TY - JOUR
T1 - Advancing dendrochronological studies of fire in the United States
AU - Harley, Grant L.
AU - Baisan, Christopher H.
AU - Brown, Peter M.
AU - Falk, Donald A.
AU - Flatley, William T.
AU - Grissino-Mayer, Henri D.
AU - Hessl, Amy
AU - Heyerdahl, Emily K.
AU - Kaye, Margot W.
AU - Lafon, Charles W.
AU - Margolis, Ellis Q.
AU - Maxwell, R. Stockton
AU - Naito, Adam T.
AU - Platt, William J.
AU - Rother, Monica T.
AU - Saladyga, Thomas
AU - Sherriff, Rosemary L.
AU - Stachowiak, Lauren A.
AU - Stambaugh, Michael C.
AU - Sutherland, Elaine Kennedy
AU - Taylor, Alan H.
N1 - Funding Information:
We are grateful to Tom Swetnam for discussions and contributions that improved earlier versions of this manuscript, as well as two anonymous reviewers for comments and suggestions that helped improve the paper. Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2018/6
Y1 - 2018/6
N2 - Dendroecology is the science that dates tree rings to their exact calendar year of formation to study processes that influence forest ecology (e.g., Speer 2010 [1], Amoroso et al., 2017 [2]). Reconstruction of past fire regimes is a core application of dendroecology, linking fire history to population dynamics and climate effects on tree growth and survivorship. Since the early 20th century when dendrochronologists recognized that tree rings retained fire scars (e.g., Figure 1), and hence a record of past fires, they have conducted studies worldwide to reconstruct [2] the historical range and variability of fire regimes (e.g., frequency, severity, seasonality, spatial extent), [3] the influence of fire regimes on forest structure and ecosystem dynamics, and [4] the top-down (e.g., climate) and bottom-up (e.g., fuels, topography) drivers of fire that operate at a range of temporal and spatial scales. As in other scientific fields, continued application of dendrochronological techniques to study fires has shaped new trajectories for the science. Here we highlight some important current directions in the United States (US) and call on our international colleagues to continue the conversation with perspectives from other countries.
AB - Dendroecology is the science that dates tree rings to their exact calendar year of formation to study processes that influence forest ecology (e.g., Speer 2010 [1], Amoroso et al., 2017 [2]). Reconstruction of past fire regimes is a core application of dendroecology, linking fire history to population dynamics and climate effects on tree growth and survivorship. Since the early 20th century when dendrochronologists recognized that tree rings retained fire scars (e.g., Figure 1), and hence a record of past fires, they have conducted studies worldwide to reconstruct [2] the historical range and variability of fire regimes (e.g., frequency, severity, seasonality, spatial extent), [3] the influence of fire regimes on forest structure and ecosystem dynamics, and [4] the top-down (e.g., climate) and bottom-up (e.g., fuels, topography) drivers of fire that operate at a range of temporal and spatial scales. As in other scientific fields, continued application of dendrochronological techniques to study fires has shaped new trajectories for the science. Here we highlight some important current directions in the United States (US) and call on our international colleagues to continue the conversation with perspectives from other countries.
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U2 - 10.3390/fire1010011
DO - 10.3390/fire1010011
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85076053133
VL - 1
SP - 1
EP - 6
JO - Fire
JF - Fire
SN - 2571-6255
IS - 1
M1 - 11
ER -