Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, Great Basin CESU

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The purpose of the Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center (NOROCK) funding opportunity is to conduct research on how climate variability, trends and teleconnections contribute to landscape heterogeneity of burn severity across three representative forest ecosystems of the western U.S. This funding opportunity will specifically encompass the Yukon-Charlie Rivers National Reserve in Alaska. The historic range of variability in burn severity, as it relates to climate, is a critical missing link in current understanding of fire-climate relationships. This work differs from previous studies, based on burn data from crude perimeters, by considering the actual area burned and the magnitude of ecological effect, i.e. burn severity, to understand how climate influences heterogeneous patterns in regions where fire is the primary disturbance mechanism. Building upon past and current research and applications within USGS, other DOI agencies, and the USFS, the study spatially quantifies burn severity through Landsat remote sensing, and used available climate data to address three scientific questions: 1) how does climate variability (e.g., seasonality, temperature, precipitation) manifest spatiotemporally in large area patterns of burn severity; 2) how do climate teleconnections manifest spatially and temporally in large area patterns of burn severity; and 3) to what extent can we generalize impacts and trends in burn severity across the three representative western U.S. ecoregions: how are they similar, how do they differ? Overall, results will lead to understanding how climate controls burn heterogeneity and subsequent fire effects in western U.S. forest ecosystems.

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