Fire and Climate Change
Mike Flannigan, Professor, Department of Renewable Resources, University of Alberta present a seminar on 28 February 2013. Abstract: Wildland fire is a global feature resulting from interactions between climate/weather, fuels and people. Our climate and associated day-to-day weather may be changing rapidly due to human activities that may have dramatic and unexpected impacts on regional and global fire regimes. Existing studies suggest a general overall increase in area burned and fire occurrence although there is a lot of spatial variability, with some areas of no change or even decreases in area burned and occurrence. Fire seasons are lengthening for temperate and boreal regions and this trend should continue in a warmer world. Future trends of fire severity and intensity have been difficult to determine due to the complex and non-linear interactions between weather, vegetation and people. However, recent research using 3 GCMs and 3 emission scenarios suggests that there will be a significant increase in fire severity this century. Increases of fire severity could lead to a positive feedback cycle in the climate system where increased emissions from fire could reinforce human-caused climate warming.
