Abstract. Live fuel moisture content (LFMC) plays a critical role in
wildfire dynamics, but little is known about responses of LFMC to
multivariate climate change, e.g., warming temperature, CO2
fertilization, and altered precipitation patterns, leading to a limited
prediction ability of future wildfire risks. Here, we use a hydrodynamic
demographic vegetation model to estimate LFMC dynamics of chaparral shrubs,
a dominant vegetation type in fire-prone southern California. We
parameterize the model based on observed shrub allometry and hydraulic
traits and evaluate the model's accuracy through comparisons between
observed and simulated LFMC of three plant functional types (PFTs) under
current climate conditions. Moreover, we estimate the number of days per
year of LFMC below 79 % (which is a critical threshold for wildfire danger
rating of southern California chaparral shrubs) from 1960 to 2099 for each
PFT and compare the number of days below the threshold for medium and high
greenhouse gas emission scenarios (RCP4.5 and 8.5). We find that climate
change could lead to more days per year (5.2 %–14.8 % increase) with LFMC
below 79 % between the historical (1960–1999) and future (2080–2099)
periods, implying an increase in wildfire danger for chaparral shrubs in
southern California. Under the high greenhouse gas emission scenario during
the dry season, we find that the future LFMC reductions mainly result from a warming temperature, which leads to 9.1 %–18.6 % reduction in LFMC. Lower precipitation in the spring leads to a 6.3 %–8.1 % reduction in LFMC. The
combined impacts of warming and precipitation change on fire season length
are equal to the additive impacts of warming and precipitation change
individually. Our results show that the CO2 fertilization will mitigate fire risk by causing a 3.5 %–4.8 % increase in LFMC. Our results suggest
that multivariate climate change could cause a significant net reduction in
LFMC and thus exacerbate future wildfire danger in chaparral shrub systems.