Anthropogenic influences on potential fire spread in a pyrogenic ecosystem of Florida, USA

Duncan, Brean W.; Schmalzer, Paul A.

doi:10.1023/b:land.0000021714.97148.ac

Cited by 87 publications

(57 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…The connectivity of fuels exerts a strong influence on fire spread (Miller and Urban 2000, Duncan and Schmalzer 2004, Viedma et al 2009) and therefore BP patterns. Fuels that are conducive to fire spread dominate all four study areas, but the spatial arrangement of those fuels differs considerably (Fig.…”

Section: Working Hypothesesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial bottom‐up controls on fire likelihood vary across western North America

2012

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Abstract. The unique nature of landscapes has challenged our ability to make generalizations about the effects of bottom-up controls on fire regimes. For four geographically distinct fire-prone landscapes in western North America, we used a consistent simulation approach to quantify the influence of three key bottom-up factors, ignitions, fuels, and topography, on spatial patterns of fire likelihood. We first developed working hypotheses predicting the influence of each factor based on its spatial structure (i.e., autocorrelation) in each of the four study areas. We then used a simulation model parameterized with extensive fire environment data to create high-resolution maps of fire likelihood, or burn probability (BP). To infer the influence of each bottom-up factor within and among study areas, these BP maps were compared to parallel sets of maps in which one of the three bottom-up factors was randomized. Results showed that ignition pattern had a relatively minor influence on the BP across all four study areas, whereas the influence of fuels was large. The influence of topography was the most equivocal among study areas; it had an insignificant influence in one study area and was the dominant control in another. We also found that the relationship between the influence of these factors and their spatial structure appeared nonlinear, which may have important implications for management activities aimed at attenuating the effect of fuels or ignitions on wildfire risk. This comparative study using landscapes with different biophysical and fire regime characteristics demonstrates the importance of employing consistent methodology to pinpoint the influence of bottom-up controls.

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Section: Working Hypothesesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial bottom‐up controls on fire likelihood vary across western North America

2012

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“…Many studies have reported from simulations that the clustering varies with vegetation cover (Keane et al, 2002;Miller, et al, 2008). According to Cumming (2001), and Duncan and Schmalzer (2004), the extent and configuration of flammable vegetation and non-flammable landscape features clearly influence patterns of fire ignition. They also speculate that these patterns are likely to respond differently to changes in spatial scale.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fire Ignition Trends in Durango, México

Pompa-García¹,

Montiel-Antuna²

2012

Global Perspectives on Sustainable Forest Management

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“…minimize the spread of natural lightning fires across landscapes [11,22,23]. This degradation has resulted in catastrophic impacts to biological diversity; fire managers and ecologists agree that introducing fire back into the system is a priority [24,25].…”

Section: Management Of Florida Scrub: Fuel Management Vs Ecological mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We also include predictions about the fuels hazards associated with these states. The highest quality habitat (open-medium) for FSJ is a transitional state, and therefore, recovering the species requires imposing a disturbance regime using prescribed fires, which are necessary, because habitat fragmentation restricts the spread of natural fires across landscapes, and society generally requires that wildfires be suppressed [10,11]. Because optimal habitat conditions for FSJ are generally those needed by other scrub-adapted species, the species is considered a management indicator species [12].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrating Land Cover Modeling and Adaptive Management to Conserve Endangered Species and Reduce Catastrophic Fire Risk

Breininger

Duncan

Eaton

et al. 2014

Land

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Land cover modeling is used to inform land management, but most often via a two-step process, where science informs how management alternatives can influence resources, and then, decision makers can use this information to make decisions. A more efficient process is to directly integrate science and decision-making, where science allows us to learn in order to better accomplish management objectives and is developed to address specific decisions. Co-development of management and science is especially productive when decisions are complicated by multiple objectives and impeded by uncertainty. Multiple objectives can be met by the specification of tradeoffs, and relevant uncertainty can be addressed through targeted science (i.e., models and monitoring). We describe how to integrate habitat and fuel monitoring with decision-making focused on the dual objectives of managing for endangered species and minimizing catastrophic fire risk. Under certain conditions, both objectives might be achieved by a similar management policy; other conditions require tradeoffs between objectives. Knowledge about system responses to actions can be informed by developing hypotheses based on ideas about fire OPEN ACCESSLand 2014, 3 875 behavior and then applying competing management actions to different land units in the same system state. Monitoring and management integration is important to optimize state-specific management decisions and to increase knowledge about system responses. We believe this approach has broad utility and identifies a clear role for land cover modeling programs intended to inform decision-making.

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Anthropogenic influences on potential fire spread in a pyrogenic ecosystem of Florida, USA

Cited by 87 publications

References 18 publications

Spatial bottom‐up controls on fire likelihood vary across western North America

Spatial bottom‐up controls on fire likelihood vary across western North America

Fire Ignition Trends in Durango, México

Integrating Land Cover Modeling and Adaptive Management to Conserve Endangered Species and Reduce Catastrophic Fire Risk

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