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Forest Fuel Ecology: The Feedbacks among Fuels, Fire Behavior, and...
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Forest Fuel Ecology: The Feedbacks among Fuels, Fire Behavior, and Vegetation

A special issue of Forests (ISSN 1999-4907). This special issue belongs to the section "Forest Inventory, Modeling and Remote Sensing".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 May 2023) | Viewed by 1349

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Andrea Majlingova

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Fire Protection, Faculty of Wood Sciences and Technology, Technical University in Zvolen, T.G. Masaryka 24, 96001 Zvolen, Slovakia
Interests: modeling of compartment and wildland fire behavior; fuel mapping and volume assessment; risk management theory and implementation of knowledge from the field of geoinformatics to fire protection, disaster management, rescue services and prevention of major industrial accidents

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues, 

There is a realistic presumption, that ongoing climate change will have negative impacts on the frequency and severity of wildfires in the future. The decreased soil and vegetation moisture content, higher drought index will be reflected in vegetation higher ignition potential. A key indicator to specify the actual fire ignition potential of vegetation, calculate the fire danger index, and to predict fire spreading, is the moisture content of fuel. To mitigate the wildfire severity, extent, and impact on forest, we need to understand the driving mechanisms of wildfire ignition, dynamics and the role of fuel and fuel management. The aim of this Special Issue is to promote knowledge of current research concerning forest fuel, including its qualitative (physical, chemical, fire), quantitative properties and further application of this data in fire behavior modelling, completed with knowledge and experience concerning fuel management strategies to be included in climate change adaptation strategies in all time and spatial scales. We encourage studies from all fields, including experimental studies, monitoring approaches and models in this Special Issue.

Dr. Andrea Majlingova
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Forests is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • adaptation to climate change
  • wildfires
  • fire danger index
  • ignition potential
  • wildfire spread prediction
  • fuel management

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

25 pages, 7512 KiB  
Article
Modeling Juvenile Stand Development and Fire Risk of Post-Fire Planted Forests under Variations in Thinning and Fuel Treatments Using FVS–FFE
by Iris Allen, Natalie Pawlikowski, Sophan Chhin, Michael Premer and Jianwei Zhang
Forests 2023, 14(6), 1223; https://doi.org/10.3390/f14061223 - 13 Jun 2023
Viewed by 1063
Abstract
In the past, the dry mixed conifer forests of California’s Sierra Nevada mountains experienced frequent low to mixed severity fires. However, due to fire suppression and past management, forest structure has changed, and the new fire regimes are characterized by large, high severity [...] Read more.
In the past, the dry mixed conifer forests of California’s Sierra Nevada mountains experienced frequent low to mixed severity fires. However, due to fire suppression and past management, forest structure has changed, and the new fire regimes are characterized by large, high severity fires which kill a majority of the overstory trees. These new disturbance patterns require novel approaches to regenerate the forest as they are not adapted to large, high severity fires. We forecasted growth and fire behavior of young plantations for 100 years into the future using the Forest Vegetation Simulator (FVS) and its Fire and Fuels Extension (FFE). In these simulations, we tested combinations of different fuel treatments (mastication only, mastication with prescribed burning, and no fuels treatments) with different overstory thinning intensities (residual densities of 370 SDI (stand density index), 495 SDI, 618 SDI (TPH), and no overstory thinning) on stand growth and potential fire behavior using analysis of variance. We compared growth and crowning index at the end of the simulation and the simulation age when the flame length, basal area mortality, and fire type reached low severity between fuel treatment, thinning intensity, and original management of stands (plantation with PCT [precommercial thinning], plantation without PCT, and natural regenerating stands). These comparisons are essential to identify which fuel treatment categories reduce fire risk. We found an overall pattern of decreasing crown fire occurrence and fire induced mortality across all simulations due to increasing canopy base height and decreasing canopy bulk density. In particular, stands with mastication and prescribed burning transitioned from crown fire types to surface fires 10 years earlier compared to mastication only or no fuel treatment. Furthermore, pre-commercially thinned stands transitioned from crown fire states to surface fires 10 years earlier in the simulations compared to un-thinned and naturally regenerating stands. Stands with mastication and burning went below 25% reference threshold of basal area mortality 11 and 17 years earlier before the mastication only and no fuel treatment, respectively. In addition, pre-commercially thinned stands went below 25% basal area mortality 9 and 5 years earlier in the simulation compared to un-thinned or naturally regenerated stands, respectively. Mastication with prescribed burning (MB) was the most effective treatment for quickly reducing fire behavior by consuming surface fuels, thus drastically lowing flame length (e.g., surface flame length of MB was 0.6 m compared to mastication only [1.3 m] and no treatment [1.4 m]). Furthermore, intensive thinning reduced risk of active crown fires spreading through the stand. Prioritizing prescribed burning, when possible, and thinning (both pre-commercially and from below) are the most effective ways to quickly improve fire resistance in mixed conifer plantations. Our results highlight the different stressors that post-fire planted forests experience and how different silvicultural treatments interact over time to reduce fire risk, which demonstrates the importance of treating stands early and the effectiveness of surface fuel treatments. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Forest Fuel Ecology: The Feedbacks among Fuels, Fire Behavior, and Vegetation)
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