A structural equation model analysis of relationships among ENSO, seasonal descriptors and wildfires.

ABSTRACT: Seasonality drives ecological processes through networks of forcings, and the resultant complexity requires creative approaches for modeling to be successful. Recently ecologists and climatologists have developed sophisticated methods for fully describing seasons. However, to date the relationships among the variables produced by these methods have not been analyzed as networks, but rather with simple univariate statistics. In this manuscript we used structural equation modeling (SEM) to analyze a proposed causal network describing seasonality of rainfall for a site in south-central Florida. We also described how this network was influenced by the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), and how the network in turn affected the site's wildfire regime. Our models indicated that wet and dry seas

SUBMITTER: Slocum MG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3782436 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature