Interactions between antecedent climate and wildfire variability across south-eastern Arizona

Author:

Crimmins Michael A.,Comrie Andrew C.

Abstract

Long-term antecedent climate conditions are often overlooked as important drivers of wildfire variability. Fuel moisture levels and fine-fuel productivity are controlled by variability in precipitation and temperature at long timescales (months to years) before wildfire events. This study examines relationships between wildfire statistics (total area burned and total number of fires) aggregated for south-eastern Arizona and antecedent climate conditions relative to 29 fire seasons (April–May–June) between 1973 and 2001. High and low elevation fires were examined separately to determine the influence of climate variability on dominant fuel types (low elevation grasslands with fine fuels v. high elevation forests with heavy fuels). Positive correlations between lagged precipitation and total area burned highlight the importance of climate in regulating fine fuel production for both high and low elevation fires. Surprisingly, no significant negative correlations between precipitation and seasonal wildfire statistics were found at any seasonal lag. Drought conditions were not associated with higher area burned or a greater number of fires. Larger low elevation fires were actually associated with wet antecedent conditions until just before the fire season. Larger high elevation fires were associated with wet conditions during seasons up to 3 years before the fire season.

Publisher

CSIRO Publishing

Subject

Ecology,Forestry

Cited by 89 articles. 订阅此论文施引文献 订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献

同舟云学术

1.学者识别学者识别

2.学术分析学术分析

3.人才评估人才评估

"同舟云学术"是以全球学者为主线,采集、加工和组织学术论文而形成的新型学术文献查询和分析系统,可以对全球学者进行文献检索和人才价值评估。用户可以通过关注某些学科领域的顶尖人物而持续追踪该领域的学科进展和研究前沿。经过近期的数据扩容,当前同舟云学术共收录了国内外主流学术期刊6万余种,收集的期刊论文及会议论文总量共计约1.5亿篇,并以每天添加12000余篇中外论文的速度递增。我们也可以为用户提供个性化、定制化的学者数据。欢迎来电咨询!咨询电话:010-8811{复制后删除}0370

www.globalauthorid.com

TOP

Copyright © 2019-2024 北京同舟云网络信息技术有限公司
京公网安备11010802033243号  京ICP备18003416号-3