scholarly journals Forest fires and climate-induced tree range shifts in the western US

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Avery P. Hill ◽  
Christopher B. Field
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Forest Fires ◽  
Fire Management ◽  
Range Shifts ◽  
Inventory Analysis ◽  
Plant Populations ◽  
Wildfire Occurrence ◽  
Western Us ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Climate Space

AbstractDue to climate change, plant populations experience environmental conditions to which they are not adapted. Our understanding of the next century’s vegetation geography depends on the distance, direction, and rate at which plant distributions shift in response to a changing climate. In this study we test the sensitivity of tree range shifts (measured as the difference between seedling and mature tree ranges in climate space) to wildfire occurrence, using 74,069 Forest Inventory Analysis plots across nine states in the western United States. Wildfire significantly increased the seedling-only range displacement for 2 of the 8 tree species in which seedling-only plots were displaced from tree-plus-seedling plots in the same direction with and without recent fire. The direction of climatic displacement was consistent with that expected for warmer and drier conditions. The greater seedling-only range displacement observed across burned plots suggests that fire can accelerate climate-related range shifts and that fire and fire management will play a role in the rate of vegetation redistribution in response to climate change.

scholarly journals How Competition and Wildfire Affect Tree Range Shifts in the American West

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Avery Hill ◽  
Christopher Field
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
American West ◽  
Fire Management ◽  
Range Shift ◽  
Range Shifts ◽  
Western United States ◽  
Inventory Analysis ◽  
Plant Populations ◽  
Wildfire Occurrence ◽  
Contemporary Climate

Abstract Due to climate change, plant populations experience environmental conditions to which they are not adapted. Our understanding of the next century’s vegetation geography depends on the distance, direction, and rate at which plants redistribute in response to a changing climate. Although plant redistribution in response to contemporary climate change is widely observed, our understanding of its mechanics is nascent. In this study we test the response of plant range shift rates to wildfire occurrence using 33,838 Forest Inventory Analysis plots across five states in the western United States. Wildfire increased the rate of observed range shifts for 6/8 tree species by more than 22% on average, suggesting that incumbent vegetation can act as a barrier to plant range shifts and that fire management may play an important role in facilitating transitions between vegetation types in response to climate change.

scholarly journals Tendencies of Fire Development in the Forests of Ukraine

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 106
Author(s):  
Yevhen Melnyk ◽  
Vladimir Voron
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Forest Fires ◽  
Necessary Conditions ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Anthropogenic Factors ◽  
Burned Area ◽  
Fire Occurrence ◽  
Management Zones ◽  
Wildfire Occurrence ◽  
Management Zone

Preservation and increase of forest area are necessary conditions for the biosphere functioning. Forest ecosystems in most parts of the world are affected by fires. According to the latest data, the forest fire situation has become complicated in Ukraine, and this issue requires ongoing investigation. The aim of the study was to analyse the dynamics of wildfires in Ukrainian forests over recent decades and to assess the complex indicator of wildfire occurrence in various forest management zones and administrative regions. The average annual complex indicator of fire occurrence, in terms of wildfire number and burned area, was studied in detail in the forests of various administrative regions and forest management zones in Ukraine from 1998 to 2017. The results show that fire occurrence in both the number and area of fires can vary significantly in various forest management zones. There is a very noticeable difference in these indicators in some administrative regions within a particular forest management zone. The data show that the number of forest fires depends not only on the natural and climatic conditions of such regions, but also on anthropogenic factors.

scholarly journals Evolution of Burned Area in Forest Fires under Climate Change Conditions in Southern Spain Using ANN

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (19) ◽  
pp. 4155
Author(s):  
Pérez-Sánchez ◽  
Jimeno-Sáez ◽  
Senent-Aparicio ◽  
Díaz-Palmero ◽  
de Dios Cabezas-Cerezo
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Forest Fires ◽  
Southern Spain ◽  
Burned Area ◽  
Change Scenario ◽  
Absolute Deviation ◽  
Average Temperature ◽  
Mediterranean Regions ◽  
Artificial Neural Network Ann ◽  
Absolute Percent Error

Wildfires in Mediterranean regions have become a serious problem, and it is currently the main cause of forest loss. Numerous prediction methods have been applied worldwide to estimate future fire activity and area burned in order to provide a stable basis for future allocation of fire-fighting resources. The present study investigated the performance of an artificial neural network (ANN) in burned area size prediction and to assess the evolution of future wildfires and the area concerned under climate change in southern Spain. The study area comprised 39.41 km2 of land burned from 2000 to 2014. ANNs were used in two subsequential phases: classifying the size of the wildfires and predicting the burned surface for fires larger than 30,000 m2. Matrix of confusion and 10-fold cross-validations were used to evaluate ANN classification and mean absolute deviation, root mean square error, mean absolute percent error and bias, which were the metrics used for burned area prediction. The success rate achieved was above 60–70% depending on the zone. An average temperature increase of 3 °C and a 20% increase in wind speed during 2071–2100 results in a significant increase of the number of fires, up to triple the current figure, resulting in seven times the average yearly burned surface depending on the zone and the climate change scenario.

Climate change, global change: What is the difference?

Eos ◽  
1988 ◽  
Vol 69 (25) ◽  
pp. 668
Author(s):  
S.I. Rasool
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Change ◽  
The Difference

scholarly journals Towards Sustainable Development: Building’s Retrofitting with PCMs to Enhance the Indoor Thermal Comfort in Tropical Climate, Malaysia

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 3614
Author(s):  
Zeyad Amin Al-Absi ◽  
Mohd Isa Mohd Hafizal ◽  
Mazran Ismail ◽  
Azhar Ghazali
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Thermal Comfort ◽  
Phase Change Materials ◽  
Thermal Environment ◽  
High Energy ◽  
Transition Temperatures ◽  
Indoor Thermal Environment ◽  
Adaptive Thermal Comfort ◽  
The Difference

Building sector is associated with high energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, which contribute to climate change. Sustainable development emphasizes any actions to reduce climate change and its effect. In Malaysia, half of the energy utilized in buildings goes towards building cooling. Thermal comfort studies and adaptive thermal comfort models reflect the high comfort temperatures for Malaysians in naturally conditioned buildings, which make it possible to tackle the difference between buildings’ indoor temperature and the required comfort temperature by using proper passive measures. This study investigates the effectiveness of building’s retrofitting with phase change materials (PCMs) as a passive cooling technology to improve the indoor thermal environment for more comfortable conditions. PCM sheets were numerically investigated below the internal finishing of the walls. The investigation involved an optimization study for the PCMs transition temperatures and quantities. The results showed significant improvement in the indoor thermal environment, especially when using lower transition temperatures and higher quantities of PCMs. Therefore, the monthly thermal discomfort time has decreased completely, while the thermal comfort time has increased to as high as 98%. The PCM was effective year-round and the optimum performance for the investigated conditions was achieved when using 18mm layer of PCM27-26.

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