Kevin Ryan

Peat fires in Southeast Asia are a major source of trace gases and particles to the regional-global atmosphere that influence atmospheric chemistry, climate, and air quality. During the November 2015 record-high Ocean Niño Index (ONI, 2.6) our mobile smoke sampling team made the first, or rare, field measurements of numerous trace gases, aerosol op...

Tropical peatlands store vast volumes of carbon belowground. Human land uses have led to their degradation, reducing their carbon storage services. Clearing and drainage make peatlands susceptible to surface and belowground fires. Satellites do not readily detect smouldering peat fires, which release globally significant quantities of aerosols and...

Peat fires in Southeast Asia are a major source of trace gases and particles to the regional-global atmosphere that influence atmospheric chemistry, climate, and air quality. During the 2015 November record-high Ocean Niño Index (ONI, 2.6) our mobile smoke sampling team made the first, or rare, field measurements of numerous trace gases, aerosol op...

Most recent estimates of carbon emissions from Indonesia's peatland fires are based on extrapolation from a narrow base of empirical evidence, raising concerns about the reliability of fire emissions estimates. Measurements of peat fires during ENSO periods are not representative of fires in other years, yet they underlie many estimates of peat fir...

A critical look at fires in the peatlands of Kalimantan and Sumatra in Indonesia indicates that programs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from such fires need to: 1) recognize the diverse human activities and objectives associated with peatland fire use; 2) accept that some of these activities may be difficult to regulate because of being transie...

Wildland fires have a multitude of ecological effects in forests, woodlands, and savannas across the globe. A major focus of past research has been on tree mortality from fire, as trees provide a vast range of biological services. We assembled a database of individual-tree records from prescribed fires and wildfires in the United States. The Fire a...

Millennia of extensive grazing, agriculture, and timber harvesting have altered Turkey’s native vegetation and modified fire regimes. The degree to which this is so is a topic for debate among policy-makers, managers, and scientists – with implications for understanding the potential impacts of land use and climate change on future forest managemen...

Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) was collected in situ from peat smoke during the 2015 El Niño peat fire episode in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. Twenty-one PM samples were collected from 18 peat fire plumes that were primarily smoldering with modified combustion efficiency (MCE) values of 0.725–0.833. PM emissions were determined and chemically ch...

Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) was collected in situ from peat smoke during the 2015 El Niño peat fire episode in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. Twenty-one PM samples were collected from 18 peat fire plumes that were primarily smoldering with modified combustion efficiency (MCE) values of 0.725–0.833. PM emissions were determined and chemically ch...

Peat fires are a recurrent phenomenon in Indonesia and represent a problem for the country. Each year thousands of hectares of peatland burn in Indonesia emitting tons of greenhouse gasses, particulates, and aerosols. Peat fires have been identified as the primary source of the country’s carbon emissions, making Indonesia the world’s 3rd largest ca...

Peat fires in Southeast Asia have become a major annual source of trace gases and particles to the regional– global atmosphere. The assessment of their influence on atmospheric chemistry, climate, air quality, and health has been uncertain partly due to a lack of field measurements of the smoke characteristics. During the strong 2015 El Niño event...

Peatland fires are a major contributor to Indonesia‘s greenhouse gas emissions in recent decades, particularly in previously drained and burnt areas during El Niño events, as witnessed in 2015. Despite the estimated magnitude of these emissions, peat and peatland fires still lack verified field data, methods and models. Peat fire emissions are stil...

Peatland fires are a major contributor to Indonesia‘s greenhouse gas emissions in recent decades, particularly in previously drained and burnt areas during El Niño events, as witnessed in 2015. Despite the estimated magnitude of these emissions, peat and peatland fires still lack verified field data, methods and models. Peat fire emissions are stil...

Peat fires in Southeast Asia have become a major annual source of trace gases and particles to the regional-global atmosphere. The assessment of their influence on atmospheric chemistry, climate, air quality, and health has been uncertain partly due to a lack of field measurements of the smoke characteristics. During the strong 2015 El Niño event w...

p> Aim of study: The objectives of this work were to determine which morphological and fire severity variables may help explain the mortality of adult Abies religiosa (Kunth) Schltdl. & Cham., to model the probability of this species after being affected by crown fire, and to obtain more elements to classify the sacred fir in terms of fire resistan...

This poster introduces SDSU-IPB NASA Tropical Peat Fire Research Project, the international collaboration research on peat fire between American and Indonesian researchers.

During the fourth Fire Lab at Missoula Experiment (FLAME-4, October-November 2012) a large variety of regionally and globally significant biomass fuels was burned at the US Forest Service Fire Sciences Laboratory in Missoula, Montana. The particle emissions were characterized by an extensive suite of instrumentation that measured aerosol chemistry,...

During the fourth Fire Lab at Missoula Experiment (FLAME-4, October-November~2012) a~large variety of regionally and globally significant biomass fuels was burned at the US Forest Service Fire Sciences Laboratory in Missoula, Montana. The particle emissions were characterized by an extensive suite of instrumentation that measured aerosol chemistry,...

Whether ignited by lightning or by Native Americans, fire once shaped many North American ecosystems. Euro-American settlement and 20th-century fire suppression practices drastically altered historic fire regimes, leading to excessive fuel accumulation and uncharacteristically severe wildfires in some areas and diminished flammability resulting fro...

LANDFIRE is the working name given to the Landscape Fire and Resource Management Planning Tools Project (http://www.landfire.gov). The project was initiated in response to mega-fires and the need for managers to have consistent, wall-to-wall (i.e., all wildlands regardless of agency/ownership), geospatial data, on vegetation, fuels, and terrain to...

The health of many Rocky Mountain ecosystems is in decline because of the policy of excluding fire in the management of these ecosystems. Fire exclusion has actually made it more difficult to fight fires, and this poses greater risks to the people who fight fires and for those who live in and around Rocky Mountain forests and rangelands. This paper...

This state-of-knowledge review provides a synthesis of the effects of fire on cultural resources, which can be used by fire managers, cultural resource (CR) specialists, and archaeologists to more effectively manage wildland vegetation, fuels, and fire. The goal of the volume is twofold: (1) to provide cultural resource/archaeological professionals...

Managers are faced with reducing hazardous fuel, restoring fi re regimes, and decreasing the threat of catastrophic wildfi re. Often, the comprehensive, scientifi - cally-credible data and applications needed to test alternative fuel treatments across multi-ownership landscapes are lacking. Teams from the USDA Forest Service, De- partment of the In...

Wildland fire management has moved beyond a singular focus on suppression, calling for wildfire management for ecological benefit where no critical human assets are at risk. Processes causing direct effects and indirect, long-term ecosystem changes are complex and multidimensional. Robust risk-assessment tools are required that account for highly v...

A direct comparison of temperatures and heat loads was made between simulated duff-covered (~2 cm) and uncovered mineral soil beneath a burning fuel pile. Temperatures were recorded in the duff, at the duff – mineral soil interface, and at 1-cm intervals downward to a depth of 4 cm. Covering reduced the peak temperatures about 200 °C in dry mineral...

As prescribed fire use increases and the options for responding to wildfires continue to expand beyond suppression, the need for improving fire effects prediction capabilities becomes increasingly apparent. The papers in this Fire Ecology special issue describe recent advances in fire effects prediction for key classes of direct (first-order) fire...

Fire has been central to terrestrial life ever since early anaerobic microorganisms poisoned the atmosphere with oxygen and multicellular plant life moved onto land. The combination of fuels, oxygen, and heat gave birth to fire on Earth. Fire is not just another evolutionary challenge that life needed to overcome, it is, in fact, a core ecological...

The Landscape Fire and Resource Management Planning Tools (LANDFIRE) Project is mapping wildland fuels, vegetation, and fire regime characteristics across the United States. The LANDFIRE project is unique because of its national scope, creating an integrated product suite at 30-m spatial resolution and complete spatial coverage of all lands within...

Cambium injury is an important factor in post-fire tree survival. Measurements that quantify the degree of bark charring on tree stems after fire are often used as surrogates for direct cambium injury because they are relatively easy to assign and are non-destructive. However, bark char codes based on these measurements have been inadequately teste...

Accurately predicting fire-caused mortality is essential to developing prescribed fire burn plans and post-fire salvage marking guidelines. The mortality model included in the commonly used USA fire behaviour and effects models, the First Order Fire Effects Model (FOFEM), BehavePlus, and the Fire and Fuels Extension to the Forest Vegetation Simulat...

We developed 3-year post-fire mortality models for 12 western conifer species by pooling data collected from multiple fire-injury studies. Models were developed for white fir, red fir, subalpine fir, incense cedar, western larch, lodgepole pine, whitebark pine, ponderosa pine, Jeffrey pine, sugar pine, Engelmann spruce, and Douglas-fir. Two sets of...

The Wildland Fire Decision Support System (WFDSS) uses the Fire Spread Probability (FSPro) model to predict the spatial extent of fire, and to assess values-at-risk within probable spread zones. This information is used to support Appropriate Management Response (AMR), which involves decision making regarding fire-fighter deployment, fire suppressi...

Douglas-fir has life history traits that greatly enhance resistance to injury from fire, thereby increasing post-fire survival rates. Tools for predicting the probability of tree mortality following fire are important components of both pre-fire planning and post-fire management efforts. Using data from mixed-severity wildfire in Montana and Wyomin...

The smouldering combustion of peat and muck soil plays an important role in the creation and maintenance of wetland communities. This experimental study was conducted to improve our understanding of how moisture and mineral content constrain smouldering in organic soil. Laboratory burning was conducted with root mat and muck soil samples from pocos...

This state-of-knowledge review about the effects of fire on soils and water can assist land and fire managers with information on the physical, chemical, and biological effects of fire needed to successfully conduct ecosystem management, and effectively inform others about the role and impacts of wildland fire. Chapter topics include the soil resou...

Altered fire regimes are a serious threat to biodiversity around the globe. Their restoration is dependent on understanding the natural ecological range of variability in fire frequency

Fire, other disturbances, physical setting, weather, and climate shape the structure and function of forests throughout the Western United States. More than 80 years of fire research have shown that physical setting, fuels, and weather combine to determine wildfire intensity (the rate at which it consumes fuel) and severity (the effect fire has on...

We propose to establish a consortium of experts in technology, remote sensing, fire behavior, and fire effects to develop and deploy an array of scientific equipment and personnel to specific fires to improve tactical intelligence on all future fires and strategic intelligence over the entire global landmass. The planned improvements to tactical in...

Environmental data are often utilized to guide interpretation of spectral information based on context, however, these are also important in deriving vegetation maps themselves, especially where ecological information can be mapped spatially. A vegetation classification procedure is presented which combines a classification of spectral data from La...

Ryan, K.C. 2002. Dynamic interactions between forest structure and fi re behavior in boreal ecosystems. Silva Fennica 36(1): 13–39. This paper reviews and synthesizes literature on fi re as a disturbance factor in boreal forests. Spatial and temporal variation in the biophysical environment, specifi cally, vegetative structure, terrain, and weather...

An integrated multi-scale analysis strategy using output from a variety of fire behavior and effects models has been developed for the Southern Utah Fuel Treatment Demonstration Project. Broader-scale analyses at the sub-basin or sub- regional scale will employ the models FIREHARM and LANDSUM across the entire study area. Sub-watershed and landscap...

This state-of-knowledge review about the effects of fire on flora and fuels can assist land managers with ecosystem and fire management planning and in their efforts to inform others about the ecological role of fire. Chapter topics include fire regime classification, autecological effects of fire, fire regime characteristics and postfire plant com...

Glacier National Park served as a test site for ecosystem analyses that in- volved a suite of integrated models embedded within a geographic information system. The goal of the exercise was to provide managers with maps that could illustrate probable shifts in vegetation, net primary production (NPP), and hydrologic responses associated with two se...

Glacier National Park served as a test site for ecosystem analyses than involved a suite of integrated models embedded within a geographic information system. The goal of the exercise was to provide managers with maps that could illustrate probable shifts in vegetation, net primary production (NPP), and hydrologic responses associated with two sele...

We estimated leaf area index (LAI) for Glacier National Park, Montana, U.S.A., by using various methods to measure LAI in the field and correlating these values with Landsat Thematic Mapper data. Ground-based LAI were estimated using sapwood-LAI allometric equations and optical instruments, including the LAI-2000 and a Decagon ceptometer. Optical-b...

Burned forested areas have patterns of varying burn severity as a consequence of various topographic, vegetation, and meteorological factors. These patterns are detected and mapped using satellite data. Other ecological information can be abstracted from satellite data regarding rates of recovery of vegetation foliage and variation of burn severity...

A mechanistic, biogeochemical succession model, FIRE-BGC, was used to investigate the role of fire on long-term landscape dynamics in northern Rocky Mountain coniferous forests of Glacier National Park, Montana, USA. FIRE-BGC is an individual-tree model-created by merging the gap-phase process-based model FIRESUM with the mechanistic ecosystem biog...

Two models trace their ancestry to soil science, and other models for heat and mass transport in porous media come from engineering disciplines and geophysics. The approaches underlying the development of the models were contrasted. Opportunities for improving the robustness and fidelity of currently available models were sought and a few potential...

After the 1988 Greater Yellowstone Area fires two studies were begun to monitor beetle activity in burned and unburned conifers and to evaluate the susceptibility of fire injured trees to bark beetle attack. An intensive survey was conducted annually from 1989 through 1992 on 24 permanent plots located in or near stands burned by surface fire. Stan...

Climate, vegetation, and fire are interrelated so that any change in one will affect the others. Increases in greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide, are expected to increase average surface temperatures and alter precipitation patterns. These changes will alter numerous biochemical processes of vegetative communities. Changes in growth rates,...

Fuel accumulations were measured in duff mounds around the bases of 19 mature Pinus ponderosa Laws. (ponderosa pine) in a 200-year-old stand in Glacier National Park, Montana. Tree diameter at breast height ranged from 50 to 114 cm (mean = 80 cm). The stand burned at intervals between 13 to 58 years prior to European settlement. This stand had not...

Presettlement fire played an important role in nutrient cycling, plant succession, diversity, and stand dynamics in coniferous forests of western North America. Prescribed fire can maintain site quality and contribute to control of insect and disease problems while reducing wildfire hazard. Fire effects on soils are largely governed by interactions...

Permanent plots were established in the Greater Yellowstone Area (GYA) following the 1988 fires to determine response of bark beetles to fire-injured conifers. Within 2 years (1989 and 1990), 67 percent of the Douglas-fir had been infested by bark beetles (primarily the Douglas-fir beetle) and wood borers; 44 percent of the lodgepole pine were infe...

Data on 2356 trees from 43 prescribed fires in Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington were used to model postfire tree mortality. Data were combined for seven species of conifers (Pseudotsuga menziesii, Larix occidentalis, Picea engelmannii, Pinus contorta, Abies lasiocarpa, Thuja plicata and Tsuga heterophylla) to develop binary logistic regression...

Mortality was determined in a stand of Douglas-fir 8 years after 20 plots were treated with light surface fires. Logistic regression was used to model long-term mortality as functions of morphological variables measured shortly after burning. Independent variables were diameter at breast height, height of needle scorch, percentage of the prefire cr...

Eight-yeartree growth ofwestern larch (Larix occiden­ talis) and Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) was measuredfollowing prescribed underburningon burned and control plots in western Montana. Western larch on bun.edplots had reduced radial growth in the first year following fire but increasedgrowth in the next 7 years. Douglas-firhad similargrowt...

A model is presented for predicting mortality of conifers after wildfire. The model requires stand data inputs and is linked with a mathematical fire behavior model that calculates fireline intensity. Fraction of crown volume killed is calculated for each species in a stand based on mensurational data. Duration of lethal heat at the base of trees i...

The LANDFIRE project is a collaborative interagency effort designed to pro- vide seamless, nationally consistent, locally relevant geographic information systems (GIS) data layers depicting wildland fuels, vegetation and fi re regime characteristics. The LANDFIRE project is the fi rst of its kind and offers new opportunity for fi re man- agement an...

The length of flames of wildland fires is a relative indicator of fireline intensity and an important index to fire effects and difficulty of control. A technique for measuring flame height and flame-tilt angle for the purpose of calculating flame length is described. Laboratory tests determined the feasibility of using cotton string treated with a...

The bark beetle antiaggregative pheromones, verbenone and ipsdienol, were tested in protecting heat- injured lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta Dougl. ex Loud.) from mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins) infestation in the Sawtooth National Recreation Area in central Idaho. Peat moss was placed around 70 per- cent of the basal circumfe...

The bark beetle antiaggregative pheromones, verbenone and ipsdienol, were tested in protecting heat-injured lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta Dougl. ex Loud.) from mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae) infestation in the Sawtooth National Recreation Area in central Idaho. Peat moss was placed around 70 percent of the basal circumference of lo...