Forest Fires

Edward A. Johnson is a Professor of Biological Sciences Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at the University of Calgary, Canada and up until June 2018, he was also the Director of the Biogeoscience Institute. His research interests are wildfires, avalanches, hillslope and fluvial geomorphic processes, climate, landuse, and other processes as they affect tree populations. He is particularly interested in the explicit coupling of the physical processes to ecological processes. He has over 114 publications and 4,693 total citations. Kiyoko Miyanishi is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Guelph, having retired in 2005. She has edited 2 books, written 11 book chapters and has over 30 publications and 1,200 citations.

• Contributors Preface Acknowledgments 1 Strengthening Fire Ecology's Roots I. IntroductionII. ProcessesIII. Transfer Rates and BudgetsIV. Examples of Traditional vs. Proposed ApproachReferences2 Flames I. IntroductionII. Basic Aspects of Combustion in Forest Fires III. Temperature, Velocity, Species Concentration, and Flame HeightIV Premixed and Diffusion Flames V. Extinction of Diffusion Flames VI. Diffusion Flames and Scaling AnalysisVII. Spreading FlamesVIII. Structure of Flame BaseIX. ConclusionsNotationReferences3 Combustion Chemistry and Smoke I. IntroductionII. Fuel Chemistry and CombustionIII. Smoke ProductionIV. Minimizing Smoke ProductionV. ConclusionsReferences4 Water Relations of Forest Fuels I. IntroductionII. Forest FuelsIII. Fuel Moisture RelationshipsIV. Moisture Content EstimationNotationAdditional ReadingReferences5 Wildland Fire Spread Models I. IntroductionII. Head Fire Rate of Spread (Physical Principles and their Mathematical Embodiment)III. Head Fire Rate of Spread: AustraliaIV. Head Fire Rate of Spread: United StatesV. Head Fire Rate of Spread: CanadaVI. Smoldering VII. Whole Fire Modeling—Fire ShapeNotationReferences6 Wind-Aided Fire Spread I. IntroductionII. Laboratory-Scale Setup III. Fire Spread Model IV. Preliminary Testing of the Model V. Test Results for the Effect of Wind Speed and Fuel Loading on the Rate of Fire Spread VI. Conclusions Notation Recommended Reading References 7 Fire Plumes I. IntroductionII. Modeling Fire Temperature Maxima III. Plumes above Fires in a Cross WindNotationReferences8 Coupling Atmospheric and Fire Models I. IntroductionII. Vorticity Dynamics in a FireIII. Coupling between Atmosphere and FireIV. The Elements of Fire Modeling V. Modeling the AtmosphereVI. The Coupled Fire—Atmosphere Modeling ApproachVII. Idealized Studies of Wildfire BehaviorVIII. Infrared Observations of FiresIX. Conclusions and Future Work Appendix I. Circulation and VorticityAppendix II. Development of Vertical Rotation in a Frictionless FluidAppendix III. Generation of Vertical Motion in Rotating Convective CellsNotationReferences9 Surface Energy Budget and Fuel MoistureI. IntroductionII. Evapotranspiration Processes and the Meteorological Controlling FactorsIII. Estimation of Potential Evapotranspiration RatesIV. Functional Dependence of PET and AETV. Characteristics of PETVI. Near-Surface EnvironmentVII. Models of Land-Surface InteractionsVIII. Remote Sensing of the Surface Energy BudgetIX. Fire Weather Rating SystemsNotationSuggested Reading ListReferences10 Climate, Weather, and Area Burned I. IntroductionII. Weather and Area Burned—Synoptic Surface FeaturesIII. Weather and Area Burned—Upper Air FeaturesIV. Teleconnections V. Future Warming and Area BurnedVI. SummaryReferences11 Lightning and Forest Fires I. Introduction II. LightningIII. Previous Studies of Lightning-Initiated Fire IV. Interaction between Lightning and Fuels V. How Ignition Occurs VI. Ignition Experiments with Real Forest FuelsVII. Generating Models for Operational UseVIII. Smoke, Lightning, and Cloud Microphysics IX. Global Implications of Lightning Ignition Characteristics X. ConclusionReferences12 Statistical Inference for Historical Fire Frequency Using the Spatial MosaicI. Introduction II. Graphical AnalysisIII. Statistical Inference with Prespecified Change PointsIV. The Efficiency of Sample vs. Map Data V. Determining Epochs of Constant Fire FrequencyReferences13 Duff Consumption I. IntroductionII. Characteristics of DuffIII. Empirical Studies of Duff ConsumptionIV. Flaming CombustionV. Smoldering Combustion and PyrolysisVI. Models of Smoldering CombustionVII. Contribution of Smoldering Combustion Models to Understanding of Duff ConsumptionNotationReferences14 Fire Effects on TreesI. Introduction II. Effects of Fire on the Tree BoleIII. Effects of Fire on Canopy Components IV. Root NecrosisV. Tree MortalityVI. DiscussionNotationAdditional ReadingsReferences15 Forest Fire Management I. IntroductionII. The Relationship between Fire and Forest Land Management ObjectivesIII. Assessing Fire ImpactsIV. Forest Fire Management OrganizationsV. Level of Fire Protection PlanningVI. Some ChallengesFurther ReadingReferencesIndex

"...a rich summary of our current knowledge of several important aspects of forest fire science, from fuel dynamics to coupled atmosphere-fire modelling. ...The book's strength is as a state-of-the-art review of research on pyrolysis, flames, lightening, fuel-moisture dynamics, smoke, combustion chemistry, and more. ...My fire science students and colleagues use Forest Fires as a reference." --Daniel Nepstad, Woods Hole Research Center, in NATURE (January 2002)"...a primary strength of this book is that you can find a larger number of state-of-the-art fire behavior and combustion topics covered in a single source. ...the book is an unmitigated success...a very strong book that will benefit most scientists interested in fire, including ecologists. ...Overall, I compliment the editors and authors for a job well done." --Marc D. Abrams, Pennsylvania State University, School of Forest Resources, in ECOLOGY (November 2001)"This book is authoritative, well written and abundantly referenced. ...a valuable resource on all the topics covered and is likely to remain so for many years. ...It is a book that researchers in fire ecology should be aware of and have access to." --John Ogden in ANNALS OF BOTANY (2001)