Seven hundred years of human-driven and climate-influenced fire activity in a British Columbia coastal temperate rainforest
While wildland fire is globally most common at the savannah-grassland ecotone, there is little evidence of fire in coastal temperate rainforests. We reconstructed fire activity with a ca 700-year fire history derived from fire scars and stand establishment from 30 sites in a very wet (up to 4000 mm...
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crroyalsociety:10.1098/rsos.160608 2024-09-09T19:25:45+00:00 Seven hundred years of human-driven and climate-influenced fire activity in a British Columbia coastal temperate rainforest Hoffman, Kira M. Gavin, Daniel G. Starzomski, Brian M. Canada Foundation for Innovation Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Hakai Institute 2016 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.160608 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsos.160608 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rsos.160608 en eng The Royal Society https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ Royal Society Open Science volume 3, issue 10, page 160608 ISSN 2054-5703 journal-article 2016 crroyalsociety https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.160608 2024-06-24T04:28:26Z While wildland fire is globally most common at the savannah-grassland ecotone, there is little evidence of fire in coastal temperate rainforests. We reconstructed fire activity with a ca 700-year fire history derived from fire scars and stand establishment from 30 sites in a very wet (up to 4000 mm annual precipitation) temperate rainforest in coastal British Columbia, Canada. Drought and warmer temperatures in the year prior were positively associated with fire events though there was little coherence of climate indices on the years of fires. At the decadal scale, fires were more likely to occur after positive El Niño-Southern Oscillation and Pacific Decadal Oscillation phases and exhibited 30-year periods of synchrony with the negative phase of the Arctic Oscillation. Fire frequency was significantly inversely correlated with the distance from former Indigenous habitation sites and fires ceased following cultural disorganization caused by disease and other European impacts in the late nineteenth century. Indigenous people were likely to have been the primary ignition source in this and many coastal temperate rainforest settings. These data are directly relevant to contemporary forest management and discredit the myth of coastal temperate rainforests as pristine landscapes. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic The Royal Society Arctic Canada Pacific British Columbia ENVELOPE(-125.003,-125.003,54.000,54.000) Royal Society Open Science 3 10 160608 |
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Open Polar |
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The Royal Society |
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crroyalsociety |
language |
English |
description |
While wildland fire is globally most common at the savannah-grassland ecotone, there is little evidence of fire in coastal temperate rainforests. We reconstructed fire activity with a ca 700-year fire history derived from fire scars and stand establishment from 30 sites in a very wet (up to 4000 mm annual precipitation) temperate rainforest in coastal British Columbia, Canada. Drought and warmer temperatures in the year prior were positively associated with fire events though there was little coherence of climate indices on the years of fires. At the decadal scale, fires were more likely to occur after positive El Niño-Southern Oscillation and Pacific Decadal Oscillation phases and exhibited 30-year periods of synchrony with the negative phase of the Arctic Oscillation. Fire frequency was significantly inversely correlated with the distance from former Indigenous habitation sites and fires ceased following cultural disorganization caused by disease and other European impacts in the late nineteenth century. Indigenous people were likely to have been the primary ignition source in this and many coastal temperate rainforest settings. These data are directly relevant to contemporary forest management and discredit the myth of coastal temperate rainforests as pristine landscapes. |
author2 |
Canada Foundation for Innovation Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Hakai Institute |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Hoffman, Kira M. Gavin, Daniel G. Starzomski, Brian M. |
spellingShingle |
Hoffman, Kira M. Gavin, Daniel G. Starzomski, Brian M. Seven hundred years of human-driven and climate-influenced fire activity in a British Columbia coastal temperate rainforest |
author_facet |
Hoffman, Kira M. Gavin, Daniel G. Starzomski, Brian M. |
author_sort |
Hoffman, Kira M. |
title |
Seven hundred years of human-driven and climate-influenced fire activity in a British Columbia coastal temperate rainforest |
title_short |
Seven hundred years of human-driven and climate-influenced fire activity in a British Columbia coastal temperate rainforest |
title_full |
Seven hundred years of human-driven and climate-influenced fire activity in a British Columbia coastal temperate rainforest |
title_fullStr |
Seven hundred years of human-driven and climate-influenced fire activity in a British Columbia coastal temperate rainforest |
title_full_unstemmed |
Seven hundred years of human-driven and climate-influenced fire activity in a British Columbia coastal temperate rainforest |
title_sort |
seven hundred years of human-driven and climate-influenced fire activity in a british columbia coastal temperate rainforest |
publisher |
The Royal Society |
publishDate |
2016 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.160608 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsos.160608 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rsos.160608 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-125.003,-125.003,54.000,54.000) |
geographic |
Arctic Canada Pacific British Columbia |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Canada Pacific British Columbia |
genre |
Arctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic |
op_source |
Royal Society Open Science volume 3, issue 10, page 160608 ISSN 2054-5703 |
op_rights |
https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.160608 |
container_title |
Royal Society Open Science |
container_volume |
3 |
container_issue |
10 |
container_start_page |
160608 |
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1809895493696749568 |