Research Summary: Projecting Vegetation and Wildfire Response to Changing Climate and Fire Management in Interior Alaska

• Main Authors: Breen,Amy, Bennett,Alec, Kurkowski,Tom, Lindgren,Michael, Schroder,Julien, McGuire,A D, Rupp,T S
• Other Authors: University of Alaska Fairbanks Fairbanks United States
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: Forestry; ecosystems; vegetation; climate change; carbon dioxide; soils; resource management; greenhouse gases; forests; fire protection; Alaska; vulnerability; boreal forest; permafrost; fire management; modeling
• Online Access: http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/AD1028991; http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=AD1028991

An extensive suite of empirical studies was completed with modeling to improve understanding of the mechanistic linkages among fire, vegetation, the soil organic layer (SOL), and permafrost thaw across interior Alaska. The primary project objectives were to: (1)determine mechanistic links among fire, soils, permafrost, and vegetation succession in order to develop and test field-based ecosystem indicators that can be used to directly predict ecosystem vulnerability to state change, and (2) forecast landscape change in response to projected changes in climate, fire regime, and fire management.