Alberta wildfire regime analysis

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors used eight years of fire weather data from sixteen representative weather stations within the Boreal Forest Natural Region of Alberta to compile reference weather streams for low, moderate, high, very high and extreme Fire Weather Index (FWI) conditions.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors used the Landis II forest landscape model to project changes in forest landscapes, and associated bird populations (72 passerine species), according to three climatic scenarios (baseline, RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5) and three forest harvesting scenarios of differing intensity.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors used repeated fire growth simulations, automated in the Burn-P3 landscape-fire simulation model, to assess spatial variations in fire susceptibility across a 2.4 million ha study area in the province of Alberta, Canada.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors used the K-function and kernel estimation method to evaluate the locations of lightning and human-caused forest fires in Alberta, Canada, and found that fire types have spatial patterns of cluster distribution.

Abstract: The importance of fire as an ecological disturbance in the Northern Rockies is well accepted. Lightning is generally thought to have been the main source of ignition prior to settlement by Europeans. But writings of explorers and pioneers mention deliberate burning by Indians frequently enough to warrant an investigation of its importance. Interviews with descendants of Native Americans and of pioneer settlers in western Montana suggest that Indian burning was widespread, had many purposes, but was generally unsystematic. Fire chronologies based upon scars on old-growth trees indicate that fire intervals within similar forest types were shortest near Indian-use zones. Comparisons of presettlement fire intervals with those calculated from modern lightning-fire records suggest that Indian-caused fires substantially augmented lightning fires over large areas. As dependence on lightning fires alone may not create or perpetuate certain desirable plant communities or stand conditions, prescribed burning may be needed.

TL;DR: In this article, Shvidenko and Nilsson examined the fire statistics for the Russian boreal forest region and showed that there is much uncertainty in these data because of the management and monitoring practices in this country.

TL;DR: It appears that in 1972 natural processes still dominated the changes in the vegetation composition and age, and sites populated mostly by lodgepole pine or Englemann spruce tended to remain the same in both surveys.