scholarly journals Forest Fires Reduce Snow-Water Storage and Advance the Timing of Snowmelt across the Western U.S.

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (24) ◽  
pp. 3533
Author(s):  
Emily E. Smoot ◽  
Kelly E. Gleason
Keyword(s):  
Pacific Northwest ◽  
Water Resource ◽  
Forest Fire ◽  
Resource Availability ◽  
Forest Fires ◽  
Water Storage ◽  
Fire Effects ◽  
Snow Accumulation ◽  
Snow Water ◽  
Broad Scale

As climate warms, snow-water storage is decreasing while forest fires are increasing in extent, frequency, and duration. The majority of forest fires occur in the seasonal snow zone across the western US. Yet, we do not understand the broad-scale variability of forest fire effects on snow-water storage and water resource availability. Using pre- and post-fire data from 78 burned SNOTEL stations, we evaluated post-fire shifts in snow accumulation (snow-water storage) and snowmelt across the West and Alaska. For a decade following fire, maximum snow-water storage decreased by over 30 mm, and the snow disappearance date advanced by 9 days, and in high severity burned forests snowmelt rate increased by 3 mm/day. Regionally, forest fires reduced snow-water storage in Alaska, Arizona, and the Pacific Northwest and advanced the snow disappearance date across the Rockies, Western Interior, Wasatch, and Uinta mountains. Broad-scale empirical results of forest fire effects on snow-water storage and snowmelt inform natural resource management and modeling of future snow-water resource availability in burned watersheds.

scholarly journals Comparison of approaches for reporting forest fire-related biomass loss and greenhouse gas emissions in southern Europe

2013 ◽  
Vol 22 (6) ◽  
pp. 730 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Vincenza Chiriacò ◽  
Lucia Perugini ◽  
Dora Cimini ◽  
Enrico D'Amato ◽  
Riccardo Valentini ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Greenhouse Gas ◽  
Forest Fire ◽  
Forest Fires ◽  
Fire Effects ◽  
Southern Europe ◽  
Gas Emissions ◽  
Fire Emissions ◽  
Biomass Loss ◽  
Mediterranean Forest Ecosystems

Wildfires are the most common disturbances in Mediterranean forest ecosystems that cause significant emissions of greenhouse gases as a result of biomass burning. Despite this, there is reasonably high uncertainty regarding the actual fraction of burnt biomass and the related CO2 and non-CO2 gas emissions released during forest fires. The aim of this paper is to compare existing methodologies adopted in the National Greenhouse Gas Inventory reports of five of the most fire-affected countries of southern Europe (Italy, Spain, Greece, Portugal, France) with those proposed in the literature, to operationally estimate forest fire emissions, and to discuss current perspectives on reducing uncertainties in reporting activities for the Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry sector under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol. Five selected approaches have been experimentally applied for the estimation of burnt biomass in forest fire events that occurred in Italy in the period 2008–2010. Approaches based on nominal rates of biomass loss can lead to an overly conservative value or, conversely, to underestimation of the fraction of burnt biomass. Uncertainties can be greatly reduced by an operational method able to assess inter-annual and local variability of fire effects on fire-affected forest types.

scholarly journals Future snow? A spatial-probabilistic assessment of the extraordinarily low snowpacks of 2014 and 2015 in the Oregon Cascades

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 331-341 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric A. Sproles ◽  
Travis R. Roth ◽  
Anne W. Nolin
Keyword(s):  
Water Resources ◽  
Pacific Northwest ◽  
Snow Water Equivalent ◽  
Probabilistic Approach ◽  
Water Storage ◽  
Climate Change Impacts ◽  
Willamette River ◽  
Climate Conditions ◽  
Snow Water ◽  
Social Environmental

Abstract. In the Pacific Northwest, USA, the extraordinarily low snowpacks of winters 2013–2014 and 2014–2015 stressed regional water resources and the social-environmental system. We introduce two new approaches to better understand how seasonal snow water storage during these two winters would compare to snow water storage under warmer climate conditions. The first approach calculates a spatial-probabilistic metric representing the likelihood that the snow water storage of 2013–2014 and 2014–2015 would occur under +2 °C perturbed climate conditions. We computed snow water storage (basin-wide and across elevations) and the ratio of snow water equivalent to cumulative precipitation (across elevations) for the McKenzie River basin (3041 km2), a major tributary to the Willamette River in Oregon, USA. We applied these computations to calculate the occurrence probability for similarly low snow water storage under climate warming. Results suggest that, relative to +2 °C conditions, basin-wide snow water storage during winter 2013–2014 would be above average, while that of winter 2014–2015 would be far below average. Snow water storage on 1 April corresponds to a 42 % (2013–2014) and 92 % (2014–2015) probability of being met or exceeded in any given year. The second approach introduces the concept of snow analogs to improve the anticipatory capacity of climate change impacts on snow-derived water resources. The use of a spatial-probabilistic approach and snow analogs provide new methods of assessing basin-wide snow water storage in a non-stationary climate and are readily applicable in other snow-dominated watersheds.

scholarly journals Future Snow? A Spatial-Probabilistic Assessment of the Extraordinarily Low Snowpacks of 2014 and 2015 in the Oregon Cascades

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric A. Sproles ◽  
Travis R. Roth ◽  
Anne W. Nolin
Keyword(s):  
Water Resources ◽  
Pacific Northwest ◽  
Snow Water Equivalent ◽  
Probabilistic Approach ◽  
Water Storage ◽  
Climate Change Impacts ◽  
Climate Conditions ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Snow Water ◽  
Social Environmental

Abstract. In the Pacific Northwest, USA, the extraordinarily low snowpacks of winters 2013–2014 and 2014–2015 stressed regional water resources and the social-environmental system. We introduce two new approaches to better understand how seasonal snowpack during these two winters would compare to snowpacks under warmer climate conditions. The first approach calculates a spatial-probabilistic metric representing the likelihood that the snowpacks of 2013–2014 and 2014–2015 would occur under +2 °C perturbed climate conditions. We computed snow water storage (basin-wide and across elevations), and the ratio of snow water equivalent to cumulative precipitation (across elevations). We applied these computations to calculate the occurrence probability for similarly low snowpacks under climate warming. Results suggest that, relative to +2 °C conditions, basin-wide snow water storage during winter 2013–2014 would be above average while that of winter 2014–2015 would be far below average. April 1 snow water storage corresponds to a 40 % (2013–2014) and 90 % (2014–2015) probability of being met or exceeded in any given year. The second approach introduces the concept of snow analogs to improve the anticipatory capacity of climate change impacts on snow derived water resources. The use of a spatial-probabilistic approach and snow analogs provide new methods of assessing basin-wide snowpack in a non-stationary climate, and are readily applicable in other snow dominated watersheds.

scholarly journals Californian wildfire plumes over Southwestern British Columbia: <i>lidar</i>, sunphotometry, and mountaintop chemistry observations

2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 21047-21075 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. McKendry ◽  
K. Strawbridge ◽  
M. L. Karumudi ◽  
N. O'Neill ◽  
A. M. Macdonald ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Pacific Northwest ◽  
Forest Fire ◽  
Forest Fires ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Fire Plume ◽  
Physico Chemical ◽  
Observatory Data ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
June July

Abstract. Forest fires in Northern California and Oregon were responsible for two significant regional scale aerosol transport events observed in southern British Columbia during summer 2008. A combination of ground based (CORALNet) and satellite (CALIPSO) lidar, sunphotometry and high altitude chemistry observations permitted unprecedented characterization of forest fire plume height and mixing as well as description of optical properties and physicochemistry of the aerosol. In southwestern BC, lidar observations show the smoke to be mixed through a layer extending to 5–6 km a.g.l. where the aerosol was confined by an elevated inversion in both cases. Depolarization ratios for a trans-Pacific dust event (providing a basis for comparison) and the two smoke events were consistent with observations of dust and smoke events elsewhere and permit discrimination of aerosol events in the region. Based on sunphotometry, the Aerosol Optical Thicknesses (AOT) reached maxima of ~0.7 and ~0.4 for the two events respectively. Dubovik-retrieval values of reff,f during both the June/July and August events varied between about 0.13 and 0.15 μm and confirm the dominance of accumulation mode size particles in the forest fire plumes. Both Whistler Peak and Mount Bachelor Observatory data show that smoke events are accompanied by elevated CO and O3 concentrations as well as elevated K+/SO4 ratios. In addition to documenting the meteorology and physico-chemical characteristics of two regional scale biomass burning plumes, this study demonstrates the positive analytical synergies arising from the suite of measurements now in place in the Pacific Northwest, and complemented by satellite borne instruments.

scholarly journals Californian forest fire plumes over Southwestern British Columbia: lidar, sunphotometry, and mountaintop chemistry observations

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 465-477 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. McKendry ◽  
K. Strawbridge ◽  
M. L. Karumudi ◽  
N. O'Neill ◽  
A. M. Macdonald ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Pacific Northwest ◽  
Forest Fire ◽  
Forest Fires ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Fire Plume ◽  
Fire Plumes ◽  
Observatory Data ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
June July

Abstract. Forest fires in Northern California and Oregon were responsible for two significant regional scale aerosol transport events observed in southern British Columbia during summer 2008. A combination of ground based (CORALNet) and satellite (CALIPSO) lidar, sunphotometry and high altitude chemistry observations permitted unprecedented characterization of forest fire plume height and mixing as well as description of optical properties and physicochemistry of the aerosol. In southwestern BC, lidar observations show the smoke to be mixed through a layer extending to 5–6 km a.g.l. where the aerosol was confined by an elevated inversion in both cases. Depolarization ratios for a trans-Pacific dust event (providing a basis for comparison) and the two smoke events were consistent with observations of dust and smoke events elsewhere and permit discrimination of aerosol events in the region. Based on sunphotometry, the Aerosol Optical Thicknesses (AOT) reached maxima of ~0.7 and ~0.4 for the two events respectively. Dubovik-retrieval values of reff, f during both the June/July and August events varied between about 0.13 and 0.15 μm and confirm the dominance of accumulation mode size particles in the forest fire plumes. Both Whistler Peak and Mount Bachelor Observatory data show that smoke events are accompanied by elevated CO and O3 concentrations as well as elevated K+/SO4 ratios. In addition to documenting the meteorology and physic-chemical characteristics of two regional scale biomass burning plumes, this study demonstrates the positive analytical synergies arising from the suite of measurements now in place in the Pacific Northwest, and complemented by satellite borne instruments.

scholarly journals Assessment of Fire Effects on Surface Runoff Erosion Susceptibility: The Case of the Summer 2021 Forest Fires in Greece

Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 21
Author(s):  
Niki Evelpidou ◽  
Maria Tzouxanioti ◽  
Theodore Gavalas ◽  
Evangelos Spyrou ◽  
Giannis Saitis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Forest Fire ◽  
Forest Fires ◽  
Surface Runoff ◽  
Fire Effects ◽  
Erosion Risk ◽  
Mediterranean Countries ◽  
Burnt Areas ◽  
Autumn And Winter ◽  
Gis Software ◽  
Very High

The wildfires of summer 2021 in Greece were among the most severe forest fire events that have occurred in the country over the past decade. The conflagration period lasted for 20 days (i.e., from 27 July to 16 August 2021) and resulted in the devastation of an area of more than 3600 Km2. Forest fire events of similar severity also struck other Mediterranean countries during this period. Apart from their direct impacts, forest fires also render an area more susceptible to runoff erosion by massively removing its vegetation, among other factors. It is clear that immediately after a forest fire, most areas are much more susceptible to erosion. In this paper, we evaluate the erosion hazard of Attica, Northern Euboea, and the Peloponnese that were devastated by forest fires during the summer of 2021 in Greece, in comparison with their geological and geomorphological structures, as well as land cover and management. Given that a very significant part of these areas were burnt during the major conflagrations of this summer, erosion risk, as well as flood risk, are expected to be very high, especially for the coming autumn and winter. For the evaluation of erosion risk, the burnt areas were mapped, and the final erosion-risk maps were constructed through GIS software. The final maps suggest that most of the burnt areas are highly susceptible to future surface runoff erosion events.

Satellite-based analysis of CO and Fires in the Arctic

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomi Karppinen ◽  
Anu-Maija Sundström ◽  
Hannakaisa Lindqvist ◽  
Johanna Tamminen
Keyword(s):  
Greenhouse Gases ◽  
Forest Fire ◽  
Forest Fires ◽  
Arctic Region ◽  
Ground Level ◽  
Fire Effects ◽  
Satellite Observations ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
High Latitudes ◽  
Fire Emissions

&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;Climate change is proceeding fastest in the Arctic region. While human-induced emissions of long-lived greenhouse gases are the main driving factor of global warming, short-lived climate forcers or pollutants emitted from the forest fires are also playing an important role, especially in the Arctic. Forest fire emissions also affect local air quality and photochemical processes in the atmosphere. For example, CO contributes to the formation of tropospheric ozone and affects the abundance of greenhouse gases such as methane and CO2.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;During past years Arctic summers have been warmer and drier elevating the risk for extensive forest fire episodes. Satellite observations show, that during the past three summers (2018-2020) fire detections in Arctic, especially in Arctic Siberia have increased considerably, affecting also local emissions of CO. This work focuses on studying CO concentration and its variation at high latitudes and in the Arctic using satellite and ground-based observations. Satellite observations of CO from TROPOMI are analyzed for the 2018-2020 (NH) summer months. To assess the satellite retrieved columns the satellite measurements are compared to ground-based remote sensing measurements at Sodankyl&amp;#228;. Also, ground-based in-situ measurements are used to see how the total column changes mirror the ground level concentrations. The fire characteristics are analyzed using observations from MODIS instruments onboard Aqua and Terra. Fire effects on seasonal cycle and interannual variability of CO concentrations at Arctic high latitudes are analyzed.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

scholarly journals Spatio-temporal variability of snow water equivalent in the extra-tropical Andes cordillera from a distributed energy balance modeling and remotely sensed snow cover

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (9) ◽  
pp. 8927-8976
Author(s):  
E. Cornwell ◽  
N. P. Molotch ◽  
J. McPhee
Keyword(s):  
Energy Balance ◽  
Snow Cover ◽  
Water Resource ◽  
Snow Water Equivalent ◽  
Remotely Sensed ◽  
Snow Accumulation ◽  
Model Domain ◽  
Continental Divide ◽  
Snow Water ◽  
Andes Cordillera

Abstract. Seasonal snow cover is the primary water resource precursor for human use and environmental sustain along the extratropical Andes Cordillera. Despite its importance, relatively little research has been devoted to understanding the properties, distribution and variability of this natural resource. This research provides high-resolution distributed estimates of end-of-winter and spring snow water equivalent over a 152 000 km2 domain that includes the mountainous reaches of central Chile and Argentina. Remotely sensed fractional snow covered area and other relevant forcings are combined with extrapolated data from meteorological stations and a simplified physically-based energy balance model in order to obtain melt-season peak SWE. Estimates show an overall coefficient of determination R2 of 0.61 compared to observations at 12 automatic snow water equivalent sensors distributed across the model domain, with R2 values between 0.32 and 0.88. Regional estimates of peak SWE accumulation show differential patterns strongly modulated by elevation, latitude and position relative to the continental divide. Average peak SWE increases by nearly 500 mm for every 1000 m in elevation gain for the central and southern sub-regions of the model domain, but this effect is much less pronounced in the northern reaches. The 3000–4000 m a.s.l. elevation band is the most significant accumulation area for most of the northern and central reaches of the domain, although the 4000–5000 m a.s.l. band, despite a smaller contributing area, almost doubles the accumulation amounts estimated for the lower adjacent subdomain. Snow accumulation reaches an earlier peak in the western Andes, and the eastern side of the continental divide shows lower snow accumulation at all elevations except for the southern region represented by the Neuquén River Basin. The results presented here have the potential of informing applications such as seasonal forecast model assessment and improvement, regional climate model validation, as well as evaluation of observational networks and water resource infrastructure development.

scholarly journals Modeling The Effect of Forest Fire and Deforestation on Mid-Sized Wild Cat (Felids) Occupancy in SE Asian Tropical Rainforest

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andri A Wibowo
Keyword(s):  
Sensitivity And Specificity ◽  
Forest Fire ◽  
Forest Fires ◽  
Area Under The Curve ◽  
Information Criterion ◽  
Threshold Value ◽  
Fire Effects ◽  
Fire Frequency ◽  
Deforestation Rate ◽  
Felid Species

Felids are mammal groups that also experiencing the effects of forest fire and deforestation rate. By using camera detection method, two felid species, Prionailurus bengalensis and Pardofelis marmorata, of tropical rainforests in SE Asia have been studied. The studied area was a rainforest in Sumatra that has experienced several forest fires with annual deforestation rates of 1.69%-2.89%. Occupancy model using Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) is in agreement that deforestation rate is the best explanatory covariate explaining the declining occupancy of those felid species. P. marmorata was known more sensitive to the both deforestation rate and forest fire frequency covariate effects since it has similar AIC values. While P. bengalensis was slightly affected by forest fires. Values of Area Under The Curve (AUC) of Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) were >0.5 and these indicate adequate probability of forest fire effects on felid occupancy. Cut off value of occupancy of P. bengalensis was higher than P. marmorata. For P. bengalensis, the cut off value was 1.75 leading to a sensitivity and specificity of 62%. This is the threshold value for the prediction of numbers of P. bengalensis individual occurred where both sensitivity and specificity are maximized and as an effect of forest fire, and this can be used to classify areas as occupied by P. bengalensis.

scholarly journals Implications of observed changes in high mountain snow water storage, snowmelt timing and melt window

2021 ◽  
Vol 35 ◽  
pp. 100799
Author(s):  
Emile Elias ◽  
Darren James ◽  
Sierra Heimel ◽  
Caiti Steele ◽  
Heidi Steltzer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Storage ◽  
High Mountain ◽  
Snow Water
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