Globe-LFMC, a global plant water status database for vegetation ecophysiology and wildfire applications

Yebra, Marta; Scortechini, Gianluca; Badi, Abdulbaset; Beget, María Eugenia; Boer, Matthias M.; Bradstock, Ross A.; Chuvieco, Emilio; Danson, F. Mark; Dennison, Philip E.; Dios, Víctor Resco de; Bella, Carlos Marcelo Di; Forsyth, Greg G.; Frost, Philip; Garcı́a, Mariano; Hamdi, Abdelaziz; He, Bin; Jolly, Matt; Kraaij, Tineke; Martín, M. Pilar; Mouillot, Florent; Newnham, Glenn; Nolan, Rachael H.; Pellizzaro, Grazia; Yi, Qing; Quan, Xingwen; Riaño, David; Roberts, Dar A.; Sow, M. L.; Ustin, Susan L.

doi:10.1038/s41597-019-0164-9

Cited by 50 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…The fresh material was stored in sealed containers (of known mass) until these were weighed (within less than 3 h of collection) to obtain wet fuel mass. Samples were then oven-dried at 80 C for 48 h and weighed again to obtain dry fuel mass (Ruffault et al, 2018;Teie, 2009;Yebra et al, 2019). The live fuel moisture was calculated as the percentage of wet mass comprised of water.…”

Section: Live Plant Samplesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fire weather effects on flammability of indigenous and invasive alien plants in coastal fynbos and thicket shrublands (Cape Floristic Region)

Msweli

Potts

Fritz

et al. 2020

PeerJ

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Background Globally, and in the Cape Floristic Region of South Africa, extreme fires have become more common in recent years. Such fires pose societal and ecological threats and have inter alia been attributed to climate change and modification of fuels due to alien plant invasions. Understanding the flammability of different types of indigenous and invasive alien vegetation is essential to develop fire risk prevention and mitigation strategies. We assessed the flammability of 30 species of indigenous and invasive alien plants commonly occurring in coastal fynbos and thicket shrublands in relation to varying fire weather conditions. Methods Fresh plant shoots were sampled and burnt experimentally across diverse fire weather conditions to measure flammability in relation to fire weather conditions, live fuel moisture, fuel load and vegetation grouping (fynbos, thicket and invasive alien plants). Flammability measures considered were: burn intensity, completeness of burn, time-to-ignition, and the likelihood of spontaneous ignition. We also investigated whether the drying of plant shoots (simulating drought conditions) differentially affected the flammability of vegetation groups. Results Fire weather conditions enhanced all measures of flammability, whereas live fuel moisture reduced burn intensity and completeness of burn. Live fuel moisture was not significantly correlated with fire weather, suggesting that the mechanism through which fire weather enhances flammability is not live fuel moisture. It furthermore implies that the importance of live fuel moisture for flammability of evergreen shrublands rests on inter-specific and inter-vegetation type differences in fuel moisture, rather than short-term intra-specific fluctuation in live fuel moisture in response to weather conditions. Fuel load significantly increased burn intensity, while reducing ignitability. Although fire weather, live fuel moisture, and fuel load had significant effects on flammability measures, vegetation and species differences accounted for most of the variation. Flammability was generally highest in invasive alien plants, intermediate in fynbos, and lowest in thicket. Fynbos ignited rapidly and burnt completely, whereas thicket was slow to ignite and burnt incompletely. Invasive alien plants were slow to ignite, but burnt with the highest intensity, potentially due to volatile organic composition. The drying of samples resulted in increases in all measures of flammability that were comparable among vegetation groups. Flammability, and by implication fire risk, should thus not increase disproportionately in one vegetation group compared to another under drought conditions—unless the production of dead fuels is disproportionate among vegetation groups. Thus, we suggest that the dead:live fuel ratio is a potentially useful indicator of flammability of evergreen shrublands and that proxies for this ratio need to be investigated for incorporation into fire danger indices.

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Section: Live Plant Samplesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fire weather effects on flammability of indigenous and invasive alien plants in coastal fynbos and thicket shrublands (Cape Floristic Region)

Msweli

Potts

Fritz

et al. 2020

PeerJ

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“…Depending on the scientific community, LFMC is assessed at the leafy shoot level -this is the case for field in situ measurements Yebra et al 2019) --or at the scale of stand canopy which is the case for remote sensing measurements (Yebra et al 2013). The model presented here attempt to bridge the gap between both scales by integrating leaf level estimates of LFMC at the canopy level and by accounting for leaf mortality during extreme drought.…”

Section: Canopy Level Lfmc Depends On Hydraulic Failure and Leaf Mortmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modelling live fuel moisture content at leaf and canopy scale under extreme drought using a lumped plant hydraulic model

Martin‐StPaul¹,

Ruffault²,

Blackmann³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Ø Water content in living vegetation (or live fuel moisture content, LFMC), is increasingly recognized as a key factor linked to vegetation mortality and wildfire ignition and spread. Most often, empirical indices are used as surrogates for direct LFMC measurements. Ø In this paper, we explore the functional and ecophysiological drivers of LFMC during drought at the leaf and canopy scale using the SurEau-Ecos model, and a three years dataset of leaf and canopy scale measurements on a mature Quercus ilex forest, including an extreme drought. The model is based on forest hydrology and plant hydraulics and allows to simulate temporal variations of water potential and content at a daily time step. At leaf level, it simulates the relationship between water potential and water content by separating the apoplasm and the symplasm. Symplasm water content is modeled using the pressure volume curve theory, and apoplasm water content is modelled using the xylem vulnerability to cavitation. Fuel moisture content was upscaled to the canopy level by accounting for foliage mortality estimated from drought induced cavitation. Ø The model was parameterized either with site-measured traits or using a calibration procedure, and compared with water potential and LFMC measured at leaf level, and NDVI variation measured at canopy level and taken as a surrogate for foliage mortality. Ø At leaf level, LFMC prediction using measured hydraulic traits could be improved by considering year-to-year osmotic adjustments. At canopy level, foliage mortality due to drought induced cavitation was a key driver of LFMC decline during the most extreme drought. Ø A sensitivity analysis showed that parameters driving soil water balance (leaf area index, soil water capacity, and regulation of transpiration) and parameters determining pressure volume curves are key traits driving LFMC dynamics at leaf level. At the canopy level, parameters that drives hydraulic failure were the most sensitive and included, both soil water balance parameters and hydraulic traits (the leaf vulnerability to cavitation) were the main drivers of LFMC decline during extreme drought. Ø We also showed that under normal historic weather conditions, most variation of LFMC are linked to reversible symplasm dehydration, however under future, hotter and dryer conditions, most variations are due to the decline canopy of LFMC driven by foliage mortality.

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“…The homogeneity of the plots was assessed using the standard deviation of NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index, Equation (1), Figure 3) derived from the Landsat 8 OLI pixels within a 500 m × 500 m buffer (SD NDVI ) and the CV NDVI (Equation (2)). We argue that plants within the 500 m × 500 m MODIS pixel size buffer should be more homogeneous in both species composition and moisture condition when the CV NDVI (ranges from 0.05 to 0.15) and SD NDVI (ranges from 0.15 to 0.30) are lower than a certain threshold [53]. Finally, the threshold values that resulted in high R 2 and low RMSE were selected for the final methodology.…”

Section: Lfmc Retrieval and Validationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Live Fuel Moisture Content on Wildfire Occurrence in Fire-Prone Regions over Southwest China

Luo

Quan

et al. 2019

Forests

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Previous studies have shown that Live Fuel Moisture Content (LFMC) is a crucial driver affecting wildfire occurrence worldwide, but the effect of LFMC in driving wildfire occurrence still remains unexplored over the southwest China ecosystem, an area historically vulnerable to wildfires. To this end, we took 10-years of LFMC dynamics retrieved from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) reflectance product using the physical Radiative Transfer Model (RTM) and the wildfire events extracted from the MODIS Burned Area (BA) product to explore the relations between LFMC and forest/grassland fire occurrence across the subtropical highland zone (Cwa) and humid subtropical zone (Cwb) over southwest China. The statistical results of pre-fire LFMC and cumulative burned area show that distinct pre-fire LFMC critical thresholds were identified for Cwa (151.3%, 123.1%, and 51.4% for forest, and 138.1%, 72.8%, and 13.1% for grassland) and Cwb (115.0% and 54.4% for forest, and 137.5%, 69.0%, and 10.6% for grassland) zones. Below these thresholds, the fire occurrence and the burned area increased significantly. Additionally, a significant decreasing trend on LFMC dynamics was found during the days prior to two large fire events, Qiubei forest fire and Lantern Mountain grassland fire that broke during the 2009/2010 and 2015/2016 fire seasons, respectively. The minimum LFMC values reached prior to the fires (49.8% and 17.3%) were close to the lowest critical LFMC thresholds we reported for forest (51.4%) and grassland (13.1%). Further LFMC trend analysis revealed that the regional median LFMC dynamics for the 2009/2010 and 2015/2016 fire seasons were also significantly lower than the 10-year LFMC of the region. Hence, this study demonstrated that the LFMC dynamics explained wildfire occurrence in these fire-prone regions over southwest China, allowing the possibility to develop a new operational wildfire danger forecasting model over this area by considering the satellite-derived LFMC product.

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Globe-LFMC, a global plant water status database for vegetation ecophysiology and wildfire applications

Cited by 50 publications

References 15 publications

Fire weather effects on flammability of indigenous and invasive alien plants in coastal fynbos and thicket shrublands (Cape Floristic Region)

Fire weather effects on flammability of indigenous and invasive alien plants in coastal fynbos and thicket shrublands (Cape Floristic Region)

Modelling live fuel moisture content at leaf and canopy scale under extreme drought using a lumped plant hydraulic model

Effects of Live Fuel Moisture Content on Wildfire Occurrence in Fire-Prone Regions over Southwest China

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