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Editor's Highlight
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GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS,
VOL. 33,
L09703,
doi:10.1029/2006GL025677,
2006
Recent changes in the fire regime across the North American boreal region—Spatial and temporal patterns of burning across
Canada and Alaska
Eric S. Kasischke
Department of Geography, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA
Merritt R. Turetsky
Department of Plant Biology and Wildlife, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, USA
Abstract
We used historic records from 1959–99 to explore fire regime characteristics at ecozone scales across the entire North American
boreal region (NABR). Shifts in the NABR fire regime between the 1960s/70s and the 1980s/90s were characterized by a doubling
of annual burned area and more than a doubling of the frequency of larger fire years because of more large fire events (>1,000
km2). The proportion of total burned area from human-ignited fires decreased over this same time period, while the proportion
of burning during the early and late- growing-seasons increased. Trends in increased burned area were consistent across the
NABR ecozones, though the western ecozones experienced greater increases in larger fire years compared to the eastern ecozones.
Seasonal patterns of burning differed among ecozones. Along with the climate warming, changes in the fire regime characteristics
may be an important driver of future ecosystem processes in the NABR.
Received 16
January
2005;
accepted 29
March
2006;
published 3
May
2006.
Index Terms: 0429 Biogeosciences: Climate dynamics (1620); 0426 Biogeosciences: Biosphere/atmosphere interactions (0315); 0468 Biogeosciences: Natural hazards.
Read Full Article (file size: 340548 bytes) Cited by
Citation: Kasischke, E. S., and M. R. Turetsky
(2006),
Recent changes in the fire regime across the North American boreal region—Spatial and temporal patterns of burning across
Canada and Alaska,
Geophys. Res. Lett.,
33,
L09703,
doi:10.1029/2006GL025677.
Copyright 2006 by the American Geophysical Union.
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