Relation of surface climate and burned area in Yellowstone National Park
Balling RC, Meyer G, Wells SG. 1992. Relation of surface climate and burned area in Yellowstone National Park. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology. 60:285-293
The statistical relation between annual burn area in Yellowstone National Park and local climate conditions is established over the past century. Our analyses reveal that the summer Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) can account for approximately one-third of the temporal variance in the burn area data. Owing largely to a reduction in antecedent wintertime precipitation, a statistically significant decline in summer PDSI values (representing a trend toward increasing aridity) is identified for the Yellowstone area.
- Type
- Journal Article
- Authors
- Balling, Robert; Meyer, Grant; Wells, Stephen
- Units
- WRD , YELL
- Keywords
- burn area, Drought, Forest Ecology, precipitation decline, surface climate, Water Resources, WRBIB