Natural fire frequency for the eastern Canadian boreal forest: consequences for sustainable forestry

Bergeron, Yves; Gauthier, Sylvie; Kafka, Victor; Lefort, Patrick; Lesieur, D.

doi:10.1139/cjfr-31-3-384

Cited by 164 publications

(241 citation statements)

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“…Thus, there is no reason to predict higher values of area burned in a warmer world based solely on an increase in temperature ( Flannigan & Harrington 1988;Flannigan et al 1998;Bergeron et al 2001).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate and wildfires in the North American boreal forest

Fauria

Johnson

2007

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

125

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The area burned in the North American boreal forest is controlled by the frequency of midtropospheric blocking highs that cause rapid fuel drying. Climate controls the area burned through changing the dynamics of large-scale teleconnection patterns (Pacific Decadal Oscillation/El Niñ o Southern Oscillation and Arctic Oscillation, PDO/ENSO and AO) that control the frequency of blocking highs over the continent at different time scales. Changes in these teleconnections may be caused by the current global warming. Thus, an increase in temperature alone need not be associated with an increase in area burned in the North American boreal forest. Since the end of the Little Ice Age, the climate has been unusually moist and variable: large fire years have occurred in unusual years, fire frequency has decreased and fire-climate relationships have occurred at interannual to decadal time scales. Prolonged and severe droughts were common in the past and were partly associated with changes in the PDO/ENSO system. Under these conditions, large fire years become common, fire frequency increases and fire-climate relationships occur at decadal to centennial time scales. A suggested return to the drier climate regimes of the past would imply major changes in the temporal dynamics of fire-climate relationships and in area burned, a reduction in the mean age of the forest, and changes in species composition of the North American boreal forest.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate and wildfires in the North American boreal forest

Fauria

Johnson

2007

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

125

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“…European colonisation in the region mainly started in the 1910s. Efficient fire suppression only began in the 1970s and it is only since 1980 that fires are suppressed in the northern half of the studied area (Bergeron et al 2001.…”

Section: Description Of the Forest Stand Age Distributionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…According to analyses of forest stand age distributions, the lower fire activity since c. 1850 reported in many regions of the Canadian boreal forest could, in part, reflect the impact of a changing climate (Masters 1990;Johnson and Larsen 1991;Larsen 1997;Bergeron et al 2001Bergeron et al , 2004aBergeron et al , 2004bTardif 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A 229-year dendroclimatic-inferred record of forest fire activity for the Boreal Shield of Canada

Girardin

Tardif

Gauthier

et al. 2006

Int. J. Wildland Fire

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Abstract. Six independent tree-ring reconstructions of summer drought were calibrated against instrumental fire data to develop a 229-year dendroclimatic-inferred record of fire activity (annual area burned and fire occurrence) on the Boreal Shield, Canada. As a means of validating the statistical reconstructions of the fire activity, a comparison was made with a stand age distribution derived from a regional time-since-last-fire map for an area located at the transition between the mixedwood and coniferous boreal forests of south-western Quebec. Calibration statistics indicated that 31% of the area burned variance and 45% of the fire occurrence variance could be accounted for by the six drought reconstructions. The verification statistics indicated a tendency for the statistical reconstructions of the fire activity to reproduce with confidence both high and relatively low frequency variations in fire. Episodes of succeeding years with important fire activity were estimated for

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“…Primary disturbances include forest fire (100-500 year fire cycle; Bergeron et al 2001) and forest harvesting, which is presently concentrated in the southern portion of the study area. Large mammal species in addition to forestdwelling woodland caribou include, moose (Alces alces), wolf (Canis lupus) and black bear (Ursus americanus).…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Using movement behaviour to define biological seasons for woodland caribou

Rudolph

Drapeau

2012

Ran

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Terrestrial mammals are strongly influenced by seasonal changes in environmental conditions. Studies of animal space use behaviour are therefore inherently seasonal in nature. We propose an individual-based quantitative method for identifying seasonal shifts in caribou movement behaviour and we demonstrate its use in determining the onset of the winter, spring dispersal, and calving seasons. Using pooled data for the population we demonstrate an alternate approach using polynomial regression with mixed effects. We then compare individual onset dates with population-based estimates and those adopted by expert consensus for our study area. Distributions of individual-based onset dates were normally distributed with prominent modes; however, there was considerable variation in individual onset times. Population-based estimates were closer to the peaks of individual estimates than were expert-based estimates, which fell outside the onetailed 90% and 95% sample quantiles of individually-fitted distributions for spring and winter, respectively. Both expertand population-based estimates were later for winter and earlier for both spring and calving than were individual-based estimates. We discuss the potential consequences of neglecting to corroborate conventionally used dates with observed seasonal trends in movement behaviour. In closing, we recommend researchers adopt an individual-based quantitative approach and a variable temporal window for data set extraction.

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Natural fire frequency for the eastern Canadian boreal forest: consequences for sustainable forestry

Cited by 164 publications

References 0 publications

Climate and wildfires in the North American boreal forest

Climate and wildfires in the North American boreal forest

A 229-year dendroclimatic-inferred record of forest fire activity for the Boreal Shield of Canada

Using movement behaviour to define biological seasons for woodland caribou

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