along with data on type of vegetation, human activities near forests and fire prevention policies. The proposed model addresses the factors that account for extreme wildfire hazard, and may provide a basis for fire prevention actions, reducing vulnerability factors.
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Climate change projected to reduce prescribed burning opportunities in the south-eastern United States Int. J. Wildland Fire (IF 2.627) Pub Date : 2020-06-01 John A. Kupfer; Adam J. Terando; Peng Gao; Casey Teske; J. Kevin Hiers
Prescribed burning is a critical tool for managing wildfire risks and meeting ecological objectives, but its safe and effective application requires that specific meteorological criteria (a ‘burn window’) are met. Here, we evaluate the potential impacts of projected climatic change on prescribed burning in the south-eastern United States by applying a set of burn window criteria that capture temperature
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Fire history and its drivers based on peatland charcoal analysis in the Changbai Mountains, north-east China, during the last 13000 years Int. J. Wildland Fire (IF 2.627) Pub Date : 2020-05-29 Meng Meng; Dongmei Jie; Dehui Li; Nannan Li; Baojian Liu; Guizai Gao; Jiangyong Wang; Honghao Niu; Ying Liu; Guihua Zhang
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
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Using phytolith analysis to reconstruct prehistoric fire regimes in central coastal California Int. J. Wildland Fire (IF 2.627) Pub Date : 2020-05-25 Kea H. Rutherford; Rand R. Evett; Peter Hopkinson
Over the last century, northern coastal scrub has encroached into open grasslands along the central California coast, increasing fire risk in coastal wildland–urban interfaces. Understanding prehistoric ecological conditions is crucial for fire mitigation projects. Current estimates of these conditions in coastal California grasslands and shrublands are largely speculative because tree ring data, lake
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Evaluation of the Weather Research and Forecasting model in simulating fire weather for the south-west of Western Australia Int. J. Wildland Fire (IF 2.627) Pub Date : 2020-05-21 Jatin Kala; Alyce Sala Tenna; Daniel Rudloff; Julia Andrys; Ole Rieke; Thomas J. Lyons
The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model was used to simulate fire weather for the south-west of Western Australia (SWWA) over multiple decades at a 5-km resolution using lateral boundary conditions from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) Re-Analysis (ERA)-Interim reanalysis. Simulations were compared with observations at Australian Bureau of Meteorology meteorological
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Fire and rain are one: extreme rainfall events predict wildfire extent in an arid grassland Int. J. Wildland Fire (IF 2.627) Pub Date : 2020-05-12 Elise M. Verhoeven; Brad R. Murray; Chris R. Dickman; Glenda M. Wardle; Aaron C. Greenville
Assessing wildfire regimes and their environmental drivers is critical for effective land management and conservation. We used Landsat imagery to describe the wildfire regime of the north-eastern Simpson Desert (Australia) between 1972 and 2014, and to quantify the relationship between wildfire extent and rainfall. Wildfires occurred in 15 of the 42 years, but only 27% of the study region experienced
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