Aim Studies of fire activity along environmental gradients have been undertaken, but the results of such studies have yet to be integrated with fire-regime analysis. We characterize fire-regime components along climate gradients and a gradient of human influence.
In this study, researchers analyzed how previous management effortsand other factors including weather and landform influenced burn severityduring the 2006 Tripod Complex Fires, which at the time represented thelargest wildfire event in over 50 years in the state of Washington. The TripodComplex burned over 170,000 acres of mixed-conifer forests, including 387past harvest and fuel-treatment units. By evaluating differences in burn severityin areas with and without harvest and fuel treatments, as well as between areaswith different landform, vegetation, insect outbreak, and weather duringburning, researchers evaluated the relative influence of these drivers on burnseverity during the fire.
Wildland fire is an important natural process in many ecosystems. However, fire exclusion has reduced frequency of fire and area burned in many dry forest types, which may affect vegetation structure and composition, and potential fire behavior.
Wildfire effects upon riparian plant community structure, composition, and distribution may strongly influence the dynamic relationships between riparian vegetation and stream ecosystems. However, few studies have examined the influence of fire on these processes.
Fire is a keystone process in many ecosystems of western North America. Severe fires kill and consume large amounts of above- and belowground biomass and affect soils, resulting in long-lasting consequences for vegetation, aquatic ecosystem productivity and diversity, and other ecosystem properties.
Understanding the influences of forest management practices on wildfire severity is critical in fire-prone ecosystems of the western United States. Newly available geospatial data sets characterizing vegetation, fuels, topography, and burn severity offer new opportunities for studying fuel treatment effectiveness at regional to national scales.