Human presence diminishes the importance of climate in driving fire activity across the United States.

ABSTRACT: Growing human and ecological costs due to increasing wildfire are an urgent concern in policy and management, particularly given projections of worsening fire conditions under climate change. Thus, understanding the relationship between climatic variation and fire activity is a critically important scientific question. Different factors limit fire behavior in different places and times, but most fire-climate analyses are conducted across broad spatial extents that mask geographical variation. This could result in overly broad or inappropriate management and policy decisions that neglect to account for regionally specific or other important factors driving fire activity. We developed statistical models relating seasonal temperature and precipitation variables to historical annual fire activ

SUBMITTER: Syphard AD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5748195 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature