A semi-mechanistic model for predicting the moisture content of fine litter

Abstract

a b s t r a c tThe moisture content of vegetation and litter (fuel moisture) is an important determinant of fire risk, and predictions of dead fine fuel moisture content (fuel with a diameter <25.4 mm) are particularly important. A variety of indices, as well as empirical and mechanistic models, have been proposed to predict fuel moisture, but these approaches have seldom been validated across temporally extensive datasets, or widely contrasting vegetation types. Here, we describe a semi-mechanistic model, based on the exponential decline of fuel moisture content with atmospheric vapor pressure deficit, that predicts daily minimum fuel moisture content. We calibrated the model at one site in New South Wales, Australia, and validated it at three contrasting ecosystem types in California, USA, where 10-h fuel moisture content was continuously measured every 30 min over a year. We found that existing drought indices did not accurately predict fuel moisture, and that empirical and equilibrium models provided biased estimates. The mean absolute error (MAE) of the fuel moisture content predicted by our model across sites and years was 3.7%, which was substantially lower than for other, commonly used models. Our model's MAE dropped to 2.9% when fuel moisture was below 20%, and to 1.8% when fuel moisture was below 10%. Our model's MAE was comparable to instrumental MAE (3.1-2.5%), indicating that further improvement may be limited by measurement error. The simplicity, accuracy and precision of our model makes it suitable for a range of applications, such as operational fire management and the prediction of fire risk in vegetation models, without the need for site-specific calibrations.

Predicting dead fine fuel moisture at regional scales using vapour pressure deficit from MODIS and gridded weather data

“…the Keetch and Byram Drought Index (Keetch & Byram, 1968), the drought factor used in McArthur's Forest Fire Danger Index (McArthur, 1967) or the equilibrium moisture of Nelson (1984), to name a few). FM D provided comparatively more accurate and less biased predictions of FM across a range of both fuel moisture values and contrasting environments (Resco de Dios et al, 2015).…”

“…Resco de Dios et al (2015) recently proposed vapour pressure deficit (D) as a predictor of fine dead FM. In this semi-mechanistic model, FM D , is based on the exponential decline in FM with increasing D (Resco de Dios et al, 2015).…”

“…In this semi-mechanistic model, FM D , is based on the exponential decline in FM with increasing D (Resco de Dios et al, 2015). Resco de Dios et al (2015) compared their FM D model with eight other models, including those widely used in fire danger indices (e.g.…”

“…In this semi-mechanistic model, FM D , is based on the exponential decline in FM with increasing D (Resco de Dios et al, 2015). Resco de Dios et al (2015) compared their FM D model with eight other models, including those widely used in fire danger indices (e.g. the Keetch and Byram Drought Index (Keetch & Byram, 1968), the drought factor used in McArthur's Forest Fire Danger Index (McArthur, 1967) or the equilibrium moisture of Nelson (1984), to name a few).…”

Extreme wildfire events are linked to global-change-type droughts in the northern Mediterranean

“…The size of fire points is proportional to the size of the corresponding fire (min = 250 ha; max = 5646 ha). An individual description of the 2003 and 2016 extreme wildfires events can be found in Table 1. ecosystems consist of several fuel compartments that respond to drought on different timescales (Pyne, 1996;Nolan et al, 2016). Fuel moisture of trees' and shrubs' living foliage responds to mid-term to long-term droughts because of the control of vegetation over water fluxes (Ruffault et al, 2013).…”