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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 The database provides a listing of fire research publications relevant to Alaska and a venue for sharing unpublished agency reports and works in progress that are not normally found in the published literature.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 76

Towards a new paradigm in fire severity research using dose-response experiments

Smith, Sparks, Kolden, Abatzoglou, Talhelm, Johnson, Boschetti, Lutz, Apostol, Yedinak, Tinkham, Kremens
Most landscape-scale fire severity research relies on correlations between field measures of fire effects and relatively simple spectral reflectance indices that are not direct measures of heat output or changes in plant physiology. Although many authors have highlighted…
Year: 2016
Type: Document
Source: TTRS

The ability of winter grazing to reduce wildfire size and fire-induced plant mortality was not demonstrated: a comment on Davies et al. (2015)

Smith, Talhelm, Kolden, Newingham, Adams, Cohen, Yedinak, Kremens
A recent study by Davies et al. sought to test whether winter grazing could reduce wildfire size, fire behaviour and intensity metrics, and fire-induced plant mortality in shrub-grasslands. The authors concluded that ungrazed rangelands may experience fire-induced mortality of…
Year: 2016
Type: Document
Source: TTRS

The effect of prescribed burning to control brush species on buffelgrass pastures in Sonora, Mexico

Ibarra-F, Martin-R, Cox, Miranda-Z.
Vegetational changes were measured after 27 prescribed burns and 3 wildfires which occurred from 1982 to 1995 on buffelgrass pastures highly infested with brush in Sonora, Mexico. Densities of most undesirable brush species were reduced from 40 to 60% with fire. When prescribed…
Year: 1996
Type: Document
Source: TTRS

Prescribed fire in the pine forests of northwestern Chihuahua

Alanis-Morales
Studies to determine the feasibility of using prescribed fire to prevent fire in the forests of northwestern Chihuahua were initiated in 1982 at an experimental level. These studies have resulted in valuable information on the importance of prescribed fire in protecting and, at…
Year: 1996
Type: Document
Source: TTRS

Synthesising empirical results to improve predictions of post-wildfire runoff and erosion response

Shakesby, Moody, Martin, Robichaud
Advances in research into wildfire impacts on runoff and erosion have demonstrated increasing complexity of controlling factors and responses, which, combined with changing fire frequency, present challenges for modellers. We convened a conference attended by experts and…
Year: 2016
Type: Document
Source: TTRS

The net benefits of human-ignited wildfire forecasting: the case of tribal land units in the United States

Prestemon, Butry, Thomas
Research shows that some categories of human-ignited wildfires may be forecastable, owing to their temporal clustering, with the possibility that resources could be predeployed to help reduce the incidence of such wildfires. We estimated several kinds of incendiary and other…
Year: 2016
Type: Document
Source: TTRS

Data, data everywhere: detecting spatial patterns in fine-scale ecological information collected across a continent

Potter, Koch, Oswalt, Iannone
Context. Fine-scale ecological data collected across broad regions are becoming increasingly available. Appropriate geographic analyses of these data can help identify locations of ecological concern.Objectives. We present one such approach, spatial association of scalable…
Year: 2016
Type: Document
Source: TTRS

Prescribed fire alters surface activity and movement behavior of a terrestrial salamander

O'donnell, Thompson, Semlitsch
Prescribed fire has become a commonly used forest management tool for reducing the occurrence of severe wildfires, decreasing fuel loads and reestablishing the historic ecological influences of fire. Investigating population-level wildlife responses to prescribed fire is…
Year: 2016
Type: Document
Source: TTRS

Fire disturbance effects on land surface albedo in Alaskan tundra

French, Whitley, Jenkins
The study uses satellite Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer albedo products (MCD43A3) to assess changes in albedo at two sites in the treeless tundra region of Alaska, both within the foothills region of the Brooks Range, the 2007 Anaktuvuk River Fire (ARF) and 2012…
Year: 2016
Type: Document
Source: TTRS

Wildfire risk as a socioecological pathology

Fischer, Spies, Steelman, Moseley, Johnson, Bailey, Ager, Bourgeron, Charnley, Collins, Kline, Leahy, Littell, Millington, Nielsen-Pincus, Olsen, Paveglio, Roos, Steen-Adams, Stevens, Vukomanovic, White, Bowman
Wildfire risk in temperate forests has become a nearly intractable problem that can be characterized as a socioecological 'pathology': that is, a set of complex and problematic interactions among social and ecological systems across multiple spatial and temporal scales.…
Year: 2016
Type: Document
Source: TTRS

Winter grazing decreases the probability of fire-induced mortality of bunchgrasses and may reduce wildfire size: a response to Smith et al. (this issue)

Davies, Boyd, Bates, Hulet
A recent commentary by Smith et al. (2016) argues that our study (Davies et al. 2016) contained methodological errors and lacked data necessary to support our conclusions, in particular that winter grazing may reduce the probability of fire-induced mortality of bunchgrasses.…
Year: 2016
Type: Document
Source: TTRS

Mapping local effects of forest properties on fire risk across Canada

Bernier, Gauthier, Jean, Manka, Boulanger, Beaudoin, Guindon
Fire is a dominant mechanism of forest renewal in most of Canada's forests and its activity is predicted to increase over the coming decades. Individual fire events have been considered to be non-selective with regards to forest properties, but evidence now suggests otherwise.…
Year: 2016
Type: Document
Source: TTRS

Biogeography of Alaska paper birch (Betula neoalaskana): latitudinal patterns in chemical defense and plant architecture

Stevens, Brown, Bothwell, Bryant
The latitudinal herbivory-defense hypothesis (LHDH) predicts that plants near the equator will be more heavily defended against herbivores than are plants at higher latitudes. Although this idea is widely found in the literature, recent studies have called this biogeographic…
Year: 2016
Type: Document
Source: TTRS

Particulate air pollution from wildfires in the Western US under climate change

Liu, Mickley, Sulprizio, Dominici, Yue, Ebisu, Anderson, Khan, Bravo, Bell
Wildfire can impose a direct impact on human health under climate change. While the potential impacts of climate change on wildfires and resulting air pollution have been studied, it is not known who will be most affected by the growing threat of wildfires. Identifying…
Year: 2016
Type: Document
Source: TTRS

US exposure to multiple landscape stressors and climate change

Kerns, Kim, Kline, Day
We examined landscape exposure to wildfire potential, insects and disease risk, and urban and exurban development for the conterminous US (CONUS). Our analysis relied on spatial data used by federal agencies to evaluate these stressors nationally. We combined stressor data with…
Year: 2016
Type: Document
Source: TTRS

Tree species richness decreases while species evenness increases with disturbance frequency in a natural boreal forest landscape

Yeboah, Chen, Kingston
Understanding species diversity and disturbance relationships is important for biodiversity conservation in disturbance-driven boreal forests. Species richness and evenness may respond differently with stand development following fire. Furthermore, few studies have…
Year: 2016
Type: Document
Source: TTRS

Places where wildfire potential and social vulnerability coincide in the coterminous United States

Wigtil, Hammer, Kline, Mockrin, Stewart, Roper, Radeloff
The hazards-of-place model posits that vulnerability to environmental hazards depends on both biophysical and social factors. Biophysical factors determine where wildfire potential is elevated, whereas social factors determine where and how people are affected by wildfire. We…
Year: 2016
Type: Document
Source: TTRS

Predicting large wildfires across western North America by modeling seasonal variation in soil water balance

Waring, Coops
A lengthening of the fire season, coupled with higher temperatures, increases the probability of fires throughout much of western North America. Although regional variation in the frequency of fires is well established, attempts to predict the occurrence of fire at a spatial…
Year: 2016
Type: Document
Source: TTRS

Map Typing and Lightning Prediction

Saltenberger
Alaska Fire Science Consortium Workshop | Thursday, October 13, 2016Presenter: John Saltenberger
Year: 2016
Type: Media
Source: FRAMES

ABoVE Update

Kasischke
Alaska Fire Science Consortium Workshop | Thursday, October 13, 2016Presenter: Eric Kasischke
Year: 2016
Type: Media
Source: FRAMES

Wildland Fire Library (firelibrary.org)

The Wildland Fire Library is a collection of long-term assessments, fire progressions, fire behavior reports, and other documents and resources to support fire modeling and assessment of long-duration fires. Each file is tied to some event with a location, a start date, and…
Year: 2016
Type: Website
Source: FRAMES

The role of fire in research natural areas in the northern rockies and Pacific Northwest

Greene, Evenden
From the Conclusions...'Attempts to exclude fire from wildland ecosystems in the Intermountain and Pacific Northwest Regions have had serious ecological impacts on at least 79 of the established and proposed Research Natural Areas. Numerous ecological and operational challenges…
Year: 1996
Type: Document
Source: TTRS

Smoke considerations for using fire in maintaining healthy forest ecosystems

Ottmar, Schaaf, Alvarado
From the Introduction...'Fire is the single most important ecological disturbance process throughout the interior Pacific Northwest (Mutch and others 1993; Agee 1994). It is also a natural process that helps maintain a diverse ecological landscape. Fire suppression and timber…
Year: 1996
Type: Document
Source: TTRS

Can we restore the fire process? What awaits us if we don't?

Schmidt
This paper's title - "Can we restore the fire process? What awaits us if we don't?" - represents an ecologist's view of the world. I submit that this view is unrealistic. The first clause uses the term "restore" which implies reestablishing the fire process of the past. The…
Year: 1996
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES, TTRS

Applying stand replacement prescribed fire in Alaska

Vanderlinden
Stand replacement prescribed burning has been applied in Alaska on several occasions. Based on that experience, perspectives can be provided, issues can be discussed, and keys to success can be identified that are applicable to stand replacement prescribed burning activities in…
Year: 1996
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES, TTRS