|
|
Soil moisture depletion during the growing season can induce plant water stress, thereby driving declines in grassland fuel moisture and accelerating curing. These drying and curing dynamics and their dependencies on soil moisture are inadequately represented in fire danger models. To elucidate these relationships, grassland fuelbed characteristics and soil moisture were monitored in nine patches of tallgrass prairie under patch-burn management in Oklahoma, USA, during two growing seasons. This study period included a severe drought (in 2012), which resulted in a large wildfire outbreak near the study site. Fuel moisture of the mixed live and dead herbaceous fuels (MFM) clearly tracked soil moisture, expressed as...
|
Grassland habitat losses to woody encroachment iswidespread and ongoing intheSandhills.Many grassland-obligate bird species are not able to use encroached areas, although exact tolerance levels are not known. Long-and short-term effects of woody encroachment removal and control have not yet been determined. More information about the interactions between breeding birds and woody encroachment can help our partnership be more efficient and effective when taking actions intendedto benefit declining species.
Categories: Data,
Project;
Tags: Academics & scientific researchers,
Federal resource managers,
Grasslands,
Project,
Regional & county planners, All tags...
SA Science Catalog,
Strategic Science - SSP,
USFWS Science Applications Science Catalog,
environment,
grassland,
grassland,
grassland nesting birds,
onGoing,
strategic habitat conservation,
strategic habitat conservation,
wood encroachment,
wood encroachment, Fewer tags
|
Abstract (from https://dl.sciencesocieties.org/publications/sssaj/abstracts/81/3/490): In situ soil moisture measurements have the potential to improve wildfire danger assessments, which often rely on the Keetch–Byram Drought Index (KBDI) as a soil moisture surrogate. However, the relative merits of measured soil moisture and KBDI as indicators of wildfire danger are unknown. Therefore, our objectives were to (i) identify relationships between drought indices (KBDI or fraction of available water capacity, FAW) and wildfire size for 34,939 growing and dormant-season wildfires, (ii) compare relationships between each drought index and wildfire probability for 501 large (≥ 405 ha) growing-season and dormant-season...
|
|
