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Altered Disturbance Regimes: the Demise of Fire in the Eastern United States

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Remote Sensing and Modeling Applications to Wildland Fires

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Abstract

We generated a series of maps to help alert and educate people to the pervasiveness of fire regime changes across the eastern United States. Using geographic information systems (GIS), fire regimes were assigned to spatial vegetation databases to depict past and current conditions. Comparisons revealed substantial reductions in fire throughout the East. The most dramatic shifts took place in the former Midwestern grasslands and across a broad swath of southern and central States where pine and oak communities historically dominated. Land-use changes (e.g., agricultural and forest-type conversions) and recent fire suppression largely explain these shifts. Fire regime change was least in northern hardwood systems, in the mixed mesophytic region, and within the Mississippi Embayment. Negative ecological consequences of prolonged fire suppression are mounting while restoration opportunities are waning.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Eastern Regional Office, USDA Forest Service, 626 E. Wisconsin Avenue, Milwaukee, WI, 53202, USA

    Gregory J. Nowacki & Robert A. Carr

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  1. Gregory J. Nowacki
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  2. Robert A. Carr
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Environmental Science and Technology Center, Department of Geography and Geoinformation Science, College of Science, George Mason University, 4400 University Drive, Fairfax, VA, 22030, USA

    John J. Qu  & William T. Sommers  & 

  2. Department of Geography and Geoinformation Science, College of Science, George Mason University, MS 6C3, 4400 University Drive, Fairfax, VA, 22030, USA

    Ruixin Yang

  3. Nine Points South Technical Pty, Ltd., P.O.Box 2419, Clarkson, Western Australia, 6030, Australia

    Allen R. Riebau

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Nowacki, G.J., Carr, R.A. (2013). Altered Disturbance Regimes: the Demise of Fire in the Eastern United States. In: Qu, J.J., Sommers, W.T., Yang, R., Riebau, A.R. (eds) Remote Sensing and Modeling Applications to Wildland Fires. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-32530-4_21

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