The Alaska Reference Database originated as the standalone Alaska Fire Effects Reference Database, a ProCite reference database maintained by former BLM-Alaska Fire Service Fire Ecologist Randi Jandt. It was expanded under a Joint Fire Science Program grant for the FIREHouse project (The Northwest and Alaska Fire Research Clearinghouse). It is now maintained by the Alaska Fire Science Consortium and FRAMES, and is hosted through the FRAMES Resource Catalog. The database provides a listing of fire research publications relevant to Alaska and a venue for sharing unpublished agency reports and works in progress that are not normally found in the published literature.
Type
Topic
Year
Displaying 1 - 25 of 54
Cruz, Alexander
[From the Introduction] In the October-December 2019 issue of WILDFIRE, we described a recently developed rule of thumb for estimating a wildfire’s forward spread rate when burning conditions are severe, namely when wind speeds are high and fuels are critically dry, and the time…
Year: 2021
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Son, Kim, Wang, Jeong, Woo, Jeong, Lee, Kim, LaPlante, Kwon
The 2015 Paris Agreement led to a number of studies that assessed the impact of the 1.5 °C and 2.0 °C increases in global temperature over preindustrial levels. However, those assessments have not actively investigated the impact of these levels of warming on fire weather. In…
Year: 2021
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Hanes, Wotton, McFayden, Jurko
The Fire Weather Index (FWI) System codes and indices are commonly communicated and interpreted using a classification system (i.e., Low, Moderate, High, Extreme) by fire management agencies. Adjective classes were developed provincially shortly after the FWI System was…
Year: 2021
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Holzworth, Brundell, McCarthy, Jacobson, Rodger, Anderson
World Wide Lightning Location Network (WWLLN) data on global lightning are used to investigate the increase of total lightning strokes at Arctic latitudes. We use the summertime data from June, July, and August (JJA) which average >200,000 strokes each year above 65°N for the…
Year: 2021
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
The challenges of the 2020 Fire Year have validated the Cohesive Strategy and proven its foundational value for additional success and achievement across boundaries and landscapes in the West. The following pages offer a snapshot of 2020 activities and successes in the Western…
Year: 2021
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Toman, Wilson, Jolly, Olsen
Fire weather tools, such as the National Fire Danger Rating System (NFDRS) and the Wildland Fire Decision Support System (WFDSS), have been developed to support wildland fire management decisions. However, little is known about how these tools are used in practice, the…
Year: 2021
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Rapp, Wilson, Toman, Jolly
Background: Weather plays an integral role in fire management due to the direct and indirect effects it has on fire behavior. However, fire managers may not use all information available to them during the decision-making process, instead utilizing mental shortcuts that can bias…
Year: 2021
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Nguyen, Kaye
Results are presented from of experiments to determine the susceptibility of rooftops to embers staying in contact during wildfires. Wind tunnel experiments were run in which the rooftops of model houses were covered with model embers and exposed to the wind. Tests covered a…
Year: 2021
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Achtemeier, Goodrick
Abrupt changes in wind direction and speed caused by thunderstorm-generated gust fronts can, within a few seconds, transform slow-spreading low-intensity flanking fires into high-intensity head fires. Flame heights and spread rates can more than double. Fire mitigation…
Year: 2021
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Touma, Stevenson, Lehner, Coates
Attribution studies have identified a robust anthropogenic fingerprint in increased 21st century wildfire risk. However, the risks associated with individual aspects of anthropogenic aerosol and greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions, biomass burning and land use/land cover change…
Year: 2021
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Cullen, Axe, Podschwit
National and regional preparedness level (PL) designations support decisions about wildfire risk management. Such decisions occur across the fire season and influence pre-positioning of resources in areas of greatest fire potential, recall of personnel from off-duty status,…
Year: 2021
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Seamon
The Manual includes information on the organization's standard operating procedures, requirements, and guidelines regarding fire management. It also outlines the necessary steps for developing and maintaining a succesful fire management program. The Manual is a dynamic document…
Year: 2007
Type: Document
Source: TTRS
Choi, Fernando
Vegetation fires emit a number of air pollutants, thus impacting air quality at local, regional and global scales. One such pollutant is the particulate matter (PM) that is known to trigger adverse health effects. In this study, the CALPUFF/CALMET/MM5 modeling system is employed…
Year: 2007
Type: Document
Source: TTRS
Bourgeau-Chavez, Garwood, Riordan, Cella, Alden, Kwart, Murphy
Alaska currently relies on the Canadian Fire Weather Index (FWI) System for the assessment of the potential for wildfire and although it provides invaluable information it is designed as a single system that does not account for the varied fuel types and drying conditions (day…
Year: 2007
Type: Document
Source: TTRS
Wotton, Beverly
A large dataset of litter moisture measurements collected at several sites across Canada by the Canadian Forest Service over the period from 1939 to 1961 is analysed. The stands in which sampling was carried out were described by three main variables: forest type (pine, spruce,…
Year: 2007
Type: Document
Source: TTRS
Otway, Bork, Anderson, Alexander
The manner in which trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) forest duff moisture changes during the growing season was investigated in Elk Island National Park, Alberta, Canada. A calibration-validation procedure incorporating one calibration site with moisture sampling…
Year: 2007
Type: Document
Source: TTRS
Otway, Bork, Anderson, Alexander
Fire is one of the key disturbances affecting trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) forest ecosystems within western Canadian wildlands, including Elk Island National Park in central Alberta, Canada. Although prescribed fire is a tool available to modify aspen forests, a…
Year: 2007
Type: Document
Source: TTRS
Le Goff, Flannigan, Bergeron, Girardin
The synchrony of regional fire regime shifts across the Quebec boreal forest, eastern Canada, suggests that regional fire regimes are influenced by large-scale climate variability. The present study investigated the relationship of the forest-age distribution, reflecting the…
Year: 2007
Type: Document
Source: TTRS
Lauzon, Kneeshaw, Bergeron
We describe the fire regime in the Gaspesian mixedwood boreal forest in order to improve our knowledge of the maritime fire regime through time and the role of climate on changes in fire cycle. We also investigated the importance of coarse scale spatial factors, such as…
Year: 2007
Type: Document
Source: TTRS
Pueyo
Here I present a new approach to forecasting the effects of climate change on catastrophic events, based on the 'self-organised criticality' concept from statistical physics. In particular, I develop the 'self-organised critical fuel succession model' (SOCFUS), which deals with…
Year: 2007
Type: Document
Source: TTRS
Wells
From the text ... 'Wildfire has always been a periodic visitor to western forests, part of the cycle of natural dynamics that make these forests what they are. Until recently, the standard explanation for increased wildfires in recent decades has been an unnatural buildup of…
Year: 2007
Type: Document
Source: TTRS
Simpson, Jardine, Archibald, Forrestel, Lehmann, Thomas, Osborne
Plant populations persist under recurrent fire via resprouting from surviving tissues (resprouters) or seedling recruitment (seeders). Woody species are inherently slow maturing, meaning that seeders are confined to infrequent fire regimes. However, for grasses, which mature…
Year: 2021
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Bresch, Powers, Schwartz, Sobash, Coen
Abrupt changes in wind direction and speed can dramatically impact wildfire development and spread, endangering firefighters. A frequent cause of such wind shifts is outflow from thunderstorms and organised convective systems; thus, their identification and prediction present…
Year: 2021
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Oliveira de Morais, Berenguer, Barlow, França, Lennox, Malhi, Chesini Rossi, Moraes de Seixas, Ferreira
Leaf-litter production is an essential part of the carbon cycle of tropical forests. In the Amazon, it is influenced by climate, presenting high levels during the driest months of the year. However, it is less established how extreme climatic events may impact leaf-litter…
Year: 2021
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Pausas, Keeley
No single factor produces wildfires; rather, they occur when fire thresholds (ignitions, fuels, and drought) are crossed. Anomalous weather events may lower these thresholds and thereby enhance the likelihood and spread of wildfires. Climate change increases the frequency with…
Year: 2021
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES