Fire and climate dynamics in the boreal forest of northern Alberta, Canada, from AD 1850 to 1989
The reconstruction of climatically induced changes in the occurrence of forest fires has typically been limited to the period of historical records or to areas where long fire-scar records are available. In this study historical fire records and dendrochronological forest stand-age data are analyzed...
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/095968369600600407 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/095968369600600407 |
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crsagepubl:10.1177/095968369600600407 2024-10-13T14:11:18+00:00 Fire and climate dynamics in the boreal forest of northern Alberta, Canada, from AD 1850 to 1989 Larsen, C.P.S. 1996 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/095968369600600407 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/095968369600600407 en eng SAGE Publications https://journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license The Holocene volume 6, issue 4, page 449-456 ISSN 0959-6836 1477-0911 journal-article 1996 crsagepubl https://doi.org/10.1177/095968369600600407 2024-09-24T04:10:48Z The reconstruction of climatically induced changes in the occurrence of forest fires has typically been limited to the period of historical records or to areas where long fire-scar records are available. In this study historical fire records and dendrochronological forest stand-age data are analyzed using life-table methods to reconstruct annual (AD 1950-1989) and semi-decadal (AD 1850-1989) variations in area burned in the 44 870 km 2 area of boreal forest in Wood Buffalo National Park (WBNP). Annual area burned between 1950 and 1989 was negatively correlated with mean fire-season precipitation and five annual tree-ring width indices from WBNP, and positively correlated with the fire-season means of temperature and the Seasonal Severity Rating, a Canadian Forest Fire Weather Index. Life-table estimates of semidecadal variations in mean annual per cent area burned were significantly positively correlated with historical records of annual area burned in WBNP between 1950 and 1989 and significantly negatively correlated with five tree-ring width indices from WBNP between 1850 and 1989. Peaks in semidecadal estimates of mean annual per cent area burned appear to be quasi-periodic, with an average interval of 30 to 40 years. Potential causes of these decadal scale variations in fire and climate are discussed. The results of this study indicate that forest age-structure data collected at the landscape scale can be used to infer prehistoric, decadal scale variations in the amount of area burned by forest fires. Article in Journal/Newspaper Wood Buffalo Wood Buffalo National Park SAGE Publications Canada Wood Buffalo ENVELOPE(-112.007,-112.007,57.664,57.664) The Holocene 6 4 449 456 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
SAGE Publications |
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crsagepubl |
language |
English |
description |
The reconstruction of climatically induced changes in the occurrence of forest fires has typically been limited to the period of historical records or to areas where long fire-scar records are available. In this study historical fire records and dendrochronological forest stand-age data are analyzed using life-table methods to reconstruct annual (AD 1950-1989) and semi-decadal (AD 1850-1989) variations in area burned in the 44 870 km 2 area of boreal forest in Wood Buffalo National Park (WBNP). Annual area burned between 1950 and 1989 was negatively correlated with mean fire-season precipitation and five annual tree-ring width indices from WBNP, and positively correlated with the fire-season means of temperature and the Seasonal Severity Rating, a Canadian Forest Fire Weather Index. Life-table estimates of semidecadal variations in mean annual per cent area burned were significantly positively correlated with historical records of annual area burned in WBNP between 1950 and 1989 and significantly negatively correlated with five tree-ring width indices from WBNP between 1850 and 1989. Peaks in semidecadal estimates of mean annual per cent area burned appear to be quasi-periodic, with an average interval of 30 to 40 years. Potential causes of these decadal scale variations in fire and climate are discussed. The results of this study indicate that forest age-structure data collected at the landscape scale can be used to infer prehistoric, decadal scale variations in the amount of area burned by forest fires. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Larsen, C.P.S. |
spellingShingle |
Larsen, C.P.S. Fire and climate dynamics in the boreal forest of northern Alberta, Canada, from AD 1850 to 1989 |
author_facet |
Larsen, C.P.S. |
author_sort |
Larsen, C.P.S. |
title |
Fire and climate dynamics in the boreal forest of northern Alberta, Canada, from AD 1850 to 1989 |
title_short |
Fire and climate dynamics in the boreal forest of northern Alberta, Canada, from AD 1850 to 1989 |
title_full |
Fire and climate dynamics in the boreal forest of northern Alberta, Canada, from AD 1850 to 1989 |
title_fullStr |
Fire and climate dynamics in the boreal forest of northern Alberta, Canada, from AD 1850 to 1989 |
title_full_unstemmed |
Fire and climate dynamics in the boreal forest of northern Alberta, Canada, from AD 1850 to 1989 |
title_sort |
fire and climate dynamics in the boreal forest of northern alberta, canada, from ad 1850 to 1989 |
publisher |
SAGE Publications |
publishDate |
1996 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/095968369600600407 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/095968369600600407 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-112.007,-112.007,57.664,57.664) |
geographic |
Canada Wood Buffalo |
geographic_facet |
Canada Wood Buffalo |
genre |
Wood Buffalo Wood Buffalo National Park |
genre_facet |
Wood Buffalo Wood Buffalo National Park |
op_source |
The Holocene volume 6, issue 4, page 449-456 ISSN 0959-6836 1477-0911 |
op_rights |
https://journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1177/095968369600600407 |
container_title |
The Holocene |
container_volume |
6 |
container_issue |
4 |
container_start_page |
449 |
op_container_end_page |
456 |
_version_ |
1812818988978143232 |