Global increase in wildfire risk due to climate-driven declines in fuel moisture.

Autor: Ellis TM; School of Natural Sciences, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.; NSW Bushfire Risk Management Research Hub, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia., Bowman DMJS; School of Natural Sciences, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.; NSW Bushfire Risk Management Research Hub, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia., Jain P; Natural Resources Canada, Canadian Forest Service, Northern Forestry Centre, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada., Flannigan MD; Department of Renewable Resources, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada., Williamson GJ; School of Natural Sciences, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.; NSW Bushfire Risk Management Research Hub, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Global change biology [Glob Chang Biol] 2022 Feb; Vol. 28 (4), pp. 1544-1559. Date of Electronic Publication: 2021 Dec 02.
DOI: 10.1111/gcb.16006
Abstrakt: There is mounting concern that global wildfire activity is shifting in frequency, intensity, and seasonality in response to climate change. Fuel moisture provides a powerful means of detecting changing fire potential. Here, we use global burned area, weather reanalysis data, and the Canadian fire weather index system to calculate fuel moisture trends for multiscale biogeographic regions across a gradient in vegetation productivity. We quantify the proportion of days in the local fire season between 1979 and 2019, where fuel moisture content is below a critical threshold indicating extreme fire potential. We then associate fuel moisture trends over that period to vegetation productivity and comment on its implications for projected anthropogenic climate change. Overall, there is a strong drying trend across realms, biomes, and the productivity gradient. Even where a wetting trend is observed, this often indicates a trend toward increasing fire activity due to an expected increase in fuel production. The detected trends across the productivity gradient lead us to conclude global fire activity will increase with anthropogenic climate change.
(© 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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