Free Standard AU & NZ Shipping For All Book Orders Over $80!
Register      Login
International Journal of Wildland Fire International Journal of Wildland Fire Society
Journal of the International Association of Wildland Fire
Shopping Cart: ( empty )
You are here: Home > Journals > WF > WF09055
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Contents Vol 19(3)

Spatial variation of trends in wildfire and summer drought in British Columbia, Canada, 1920–2000

Andrea Meyn A E , Sebastian Schmidtlein B , Stephen W. Taylor C , Martin P. Girardin D , Kirsten Thonicke A and Wolfgang Cramer A
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Earth System Analysis, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) e.V., Telegraphenberg A62, PO Box 60 12 03, D-14412 Potsdam, Germany.

B Department of Geography, University of Bonn, D-53115 Bonn, Germany.

C Natural Resources Canada, Canadian Forest Service, Pacific Forestry Centre, 506 West Burnside Road, Victoria, BC, V8Z 1M5, Canada.

D Natural Resources Canada, Canadian Forest Service, Laurentian Forestry Centre, 1055 du PEPS, PO Box 10380, Stn. Sainte-Foy, Quebec, QC, G1V 4C7, Canada.

E Corresponding author. Email: andrea.meyn@pik-potsdam.de

International Journal of Wildland Fire 19(3) 272-283 https://doi.org/10.1071/WF09055
Submitted: 28 May 2009  Accepted: 5 December 2009   Published: 13 May 2010

Abstract

Owing to large climatic and orographic variation, British Columbia covers a variety of ecosystems extending from temperate rainforests on the Pacific coast to boreal forests in the north-east. The aim of this study is to investigate the spatial variation of trends in wildfire activity and their relationship to summer drought for the entire province of British Columbia. Time series of annual wildfire extent and occurrence, summer self-calibrating Palmer Drought Severity Index and summer Aridity Index were derived from spatially explicit data. Sixteen landscape regions according to the provincial Biogeoclimatic Ecosystem Classification system served as spatial reference. The regional series for 1920–2000 were subjected to trend analysis. Correlations between area burned and summer drought were assessed and tested for significance. The observed decrease in wildfire activity is significantly related to wetter summers with the strength of the relationship considerably varying between British Columbia’s landscapes. Our results suggest that aggregated statistics for large regions with complex topography and climate can hide the spatial variation in direction and strength of changes and may accordingly obscure the relationship between fire and drought. Based on high-spatial-resolution data, our study is the first to provide a differentiated picture for British Columbia.

Additional keywords: area burned, Aridity Index, BEC, fire frequency, PDSI, self-calibrating PDSI.


Acknowledgements

A. Meyn thanks the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the Stiftung der deutschen Wirtschaft (SDW) for grants. We thank Pamela Cheers for reviewing the manuscript.


References


Alley WM (1984) The Palmer Drought Severity Index: limitations and assumptions. Journal of Climate and Applied Meteorology  23, 1100–1109.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | BC Ministry of Forests and Range (2006a) Provincial Biogeoclimatic Subzone/Variant Mapping, Version 6. (BC Ministry of Forests and Range, Research Branch)

BC Ministry of Forests and Range (2006b) Provincial Biogeoclimatic Subzone/Variant Mapping with Generalized Land Cover,Version 6. (BC Ministry of Forests and Range, Research Branch)

Bootsma A (1994) Long-term (100 yr) climatic trends for agriculture at selected locations in Canada. Climatic Change  26, 65–88.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | Dawdy DR, Matalas NC (1964) Statistical and probability analysis of hydrologic data. Part III: Analysis of variance, covariance, and time series. In ‘Handbook of Applied Hydrology. A Compendium of Water Resources Technology’. (Ed. V Te Chow) pp. 8.68–8.90. (McGraw-Hill: New York)

Flannigan MD, Bergeron Y, Engelmark O , Wotton BM (1998) Future wildfire in circumboreal forests in relation to global warming. Journal of Vegetation Science  9, 469–476.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | IPCC (1996) ‘Climate Change 1995 Impacts, Adaptations and Mitigation of Climate Change: Scientific–Technical Analyses.’ (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK)

Kasischke ES , Turetsky MR (2006) Recent changes in the fire regime across the North American boreal region – spatial and temporal patterns of burning across Canada and Alaska. Geophysical Research Letters  33, L09703.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | Kendall MG (1970) ‘Rank Correlation Methods.’ 4th edn. (Griffin London Publishing: London)

Mann HB (1945) Non-parametric tests against trend. Econometrica  13, 245–259.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | Meidinger D, Pojar J (1991) Ecosystems of British Columbia. BC Ministry of Forests, Research Branch, Special Report Series 6. (Victoria, BC)

Meyn A, Taylor SW, Flannigan MD, Thonicke K , Cramer W (2009) Relationship between fire, climate oscillations, and drought in British Columbia, Canada, 1920–2000. Global Change Biology ,
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | PubMed | Palmer WC (1965) Meteorological drought. US Department of Commerce, Weather Bureau, Research Paper No. 45. (Washington, DC)

Parminter J (1986) Guardians of the sky: aircraft and their use in forestry in B.C.: 1918–1926. Whistle Punk – B.C. Forest History Magazine  1(4), 3–10.
Pyne SJ (2007) ‘Awful Splendour: a Fire History of Canada.’ (University of British Columbia Press: Vancouver, BC)

Rodionov SN (2006) Use of prewhitening in climate regime shift detection. Geophysical Research Letters  33, L12707.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | Taylor SW, Thandi G (2003) Development and analysis of a Provincial Natural Disturbance Database. Pacific Forestry Centre, Natural Resources Canada, Annual Operational Report FII Reference # RO-28. (Victoria, BC)

Taylor SW, Carroll AL, Alfaro RI, Safranyik L (2006) Forest, climate and mountain pine beetle outbreak dynamics in western Canada. In ‘The Mountain Pine Beetle: a Synthesis of Biology, Management, and Impacts in Lodgepole Pine’. (Eds L Safranyik, WR Wilson) pp. 67–94. (Natural Resources Canada, Canadian Forest Service, Pacific Forestry Centre: Victoria, BC)

Theil H (1950) A rank-invariant method of linear and polynomial regression analysis. Indagationes Mathematicae  12, 85–91.
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) (1992) ‘World Atlas of Desertification.’ (Edward Arnold: London)

van der Schrier G, Briffa KR, Jones PD , Osborn TJ (2006) Summer moisture variability across Europe. Journal of Climate  19, 2818–2834.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |

van der Schrier G, Efthymiadis D, Briffa KR , Jones PD (2007) European Alpine moisture variability for 1800–2003. International Journal of Climatology  27, 415–427.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |

Van Wagner CE (1988) The historical pattern of annual burned area in Canada. Forestry Chronicle  64, 182–185.


Wang T, Hamann A, Spittlehouse DL , Aitken SN (2006) Development of scale-free climate data for western Canada for use in resource management. International Journal of Climatology  26, 383–397.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |

Webb RS, Rosenzweig CE , Levine ER (1993) Specifying land surface characteristics in general circulation models: soil profile data set and derived water-holding capacities. Global Biogeochemical Cycles  7, 97–108.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |

Wells N, Goddard S , Hayes MJ (2004) A self-calibrating Palmer Drought Severity Index. Journal of Climate  17, 2335–2351.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |

Wotton BM , Flannigan MD (1993) Length of the fire season in a changing climate. Forestry Chronicle  69, 187–192.


Xiao J , Zhuang Q (2007) Drought effects on large fire activity in Canadian and Alaskan forests. Environmental Research Letters  2, 044003.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |

Yue S, Pilon P, Phinney B , Cavadias G (2002) The influence of autocorrelation on the ability to detect trend in hydrological series. Hydrological Processes  16, 1807–1829.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |