Skip to main content

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 The database provides a listing of fire research publications relevant to Alaska and a venue for sharing unpublished agency reports and works in progress that are not normally found in the published literature.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 79

Towards a tipping point in responding to change: rising costs, fewer options for Arctic and global societies

Huntington, Goodstein, Euskirchen
Climate change incurs costs, but government adaptation budgets are limited. Beyond a certain point, individuals must bear the costs or adapt to new circumstances, creating political-economic tipping points that we explore in three examples. First, many Alaska Native villages are…
Year: 2012
Type: Document
Source: TTRS

The footprint of Alaskan tundra fires during the past half-century: implications for surface properties and radiative forcing

Rocha, Loranty, Higuera, Mack, Hu, Jones, Breen, Rastetter, Goetz, Shaver
Recent large and frequent fires above the Alaskan arctic circle have forced a reassessment of the ecological and climatological importance of fire in arctic tundra ecosystems. Here we provide a general overview of the occurrence, distribution, and ecological and climate…
Year: 2012
Type: Document
Source: TTRS

Smoke science plan: the path forward

LeQuire, Hunter
From the text ... 'Wildland fire managers face increasingly steep challenges to meet air quality standards while planning prescribed fire and its inevitable smoke emissions. The goals of sound fire management practices, including fuel load reduction through prescribed burning,…
Year: 2012
Type: Document
Source: TTRS

The influence of fire history on selection of foraging sites by barren-ground caribou

Barrier, Johnson
We used an information-theoretic model comparison approach to investigate the influence of forest stand attributes resulting from wildfire on the occupancy of winter habitats by barren-ground caribou (Rangifer tarandus groenlandicus) in the Northwest Territories, Canada. We used…
Year: 2012
Type: Document
Source: TTRS

Let it burn: prescribed fires pose little danger to forest ecology, study says

Yang
Fighting fire with fire has been given the green light by a new study of techniques used to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires. And with a rise in wildfires predicted in many parts of the country, researchers say controlled burns and other treatments to manage this risk…
Year: 2012
Type: Document
Source: TTRS

Integrating theoretical climate and fire effects on savanna and forest systems

Staver, Levin
The role of fire and climate in determining savanna and forest distributions requires comprehensive theoretical reevaluation. Empirical studies show that climate constrains maximum tree cover and that fire feedbacks can reduce tree cover substantially, but neither the stability…
Year: 2012
Type: Document
Source: TTRS

Predicting fire frequency with chemistry and climate

Guyette, Stambaugh, Dey, Muzika
A predictive equation for estimating fire frequency was developed from theories and data in physical chemistry, ecosystem ecology, and climatology. We refer to this equation as the Physical Chemistry Fire Frequency Model (PC2FM). The equation was calibrated and validated with…
Year: 2012
Type: Document
Source: TTRS

Once burned, twice shy: repeat fires reduce seed availability and alter substrate constraints on Picea mariana regeneration

Brown, Johnstone
Widespread climate change is expected to lead to altered patterns of disturbance, thereby driving future ecosystem change. This interaction, which is often poorly recognized or understood, may be particularly important in the sub-arctic due to rapid climate change and frequent…
Year: 2012
Type: Document
Source: TTRS

Chapter 2: Fire behavior and effects: principles for archaeologists

Ryan, Koerner
From the Conclusions ... 'Fires have impacted cultures for millennia and fire will continue to impact contemporary cultures as well as the remnants of past cultures. The challenge is to manage vagetation/fuels to minimize damage to contemporary cultures as well as the cultural…
Year: 2012
Type: Document
Source: TTRS

Once Burned, Twice Shy: Repeat Fires Result in Black Spruce Regeneration Failure - webinar summary

Dr. Carissa Brown, Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Sherbrooke, joined us for a webinar on February 23, 2012 (11:00 am to noon AKST) entitled 'Once burned, twice shy: Repeat fires result in black spruce regeneration failure.' Dr. Brown is currently studying plant…
Year: 2012
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES

Fire growth models in WFDSS

Stratton
Fire growth models in WFDSS worksheet with answers from the 2012 Fire Modeling Workshop
Year: 2012
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES

Geospatial fire modeling considerations in Alaska

Stratton
Geospatial fire modeling considerations in Alaska handout from the 2012 Fire Modeling Workshop
Year: 2012
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES

Climatic change and disturbance by fire in boreal and sub-alpine forests

Suffling
Studies of anticipated effects of global warming tend to concentrate on the physiological limits of individual organisms, and imputed modifications to biome distributions expresed as climax ecosystems. Changes in distributions of individual species and of tree species…
Year: 1993
Type: Document
Source: TTRS

An approximate model of atmospheric plumes produced by large area fires

Weihs, Small
We develop a simple analytical model to estimate the thickness of a smoke layer formed by a plume of a large area fire and to account for crosswinds. We take advantage of the dominant flow features in the upper part of the rising plume and in the smoke layer far from the plume…
Year: 1993
Type: Document
Source: TTRS

Report of the National Commission on Wildfire Disasters

This report offers findings and recommendations that address the threat of wildfires in forest and range ecosystems. The report is based on information gathered by the National Commision on Wildfire Disasters and is intended for policymakers at the federal, state, and local…
Year: 1993
Type: Document
Source: TTRS

After the fire: Yellowstone

Henry
[no description entered]
Year: 1993
Type: Document
Source: TTRS

Low-level weather conditions preceding major wildfires

Brotak
Knowledge of fire behavior is critical for those who control wildfires. Fire managers must know spread rates and intensity-not just to eventually contain and extinguish the fire but also to keep their fire control personnel safe. Managers realize that weather is paramount in…
Year: 1993
Type: Document
Source: TTRS

Postfire vegetation recovery and tree establishment at the Arctic tree-line: climatic-change-vegetation-response hypotheses

Landhausser, Wein
1. A fire of unusually great severity (deep burning) burned across the forest-tundra near Inuvik, Northwest Territories from August 8 to 18, 1968. 2. Burned-unburned paired study sites around the fire perimeter, which had been established in both tundra and forest-tundra in 1973…
Year: 1993
Type: Document
Source: TTRS

Postglacial vegetation and climate of Grand Teton and the southern Yellowstone National Park

Whitlock
Pollen records from northern Grand Teton National Park, the Pinyon Peak Highlands, and southern Yellowstone National Park were examined to study the pattern of reforestation and climatic change following late-Pinedale Glaciation. The vegetational reconstruction was aided by…
Year: 1993
Type: Document
Source: TTRS

Length of a fire season in a changing climate

Wotton, Flannigan
The Canadian Climate Centre's General Circulation Model provides two 10-year data sets of simulated daily weather for a large array of gridpoints across North America. A subset of this data, comprised of only those points within the forested part of Canada, was selected for…
Year: 1993
Type: Document
Source: TTRS

A method to initialize the Keetch-Byram Drought Index

Burgan
The 1988 National Fire Danger System implements the Keetch-Byran Drought Index. This indexis output both as an estimator of drought in its own right and is used to modify fire danger calculations to account for deep drying of dead vefetation and duff. A method initializes this…
Year: 1993
Type: Document
Source: TTRS

Monitoring of wildfires in boreal forests using large area AVHRR NDVI composite image data

Kasischke, French, Harrell, Christensen, Ustin, Barry
Normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) composite image data, produced from AVHRR data collected in 1990, were evaluated for locating and mapping the areal extent of wildfires in the boreal forests of Alaska during that year. A technique was developed to map forest fire…
Year: 1993
Type: Document
Source: TTRS

Long-term effects of fire occurrence and their implications for gaseous and particulate emissions to the atmosphere. [abstract]

Clark, Stocks
Changing climate and land use appear to importantly affect the biosphere by way of impacts on fire regimes. Feedback effects on climate and air quality are likely through emissions of trace gases, aerosols, and particulates that affect radiation budgets, stability of the…
Year: 1993
Type: Document
Source: TTRS

Sensitivity of fire successional models to fuels and climate

Fire simulation models that consider the complex dynamics of weather, fuels, and terrain are essential to forecasting fire behavior. A growing number of such models are available, so understanding the differences in their predictions and sensitivity to drivers of fire behavior…
Year: 2012
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES

Global climates since the Last Glacial Maximum

Summarizes much of the geologic, paleoecologic, and oceanographic evidence for global environmental and climactic changes during the last 18,000 years.
Year: 1993
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES