Wildland fire in ecosystems: effects of fire on air

Abstract

_____________________________________This state-of-knowledge review about the effects of fire on air quality can assist land, fire, and air resource managers with fire and smoke planning, and their efforts to explain to others the science behind fire-related program policies and practices to improve air quality. Chapter topics include air quality regulations and fire; characterization of emissions from fire; the transport, dispersion, and modeling of fire emissions; atmospheric and plume chemistry; air quality impacts of fire; social consequences of air quality impacts; and recommendations for future research.

Fuel reduction treatments affect stand structure of hardwood forests in Western North Carolina and Southern Ohio, USA

“…Eastern hardwood ecosystems were developed by a broad array of natural disturbances but the role played by natural and anthropogenic fire has not been appreciated until recent years . Considerable knowledge exists on the fire-dependent pine ecosystems of the western United States and the southeastern Coastal Plain (Brown and Smith, 2000;Smith, 2000;Sandberg et al, 2002;Neary et al, 2005). However, the role of fire is not well recognized for the Central Hardwood region and southern Appalachian Mountains .…”

Science synthesis to support socioecological resilience in the Sierra Nevada and southern Cascade Range

“…The literature on impacts to infrastructure from impaired air quality may be helpful in pointing to additional areas of consideration, for example, the damage caused to exteriors of buildings from pollutants (see Winter 1999). Sandburg et al (2002) examined the effects of fire on air quality and provide some analyses of impacts from fire and smoke, pointing to the effects of damage to infrastructure and reduced highway safety. provide an extensive review of wildland fire impacts on communities at the individual, family, neighborhood, social group, and community scales, demonstrating the complexities of scale when applying social science to management of fire.…”

Atmospheric emissions from vegetation fires in Portugal (1990–2008): estimates, uncertainty analysis, and sensitivity analysis

“…From the standpoint of atmospheric impacts, land use and natural resource managers need timely, accurate information to assess, monitor, and predict emission magnitudes and air quality impacts, namely from prescribed burning programs, acute health effects of smoke exposure, visibility reduction, and to assess tradeoffs between air quality impacts from wildland fire and prescribed fire (Sandberg et al, 2002).…”