Climate, lightning ignitions, and fire severity in Yosemite National Park, California, USA

International Journal of Wildland Fire

Volumn 18, Issue 7, 2009, Pages 765-774

  Lutz, James A ^a   Van Wagtendonk, Jan W ^b   Thode, Andrea E ^c   Miller, Jay D ^d   Franklin, Jerry F ^a  

^a University of Washington   (United States)

^b U S GEOLOGICAL SURVEY   (United States)

^c NORTHERN ARIZONA UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^d USDA FOREST SERVICE   (United States)

Author keywords

Burn severity; Climate change; Climate variability; Fire regime attributes; Landscape flammability; Normalized burn ratio; Patch complexity; RdNBR; Sierra Nevada; Snow water equivalent; Snowpack

Indexed keywords

EID: 70449607603     PISSN: 10498001     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1071/WF08117     Document Type: Article

References (65)

1. Agee JK (2003) Burning issues infire : will we let the coarse filter operate? In 'Proceedings of Fire Conference 2000', Tallahassee, FL. (Eds KEM Galley, RC Klinger, NG Sugihara)Tall Timbers Research Station Miscellaneous Publication13,pp.7-13.(Tallahassee,FL)
2. Bartlein PJ, Hostetler SW, Shafer SL, Holman JO, Solomon AM (2008) Temporal and spatial structure in a daily wildfire-start data set from the western United States (1986-96). International Journal ofWildland Fire 17, 8-17. doi:10.1071/WF07022 (Pubitemid 351271430)
3. CDWR (2007) Snow conditions. Database. (California Department of Water Resources) Available at http://cdec.water.ca.gov/snow/ [Verified 12 September 2009]
4. Caprio AC, Swetnam TW (1995) Historic fire regimes along an elevational gradient on the west slope of the Sierra Nevada, California. In 'Proceedings of the Symposium on Fire in Wilderness and Park Management'. (Eds JK Brown, RW Mutch CW Spoon, RH Wakimoto) USDA Forest Service, Intermountain Research Station, General Technical Report INT-GTR-320, pp. 173-179. (Ogden, UT)
5. Church JE (1933) Snow surveying: its principles and possibilities. Geographical Review 23, 529-563. doi:10.2307/209242
6. Church JE (1935) Principles of snow surveying as applied to forecasting stream flow. Journal of Agricultural Research 51, 97-130.
7. CollinsBM,KellyNM,vanWagtendonkJW, Stephens SL (2007) Spatial patterns of large natural fires in Sierra Nevada wilderness areas. Landscape Ecology 22, 545-557. doi:10.1007/S10980-006-9047-5 (Pubitemid 46731561)
8. Daly C, Halbleib M, Smith JI, Gibson WP, Doggett MK, Taylor WP, Curtis J, Pasteris PP (2008) Physiographically sensitive mapping of climatological temperature and precipitation across the conterminous United States. International Journal of Climatology 28, 2031-2064. doi:10.1002/JOC.1688
9. Eberhart KE,Woodard PM (1987) Distribution of residual vegetation associated with large fires in Alberta. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 17, 1207-1212. doi:10.1139/X87-186
10. Field CB,Mortsch LD, Brklacich M, Forbes DL, Kovacs P, Patz JA, Running SW, Scott MJ (2007) 'North America. Climate Change 2007: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change'. (Eds ML Parry, OF Canziani, JP Palutikof, PJ van der Linden, CE Hanson) pp. 617-652. (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK)
11. Fites-Kaufman JA, Rundel P, Stephenson N, Weixelman DA (2007) Montane and subalpine vegetation of the Sierra Nevada and Cascade ranges. In 'Terrestrial Vegetation of California'. (Eds M Barbour, T Keeler- Wolf, AA Schoenherr) pp. 456-501. (University of California Press: Berkeley, CA)
12. FlanniganMD, Logan KA,AmiroBD, SkinnerWR, Stocks BJ (2005) Future area burned in Canada. Climatic Change 72, 1-16. doi:10.1007/S10584- 005-5935-Y
13. Franklin JF, Fites-Kaufman J (1996) Assessment of late-successional forests of the Sierra Nevada. In 'Sierra Nevada Ecosystem Project: Final Report to Congress, Volume II, Assessments and Scientific Basis for Management Options'. pp. 627-661. (University of California, Centers forWater andWildland Resources: Davis, CA)
14. French NHF, Kasischke ES, Hall RJ, Murphy KA, Verbyla DL, Hoy EE, Allen JL (2008) Using Landsat data to assess fire and burn severity in the North American boreal forest region: an overview and summary of results. International Journal of Wildland Fire 17, 443-462. doi:10.1071/WF08007
15. Frohn RC (1998) 'Remote Sensing for Landscape Ecology: New Metric Indicators for Monitoring, Modeling, and Assessment of Ecosystems.' (Lewis Publishers, CRC Press: Boca Raton, FL)
16. Gordon C, Cooper C, Senior CA, Banks H, Gregory JM, Johns TC, Mitchell JFB, Wood RA (2000) The simulation of SST, sea ice extents and ocean heat transports in a version of the Hadley Centre coupled model without flux adjustments. Climate Dynamics 16, 147-168. doi:10.1007/S003820050010
17. Graber DM (2003) Facing a new ecosystem management paradigm for national parks. Ecological Research 21, 264-268. doi:10.3368/ ER.21.4.264
18. Hayhoe K, Cayan D, Field CB, Frumhoff PC, Maurer EP, Miller NL, Moser SC, Schneider SH (2004) Emissions pathways, climate change, and impacts on California. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 101, 12 422-12 427. doi:10.1073/PNAS.0404500101 (Pubitemid 39122039)
19. Heyerdahl EK, Brubaker LB, Agee JK (2001) Spatial controls of historical fire regimes: a multiscale example from the interior west, USA. Ecology 82, 660-678.
20. Keeling CD, Whorf TP, Wahlen M, van der Plicht J (1995) Interannual extremes in the rate of rise of atmospheric carbon dioxide since 1980. Nature 375, 666-670. doi:10.1038/375666A0
21. KeetonWS, Franklin JF (2005) Do remnant old-growth trees accelerate rates of succession in mature Douglas-fir forests? Ecological Monographs 75, 103-118. doi:10.1890/03-0626
22. Key CH (2006) Ecological and sampling constraints on defining landscape fire severity. Fire Ecology 2(2), 34-59.
23. Key CH, Benson NC (2006) Landscape assessment: ground measure of severity, the Composite Burn Index, and remote sensing of severity, the Normalized Burn Ratio. In 'FIREMON: Fire Effects Monitoring and Inventory System'. (Eds DC Lutes, RE Keane, JF Caratti, CH Key, NC Benson, S Sutherland, LJ Gangi) USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, General Technical Report RMRS-GTR- 164CD, pp. LA1-LA55. (Fort Collins, CO)
24. Kilgore BM, Taylor D (1979) Fire history of a sequoia mixed conifer forest. Ecology 60, 129-142. doi:10.2307/1936475
25. Knowles N, Dettinger MD, Cayan DR (2006) Trends in snowfall versus rainfall in the western United States. Journal of Climate 19, 4545-4559. doi:10.1175/JCLI3850.1 (Pubitemid 44541868)
26. Langley PG (1996) Quality assessment of late seral old-growth forest mapping. In 'Sierra Nevada Ecosystem Project: Final Report to Congress, Volume II, Assessments and Scientific Basis for Management Options'. pp. 663-669. (University of California, Centers forWater andWildland Resources: Davis, CA)
27. Larson AJ, Lutz JA, Gersonde RF, Franklin JF, Hietpas FF (2008) Productivity influences the rate of forest structural development. Ecological Applications 18, 899-910. doi:10.1890/07-1191.1
28. Littell JS, McKenzie D, Peterson DL, Westerling AL (2009) Climate and wildfire area burned inwesternUS ecoprovinces, 1916-2003. Ecological Applications 19, 1003-1021. doi:10.1890/07-1183.1
29. Lutz JA (2008) Climate, fire, and vegetation change in Yosemite National Park. Ph.D. Dissertation. University of Washington, College of Forest Resources, Seattle,Washington, USA.
30. Lutz JA, van Wagtendonk JW, Franklin JF (2009) Twentieth-century decline of large-diameter trees in Yosemite National Park, California, USA. Forest Ecology and Management 257, 2296-2307. doi:10.1016/ J.FORECO.2009.03.009
31. McGarigal K, Cushman SA, Neel MC, Ene E (2002) 'FRAGSTATS: Spatial Pattern Analysis Program for Categorical Maps.' (University of Massachusetts: Amherst, MA)
32. McKenzie D, Gedalof Z, Peterson DL, Mote P (2004) Climatic change, wildfire, and conservation. Conservation Biology 18, 890-902. doi:10.1111/J.1523-1739.2004.00492.X (Pubitemid 39059146)
33. Meehl GA, Stocker TF, Collins WD, Friedlingstein P, Gaye AT, Gregory JM, Kitoh A, Knutti R, Murphy JM, Noda A, Raper SCB, Watterson IG, Weaver AJ, Zhao ZC (2007) 'Global Climate Projections in Climate Change 2007: the Physical Science Basis. Contribution ofWorking Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change'. (Eds S Solomon, D Qin, M Manning, Z Chen, MMarquis, KBAveryt,MTignor, HLMiller) pp. 747-845. (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK)
34. Miller C, Urban DL (1999) Interactions between forest heterogeneity and surface fire regimes in the southern Sierra Nevada. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 29, 202-212. doi:10.1139/ CJFR-29-2-202 (Pubitemid 29194733)
35. Miller JD, Thode AE (2007) Quantifying burn severity in a heterogeneous landscape with a relative version of the delta Normalized Burn Ratio (dNBR). Remote Sensing of Environment 109, 66-80. doi:10.1016/J.RSE.2006.12.006 (Pubitemid 46776741)
36. Miller JD, SaffordHD, Crimmins M,ThodeAE(2008) Quantitative evidence for increasing forest fire severity in the Sierra Nevada and southern Cascade Mountains, California and Nevada, USA. Ecosystems 12, 16-32. doi:10.1007/S10021-008-9201-9
37. Mote PW, Hamet AF, Clark MP, Lettenmaier DP (2005) Declining mountain snowpack in western North America. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 86, 39-49. doi:10.1175/BAMS-86-1-39 (Pubitemid 40285470)
38. Nakícenovíc N, Davidson O, Davis G, Grübler A, Kram T, La Rovere EL, Metz B, Morita T, PepperW, Pitcher H, Sankovski A, Shukla P, Swart R, Watson R, Dadi Z (2000) 'Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Special Report on Emissions Scenarios.' (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK)
39. Pope VD, Gallani ML, Rowntree PR, Stratton RA (2000) The impact of new physical parameterizations in the Hadley Centre climate model: HadAM3.Climate Dynamics 16, 123-146. doi:10.1007/S003820050009
40. Price C, Rind D (1994a) Possible implications of global climate change on global lightning distributions and frequencies. Journal of Geophysical Research 99, 10 823-10 831. doi:10.1029/94JD00019
41. 2 climate on lightning-caused fires. Journal of Climate 7,1484-1494.doi:10.1175/1520- 0442(1994)007<1484:TIOACC>2.0.CO;2
42. PRISM (2007) 'Climatological Normals, 1971-2000.' (Oregon State University: Corvallis, OR)
43. Roberts SL, vanWagtendonk JW, Kelt DA,Miles AK, Lutz JA (2008) Modeling the effects of fire severity and spatial complexity on small mammals inYosemite National Park, California, USA. Fire Ecology 4, 83-104.
44. Rothman HK (2007) 'Blazing Heritage: a History of Wildland Fire in the National Parks.' (Oxford University Press: NewYork)
45. Russell CP (1992) 'One HundredYears inYosemite.'(Yosemite Association: El Portal, CA)
46. Stephens SL (2001) Fire history differences in adjacent Jeffrey pine and upper montane forests in the eastern Sierra Nevada. International Journal of Wildland Fire 10, 161-167. doi:10.1071/ WF01008
47. Stephens SL, Elliott-Fisk DL (1999) Sequioadendron giganteum-mixed conifer forest structure in 1900-1901 from the southern Sierra Nevada. Madrono 45, 221-230.
48. Sugihara NG, van Wagtendonk JW, Fites-Kaufman J, Shaffer KE, Thode AE (2006) Fire as an ecological process. In 'Fire in California's Ecosystems'. (Eds NG Sugihara, JW van Wagtendonk, KE Shaffer, J Fites-Kaufman,AE Thode) pp. 58-74. (University of California Press: Berkeley, CA)
49. Swetnam TW, Allen CD, Betancourt JL (1999) Applied historical ecology: using the past to manage for the future. Ecological Applications 9, 1189-1206. doi:10.1890/1051-0761(1999)009[1189:AHEUTP]2.0.CO;2
50. ThodeAE(2005) Quantifying the fire regime attributes of severity and spatial complexity using field and imagery data. PhD Dissertation, University of California, Davis, CA.
51. Thompson JR, Spies TA, Ganio LM (2007) Reburn severity in managed and unmanaged vegetation in a large wildfire. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States ofAmerica 104, 10 743-10 748. doi:10.1073/PNAS.0700229104 (Pubitemid 47185735)
52. Turner MG, Romme WH, Gardner RH, Hargrove WW (1997) Effects of fire size and pattern on early succession in Yellowstone National Park. Ecological Monographs 67, 411-433.
53. van Mantgem PJ, Stephenson NL, Keifer M, Keeley J (2004) Effects of an introduced pathogen and fire exclusion on the demography of sugar pine. Ecological Applications 14, 1590-1602. doi:10.1890/03-5109
54. van Wagtendonk JW (1994) Spatial patterns of lightning strikes and fires in Yosemite National Park. In 'Proceedings of the 12th Conference on Fire and Forest Meteorology'. pp. 223-231. (Society of American Foresters: Bethesda, MD)
55. van Wagtendonk JW (2006) Fire as a physical process. 2006. In 'Fire in California's Ecosystems'. (Eds NG Sugihara, JW van Wagtendonk, KE Shaffer, J Fites-Kaufman, AE Thode) pp. 38-57. (University of California Press: Berkeley, CA)
56. vanWagtendonk JW (2007) The history and evolution of wildland fire use. Fire Ecology 3(2), 3-17.
57. van Wagtendonk JW, Cayan D (2008) Spatial patterns of lightning strikes and fires in California. Fire Ecology 4(1), 34-56.
58. van Wagtendonk JW, Fites-Kaufman J (2006) Sierra Nevada bioregion. In 'Fire in California's Ecosystems'. (Eds NG Sugihara, JW van Wagtendonk, KE Shaffer, J Fites-Kaufman, AE Thode) pp. 264-294. (University of California Press: Berkeley, CA)
59. vanWagtendonk JW, Lutz JA (2007) Fire regime attributes of wildland fires inYosemite National Park, USA. Fire Ecology 3(2), 34-52.
60. van Wagtendonk JW, Benedict JM, Sydoriak WM (1998) Fuel bed characteristics of Sierra Nevada conifers.Western Journal of Applied Forestry 13(3), 73-84.
61. vanWagtendonk JW, vanWagtendonk KA, Meyer JB, Painter KJ (2002) The use of geographic information for fire management planning inYosemite National Park. The George Wright Forum 19, 19-39. http://www.publish.csiro.au/journals/ijwf
62. vanWagtendonk JW, Root RR, Key CH (2004) Comparison of AVIRIS and Landsat ETM+ detection capabilities for burn severity. Remote Sensing of Environment 92, 397-408. doi:10.1016/J.RSE.2003.12.015 (Pubitemid 40047463)
63. Verbyla DL, Kasischke ES, Hoy EE (2008) Seasonal and topographic effects on estimating fire severity from Landsat TM/ETM+ data. International Journal ofWildland Fire 17, 527-534. doi:10.1071/WF08038
64. Westerling AL, Hidalgo HG, Cayan DR, SwetnamTW (2006)Warming and earlier spring increase in western US forest wildfire activity. Science 313, 940-943. doi:10.1126/SCIENCE.1128834 (Pubitemid 44274884)
65. Woodhouse CA (2003) A 431-year reconstruction of western Colorado snowpack from tree rings. Journal of Climate 16(10), 1551-1561.