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Project ID:

03-1-3-08

Year:

2003

Date Started:

08/19/2003

Date Completed:

05/30/2007

Title:

Forest Floor Consumption and Smoke Characterization in Boreal Forested Fuelbed Types of Alaska

Project Proposal Abstract:

Many areas of the boreal forest of Alaska contain deep layers of moss, duff, and peat, resulting in a large pool of biomass that potentially can burn and smolder for long periods of time creating hazardous smoke episodes for local residents and communities and causing detrimental landscape impacts. Research to quantify fuel consumption, flammability thresholds, and smoke production in boreal forest types is critical for effective modeling of fire effects (e.g. smoke emissions, regional haze, permafrost melting, erosion, plant succession, etc) and landscape management if prescribed burning is to become an important land management technique in the future. Preliminary research has generated a hypothesis of the controlling variables that govern the fuel consumption in the moss and duff layers, but this hypothesis needs to be verified and tested through field-based experimentation. Very limited smoke emissions characterization has been completed. The purpose of this study is to collect fuel consumption data and characterize smoke emissions on active wildfires and prescribed fires. The data will be used to develop new and modify existing forest floor fuel consumption models and develop emission rate equations for the boreal forest fuelbed type. The fuel consumption and emission factors and rate equations will be implemented into the software program Consume 3.0 to better predict moss/peat/duff fuel consumption and smoke production during wildland fires in Alaska. This research will make Consume 3.0 and other fuel consumption, fire effects, and smoke production models more robust and aid managers, planners, and researchers in developing environmentally, socially, and legally responsible land management plans. This research will also allow for a more effective and informed use of emission production and wildfire/prescribed fire trade-off models providing improved wildland fire emissions accounting and planning at the local, regional, and global scales. The fuel consumption and smoke characterization module will be a scientifically based support tool that can be used to improve fire management decision processes (AFP-2003-2, task #1 and linkages with AFP-2003-1, task 3).

Principal Investigator:

Roger D. Ottmar

Agency/Organization:

Forest Service

Branch or Dept:

PNW-Seattle-Managing Natural Disturbances

Other Project Collaborators

Type	Name	Agency/Organization	Branch or Dept
Co-Principal Investigator	Robert E. Vihnanek	Forest Service	PNW-Seattle-Managing Natural Disturbances
Co-Principal Investigator	Ronald E. Babbitt	Forest Service	RMRS-Fire Sciences Lab-Missoula
Co-Principal Investigator	Sue A. Ferguson	Forest Service	PNW-Seattle-Managing Natural Disturbances
Collaborator/Contributor	Brad Cella	NPS-National Park Service	Alaska Regional Office-Anchorage
Collaborator/Contributor	Jennifer L. Barnes	NPS-National Park Service	Alaska Regional Office-Fairbanks
Collaborator/Contributor	Karen A. Murphy	FWS-Fish and Wildlife Service	Region 7-Alaska Regional Office
Collaborator/Contributor	Kent Slaughter	BLM-Bureau of Land Management	GACC-AICC-Alaska Fire Service-Ft. Wainwright
Collaborator/Contributor	Larry Vanderlinden	FWS-Fish and Wildlife Service	Region 7-Alaska Regional Office
Collaborator/Contributor	Randi R. Jandt	University of Alaska-Fairbanks	International Arctic Research Center
Federal Cooperator	Roger D. Ottmar	Forest Service	PNW-Seattle-Managing Natural Disturbances

Project Locations

Fire Science Exchange Network

Alaska

Level

State

Agency

Unit

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Title
Rapid Response Enables Additional Forest Floor Consumption and Smoke Characterization Sampling in Boreal Forests of Alaska	View
Progress report	View
	View
	View
Presentations	View
Alaska Forest Floor Consumption Briefing	View
Large Wildfires and the Sustainability of Boreal Forests in Alaska: Lessons from the 2004 Fire Season	View