Authors
Zhihua Liu, Michael C Wimberly
Publication date
2016/1/15
Journal
Science of the Total Environment
Volume
542
Pages
65-75
Publisher
Elsevier
Description
We asked two research questions: (1) What are the relative effects of climate change and climate-driven vegetation shifts on different components of future fire regimes? (2) How does incorporating climate-driven vegetation change into future fire regime projections alter the results compared to projections based only on direct climate effects? We used the western United States (US) as study area to answer these questions. Future (2071–2100) fire regimes were projected using statistical models to predict spatial patterns of occurrence, size and spread for large fires (> 400 ha) and a simulation experiment was conducted to compare the direct climatic effects and the indirect effects of climate-driven vegetation change on fire regimes. Results showed that vegetation change amplified climate-driven increases in fire frequency and size and had a larger overall effect on future total burned area in the western US than …
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