California Forest and Shrubland Ecosystem Changes in Relation to Fire, Fuel Hazard, and Climate Change

California Forest and Shrubland Ecosystem Changes in Relation to Fire, Fuel Hazard, and Climate Change PDF Author: Katherine Marie Johnston Wilkin
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 113

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Book Description
Fire is an integral ecological process, however fire's impacts have been dramatically altered by people. In this dissertation I researched how fire ecology use to work and the vulnerability of ecosystems to fuel hazard reduction treatments by using a combination of experiments and landscape scale natural experiments throughout California. One of the best places to understand past fire behavior are the Wildland Fire Use areas in Sierran mixed conifer where I revealed that a forests' environment, local-scale fire experiences, and regional fire experiences foster a rich, but sparse understory plant community. Throughout Yosemite National Park's mixed conifer zone I examined the fire ecology of climate change refugia which have unique fire occurrence and severity patterns in frequent-fire mixed conifer forests of California's Sierra Nevada: cold-air pool refugia have less fire and if it occurs, it is lower severity. In Northern California's chaparral I examined fuel hazard reduction treatments and found that mastication and fire each have negative, yet unique influences on plant communities and fuel hazards which warrant examining other methods to protect people from chaparral fires. Overall these studies allow greater insight into our ecosystems and may help managers make informed fire management decisions.

California Forest and Shrubland Ecosystem Changes in Relation to Fire, Fuel Hazard, and Climate Change

California Forest and Shrubland Ecosystem Changes in Relation to Fire, Fuel Hazard, and Climate Change PDF Author: Katherine Marie Johnston Wilkin
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 113

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Book Description
Fire is an integral ecological process, however fire's impacts have been dramatically altered by people. In this dissertation I researched how fire ecology use to work and the vulnerability of ecosystems to fuel hazard reduction treatments by using a combination of experiments and landscape scale natural experiments throughout California. One of the best places to understand past fire behavior are the Wildland Fire Use areas in Sierran mixed conifer where I revealed that a forests' environment, local-scale fire experiences, and regional fire experiences foster a rich, but sparse understory plant community. Throughout Yosemite National Park's mixed conifer zone I examined the fire ecology of climate change refugia which have unique fire occurrence and severity patterns in frequent-fire mixed conifer forests of California's Sierra Nevada: cold-air pool refugia have less fire and if it occurs, it is lower severity. In Northern California's chaparral I examined fuel hazard reduction treatments and found that mastication and fire each have negative, yet unique influences on plant communities and fuel hazards which warrant examining other methods to protect people from chaparral fires. Overall these studies allow greater insight into our ecosystems and may help managers make informed fire management decisions.

Ecosystems of California

Ecosystems of California PDF Author: Harold Mooney
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520278801
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 1008

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Book Description
This long-anticipated reference and sourcebook for CaliforniaÕs remarkable ecological abundance provides an integrated assessment of each major ecosystem typeÑits distribution, structure, function, and management. A comprehensive synthesis of our knowledge about this biologically diverse state, Ecosystems of California covers the state from oceans to mountaintops using multiple lenses: past and present, flora and fauna, aquatic and terrestrial, natural and managed. Each chapter evaluates natural processes for a specific ecosystem, describes drivers of change, and discusses how that ecosystem may be altered in the future. This book also explores the drivers of CaliforniaÕs ecological patterns and the history of the stateÕs various ecosystems, outlining how the challenges of climate change and invasive species and opportunities for regulation and stewardship could potentially affect the stateÕs ecosystems. The text explicitly incorporates both human impacts and conservation and restoration efforts and shows how ecosystems support human well-being. Edited by two esteemed ecosystem ecologists and with overviews by leading experts on each ecosystem, this definitive work will be indispensable for natural resource management and conservation professionals as well as for undergraduate or graduate students of CaliforniaÕs environment and curious naturalists.

Fire in California's Ecosystems

Fire in California's Ecosystems PDF Author: Jan W. van Wagtendonk
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520961919
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 567

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Book Description
Fire in California’s Ecosystems describes fire in detail—both as an integral natural process in the California landscape and as a growing threat to urban and suburban developments in the state. Written by many of the foremost authorities on the subject, this comprehensive volume is an ideal authoritative reference tool and the foremost synthesis of knowledge on the science, ecology, and management of fire in California. Part One introduces the basics of fire ecology, including overviews of historical fires, vegetation, climate, weather, fire as a physical and ecological process, and fire regimes, and reviews the interactions between fire and the physical, plant, and animal components of the environment. Part Two explores the history and ecology of fire in each of California's nine bioregions. Part Three examines fire management in California during Native American and post-Euro-American settlement and also current issues related to fire policy such as fuel management, watershed management, air quality, invasive plant species, at-risk species, climate change, social dynamics, and the future of fire management. This edition includes critical scientific and management updates and four new chapters on fire weather, fire regimes, climate change, and social dynamics.

Wildland Fire in Ecosystems

Wildland Fire in Ecosystems PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Animal ecology
Languages : en
Pages : 92

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Book Description


Wildland Fire in Ecosystems

Wildland Fire in Ecosystems PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Animal ecology
Languages : en
Pages : 92

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Book Description


Simulating the Effects of Climate Change, Wildfire and Fuel Treatment on Sierra Nevada Forests

Simulating the Effects of Climate Change, Wildfire and Fuel Treatment on Sierra Nevada Forests PDF Author: Shuang Liang
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Sierra Nevada forests represent a major ecological and economic resource for the state of California. Changes in climate and disturbance regimes, compounded with changes in forest structure from fire-exclusion, pose a critical challenge to managing Sierran forests for sustained carbon (C) sequestration and ecosystem services. My dissertation research sought to improve our understanding of how changing climate and disturbance will affect forest ecosystems in the Sierra Nevada by accounting for species-specific dynamics and interacting spatial processes that were underrepresented in landscape projections. Given the diverse tree species and forest types that differ in their optimal climate for growth and tolerance of stressors, I simulated forest dynamics in the Sierra Nevada under projected future climate and area burned as well as alternative management strategies with a species-specific, spatially explicit forest landscape model. First, I quantified how projected climate-wildfire interactions would affect forest communities and associated C dynamics. Here, results suggest that, across the Sierra Nevada, forest communities may not change as intact unit over the 21st Century and potential exists for substantial community change and C sequestration decline beyond this century. Then, I assessed the long-term successional trajectory and the ability of the system to sequester C beyond the 21st Century. Assuming climate and wildfire distributions equilibrate at late-century conditions, the results show a committed decline in forest cover and C carrying capacity, suggesting a steep reduction in the contribution of Sierra Nevada forest to the terrestrial C sink. Finally, I quantified how large-scale restoration treatments would alter the effects of changing climate and wildfire on forest C balance. I found that widespread application of fuel treatments would confer greater forest C stock stability. This work offers an improved understanding of how changing environmental conditions will affect the forest ecosystems in the Sierra Nevada and provides insights into using large-scale management strategy to manage the Sierran landscape under novel conditions.

Flame and Fortune in the American West

Flame and Fortune in the American West PDF Author: Gregory Simon
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520292790
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 270

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Book Description
Flame and Fortune in the American West creatively and meticulously investigates the ongoing politics, folly, and avarice shaping the production of increasingly widespread yet dangerous suburban and exurban landscapes. The 1991 Oakland Hills Tunnel Fire is used as a starting point to better understand these complex social-environmental processes. The Tunnel Fire is the most destructive fire—in terms of structures lost—in California history. More than 3,000 residential structures burned and 25 lives were lost. Although this fire occurred in Oakland and Berkeley, others like it sear through landscapes in California and the American West that have experienced urban growth and development within areas historically prone to fire. Simon skillfully blends techniques from environmental history, political ecology, and science studies to closely examine the Tunnel Fire within a broader historical and spatial context of regional economic development and natural-resource management, such as the widespread planting of eucalyptus trees as an exotic lure for homeowners and the creation of hillside neighborhoods for tax revenue—decisions that produced communities with increased vulnerability to fire. Simon demonstrates how in Oakland a drive for affluence led to a state of vulnerability for rich and poor alike that has only been exacerbated by the rebuilding of neighborhoods after the fire. Despite these troubling trends, Flame and Fortune in the American West illustrates how many popular and scientific debates on fire limit the scope and efficacy of policy responses. These risky yet profitable developments (what the author refers to as the Incendiary), as well as proposed strategies for challenging them, are discussed in the context of urbanizing areas around the American West and hold global applicability within hazard-prone areas.

Valuing Chaparral

Valuing Chaparral PDF Author: Emma C. Underwood
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319683039
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 483

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Book Description
Chaparral shrubland ecosystems are an iconic feature of the California landscape, and a highly biodiverse yet highly flammable backdrop to some of the fastest growing urban areas in the United States. Chaparral-type ecosystems are a common element of all of the world’s Mediterranean-type climate regions – of which California is one – yet there is little public appreciation of the intrinsic value and the ecosystem services that these landscapes provide. Valuing Chaparral is a compendium of contributions from experts in chaparral ecology and management, with a focus on the human relationship with chaparral ecosystems. Chapters cover a wide variety of subjects, ranging from biodiversity to ecosystem services like water provision, erosion control, carbon sequestration and recreation; from the history of human interactions with chaparral to current education and conservation efforts; and from chaparral restoration and management to scenarios of the future under changing climate, land use, and human population. Valuing Chaparral will be of interest to resource managers, the research community, policy makers, and the public who live and work in the chaparral dominated landscapes of California and other Mediterranean-type climate regions.

Scenarios to Evaluate Long-term Wildfire Risk in California : New Methods for Considering Links Between Changing Demography, Land Use, and Climate

Scenarios to Evaluate Long-term Wildfire Risk in California : New Methods for Considering Links Between Changing Demography, Land Use, and Climate PDF Author: Benjamin P. Bryant
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Climatic changes
Languages : en
Pages : 64

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Book Description


Wildland Fires and Air Pollution

Wildland Fires and Air Pollution PDF Author: Andrzej Bytnerowicz
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 0080560490
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 687

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Book Description
The interaction between smoke and air pollution creates a public health challenge. Fuels treatments proposed for National Forests are intended to reduce fuel accumulations and wildfire frequency and severity, as well as to protect property located in the wild land-urban interface. However, prescribed fires produce gases and aerosols that have instantaneous and long-term effects on air quality. If fuels treatment are not conducted, however, then wild land fires become more severe and frequent causing worse public health and wellfare effects. A better understanding of air pollution and smoke interactions is needed in order to protect the public health and allow for socially and ecologically acceptable use of fire as a management tool. Wildland Fires and Air Pollution offers such an understanding and examines innovative wide-scale monitoring efforts (field and remotely sensed), and development of models predicting spatial and temporal distribution of air pollution and smoke resulting from forests fires and other sources. Collaborative effort of an international team of scientists High quality of invited chapters Full colour