Fire, climate, and vegetation

摘要

Alaska's climate is changing, and the change has raised many questions about how wildland fire is linked to climate, how it influences land cover, and the associated feedbacks in the terrestrial ecosystem. "Understanding the linkages between fire, climate, and vegetation is critical for accurate forecasts of the effects of global change and it's also necessary for developing sound public policy related to wildland fire," said Scott Rupp, associate professor in the Forest Sciences Department. Rupp's research focuses on spatial modeling of fire and vegetation succession in boreal forest landscapes to improve understanding of the effects of both climate change and wildland fire. "There is an increasing need," he said, "to assess future fire regimes, fire frequency and severity, so that we have a basis for projecting changes in landscape dynamics and can consequently make recommendations for policy development."