Chapter 3 - Large-scale patterns of forest fire occurrence in the conterminous United States, Alaska and Hawaii, 2016
Authors: | Kevin M. Potter |
Year: | 2018 |
Type: | General Technical Report |
Station: | Southern Research Station |
Source: | In: Potter, Kevin M.; Conkling, Barbara L., eds. 2018. Forest health monitoring: national status, trends, and analysis 2017. Gen. Tech. Rep. SRS-233. Asheville, NC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Research Station. |
Abstract
As a pervasive disturbance agent operating at many spatial and temporal scales, wildland fire is a key abiotic factor affecting forest health both positively and negatively. In some ecosystems, for example, wildland fires have been essential for regulating processes that maintain forest health (Lundquist and others 2011). Wildland fire is an important ecological mechanism that shapes the distributions of species, maintains the structure and function of fire-prone communities, and acts as a significantevolutionary force (Bond and Keeley 2005). At the same time, wildland fires have created forest health problems in some ecosystems (Edmondsand others 2011). Specifically, fire outside the historic range of frequency and intensity can impose extensive ecological and socioeconomic impacts. Current fire regimes on more than half of the forested area in the conterminous United States have been moderately or significantly altered from historical regimes, potentially altering key ecosystem components such as species composition, structural stage, stand age, canopy closure, and fuel loadings (Schmidt and others 2002). As a result of intense suppression efforts during most of the 20th century, the forest area burned annually decreased from
approximately 16–20 million ha (40–50 million acres) in the early 1930s to about 2 million ha (5 million acres) in the 1970s (Vinton 2004). Understanding existing fire regimes is essential to properly assessing the impact of fire on forest health because changes to historical fire regimes can alter forest developmental patterns, including the establishment, growth, and mortality of trees (Lundquist and others 2011).