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Type: Journal Article
Author(s): Paul A. Duffy; Justin Epting; Jonathan M. Graham; T. Scott Rupp; A. David McGuire
Publication Date: 2007

Wildland fire is the dominant large-scale disturbance mechanism in the Alaskan boreal forest, and it strongly influences forest structure and function. In this research, patterns of burn severity in the Alaskan boreal forest are characterised using 24 fires. First, the relationship between burn severity and area burned is quantified using a linear regression. Second, the spatial correlation of burn severity as a function of topography is modelled using a variogram analysis. Finally, the relationship between vegetation type and spatial patterns of burn severity is quantified using linear models where variograms account for spatial correlation. These results show that: 1) average burn severity increases with the natural logarithm of the area of the wildfire, 2) burn severity is more variable in topographically complex landscapes than in flat landscapes, and 3) there is a significant relationship between burn severity and vegetation type in flat landscapes but not in topographically complex landscapes. These results strengthen the argument that differential flammability of vegetation exists in some boreal landscapes of Alaska. Additionally, these results suggest that through feedbacks between vegetation and burn severity, the distribution of forest vegetation through time is likely more stable in flat terrain than it is in areas with more complex topography.

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Citation: Duffy, Paul A.; Epting, Justin; Graham, Jonathan M.; Rupp, T. Scott; McGuire, A. David. 2007. Analysis of Alaskan burn severity patterns using remotely sensed data. International Journal of Wildland Fire 16(3):277-284.

Cataloging Information

Topics:
Regions:
Keywords:
  • boreal forests
  • burn severity
  • C - carbon
  • distribution
  • disturbance
  • fire intensity
  • fire management
  • fire regimes
  • fire size
  • fire variograms
  • flammability
  • forest management
  • linear regression
  • NBR - Normalized Burn Ratio
  • nutrient cycling
  • post-fire recovery
  • remote sensing
  • spatial ANOVA
  • spatial patterns
  • statistical analysis
  • succession
  • topography
  • vegetation surveys
  • vegetation type
  • wildfires
Tall Timbers Record Number: 21620Location Status: In-fileCall Number: Journals-IAbstract Status: Okay, Fair use, Reproduced by permission
Record Last Modified:
Record Maintained By: FRAMES Staff (https://www.frames.gov/contact)
FRAMES Record Number: 3840

This bibliographic record was either created or modified by Tall Timbers and is provided without charge to promote research and education in Fire Ecology. The E.V. Komarek Fire Ecology Database is the intellectual property of Tall Timbers.