Landscape Effects of Fire Frequency and Severity on Boreal Alaskan Landscapes

Wildfire is the primary disturbance in boreal forests of interior Alaska, and a major disturbance factor in tundra regions of coastal Alaska and the North Slope. Fire frequency and severity are primary determinants of vegetative succession trajectories and the rates of carbon loss and sequestration

Abstract

Wildfire is the primary disturbance in boreal forests of interior Alaska, and a major disturbance factor in the tundra regions of coastal Alaska and the North Slope. Fire frequency and severity are primary determinants of vegetative succession trajectories and, subsequently, the rates of carbon loss and sequestration in boreal ecosystems. Fire regimes and fire impacts have been observed on fine spatial scales at point locations in Alaska, but the collective impacts of wildfire on vegetation, carbon, wildlife, air quality, and biogeochemical cycles across the heterogeneous landscape are poorly understood and critical to developing regional fire management strategies. The goal of this project is to address regional changes in fine to moderate-scale ecosystem processes induced by wildfire patterns. The project is developing a regional history of wildfire severity patterns that span four decades leading up to the present, and assessing trends in the patterns and their relationships to vegetative cover and climate trends. It is primarily focused on the boreal forest component of the Yukon River Basin in the Alaskan interior, but is also addressing a noticeable uptick in the coastal tundra regions where wildfires have previously been infrequent and not a major component of the disturbance regime. Projections of climate warming in the high latitudes and the probable changes in wildfire frequency and severity that will likely accompany regional warming have significant potential for negative impacts to three systems of importance: the global carbon cycle, the vast refuge for wildlife that characterizes much of Alaska, and the human infrastructure that continues to make inroads in the remote regions of the Alaskan wilderness. Policy-makers and land management agencies responsible for developing long-range management plans that meet the needs of multiple interrelated and complex stakeholder groups need to have the best information available to develop methods that are resilient or adaptive to large-scale wildfire disturbance.

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Products

Title	Type
A landscape perspective on historic range of variability of wildfire in Alaska.	Publication
Climate change impacts on burn severity in Alaska, Part II: Implication for Fire Management.	Publication
Climate change impacts on burn severity in Alaska, Part I: Climate-fire relationships	Publication
Fire behavior, weather, and burn severity of the 2007 Anaktuvuk River tundra fire North Slope Alaska	Publication
Relative Importance of Weather and Climate on Wildfire Growth in Interior Alaska	Publication
Wildfire consumption and interannual impacts by land cover in alaskan boreal forest	Publication
Characterizing Alaskan Wildfire Regimes through Remotely Sensed Data	Publication
Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (MTBS)	Data

Contacts

Kolden, Crystal , 208-885-6018

Status: completed
Start Year: 2007
End Year: 2011

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USGS Mission Area and Program

Land Resources → Land Change Science
Land Resources → Land Remote Sensing

Keywords

Biosphere > Ecological Dynamics > Fire Ecology
Biosphere > Ecological Dynamics > Fire Ecology > Fire Dynamics