Decision Support for Defining Historical Fire Regimes: The International Multiproxy Paleofire Database

Altered fire regimes and associated changes in fuels and vegetation structure pose risks to biodiversity, sustainable ecosystems, and economic and community interests. Development of vegetation and fire management plans requires knowledge of historical fire regime parameters (e.g., frequency, severity) and this knowledge can only be derived from fire history data. The International Multiproxy Paleofire Database (IMPD) is a unique source of fire history information from tree-ring and sediment-charcoal based paleofire records, managed by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Paleoclimatology Branch. The goal of this project has been to work in collaboration with our partners in the U.S. Forest Service and NOAA to find the best way to deliver the IMPD information to the vegetation and fire management community in the State of Arizona and in other western states, tailored to their needs and capabilities.

GIS Based Analytical Tool - This ArcIMS map presentation allows users to choose multiple fire scar sites from the IMPD holdings, and download fire history data and obtain statistical analysis from those sites. Find out more about this tool.

Bibliographical Map Tool - This Google map presentation is a prototype that shows the locations of fire history sites in Arizona, and links them with their associated bibliographic references. Find out more about this tool.

This material is based upon works supported by the Science Foundation Arizona under Grant No. CAA 0080-07. Additional support for this project came from the University of Arizona Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, the USDA Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station, and NOAA's National Climatic Data Center.

Please contact esutherland@fs.fed.us with any questions or comments about this project.