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Global increase in wildfire risk due to climate-driven declines in fuel moisture
journal contribution
posted on 2023-05-21, 04:36 authored by Todd EllisTodd Ellis, David BowmanDavid Bowman, Jain, P, Flannigan, MD, Grant WilliamsonGrant WilliamsonThere is mounting concern that global wildfire activity is shifting in frequency, intensity, and seasonality in response to climate change. Fuel moisture provides a powerful means of detecting changing fire potential. Here, we use global burned area, weather reanalysis data, and the Canadian fire weather index system to calculate fuel moisture trends for multiscale biogeographic regions across a gradient in vegetation productivity. We quantify the proportion of days in the local fire season between 1979 and 2019, where fuel moisture content is below a critical threshold indicating extreme fire potential. We then associate fuel moisture trends over that period to vegetation productivity and comment on its implications for projected anthropogenic climate change. Overall, there is a strong drying trend across realms, biomes, and the productivity gradient. Even where a wetting trend is observed, this often indicates a trend toward increasing fire activity due to an expected increase in fuel production. The detected trends across the productivity gradient lead us to conclude global fire activity will increase with anthropogenic climate change.
Funding
NSW Office of Environment & Heritage
History
Publication title
Global Change BiologyArticle number
16006Number
16006Pagination
1-16ISSN
1354-1013Department/School
School of Natural SciencesPublisher
Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd.Place of publication
9600 Garsington Rd, Oxford, England, Oxon, Ox4 2DgRights statement
© 2021 John Wiley & Sons LtdRepository Status
- Restricted