TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2017//
TI  - Climatic influences on interannual variability in regional burn severity across western US forests
JO  - International journal of wildland fire
A1  - Abatzoglou, John T.
A1  - Kolden, Crystal A.
A1  - Williams, A. Park
A1  - Lutz, James A.
A1  - Smith, Alistair M. S.
SP  - 269
EP  - 275
VL  - 26
IS  - 4
N2  - Interannual variability in burn severity is assessed across forested ecoregions of the western United States to understand how it is influenced by variations in area burned and climate during 1984-2014. Strong correlations (|r| > 0.6) between annual area burned and climate metrics were found across many of the studied regions. The burn severity of individual fires and fire seasons was weakly, but significantly (P < 0.05), correlated with burned area across many regions. Interannual variability in fuel dryness evaluated with fuel aridity metrics demonstrated weak-to-moderate (|r| >0.4) relationships with regional burn severity, congruent with but weaker than those between climate and area burned for most ecoregions. These results collectively suggest that irrespective of other factors, long-term increases in fuel aridity will lead to increased burn severity in western United States forests for existing vegetation regimes.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 1049-8001
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/WF16165
ID  - ref1
ER  -