Download or read book Predicting the Effect of Climate Change on Wildfire Severity and Outcomes in California written by and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 47 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This white paper focuses on how climate change-induced effects on weather will translate into changes in wildland fire severity and outcomes, particularly on the effectiveness of initial attack at limiting the area burned in contained fires and the number of fires that escape initial attack. Prior research has indicated that there is a potential for significant increases in the number of fires escaping initial attack, particularly in areas in which the fuel matrix is dominated by grass and brush. Those findings, however, were derived using less sophisticated models of initial attack than currently available. The results of this study, using more sophisticated models and climate projections, indicate that subtle shifts in fire behavior of the sort that might be induced by the climate changes anticipated for the next century are of sufficient magnitude to generate an appreciable increase in the number of fires that escape initial attack, at least for areas where brush fuels dominate.
Download or read book Predicting the Effect of Climate Change on Wildfire Behavior and Initial Attack Success written by and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study focused on how climate change-induced effects on weather will translate into changes in wildland fire severity and outcomes in California, particularly on the effectiveness of initial attack at limiting the number of fires that escape initial attack. The results indicate that subtle shifts in fire behavior of the sort that might be induced by the climate changes anticipated for the next century are of sufficient magnitude to generate an appreciable increase in the number of fires that escape initial attack. Such escapes are of considerable importance in wildland fire protection planning, given the high cost to society of a catastrophic escape like those experienced in recent decades in the Berkeley-Oakland, Santa Barbara, San Diego, or Los Angeles areas. However, at least for the three study areas considered, it would appear that relatively modest augmentations to existing firefighting resources might be sufficient to compensate for change-induced changes in wildland fire outcomes.
Download or read book Wildfire Impacts on Soil Carbon Pools and Microbial Communities in Mixed conifer Forests of California written by Jaron Adkins and published by . This book was released on 2021 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Forest ecosystems are important reservoirs for long term carbon (C) storage. Forests of the western United States account for 20-40% of total U.S. carbon C sequestration, and nearly half of the total C in these forests is stored in soil. However, many forests in the western U.S are experiencing wildfire conditions that diverge from historical fire regimes. Prior to Euro-American settlement, California's mixed-conifer forests typically experienced frequent surface fires of low to moderate burn severity, but, due to the combined effects of altered forest structure and climate change, now experience fires that are larger and more severe than historical conditions. Fires have numerous direct and indirect effects on the soil biological, chemical, and physical characteristics that influence the soil C cycle. Understanding how altered soil characteristics influence the cycling and persistence of soil C, and how they vary with severity, is important for managing forests for C storage and for predicting fire-climate feedbacks. My dissertation work incorporates observational and manipulative experiments to understand the direct and indirect effects of burn severity on soil C cycling and microbial communities over the short to intermediate term, with a particular focus on the distribution of soil C between active and slow cycling pools. Soil C can be conceptualized as discrete pools of variable persistence in soil. The active C pool is quickly decomposed, contributing to the return of CO2 to the atmosphere, whereas the non-active C pool is more stable and contributes to long term C storage. I leveraged a burn severity gradient resulting from a wildfire in a California mixed-conifer forest to determine the structure and kinetics of these C pools at an intermediate time point in post-fire recovery (i.e. three years). I found that the size of the non-active C pool was smaller in burned areas than unburned areas, and the kinetic rate of the non-active C pool was negatively related to burn severity. I also characterized the soil microbial communities across this severity gradient and identified the environmental characteristics responsible for differences. I found that fungal-to-bacterial ratio and oligotroph-to-copiotroph bacteria ratio decreased with burn severity, and these effects were driven by differences in live and dead tree basal area, soil nutrients, and pH. Leveraging another burn severity gradient, I then determined whether differences in microbial communities and soil C pools were related one-year post-fire in a mixed-conifer forest. I again found lower non-active C pool kinetic rates, and higher abundances of copiotrophic bacteria in burned compared to unburned areas. Differences in soil C pool kinetics were related to tree basal area, soil nutrients, and bacterial communities.I determined the short-term impacts of fire on soil C pools and cycling using lab experiments in which I manipulated soil heating intensity and pyrogenic organic matter (PyOM) additions. I found that high intensity soil heating can decrease microbial biomass C (MBC) accumulation, whereas PyOM had minimal effects on MBC in the short-term. Finally, I found that the size of the active C pool increased with soil heating intensity, while the kinetic rate of the non-active C pool decreased; PyOM primarily increased the size of the non-active C pool. Taken as a whole, my research suggests that fire induces short-term soil C losses by increasing the size of the active C pool, but, over the intermediate-term, residual soil C is more persistent. Fire severity is predicted to increase globally throughout the 21st century, and my research contributes to understanding how forest C storage will be affected by disrupted wildfire regimes.
Download or read book Indicators of Climate Change in California written by Carmen Milanes (Environmentalist) and published by . This book was released on 2022 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Potential Effects of Climate Change on Residential Wildfire Risk in California written by and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Implications of the California Wildfires for Health Communities and Preparedness written by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2020-10-01 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: California and other wildfire-prone western states have experienced a substantial increase in the number and intensity of wildfires in recent years. Wildlands and climate experts expect these trends to continue and quite likely to worsen in coming years. Wildfires and other disasters can be particularly devastating for vulnerable communities. Members of these communities tend to experience worse health outcomes from disasters, have fewer resources for responding and rebuilding, and receive less assistance from state, local, and federal agencies. Because burning wood releases particulate matter and other toxicants, the health effects of wildfires extend well beyond burns. In addition, deposition of toxicants in soil and water can result in chronic as well as acute exposures. On June 4-5, 2019, four different entities within the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine held a workshop titled Implications of the California Wildfires for Health, Communities, and Preparedness at the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at the University of California, Davis. The workshop explored the population health, environmental health, emergency preparedness, and health equity consequences of increasingly strong and numerous wildfires, particularly in California. This publication is a summary of the presentations and discussion of the workshop.
Download or read book Climate Change in California written by Fredrich J. Kahrl and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2012-08-02 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While California is undeniably unique and diverse, the challenges it faces will be mirrored everywhere.
Download or read book Climate Change Growth and California Wildfire written by and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 46 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Global Climate Change and California written by Joseph B. Knox and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2023-11-10 with total page 195 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: California's extraordinary ecological and economic diversity has brought it prosperity, pollution, and overpopulation. These factors and the state's national and international ties make California an essential test case for the impact of global climate change—temperature increases, water shortages, more ultraviolet radiation. The scientists in this forward-looking volume give their best estimates of what the future holds. Beginning with an overview by Joseph Knox, the book discusses the greenhouse effect, the latest climate modeling capabilities, the implications of climate change for water resources, agriculture, biological ecosystems, human behavior, and energy. The warning inherent in a scenario of unchecked population growth and energy use in California applies to residents of the entire planet. The sobering conclusions related here include recommendations for research that will help us all prepare for potential climate change.
Download or read book Fire in California s Ecosystems written by Jan W. van Wagtendonk and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2018-06-08 with total page 567 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fire in California’s Ecosystems describes fire in detail—both as an integral natural process in the California landscape and as a growing threat to urban and suburban developments in the state. Written by many of the foremost authorities on the subject, this comprehensive volume is an ideal authoritative reference tool and the foremost synthesis of knowledge on the science, ecology, and management of fire in California. Part One introduces the basics of fire ecology, including overviews of historical fires, vegetation, climate, weather, fire as a physical and ecological process, and fire regimes, and reviews the interactions between fire and the physical, plant, and animal components of the environment. Part Two explores the history and ecology of fire in each of California's nine bioregions. Part Three examines fire management in California during Native American and post-Euro-American settlement and also current issues related to fire policy such as fuel management, watershed management, air quality, invasive plant species, at-risk species, climate change, social dynamics, and the future of fire management. This edition includes critical scientific and management updates and four new chapters on fire weather, fire regimes, climate change, and social dynamics.
Download or read book The Impact of Climate Change on Regional Systems written by Joel B. Smith and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2007-01-01 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book works well as a reference for how one can examine potential climate change impacts in a subnational area. A clear strength of the work lies in the unifying framework that the climate, population, and, to a somewhat lesser degree, urbanization scenarios provide. Collectively, these appear to bracket a wide range of possible drives that will shape climate change impacts. The overall analysis takes a refreshing approach in that it does not try to fit all these elements and the subsystem impact assessments into one grand integrated model, but rather develops the assessments from a common base while allowing each to follow its own logic and scale. . . it provides a welcome overview of how one can conduct a multisystem, multisector climate impact assessment that combines natural, engineering, and social sciences in a rigorous format. Kris Wernstedt, Journal of Regional Science Climate scientists have determined that recent global temperature increases are due in large part to increased greenhouse gas emissions from human activities. Even if mitigation of these gases begins immediately, there is every reason to believe that climate change will continue to occur. Every region in the world ought to forecast, as the contributors do in this study of California (a region of broad variation and high population), how it will be affected by climate change and how it might best adapt. Models are used to estimate potential physical and biological impacts, efficient adaptations, and residual damages from climate change. The contributors cover a broad array of climate change impacts on affected market sectors (including water supply, agriculture, coastal resources, timber, and energy demand) as well as ecosystems and biodiversity. An integrated hydrologic-agriculture model is developed to explore how the region would adapt to changes in water flows. Interactions between climate impacts and population and economic growth, urbanization, and technological change are also explored. For example, the study examines how both climate change and projected land development affect the region s terrestrial ecosystems and biodiversity. The level of geographical detail, along with the broad applicability of the modeling, methodology, and conclusions, make this a unique and valuable reference for environmental economists, scientists, planners, and policymakers.
Download or read book Wildland Fires and Air Pollution written by Andrzej Bytnerowicz and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2008-10-06 with total page 687 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The interaction between smoke and air pollution creates a public health challenge. Fuels treatments proposed for National Forests are intended to reduce fuel accumulations and wildfire frequency and severity, as well as to protect property located in the wild land-urban interface. However, prescribed fires produce gases and aerosols that have instantaneous and long-term effects on air quality. If fuels treatment are not conducted, however, then wild land fires become more severe and frequent causing worse public health and wellfare effects. A better understanding of air pollution and smoke interactions is needed in order to protect the public health and allow for socially and ecologically acceptable use of fire as a management tool. Wildland Fires and Air Pollution offers such an understanding and examines innovative wide-scale monitoring efforts (field and remotely sensed), and development of models predicting spatial and temporal distribution of air pollution and smoke resulting from forests fires and other sources. Collaborative effort of an international team of scientists High quality of invited chapters Full colour
Download or read book Ecological Impacts of Climate Change written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2008-12-07 with total page 70 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The world's climate is changing, and it will continue to change throughout the 21st century and beyond. Rising temperatures, new precipitation patterns, and other changes are already affecting many aspects of human society and the natural world. In this book, the National Research Council provides a broad overview of the ecological impacts of climate change, and a series of examples of impacts of different kinds. The book was written as a basis for a forthcoming illustrated booklet, designed to provide the public with accurate scientific information on this important subject.
Download or read book Fire and Climatic Change in Temperate Ecosystems of the Western Americas written by Thomas T. Veblen and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2006-05-10 with total page 456 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Both fire and climatic variability have monumental impacts on the dynamics of temperate ecosystems. These impacts can sometimes be extreme or devastating as seen in recent El Nino/La Nina cycles and in uncontrolled fire occurrences. This volume brings together research conducted in western North and South America, areas of a great deal of collaborative work on the influence of people and climate change on fire regimes. In order to give perspective to patterns of change over time, it emphasizes the integration of paleoecological studies with studies of modern ecosystems. Data from a range of spatial scales, from individual plants to communities and ecosystems to landscape and regional levels, are included. Contributions come from fire ecology, paleoecology, biogeography, paleoclimatology, landscape and ecosystem ecology, ecological modeling, forest management, plant community ecology and plant morphology. The book gives a synthetic overview of methods, data and simulation models for evaluating fire regime processes in forests, shrublands and woodlands and assembles case studies of fire, climate and land use histories. The unique approach of this book gives researchers the benefits of a north-south comparison as well as the integration of paleoecological histories, current ecosystem dynamics and modeling of future changes.
Download or read book Ecosystems of California written by Harold Mooney and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2016-01-19 with total page 1008 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This long-anticipated reference and sourcebook for CaliforniaÕs remarkable ecological abundance provides an integrated assessment of each major ecosystem typeÑits distribution, structure, function, and management. A comprehensive synthesis of our knowledge about this biologically diverse state, Ecosystems of California covers the state from oceans to mountaintops using multiple lenses: past and present, flora and fauna, aquatic and terrestrial, natural and managed. Each chapter evaluates natural processes for a specific ecosystem, describes drivers of change, and discusses how that ecosystem may be altered in the future. This book also explores the drivers of CaliforniaÕs ecological patterns and the history of the stateÕs various ecosystems, outlining how the challenges of climate change and invasive species and opportunities for regulation and stewardship could potentially affect the stateÕs ecosystems. The text explicitly incorporates both human impacts and conservation and restoration efforts and shows how ecosystems support human well-being. Edited by two esteemed ecosystem ecologists and with overviews by leading experts on each ecosystem, this definitive work will be indispensable for natural resource management and conservation professionals as well as for undergraduate or graduate students of CaliforniaÕs environment and curious naturalists.
Download or read book Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States written by U.S. Global Change Research Program and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2009-08-24 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Summarizes the science of climate change and impacts on the United States, for the public and policymakers.
Download or read book Review of the Draft Fourth National Climate Assessment written by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2018-06-18 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Climate change poses many challenges that affect society and the natural world. With these challenges, however, come opportunities to respond. By taking steps to adapt to and mitigate climate change, the risks to society and the impacts of continued climate change can be lessened. The National Climate Assessment, coordinated by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, is a mandated report intended to inform response decisions. Required to be developed every four years, these reports provide the most comprehensive and up-to-date evaluation of climate change impacts available for the United States, making them a unique and important climate change document. The draft Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA4) report reviewed here addresses a wide range of topics of high importance to the United States and society more broadly, extending from human health and community well-being, to the built environment, to businesses and economies, to ecosystems and natural resources. This report evaluates the draft NCA4 to determine if it meets the requirements of the federal mandate, whether it provides accurate information grounded in the scientific literature, and whether it effectively communicates climate science, impacts, and responses for general audiences including the public, decision makers, and other stakeholders.
