Mapping Fire Regimes Across Time and Space: Understanding Coarse and Fine-scale Fire Patterns

Document Type

Article

Journal/Book Title/Conference

International Journal of Wildland Fire

Publication Date

2001

Issue

4

Volume

10

Publisher

CSIRO

First Page

329

Last Page

342

Abstract

Maps of fire frequency, severity, size, and pattern are useful for strategically planning fire and natural resource management, assessing risk and ecological conditions, illustrating change in disturbance regimes through time, identifying knowledge gaps, and learning how climate, topography, vegetation, and land use influence fire regimes. We review and compare alternative data sources and approaches for mapping fire regimes at national, regional, and local spatial scales. Fire regimes, defined here as the nature of fires occurring over an extended period of time, are closely related to local site productivity and topography, but climate variability entrains fire regimes at regional to national scales. In response to fire exclusion policies, land use, and invasion of exotic plants over the last century, fire regimes have changed greatly, especially in dry forests, woodlands, and grasslands. Comparing among and within geographic regions, and across time, is a powerful way to understand the factors determining and constraining fire patterns. Assembling spatial databases of fire information using consistent protocols and standards will aid comparison between studies, and speed and strengthen analyses. Combining multiple types of data will increase the power and reliability of interpretations. Testing hypotheses about relationships between fire, climate, vegetation, land use, and topography will help to identify what determines fire regimes at multiple scales.

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