Temporal Patterns of Wildfire Activity in Areas of Contrasting Human Influence in the Canadian Boreal Forest

Campos-Ruiz, Rodrigo; Parisien, Marc‐André; Flannigan, Mike D.

doi:10.3390/f9040159

Cited by 32 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 64 publications

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“…WBNP became a national park in 1922 and is a designated wildlife refuge. Lightning is the major source of forest fires [30,31], and the park is located within the area known as the fire hot spot of Canada [32,33]. The dominant tree species are Jack pine (Pinus banksiana Lamb.…”

Section: Study Sitementioning

confidence: 99%

Relationships between Satellite-Based Spectral Burned Ratios and Terrestrial Laser Scanning

Kato

Moskal

Batchelor

et al. 2019

Forests

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Three-dimensional point data acquired by Terrestrial Lidar Scanning (TLS) is used as ground observation in comparisons with fire severity indices computed from Landsat satellite multi-temporal images through Google Earth Engine (GEE). Forest fires are measured by the extent and severity of fire. Current methods of assessing fire severity are limited to on-site visual inspection or the use of satellite and aerial images to quantify severity over larger areas. On the ground, assessment of fire severity is influenced by the observers’ knowledge of the local ecosystem and ability to accurately assess several forest structure measurements. The objective of this study is to introduce TLS to validate spectral burned ratios obtained from Landsat images. The spectral change was obtained by an image compositing technique through GEE. The 32 plots were collected using TLS in Wood Buffalo National Park, Canada. TLS-generated 3D points were converted to voxels and the counted voxels were compared in four height strata. There was a negative linear relationship between spectral indices and counted voxels in the height strata between 1 to 5 m to produce R2 value of 0.45 and 0.47 for unburned plots and a non-linear relationship in the height strata between 0 to 0.5m for burned plots to produce R2 value of 0.56 and 0.59. Shrub or stand development was related with the spectral indices at unburned plots, and vegetation recovery in the ground surface was related at burned plots. As TLS systems become more cost efficient and portable, techniques used in this study will be useful to produce objective assessments of structure measurements for fire refugia and ecological response after a fire. TLS is especially useful for the quick ground assessments which are needed for forest fire applications.

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Section: Study Sitementioning

confidence: 99%

Relationships between Satellite-Based Spectral Burned Ratios and Terrestrial Laser Scanning

Kato

Moskal

Batchelor

et al. 2019

Forests

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“…Wildfires in northwestern boreal regions have historically been large and severe [7]. Unlike southern boreal regions, where firefighting can mitigate the spread of wildfire, northern regions are less residentially and industrially developed, and therefore experience less wildfire suppression [75]. Increased burn severity may result in important habitat loss or alteration for a range of specialist species, as well as habitat creation for fire specialists, many of which are of conservation concern.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Avian Response to Wildfire Severity in a Northern Boreal Region

Knaggs

Haché

Nielsen

et al. 2020

Forests

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Research Highlights: The effects of fire on birds in the most northern parts of the boreal forest are understudied. We found distinct differences in bird communities with increasing fire severity in two vegetation types with naturally different burn severity. The highest severity burns tended to have communities dominated by generalist species, regardless of the original vegetation type. Background and Objectives: Wildfire is the primary natural disturbance in the boreal ecosystems of northwestern Canada. Increased wildfire frequency, extent, and severity are expected with climate change in this region. In particular, the proportion of burns that are high severity and the area of peatlands burned are increasing, and how this influences birds is poorly understood. Materials and Methods: We quantified the effects of burn severity (low, moderate, and high severity) in uplands and peatlands on occupancy, density, richness, community composition, and functional diversity using point counts (n = 1158) from the first two years post-fire for two large fires in the Northwest Territories, Canada. Results: Burn severity had a significant effect on the occupancy and density of 86% of our focal species (n = 20). Responses to burn severity depended on vegetation type for four of the 18 species using occupancy and seven of the 18 using density, but were typically in a similar direction. Species richness and functional diversity were lower in areas of high severity burns than unburned areas and low severity burns in peatlands. Richness was not related to severity in uplands, but functional diversity was. Peatlands had higher species richness than uplands in all burn severities, but as burn severity increased the upland and peatland communities became more similar. Conclusions: Our results suggest that high severity burns in both vegetation types support five generalist species and two fire specialists that may benefit from alterations in vegetation structure as a result of climate induced changes to fire regimes. However, eight species avoided burns, particularly birds preferring peatlands, and are likely to be more susceptible to fire-driven changes to their habitat caused by climate change. Understanding the long-term risks to these species from climate change requires additional efforts that link fire to bird populations.

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“…Recent research takes advantage of long documentary fire records, spatially-explicit remotelysensed data, and increasingly sophisticated modelling to collectively show the direct impacts of aggressive fire suppression and indirect impacts of human modifications of the physical environment on the size, frequency, and seasonality of boreal fires (Martell and Sun 2008;Pickell et al 2016;Campos-Ruiz et al 2018). Much progress has been made to assess a priori and a posteriori considerations when defining sustainable harvest levels under different fire regimes (Reed and Errico 1986;Boychuk and Martell 1996;Savage et al 2013;Leduc et al 2015).…”

Section: Reciprocal Wildland Fire and Forest Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fifty years of wildland fire science in Canada

et al. 2021

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We celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Canadian Journal of Forest Research by reflecting on the considerable progress accomplished in select areas of Canadian wildfire science over the past half century. Specifically, we discuss key developments and contributions in the creation of the Canadian Forest Fire Danger Rating System; the relationships between wildland fire and weather, climate, and climate change; fire ecology; operational decision support; and wildland fire management. We also discuss the evolution of wildland fire management in Banff National Park as a case study. We conclude by discussing some possible directions in future Canadian wildland fire research including the further evaluation of fire severity measurements and effects; the efficacy of fuel management treatments; climate change effects and mitigation; further refinement of models pertaining to fire risk analysis, fire behaviour, and fire weather; and the integration of forest management and ecological restoration with wildfire risk reduction. Throughout the paper we reference many contributions published in the Canadian Journal of Forest Research, which has been at the forefront of international wildland fire science.

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Temporal Patterns of Wildfire Activity in Areas of Contrasting Human Influence in the Canadian Boreal Forest

Cited by 32 publications

References 64 publications

Relationships between Satellite-Based Spectral Burned Ratios and Terrestrial Laser Scanning

Relationships between Satellite-Based Spectral Burned Ratios and Terrestrial Laser Scanning

Avian Response to Wildfire Severity in a Northern Boreal Region

Fifty years of wildland fire science in Canada

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