AFSC fire ecologist Randi Jandt gave a great public presentation discussing how climate is interacting with fire ecology in Alaska at her Science for Alaska lecture on February 19th.

Wildfires were in the news last fall -- again. Have you wondered what drives large fire seasons and whether climate or humans are more to blame? Here's an Alaska perspective on climatic and environmental changes we've observed so far and how they affect wildfire incidence, size, seasonality, effects, and severity. Since many environmental factors (temperature, lightning, permafrost, forest make-up) contribute to fire processes, an interdisciplinary approach is essential to predicting what fire seasons of the future will be like. We'll discuss current thinking on what will happen in Alaska with climate projections in the not-so-distant future.