Monitoring Fire Effects and Severity in the Arctic Network of National Parklands
Barnes J. Monitoring Fire Effects and Severity in the Arctic Network of National Parklands. 2010. National Park Service
Current and future climatic changes will impact the occurrence, extent, and severity of fires in the Arctic Network and will have cascading effects on other ecosystem processes. Fire can exert strong landscape scale effects on vegetation composition and distribution, permafrost dynamics, nutrient cycling, carbon gain or loss, and primary productivity. Wildland fire is one of the largest natural disturbance processes in the boreal and tundra ecosystems of the Arctic Network. Fire affects all of the parks within ARCN; in the past 50 yrs over 1 million acres have burned in the network. Fire influences not only vegetation succession and distribution, but also wildlife habitat, soil parameters (e.g. permafrost and nutrient cycling), hydrology, water quality and air quality. In addition, the natural fire regime (fire frequency, fire extent, and severity) and secondary fire effects are likely to respond to local and global climate changes (Rupp et al. 2000; Goetz et al. 2005). Baseline monitoring of fire parameters such as the number of fires, fire extent and burn severity will provide explanatory variables for ecological changes detected through the I&M program, while long term monitoring of fire effects on vegetation will provide a foundation to elucidate the complex relationship between fire and the landscape.
- Type
- Project
- Authors
- Barnes, Jennifer
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- ARCN , BELA , CAKR , GAAR , KOVA , NOAT
- Keywords
- Alaska, Carbon, Climate Change, Disturbance, extent, FIRE, Frequency, Monitoring, National Park Service, Nutrient Cycling, Permafrost, Primary Productivity, severity, Succession, Tundra, Vegetation
- Subjects
- Ecological Framework: Biological Integrity | Focal Species or Communities | Vegetation Complex , Ecological Framework: Landscapes | Fire and Fuel Dynamics | Fire and Fuel Dynamics
Program
Products
- Arctic Network Fire Extent & Frequency Resource Brief
- NPS Alaska Western Area FFI Fire Effects Monitoring Data
- Standard Operating Procedures 1.1-1.9 (Fire Extent) for Arctic Network Fire Monitoring Protocol: Fire Extent, Severity and Effects
- Standard Operating Procedures 2.1-2.8 (Burn Severity) for Arctic Network Fire Monitoring Protocol: Fire Extent, Severity and Effects
- Standard Operating Procedures 3.1-3.5 (Fire Effects) for Arctic Network Fire Monitoring Protocol: Fire Extent, Severity and Effects
- Fire monitoring protocol for the Arctic Network: Fire extent, severity, and effects
- Variability of tundra fire regimes in Arctic Alaska: millennial scale patterns and ecological implications
- Projected Vegetation and Fire Regime Response to Future Climate Change in National Parks in Interior Alaska
- Monitoring the extent, severity and impacts of fire (Fire Extent and Severity)
- Monitoring the extent, severity and impacts of fire (Fire Extent and Severity)
- Long-term monitoring of vegetation change following tundra fires in Noatak National Preserve, Alaska
- Data quality standards for fire monitoring in the Arctic Network
- Region 11 (Alaska) Fire Ecology Annual Report: Calendar Year 2025
- NPS Alaska FFI Fire Effects Monitoring Data