Is Climate Change Restoring Historical Fire Regimes across Temperate Landscapes of the San Juan Mountains, Colorado, USA?

Author:

Baker William L.ORCID

Abstract

Wildfires are increasing with human-induced climate change, but could this be ecologically beneficial in landscapes where recent fire is deficient relative to historical? I compiled 1980–2020 fire data for the San Juan Mountains, Colorado. I analyzed fire sizes and trends in area burned and fire severity, and compared fire density and rotations between 1980–2010 and 2011–2020 among ecosystem types and watersheds. I compared historical (pre-industrial) evidence from tree-ring, charcoal, and land-survey reconstructions to evaluate whether recent fire is outside the historical range of variability (HRV). Nearly all burned area was in the southwestern San Juans in 5 of 41 years and 35 of 4716 wildfires. Between 1980–2010 and 2011–2020, fire densities increased ∼200% and rotations shortened to ∼25%, similarly among ecosystems and watersheds, consistent with climatic effects. Fire rotations in 2011–2020 were within HRV for three ecosystems and deficient for four. Fire sizes and severities were within HRV. Moderate- and high-severity fire had no significant trend. Thus, reducing fire size or severity is currently ecologically unnecessary. Instead, incorporating fire from climate change, via wildland fire use, supplemented by prescribed burning, could feasibly restore historical fire regimes in most San Juan landscapes by 2050, the target of the Paris 1.5 °C goal.

Publisher

MDPI AG

Subject

Nature and Landscape Conservation,Ecology,Global and Planetary Change

Cited by 1 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