A 10 000 year local forest fire history in a dry heath forest site in eastern Finland, reconstructed from charcoal layer records of a small mire

2002 ◽  
Vol 32 (10) ◽  
pp. 1875-1880 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aki Pitkänen ◽  
Pertti Huttunen ◽  
Högne Jungner ◽  
Kimmo Tolonen
Keyword(s):  
Forest Fires ◽  
Fire History ◽  
Fire Frequency ◽  
Dry Forest ◽  
Forest Site ◽  
Human Influence ◽  
Peat Deposits ◽  
Drastic Increase ◽  
Eastern Finland ◽  
Holocene Period

Local fire history covering the entire Holocene period at a dry forest site in North Karelia, eastern Finland (ca. 63°07' N, 30°44' E), was reconstructed on the basis of visible charcoal layers from peat deposits of a small mire basin. Seven points studied along a transect a few metres long provided a record of ancient local forest fires that had scarred the margin of the peat deposit. The charcoal layer records indicate a drastic increase in forest fires about 500 years ago compared with the earlier part of the Holocene period. During the past 500 years, human influence has been extensive in the area, and there have been 9 local fires during that period, while during the previous 9500 years there had been only 34 fires. Between the establishment of spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.) 6300 calendar years B.P. and the beginning of significant human influence, the site had burned over at a mean interval of 220–260 years. The data indicate a decrease in fire frequency associated with a warm climate between 9000 and 6300 calendar years BP. This suggests that climatic warming does not necessarily result in increased frequency of forest fires.

Fire history and its drivers based on peatland charcoal analysis in the Changbai Mountains, north-east China, during the last 13 000 years

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (9) ◽  
pp. 841
Author(s):  
Meng Meng ◽  
Dongmei Jie ◽  
Dehui Li ◽  
Nannan Li ◽  
Baojian Liu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Forest Fires ◽  
Fire History ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Fire Frequency ◽  
Changbai Mountains ◽  
Mountain Forest ◽  
Archaeological Data ◽  
The Past ◽  
North East ◽  
Strict Regulation

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 be properly estimated. In this study, we used charcoal records to reconstruct the palaeo-fire frequency in the Changbai Mountains during the last 13000 years. The results indicate that fires were frequent during 13.0–11.0, 7.0–6.0, and 2.5–2.0 calender (cal) kyr before present (BP) and from 1.0 cal kyr BP to the present. The fire frequencies are largely consistent with other palaeoenvironmental records from the study area and we conclude that since 13.0 cal kyr BP fires were more frequent at the regional scale during intervals of a weak summer monsoon, caused by a cold and dry climate and the abundance of flammable trees. Archaeological data from the study area since 3.0 cal kyr BP indicate increasing human activity, which dominated the occurrence of local fires. In addition, intermittent volcanic activity influenced the occurrence of fires during the past millennium.

Riparian and adjacent upland forests burned synchronously during dry years in eastern Oregon (1650–1900 CE), USA

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (7) ◽  
pp. 602
Author(s):  
Grant L. Harley ◽  
Emily K. Heyerdahl ◽  
James D. Johnston ◽  
Diana L. Olson
Keyword(s):  
Forest Fires ◽  
Fire History ◽  
Riparian Forest ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Fire Frequency ◽  
Riparian Forests ◽  
Landscape Context ◽  
Blue Mountains ◽  
Study Sites

Riparian forests link terrestrial and freshwater communities and therefore understanding the landscape context of fire regimes in these forests is critical to fully understanding the landscape ecology. However, few direct studies of fire regimes exist for riparian forests, especially in the landscape context of adjacent upland forests or studies of long-term climate drivers of riparian forest fires. We reconstructed a low-severity fire history from tree rings in 38 1-ha riparian plots and combined them with existing fire histories from 104 adjacent upland plots to yield 2633 fire scars sampled on 454 trees. Historically (1650–1900), low-severity fires burned more frequently in upland than in riparian plots, but this difference was not significant (P=0.15). During more than half of the fire years at both sites, fires were extensive and burned synchronously in riparian and upland plots, and climate was significantly dry during these years. However, climate was not significantly dry when fires burned in only one plot type. Historically, entire riparian zones likely burned in these two study sites of the Blue Mountains during dry years. This study suggests that riparian and upland forests could be managed similarly, especially given the projected increases to fire frequency and intensity from impending climate change.

The Late Holocene forest fire history in continuous permafrost zone of Central Siberia

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Novenko ◽  
Natalia Mazei ◽  
Dmitry Kupryanov ◽  
Anatoly Prokushkin
Keyword(s):  
Return Period ◽  
Forest Fires ◽  
Late Holocene ◽  
Fire History ◽  
Forest Ecosystems ◽  
Fire Frequency ◽  
Permafrost Zone ◽  
Central Siberia ◽  
Free Interval ◽  
Continuous Permafrost

<p>Understanding the long-term fire history of larch forests in the permafrost zone of Central Siberia is essential for an assessment of the possible responses and feedbacks of forest ecosystems to climate change. The multi-proxy record from the area of the Evenkian field station of the Sukachev Institute of Forest SB RAS, located in the middle part of the Lower Tunguska river basin provides important new data on the fire frequency, vegetation changes and paludification dynamics in the Central Evenkia over the last 3.5 ka BP. The new results of radiocarbon dating, loss on ignition, plant macrofossil and macro charcoal analyses from a sediment core taken in the waterlogged larch forest (N 64°09'56.1" E 100°31'43.9") are presented.</p><p>The obtained data have shown that fires were an important factor in the evolution of forest ecosystems in this continuous permafrost regions and acted as a trigger for the paludification process in the study area. The reconstruction of fire frequency demonstrated that the fire return period in the warm epochs of the late Holocene (3.6-2.7 ka BP, 1.5-0.7 ka BP, including the Medieval Climate Anomaly) varied from 115 to 150 years, and increased to 275-300 years during the periods of cooling (2.7-1.5 ka BP; the Little Ice Age, 0.7-0.15 ka BP). We suggested that the shorter and possibly colder summers during the cold epochs led to a decreased evaporation and a rise of ground moisture in many habitats, which was unfavorable for the occurrence and extension of forest fires. During the last 200 years the frequency of forest fires in the study area increased significantly, the fire return period reduced to a minimum value for the entire period under consideration (i.e. the last 3.5 ka BP) and reached 80 years. The fire free interval revealed from the macro charcoal analyses for the last 200 years is close to the average fire free interval reconstructed by dendrochronological data from the study area for the same period. The low human impact on forest ecosystems due to remote location of study area from settlements and mining regions suggests the natural causes of these fires.</p><p>This work was supported by the Russian Science Foundation, project № 20-17-00043.</p>

Forest dynamics in the Pfyn forest in recent centuries (Valais, Switzerland, Central Alps): interaction of pine (Pinus sylvestris) and oak (Quercus sp.) under changing land use and fire frequency

The Holocene ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muriel Bendel ◽  
Willy Tinner ◽  
Brigitta Ammann
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Pinus Sylvestris ◽  
Forest Fires ◽  
Fire History ◽  
Forest Type ◽  
Anthropogenic Activities ◽  
Fire Frequency ◽  
Considerable Change ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Quercus Species

Pinus sylvestris is co-dominant in many areas of eastern and northern Europe. In Switzerland, the Pfyn forest is considered to be the largest natural forest of Pinus sylvestris. Its development under changing land use during recent centuries is largely unknown. Of particular interest is the interaction between pine and oak, for it has been suggested that oak has benefited from the strong decline in economic uses of the forest such as pasturing, litter removal and logging. In order to improve understanding of the dynamics in this particular forest type over time, the vegetation and fire history of the Pfyn forest were reconstructed by pollen and charcoal analyses of the sediments of Pfafforetsee. Four phases of decline in Pinus pollen percentages are explained by logging events and other anthropogenic activities during recent centuries. During the twentieth century human impact on Pinus was probably exacerbated by forest fires. When human influence ceased or declined, Pinus was able to regain its former importance within a few decades. Whereas Pinus experienced considerable change, Quercus species (Q. pubescens, Q. petraea and Q. robur) exhibit constant and low pollen values throughout the record. Under constant climatic conditions, pine should therefore not suffer late-successional replacements by oak in the Pfyn forest. This finding is especially important for nature conservation and forest management, since strong decline in Pinus sylvestris in the canton of Valais has also been interpreted as a consequence of successional dynamics towards a more natural vegetation.

Fire regime shift linked to increased forest density in a piñon–juniper savanna landscape

2014 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellis Q. Margolis
Keyword(s):  
Regime Shift ◽  
Fire History ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Fire Frequency ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Tree Density ◽  
High Severity ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
In Fire

Piñon–juniper (PJ) fire regimes are generally characterised as infrequent high-severity. However, PJ ecosystems vary across a large geographic and bio-climatic range and little is known about one of the principal PJ functional types, PJ savannas. It is logical that (1) grass in PJ savannas could support frequent, low-severity fire and (2) exclusion of frequent fire could explain increased tree density in PJ savannas. To assess these hypotheses I used dendroecological methods to reconstruct fire history and forest structure in a PJ-dominated savanna. Evidence of high-severity fire was not observed. From 112 fire-scarred trees I reconstructed 87 fire years (1547–1899). Mean fire interval was 7.8 years for fires recorded at ≥2 sites. Tree establishment was negatively correlated with fire frequency (r=–0.74) and peak PJ establishment was synchronous with dry (unfavourable) conditions and a regime shift (decline) in fire frequency in the late 1800s. The collapse of the grass-fuelled, frequent, surface fire regime in this PJ savanna was likely the primary driver of current high tree density (mean=881treesha–1) that is >600% of the historical estimate. Variability in bio-climatic conditions likely drive variability in fire regimes across the wide range of PJ ecosystems.

scholarly journals Characteristics of the butterflies on various forms of land uses

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 15-22
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Szyszko-Podgórska
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Economic Activity ◽  
Forest Site ◽  
Fallow Land ◽  
Land Uses ◽  
Human Influence ◽  
Numerous Species ◽  
Number Of Species ◽  
Human Economic Activity ◽  
Trees And Shrubs

Abstract The purpose of the work was to identify the occurrence of butterflies depending on landform uses and human influence on the population domination structure. The research was conducted in the ‘Krzywda’ field-and-forest Site occupying 172 ha. The area consists of the land leaving in fallow, meadows and wasteland including about 68 ha of swamps that are strongly eutrophic due to human economic activity. The area is subjected to artificial succession inhibition processes in the form of mowing and cutting of trees and shrubs. 32 species of butterflies were recorded during the research, that is, 20% of all species within this group occurring in Poland. The research has approved the great spatial and quantitative diversification of the occurring area of butterflies depending on the form of the land uses. The greatest number of species and their greatest populations were found in the land laying in fallow without the removal of the biomass. The least number of species and their specimens were collected in the unmown laying fallow land. Lycaena virgaureae was the most numerous species collected. The correct domination structure characterized by a small number of numerous species and a large number of species consisting of a low number of specimens. Processes observed in the studied Site subjected to various types of land use influence the occurrence diversity of this group of insects.

scholarly journals Tropical Dry Forest Resilience to Fire Depends on Fire Frequency and Climate

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maximilian Hartung ◽  
Geovana Carreño-Rocabado ◽  
Marielos Peña-Claros ◽  
Masha T. van der Sande
Keyword(s):  
Tropical Forests ◽  
Tropical Dry Forest ◽  
Remote Sensing Data ◽  
Fire Frequency ◽  
Dry Forest ◽  
Fire Disturbance ◽  
Fire Intensity ◽  
Forest Resilience ◽  
Landsat Satellite ◽  
In Fire

Wildfires are becoming increasingly frequent and devastating in many tropical forests. Although seasonally dry tropical forests (SDTF) are among the most fire-threatened ecosystems, their long-term response to frequent wildfires remains largely unknown. This study is among the first to investigate the resilience in response to fire of the Chiquitano SDTF in Bolivia, a large ecoregion that has seen an unprecedented increase in fire intensity and frequency in recent years. We used remote sensing data to assess at a large regional and temporal scale (two decades) how fire frequency and environmental factors determine the resilience of the vegetation to fire disturbance. Resilience was measured as the resistance to fire damage and post-fire recovery. Both parameters were monitored for forested areas that burned once (F1), twice (F2), and three times (F3) between 2000 and 2010 and compared to unburned forests. Resistance and recovery were analyzed using time series of the Normalized Burn Ratio (NBR) index derived from Landsat satellite imagery, and climatic, topographic, and a human development-related variable used to evaluate their influence on resilience. The overall resilience was lowest in forests that burned twice and was higher in forests that burned three times, indicating a possible transition state in fire resilience, probably because forests become increasingly adapted during recurrent fires. Climatic variables, particularly rainfall, were most influential in determining resilience. Our results indicate that the Chiquitano dry forest is relatively resilient to recurring fires, has the capacity to recover and adapt, and that climatic differences are the main determinants of the spatial variation observed in resilience. Nevertheless, further research is needed to understand the effect of the higher frequency and intensity of fires expected in the future due to climate change and land use change, which may pose a greater threat to forest resilience.

Using simulation to map fire regimes: an evaluation of approaches, strategies, and limitations

2003 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 309 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert E. Keane ◽  
Geoffrey J. Cary ◽  
Russell Parsons
Keyword(s):  
Geographical Information Systems ◽  
Fire History ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Wildland Fire ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Simulation Modelling ◽  
Fire Frequency ◽  
Geographical Information ◽  
Spatially Explicit ◽  
Eastern Australia

Spatial depictions of fire regimes are indispensable to fire management because they portray important characteristics of wildland fire, such as severity, intensity, and pattern, across a landscape that serves as important reference for future treatment activities. However, spatially explicit fire regime maps are difficult and costly to create requiring extensive expertise in fire history sampling, multivariate statistics, remotely sensed image classification, fire behaviour and effects, fuel dynamics, landscape ecology, simulation modelling, and geographical information systems (GIS). This paper first compares three common strategies for predicting fire regimes (classification, empirical, and simulation) using a 51�000�ha landscape in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness Area of Montana, USA. Simulation modelling is identified as the best overall strategy with respect to developing temporally deep spatial fire patterns, but it has limitations. To illustrate these problems, we performed three simulation experiments using the LANDSUM spatial model to determine the relative importance of (1) simulation time span; (2) fire frequency parameters; and (3) fire size parameters on the simulation of landscape fire return interval. The model used to simulate fire regimes is also very important, so we compared two spatially explicit landscape fire succession models (LANDSUM and FIRESCAPE) to demonstrate differences between model predictions and limitations of each on a neutral landscape. FIRESCAPE was developed for simulating fire regimes in eucalypt forests of south-eastern Australia. Finally, challenges for future simulation and fire regime research are presented including field data, scale, fire regime variability, map obsolescence, and classification resolution.

Fire regimes and their correlates in the Darwin region of northern Australia

2007 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 177 ◽  
Author(s):  
Owen Price ◽  
Bryan Baker
Keyword(s):  
Fire History ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Fire Suppression ◽  
Landsat Imagery ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Fire Frequency ◽  
Dry Season ◽  
Generalized Linear Modelling

A nine year fire history for the Darwin region was created from Landsat imagery, and examined to describe the fire regime across the region. 43% of the region burned each year, and approximately one quarter of the fires occur in the late dry season, which is lower than most other studied areas. Freehold land, which covers 35% of the greater Darwin region, has 20% long-unburnt land. In contrast, most publicly owned and Aboriginal owned land has very high fire frequency (60-70% per year), and only 5% long unburnt. It seems that much of the Freehold land is managed for fire suppression, while the common land is burnt either to protect the Freehold or by pyromaniacs. Generalized Linear Modelling among a random sample of points revealed that fire frequency is higher among large blocks of savannah vegetation, and at greater distances from mangrove vegetation and roads. This suggests that various kinds of fire break can be used to manage fire in the region. The overall fire frequency in the Darwin region is probably too high and is having a negative impact on wildlife. However, the relatively low proportion of late dry season fires means the regime is probably not as bad as in some other regions. The management of fire is ad-hoc and strongly influenced by tenure. There needs to be a clear statement of regional fire targets and a strategy to achieve these. Continuation of the fire mapping is an essential component of achieving the targets.

A comparison of targeted and systematic fire-scar sampling for estimating historical fire frequency in south-western ponderosa pine forests

2013 ◽  
Vol 22 (8) ◽  
pp. 1021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Calvin A. Farris ◽  
Christopher H. Baisan ◽  
Donald A. Falk ◽  
Megan L. Van Horne ◽  
Peter Z. Fulé ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ponderosa Pine ◽  
Fire History ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Fire Frequency ◽  
Landscape Scale ◽  
Pine Forests ◽  
Ponderosa Pine Forests ◽  
Fire Scar ◽  
Targeted Sampling ◽  
Statistical Measures

Fire history researchers employ various forms of search-based sampling to target specimens that contain visible evidence of well preserved fire scars. Targeted sampling is considered to be the most efficient way to increase the completeness and length of the fire-scar record, but the accuracy of this method for estimating landscape-scale fire frequency parameters compared with probabilistic (i.e. systematic and random) sampling is poorly understood. In this study we compared metrics of temporal and spatial fire occurrence reconstructed independently from targeted and probabilistic fire-scar sampling to identify potential differences in parameter estimation in south-western ponderosa pine forests. Data were analysed for three case studies spanning a broad geographic range of ponderosa pine ecosystems across the US Southwest at multiple spatial scales: Centennial Forest in northern Arizona (100ha); Monument Canyon Research Natural Area (RNA) in central New Mexico (256ha); and Mica Mountain in southern Arizona (2780ha). We found that the percentage of available samples that recorded individual fire years (i.e. fire-scar synchrony) was correlated strongly between targeted and probabilistic datasets at all three study areas (r=0.85, 0.96 and 0.91 respectively). These strong positive correlations resulted predictably in similar estimates of commonly used statistical measures of fire frequency and cumulative area burned, including Mean Fire Return Interval (MFI) and Natural Fire Rotation (NFR). Consistent with theoretical expectations, targeted fire-scar sampling resulted in greater overall sampling efficiency and lower rates of sample attrition. Our findings demonstrate that targeted sampling in these systems can produce accurate estimates of landscape-scale fire frequency parameters relative to intensive probabilistic sampling.

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