HR: 08:15h
AN: A31C-02 INVITED     [Abstracts]
TI: Fire and Climate Change in Boreal Forests
AU: * Flannigan, M D
EM: mike.flannigan@nrcan.gc.ca
AF: Canadian Forest Service, 1219 Queen St East, Sault Ste Marie, ON P6A 2E5 Canada
AU: Logan, K A
EM: kimlogan@nrcan.gc.ca
AF: Canadian Forest Service, 1219 Queen St East, Sault Ste Marie, ON P6A 2E5 Canada
AU: Stocks, B J
EM: bstocks@nrcan.gc.ca
AF: Canadian Forest Service, 1219 Queen St East, Sault Ste Marie, ON P6A 2E5 Canada
AU: Wotton, M
EM: mwotton@nrcan.gc.ca
AF: Canadian Forest Service, 1219 Queen St East, Sault Ste Marie, ON P6A 2E5 Canada
AB: Fire is the major stand-renewing agent for much of the circumboreal forest, and greatly influences the structure and function of boreal ecosystems from regeneration through mortality. Current estimates are that an average of 5-15 million hectares burn annually in boreal forests, almost exclusively in Siberia, Canada and Alaska. There is a growing global awareness of the vulnerability of this important region to projected future climate change. Fire activity is strongly influenced by four factors - weather/climate, vegetation(fuels), natural ignition agents and humans. Climate and weather are strongly linked to fire activity, which suggests that the fire regime will respond rapidly to changes in climate. Global atmospheric and oceanic dynamics also play a major role in circumboreal fire activity. Recent results suggest that area burned by fire is related to temperature and fuel moisture. The climate of the northern hemisphere has been warming due to an influx of radiatively active gases (carbon dioxide, methane etc.) to the atmosphere, primarily as a result of human activities. This altered climate, modelled by General Circulation Models (GCMs), indicates a profound impact on future fire activity in the circumboreal forest. Recent results using GCMs suggest that in many regions fire weather/fire danger conditions will be more severe, area burned will increase, people-caused and lightning-caused ignitions will increase, fire seasons will be longer and the intensity and severity of fires will increase. Changes in fire activity as a result of climate change could have a greater and more immediate impact on vegetation distribution and abundance compared to the direct impact of climate change
DE: 1626 Global climate models (3337, 4928)
DE: 1630 Impacts of global change (1225)
SC: Atmospheric Sciences [A]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005