Effects of Lakes on Wildfire Activity in the Boreal Forests of Saskatchewan, Canada

Nielsen, Scott E.; DeLancey, Evan R.; Reinhardt, Krista; Parisien, Marc‐André

doi:10.3390/f7110265

Cited by 35 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…, Nielsen et al. ). Although we used the best available data from noon‐time records at nearby weather stations, some burn conditions were certainly subject to inaccuracy.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The topographic signal and ecological implication of truly unburned patches could be very different from those that burned at low severity, but our approach did not explore this. Likewise, our topographic metrics focused on terrain features derived from digital elevation models and may not have captured all of the relevant topographic factors in these landscapes, particularly in flatter landscapes where refugia may be more closely tied to physiognomic fuel breaks such as streams and lakes (Heinselman 1973, Hellberg et al 2004, Nielsen et al 2016. Although we used the best available data from noon-time records at nearby weather stations, some burn conditions were certainly subject to inaccuracy.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Topographic and fire weather controls of fire refugia in forested ecosystems of northwestern North America

Haire²,

et al. 2016

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Abstract. Fire refugia, sometimes referred to as fire islands, shadows, skips, residuals, or fire remnants, are an important element of the burn mosaic, but we lack a quantitative framework that links observations of fire refugia from different environmental contexts. Here, we develop and test a conceptual model for how predictability of fire refugia varies according to topographic complexity and fire weather conditions. Refugia were quantified as areas unburned or burned at comparatively low severity based on remotely sensed burn severity data. We assessed the relationship between refugia and a suite of terrain-related explanatory metrics by fitting a collection of boosted regression tree models. The models were developed for seven study fires that burned in conifer-dominated forested landscapes of the Western Cordillera of Canada between 2001 and 2014. We fit nine models, each for distinct levels of fire weather and terrain ruggedness. Our framework revealed that the predictability and abundance of fire refugia varied among these environmental settings. We observed highest predictability under moderate fire weather conditions and moderate terrain ruggedness (ROC-AUC = 0.77), and lowest predictability in flatter landscapes and under high fire weather conditions (ROC-AUC = 0.63-0.68). Catchment slope, local aspect, relative position, topographic wetness, topographic convergence, and local slope all contributed to discriminating where refugia occur but the relative importance of these topographic controls differed among environments. Our framework allows us to characterize the predictability of contemporary fire refugia across multiple environmental settings and provides important insights for ecosystem resilience, wildfire management, conservation planning, and climate change adaptation.

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“…, Nielsen et al. ). Although we used the best available data from noon‐time records at nearby weather stations, some burn conditions were certainly subject to inaccuracy.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Topographic and fire weather controls of fire refugia in forested ecosystems of northwestern North America

Haire²,

et al. 2016

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“…), based primarily on topography and isolation (e.g., lakeshores and islands, Nielsen et al. ). Due to the relatively coarse (500‐m) resolution of inputs, our simulation did not lend itself to the identification of local fire refugia.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Note: Values are proportions of explained deviance based on a Poisson generalized linear model with four time periods, three fuel scenarios, two fire-regime scenarios, and three global climate models (GCM). peatlands, upland conifer and mixedwood species in Alberta may be dependent on fire refugia -that is, "places that are disturbed less frequently or less severely by wildfire than the surrounding landscape matrix" (Krawchuk et al 2016), based primarily on topography and isolation (e.g., lakeshores and islands, Nielsen et al 2016). Due to the relatively coarse (500-m) resolution of inputs, our simulation did not lend itself to the identification of local fire refugia.…”

Section: Climate-driven Changes In Vegetationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wildfire‐mediated vegetation change in boreal forests of Alberta, Canada

et al. 2018

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Climate‐induced vegetation change may be delayed in the absence of disturbance catalysts. However, increases in wildfire activity may accelerate these transitions in many areas, including the western boreal region of Canada. To better understand factors influencing decadal‐scale changes in upland boreal forest vegetation, we developed a hybrid modeling approach that constrains projections of climate‐driven vegetation change based on topo‐edaphic conditions coupled with weather‐ and fuel‐based simulations of future wildfires using Burn‐P3, a spatial fire simulation model. We evaluated eighteen scenarios based on all possible combinations of three fuel assumptions (static, fire‐mediated, and climate‐driven), two fire‐regime assumptions (constrained and unconstrained), and three global climate models. We simulated scenarios of fire‐mediated change in forest composition over the next century, concluding that, even under conservative assumptions about future fire regimes, wildfire activity could hasten the conversion of approximately half of Alberta's upland mixedwood and conifer forest to more climatically suited deciduous woodland and grassland by 2100. When fire‐regime parameter inputs (number of fire ignitions and duration of burning) were modified based on future fire weather projections, the simulated area burned was almost enough to facilitate a complete transition to climate‐predicted vegetation types. However, when fire‐regime parameters were held constant at their current values, the rate of increase in fire probability diminished, suggesting a negative feedback by which a short‐term increase in less‐flammable deciduous forest leads to a long‐term reduction in area burned. Our spatially explicit simulations of fire‐mediated vegetation change provide managers with scenarios that can be used to plan for a range of alternative landscape conditions.

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“…, Nielsen et al. ). The same areas, however, also had the lowest connectivity and generally provided limited nutritional resources.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A framework for modeling habitat quality in disturbance‐prone areas demonstrated with woodland caribou and wildfire

et al. 2017

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Abstract. Natural resource management professionals require adaptable spatial tools for conserving and managing wildlife across landscapes. These tools should integrate multiple components of habitat quality and incorporate local disturbance regimes. We provide a spatial modeling framework that integrates three components of habitat (nutritional resources, connectivity, and predation risk) into indices of habitat quality under a simulated wildfire disturbance regime. Woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou), a species of conservation concern, is used to illustrate our framework. We simulated disturbance from wildfire on two boreal forest landscapes to produce stand ages, from which we computed and integrated the three habitat indicator components using different schemes. Spatial variation in the influence of wildfire and the distribution of the three components of habitat resulted in heterogeneous patterns of habitat quality. The inclusion of disturbance led to a different habitat quality landscape than that of a static model in which the influence of wildfire on vegetation communities was not considered, incorporating the likelihood of persistence into the overall representation of habitat quality. The integration of nutrition, connectivity, and predation risk into a single index of habitat quality produced spatial patterns distinct from maps of the individual components. Regardless of whether the components were combined through additive, multiplicative, or minimum habitat quality threshold methods, areas of very high-and poor-quality habitat were found at consistent locations across the landscape, suggesting that these two types of regions provide opportunities for long-term management interventions. The framework presented here is adaptable and modular; it could be modified and applied to other species, regions, and disturbance regimes. It provides a nuanced representation of persistent habitat and has the potential to be a useful tool for conservation planning.

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Effects of Lakes on Wildfire Activity in the Boreal Forests of Saskatchewan, Canada

Cited by 35 publications

References 41 publications

Topographic and fire weather controls of fire refugia in forested ecosystems of northwestern North America

Topographic and fire weather controls of fire refugia in forested ecosystems of northwestern North America

Wildfire‐mediated vegetation change in boreal forests of Alberta, Canada

A framework for modeling habitat quality in disturbance‐prone areas demonstrated with woodland caribou and wildfire

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