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Categories: Environmental: Wildfires
Published Experts demand fire safety policy change over health impact of widely used flame retardants (via sciencedaily.com)
Leading environmental health experts have called for a comprehensive review of the UK's fire safety regulations, with a focus on the environmental and health risks of current chemical flame retardants.
Published A fifth of California's Sierra Nevada conifer forests are stranded in habitats that have grown too warm for them (via sciencedaily.com)
Researchers created maps showing where warmer weather has left trees in conditions that don't suit them, making them more prone to being replaced by other species. The findings could help inform long-term wildfire and ecosystem management in these 'zombie forests.'
Published New technique maps large-scale impacts of fire-induced permafrost thaw in Alaska (via sciencedaily.com)
Researchers have developed a machine learning-based ensemble approach to quantify fire-induced thaw settlement across the entire Tanana Flats in Alaska, which encompasses more than 3 million acres. They linked airborne repeat lidar data to time-series Landsat products (satellite images) to delineate thaw settlement patterns across six large fires that have occurred since 2000. The six fires resulted in a loss of nearly 99,000 acres of evergreen forest from 2000 to 2014 among nearly 155,000 acres of fire-influenced forests with varying degrees of burn severity. This novel approach helped to explain about 65 percent of the variance in lidar-detected elevation change.
Published Wildfires are increasingly burning California's snowy landscapes and colliding with winter droughts to shrink California's snowpack (via sciencedaily.com)
A research team examined what happens to mountain snowpacks when sunny, midwinter dry spells occur in forests impacted by severe wildfire.
Published Western wildfires destroying more homes per square mile burned (via sciencedaily.com)
Between 2010 and 2020, human ignitions started 76% of the Western wildfires that destroyed structures, and those fires tended to be in flammable areas where buildings are increasingly common. Three times as many homes and other structures burned in these ten years than in the previous decade.
Published Understanding plants can boost wildland-fire modeling in uncertain future (via sciencedaily.com)
A new conceptual framework for incorporating the way plants use carbon and water, or plant dynamics, into fine-scale computer models of wildland fire provides a critical first step toward improved global fire forecasting.
Published How to apply lessons from Colorado's costliest wildfire to drinking water systems (via sciencedaily.com)
While communities and governments nationwide have been facing the impact of wildfires on drinking water systems, no national synthesis of scientific and policy needs has been conducted. Now, a study has outlined the scientific and policy needs specific to drinking water systems' resilience to wildfires.
Published Unprecedented levels of high-severity fire burn in Sierra Nevada (via sciencedaily.com)
High-severity wildfire in California's Sierra Nevada forests has nearly quintupled compared to before Euro-American settlement, rising from less than 10% per year then to up to 43% today, a new study finds.
Published In the wake of a wildfire, embers of change in cognition and brain function linger (via sciencedaily.com)
Five years after the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California history, researchers document persistent differences in cognitive function among survivors.
Published What's driving re-burns across California and the West? (via sciencedaily.com)
Seasonal temperature, moisture loss from plants and wind speed are what primarily drive fires that sweep across the same landscape multiple times, a new study reveals. These findings and others could help land managers plan more effective treatments in areas susceptible to fire, particularly in the fire-ravaged wildland-urban interfaces of California.
Published 20,000 premature US deaths caused by human-ignited fires each year (via sciencedaily.com)
A new study shows that smoke particles from human-lit fires are responsible for over 80% of smoke-related deaths each year. The study shows that smoke pollution is on the rise, reducing air quality, and leading to increased illness and premature deaths.
Published Bird diversity increased in severely burned forests of Southern Appalachian mountains (via sciencedaily.com)
A new study found bird diversity increased in North Carolina mountain forest areas severely burned by wildfire in 2016, reinforcing that while wildfire can pose risks to safety and property, it can be beneficial to wildlife. The study results could help forest managers better predict bird responses to wildfire, and manage forests to benefit birds.
Published Wildfire threats not commonly disclosed by US firms despite risk to economy (via sciencedaily.com)
U.S. firms rarely report their wildfire risks in required federal filings and instead bury such risks in nonspecific risk disclosures, according to new research.
Published Climate whiplash increased wildfires on California's west coast about 8,000 years ago (via sciencedaily.com)
Researchers have been studying the effects of the sudden decrease in global temperatures that occurred about 8,200 years ago, the so-called 8.2-kiloyear event, with the help of mineral deposits present in White Moon Cave in Northern California. New indications show that oscillations between extreme wetness and aridity in California were closely linked with the occurrence of wildfires. The researchers have concluded that such events are likely to become more common in the face of human-induced climate change.
Published Americans flocking to fire: National migration study (via sciencedaily.com)
Americans are leaving many of the U.S. counties hit hardest by hurricanes and heatwaves -- and moving towards dangerous wildfires and warmer temperatures, says one of the largest studies of U.S. migration and natural disasters. These results are concerning, as wildfire and rising temperatures are projected to worsen with climate change. The study was inspired by the increasing number of headlines of record-breaking natural disasters.
Published For 400 years, Indigenous tribes buffered climate's impact on wildfires in the American Southwest (via sciencedaily.com) Original source
Devastating megafires are becoming more common, in part, because the planet is warming. But a new study suggests bringing 'good fire' back to the U.S. and other wildfire fire-prone areas, as Native Americans once did, could potentially blunt the role of climate in triggering today's wildfires.
Published 'Digital footprints' central to new approach for studying post-disturbance recreation changes (via sciencedaily.com)
A new social media-based study of recreation visitation in the Gorge following the Eagle Creek Fire expands on research launched in 2016 -- and holds promise for other large, multi-ownership landscapes. The study shows how using new approaches that draw from social media data can help us better understand the complex relationships between wildfire, natural resource management, and people.
Published Major fires an increasing risk as the air gets thirstier, research shows (via sciencedaily.com)
Greater atmospheric demand for water means a dramatic increase in the risk of major fires in global forests unless we take urgent and effective climate action, new research finds. Researchers have examined global climate and fire records in all of the world's forests over the last 20 years.
Published When cyclones and fires collide... (via sciencedaily.com)
As strong winds and torrential rains inundate Australia's south-eastern coast, new research suggests that high intensity bushfires might not be too far behind, with their dual effects extending damage zones and encroaching on previously low-risk residential areas.
Published Researchers design model that predicts which buildings will survive wildfire (via sciencedaily.com)
Wildfires may seem unpredictable, leaving random ruin in their wake. Engineers have now developed a model that can predict how wildfire will impact a community down to which buildings will burn. They say predicting damage to the built environment is essential to developing fire mitigation strategies and steps for recovery.