Regional relationships between climate and wildfire-burned area in the Interior West, USA

Collins, Brandon M.; Omi, Philip N.; Chapman, Phillip L.

doi:10.1139/x05-264

Cited by 115 publications

(90 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…Dipole Index was computed as the mean of all pairwise 50-year running correlations between the %SF of the Pacific Northwest and combined Southwest regions (AZ, SNM, NNM, and SCO) and reflects the degree of synchrony or asynchrony along the north-south dipole. modern period of fire records based on observations and instrumental data sets (14). Based on our current analyses, we suggest that both ENSO and decadal-scale states of the major ocean basins (Pacific and Atlantic) can be useful guides to potential forest fire hazards.…”

Section: A+p-n-a+p-n-a+p-n-a+p-n-a+p-n-a+p-n-a+p-n-a+p-n-a+p-n-mentioning

confidence: 70%

“…Links between contingencies of ENSO and PDO, droughts and wildfires have been noted in the western U.S. before, but only for subregions (11)(12)(13) or using 20th century data (10,14). Furthermore, AMO-fire teleconnections and contingencies with ENSO and PDO previously have been shown for single study areas but have not been examined at regional scales (15,16).…”

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confidence: 98%

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Contingent Pacific–Atlantic Ocean influence on multicentury wildfire synchrony over western North America

Kitzberger

Brown

Heyerdahl

et al. 2007

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

307

264

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Widespread synchronous wildfires driven by climatic variation, such as those that swept western North America during 1996, 2000, and 2002, can result in major environmental and societal impacts. Understanding relationships between continental-scale patterns of drought and modes of sea surface temperatures (SSTs) such as El Niñ o-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), and Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) may explain how interannual to multidecadal variability in SSTs drives fire at continental scales. We used local wildfire chronologies reconstructed from fire scars on tree rings across western North America and independent reconstructions of SST developed from tree-ring widths at other sites to examine the relationships of multicentury patterns of climate and fire synchrony. From 33,039 annually resolved fire-scar dates at 238 sites (the largest paleofire record yet assembled), we examined forest fires at regional and subcontinental scales. Since 1550 CE, drought and forest fires covaried across the West, but in a manner contingent on SST modes. During certain phases of ENSO and PDO, fire was synchronous within broad subregions and sometimes asynchronous among those regions. In contrast, fires were most commonly synchronous across the West during warm phases of the AMO. ENSO and PDO were the main drivers of high-frequency variation in fire (interannual to decadal), whereas the AMO conditionally changed the strength and spatial influence of ENSO and PDO on wildfire occurrence at multidecadal scales. A current warming trend in AMO suggests that we may expect an increase in widespread, synchronous fires across the western U.S. in coming decades.Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation ͉ El Niñ o Southern Oscillation ͉ fire history network ͉ ocean warming ͉ Pacific Decadal Oscillation

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Section: A+p-n-a+p-n-a+p-n-a+p-n-a+p-n-a+p-n-a+p-n-a+p-n-a+p-n-mentioning

confidence: 70%

mentioning

confidence: 98%

Contingent Pacific–Atlantic Ocean influence on multicentury wildfire synchrony over western North America

Kitzberger

Brown

Heyerdahl

et al. 2007

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

307

264

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“…Wet/dry lagging patterns were subsequently confirmed as important in the modern period in various sub-regions and elevations using documentary records (e.g. Knapp 1995;Crimmins and Comrie 2004;Collins et al 2006).…”

Section: Paleofire Climatology From Tree Rings and Fire Scarsmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…A growing literature has made use of these records to evaluate broad-scale fire-climate patterns (e.g. Westerling et al , 2006Gillett et al 2004;Keeley 2004;McKenzie et al 2004;Collins et al 2006;Crimmins 2006;Holden et al 2007;Morgan et al in press).…”

Section: Modern Fire Climatology From Documentary Recordsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fire Climatology in the western United States: introduction to special issue

Swetnam¹,

Anderson²

2008

Int. J. Wildland Fire

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Abstract. Advances in fire climatology have derived from recent studies of modern and paleoecological records. We convened a series of workshops and a conference session to report and review regional-scale findings, and these meetings led to the 10 papers in this special issue. Two papers focus on fire and climate patterns in the modern era using documentary records, four papers utilise tree rings to evaluate recent centuries of change, and four papers evaluate charcoal and pollen in lake, bog, and alluvial sediments over the Holocene. Here we summarise some of the key findings from these papers in the context of other recent fire climatology literature. These studies illustrate the value of long-term perspectives and spatial networks of fire and climate data in discovering the patterns and modes of past fire regime and climate variations.Warming temperatures and increasing drought occurrence in many regions of the world are resulting in widespread ecosystem impacts (ACIA 2005; IPCC 2007). One of the most dramatic ecological responses to climate change is wildfire. The importance of climate in driving past, present, and future fire regimes has greatly increased the need for better understanding of fire climatology. As distinct from fire meteorology, which addresses relatively fine-scale spatial processes over short time periods (i.e. days to weeks), fire climatology addresses broad-scale spatial and temporal processes (i.e. seasons to millennia).Advances in fire climatology

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“…Climate was a strong driver of 20th-century fire synchrony in the interior west of North America (Gedalof et al 2005;Collins et al 2006;Littell 2006;Westerling et al 2006;Morgan et al in press). Summer climate has long been recognised as important to wildfire activity but fire-scar reconstructions and some recent studies of modern fires demonstrate that climate during the spring preceding the fire season can also be important.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate drivers of regionally synchronous fires in the inland Northwest (1651 - 1900)

Heyerdahl

McKenzie

Daniels

et al. 2008

Int. J. Wildland Fire

133

122

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Abstract. We inferred climate drivers of regionally synchronous surface fires from 1651 to 1900 at 15 sites with existing annually accurate fire-scar chronologies from forests dominated by ponderosa pine or Douglas-fir in the inland Northwest (interior Oregon, Washington and southern British Columbia). Years with widespread fires (35 years with fire at 7 to 11 sites) had warm spring-summers and warm-dry summers, whereas years with no fires at any site (18 years) had the opposite conditions. Spring climate likely affected the length of the fire season via the effects of snowmelt on soil and fuel moisture, whereas summer climate influenced fuel moisture during the fire season. Climate in prior years was not a significant driver of regionally synchronous surface fires, likely because fuels were generally sufficient for the ignition and spread of such fires in these forests. Fires occurred significantly more often than expected by chance when the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) were both warm phase and less often when they were both cool phase. Interactions between large-scale climate patterns influenced fire synchrony in the inland Northwest because phases of ENSO and PDO were associated with changes in the frequency of warm-dry v. cool-wet spring-summer climate.

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Regional relationships between climate and wildfire-burned area in the Interior West, USA

Cited by 115 publications

References 31 publications

Contingent Pacific–Atlantic Ocean influence on multicentury wildfire synchrony over western North America

Contingent Pacific–Atlantic Ocean influence on multicentury wildfire synchrony over western North America

Fire Climatology in the western United States: introduction to special issue

Climate drivers of regionally synchronous fires in the inland Northwest (1651 - 1900)

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