Reconstruction of natural fire regimes

• Background
• Abstract
• Approach
• Results
• Publications

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Results

The SEM-LAND model was able to reconstruct natural fire regimes from current forest conditions.

Size distributions for natural fires on given landscapes generally have a negative exponential shape over a long period.

Sensitivity analysis revealed that model behavior was not influenced significantly by the initial forest age mosaic pattern or the critical value of daily precipitation that would be enough to stop a fire event.

Ecological modeling could help forest managers evaluate proposed forest policy involving emulation of natural disturbance patterns through harvesting.

The new hypothesis that fire frequency is correlated with fire size distribution under natural conditions is the first attempt at exploring relationships among different descriptors of a fire regime. It could simplify of some scenario models in which fire frequency and size distribution have typically been treated as separate elements.

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