by Ian Michael Anzlowar, UCI | April 6, 2021
Yosemite National Park is among the sites in the western U.S. that have experienced more frequent and intense wildfires in recent years.
Steve Zylius / UCI
In southern New Jersey, deep in an isolated, desolate forest known as the Pine Barrens, a small group of men trudge through the woods, behind them a charred trail of smoldering underbrush.
This is not the work of criminal arsonists but a controlled burn conducted by members of the U.S. Forest Service. Scattered throughout the area are small sensors tracking atmospheric pressure, wind speed, air temperature and other factors and sending this data 3,000 miles across the country to a computer on the desk of Tirtha Banerjee, UCI assistant professor of civil & environmental engineering.
Take a guided tour of Leon County s biologically diverse communities
Peter Goren
Leon County and the surrounding areas are some of the most biologically diverse in the country. Each biodiverse ecosystem includes several indicator species, those plants or animals that reflect the biotic or abiotic conditions of a given environment.
These indicator species help us identify specific ecosystem and natural communities. In addition, they can provide us with information on the impacts of pollutants and/or physical damage to an ecosystem and give us insight concerning how well an ecosystem is being managed or restored.
One example of an animal indicator species is the Red-cockaded Woodpecker, typically found in mature pine forests with open understory maintained by frequent burning. One of the local areas where Red-cockaded Woodpeckers can be found is being managed by the Tall Timbers Research Station and Land Conservancy in northern Leon County.
Scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory seek to reduce uncertainties with these fires
DOE/Los Alamos National Laboratory
A firefighter starts a fire to serve as a firebreak to prevent spread of a brush fire.
LOS ALAMOS, N.M., March 4, 2021 Scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory and partners have used modeling to highlight the large impact that small changes in wind conditions can have on low-intensity fires or prescribed burns. Conducting safe prescribed fires depends on anticipating the range of potential fire behavior associated with complex wind conditions. This study has important implications for the future use of observations to aid in model development, said Alexandra Jonko, a computational earth scientist at Los Alamos, whose team authored an article published in a special issue in MDPI Atmosphere. Adequately characterizing variations in the wind at multiple scales is critical. Ultimately, this work will lead to scientific improvements that will allow presc
Search The Newsoom Auburn University professor co-authors BioScience study re-examining role of mesophication in declining prominence of oak landscapes in US
Published: January 27, 2021
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An Auburn University professor has published a study reviewing the commonly held hypothesis mesophication that fire exclusion is responsible for reducing the prominence of oak trees across the central and eastern United States.
Heather Alexander, assistant professor of forest ecology in the School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences, served as lead author of a multi-institution study that investigated mesophication, a condition that occurs when forests become shadier, moister and less flammable. This enables encroaching species to create conditions favorable for their own persistence at the expense of pyrophytic, or fire-tolerant, species.