Wildland fire emissions, carbon, and climate: Seeing the forest and the trees – A cross-scale assessment of wildfire and carbon dynamics in fire-prone, forested ecosystems

Loehman, Rachel A.; Reinhardt, Elizabeth D.; Riley, Karin L.

doi:10.1016/j.foreco.2013.04.014

Cited by 89 publications

(67 citation statements)

References 131 publications

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“…One of the reasons for the uncertainty is that much of the research on the forest carbon impacts of fuel treatments have focused on individual forest stands; this approach is inherently limiting because of the spatiotemporal complexity of fire regimes and the random nature of fire events (Loehman, Reinhardt, & Riley, 2014). This uncertainty has led some authors to suggest that future research should focus more on whether or not fuel treatments can achieve carbon mitigation rather than on how (Campbell, Harmos, & Mitchell, 2012;Mitchell et al, 2009).…”

Section: Fuel Treatmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

US Forest Sector Greenhouse Mitigation Potential and Implications for Nationally Determined Contributions

Winkle¹,

Baker²,

Lapidus³

et al. 2017

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This PDF document was made available from www.rti.org as a public service of RTI International. More information about RTI Press can be found at http://www.rti.org/rtipress. RTI International is an independent, nonprofit research organization dedicated to improving the human condition by turning knowledge into practice. The RTI Press mission is to disseminate information about RTI research, analytic tools, and technical expertise to a national and international audience. RTI Press publications are peerreviewed by at least two independent substantive experts and one or more Press editors.

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Section: Fuel Treatmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

US Forest Sector Greenhouse Mitigation Potential and Implications for Nationally Determined Contributions

Winkle¹,

Baker²,

Lapidus³

et al. 2017

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“…However, climate changes occur in the context of increased landscape disturbance that can catalyze abrupt changes in ecosystems [6][7][8]. In particular, global ecosystems are highly influenced by fire disturbance [9][10][11][12]. In fire-adapted, fire-prone systems, landscape patterns and vegetation distributions are determined primarily by reciprocal interactions with fire [13,14] and then by fine-scale interactions within and among species (e.g., competition and dispersal) and their surrounding environment (e.g., climate and edaphic conditions) [15].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can Land Management Buffer Impacts of Climate Changes and Altered Fire Regimes on Ecosystems of the Southwestern United States?

Loehman

Flatley

Holsinger

et al. 2018

Forests

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Climate changes and associated shifts in ecosystems and fire regimes present enormous challenges for the management of landscapes in the Southwestern US. A central question is whether management strategies can maintain or promote desired ecological conditions under projected future climates. We modeled wildfire and forest responses to climate changes and management activities using two ecosystem process models: FireBGCv2, simulated for the Jemez Mountains, New Mexico, and LANDIS-II, simulated for the Kaibab Plateau, Arizona. We modeled contemporary and two future climates-"Warm-Dry" (CCSM4 RCP 4.5) and "Hot-Arid" (HadGEM2ES RCP 8.5)-and four levels of management including fire suppression alone, a current treatment strategy, and two intensified treatment strategies. We found that Hot-Arid future climate resulted in a fundamental, persistent reorganization of ecosystems in both study areas, including biomass reduction, compositional shifts, and altered forest structure. Climate changes increased the potential for high-severity fire in the Jemez study area, but did not impact fire regime characteristics in the Kaibab. Intensified management treatments somewhat reduced wildfire frequency and severity; however, management strategies did not prevent the reorganization of forest ecosystems in either landscape. Our results suggest that novel approaches may be required to manage future forests for desired conditions.

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“…Over a full post-fire successional sequence and at landscape scales in fire-adapted systems with constant fire return intervals, the net impact of fire on C emissions is zero, because tree growth will offset the C emission due to combustion and dead biomass decomposition (Harmon, 2001;Hurteau and Brooks, 2011;Loehman et al, 2014). However, this theory may not hold if one of its assumptions-full post-fire successional sequence, landscape scale, constant fire return interval, no fire-induced structural change-is not met.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantifying Changes in Total and Pyrogenic Carbon Stocks Across Fire Severity Gradients Using Active Wildfire Incidents

et al. 2018

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Positive feedbacks between wildfire emissions and climate are expected to increase in strength in the future; however, fires not only release carbon (C) from terrestrial to atmospheric pools, they also produce pyrogenic C (PyC) which contributes to longer-term C stability. Our objective was to quantify wildfire impacts on total C and PyC stocks in California mixed-conifer forest, and to investigate patterns in C and PyC stocks and changes across gradients of fire severity, using metrics derived from remote sensing and field observations. Our unique study accessed active wildfires to establish and measure plots within days before and after fire, prior to substantial erosion. We measured pre-and post-fire aboveground forest structure and woody fuels to calculate aboveground biomass, C and PyC, and collected forest floor and 0-5 cm mineral soil samples. Immediate tree mortality increased with severity, but overstory C loss was minimal and limited primarily to foliage. Fire released 85% of understory and herbaceous C (comprising <1.0% of total ecosystem C). The greatest C losses occurred from downed wood and forest floor pools (19.3 ± 5.1 Mg ha −1 and 25.9 ± 3.2 Mg ha −1 , respectively). Tree bark and downed wood contributed the greatest PyC gains (1.5 ± 0.3 Mg ha −1 and 1.9 ± 0.8 Mg ha −1 , respectively), and PyC in tree bark showed non-significant positive trends with increasing severity. Overall PyC losses of 1.9 ± 0.3 Mg ha −1 and 0.5 ± 0

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Wildland fire emissions, carbon, and climate: Seeing the forest and the trees – A cross-scale assessment of wildfire and carbon dynamics in fire-prone, forested ecosystems

Cited by 89 publications

References 131 publications

US Forest Sector Greenhouse Mitigation Potential and Implications for Nationally Determined Contributions

US Forest Sector Greenhouse Mitigation Potential and Implications for Nationally Determined Contributions

Can Land Management Buffer Impacts of Climate Changes and Altered Fire Regimes on Ecosystems of the Southwestern United States?

Quantifying Changes in Total and Pyrogenic Carbon Stocks Across Fire Severity Gradients Using Active Wildfire Incidents

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