Both fire and climatic variability have monumental impacts on the dynamics of temperate ecosystems. These impacts can sometimes be extreme or devastating as seen in recent El Nino/La Nina cycles and in uncontrolled fire occurrences. This volume brings together research conducted in western North and South America, areas of a great deal of collaborative work on the influence of people and climate change on fire regimes. In order to give perspective to patterns of change over time, it emphasizes the integration of paleoecological studies with studies of modern ecosystems. Data from a range of spatial scales, from individual plants to communities and ecosystems to landscape and regional levels, are included. Contributions come from fire ecology, paleoecology, biogeography, paleoclimatology, landscape and ecosystem ecology, ecological modeling, forest management, plant community ecology and plant morphology. The book gives a synthetic overview of methods, data and simulation models for evaluating fire regime processes in forests, shrublands and woodlands and assembles case studies of fire, climate and land use histories. The unique approach of this book gives researchers the benefits of a north-south comparison as well as the integration of paleoecological histories, current ecosystem dynamics and modeling of future changes.
Author(s): Thomas T. Veblen, William L. Baker, Gloria Montenegro, Thomas W. Swetnam
Edition: 1
Year: 2002
Language: English
Pages: 456
0387954554......Page 1
Ecological Studies, Vol. 160......Page 2
Fire and Climatic
Change in Temperate
Ecosystems of the
Western Americas......Page 4
Preface......Page 6
Acknowledgments......Page 10
Contents......Page 11
Contributors......Page 14
1. Methods and Models......Page 18
1. Fire History Reconstructions Based on
Sediment Records from Lakes and Wetlands......Page 19
2. The Simulation of Landscape Fire, Climate,
and Ecosystem Dynamics......Page 48
3. Simulation of Effects of Climatic
Change on Fire Regimes......Page 85
2. North America......Page 111
4. Fire Regimes and Climatic Change
in Canadian Forests......Page 112
5. Fires and Climate in Forested Landscapes
of the U.S. Rocky Mountains......Page 135
6. Tree-Ring Reconstructions of Fire and
Climate History in the Sierra Nevada and
Southwestern United States......Page 173
7. Influence of Climate and Land Use on
Historical Surface Fires in Pine-Oak Forests,
Sierra Madre Occidental, Mexico......Page 211
8. Impact of Past, Present, and Future
Fire Regimes on North American
Mediterranean Shrublands......Page 233
3. South America......Page 278
9. Fire History and Vegetation Changes in
Northern Patagonia, Argentina......Page 279
10. Influences of Climate on Fire in
Northern Patagonia, Argentina......Page 310
11. Fire Regimes and Forest Dynamics in the
Lake Region of South-Central Chile......Page 336
12. Fire History in Central Chile:
Tree-Ring Evidence and Modern Records......Page 357
13. Holocene Fire Frequency and Climate Change
at Rio Rubens Bog, Southern Patagonia......Page 371
14. Regeneration Potential of Chilean Matorral
After Fire: An Updated View......Page 395
4. Practical Implications......Page 424
15. Management Implications of Fire and
Climate Changes in the Western Americas......Page 425
Index......Page 453
