Class Project on Wildfires
ATMO 1010
Yetzabel Diaz
Wildfires have always been a big issue for the past century or so.
Scientist have used multiple research strategies on trying to figure out
how bad our air quality is due to wildfires. Also how are these wildfires
even produced, does it connect to nature or are we the cause of it?
Fires give out to our atmosphere, releasing both good and bad air
particles. But also since fires release funk, it could affect us humans as
well as animals. This can all help with future predictions and also to see
how we can help prevent wildfires from continuing.
May research data come from the Monitoring Trends in Burn
Severity (MTBS); it covers lands rather than just some administrative
boundaries. So basically, the MTBS covers large fires being over 1000
acres and also burn area boundaries, which were analyzed by
comparing post fire values to the normalized burn ratio.
As to the large fires were examined to see if it affected weather, which
helped the discovery of increasing fire occurrence over time in the
Western US. By finding that out, researchers use Ecoregions to take
ranges of similar climate variability and vegetation types. There is a
Level II Ecoregions, which contains an average of 10 fires per year over
a 28-year study period, studying seasonal temperature and
precipitation. Which is later combined with Level III to maintain an
average of 10 large fires per year.
Wildfires may have different reasons to why one can start. Our
planet is covered in flammable plants, which increases the duration
and width of a fire. Nature has many causes that can fuel a fire such as
climate; it can affect a fire by being too dry and giving it hot energy,
also the wind, which will increase the spread of a fire. Another few
fuels nature has is: atmospheric oxygen, wide spread lightning and to
volcanic ignitions. Nature does play a big role in wildfires. Fires burn at
different frequencies and intensities, which create an ecological effect,
meaning that all fires are not the same. Fires accelerate the natural
cycle of primary production and respiration. Fire In The Earth System,
Bowman (2009). which brings us to think, this may all have an impact
on something such as chemicals in our air.
Humans and climate both play a role in determining fire patterns
and, in turn, fire influences the climate system via the release of
carbon. Fire In The Earth System, Bowman (2009). Most of our fires
releases fossil fuel combustion which all result in carbon emission. A
fire related emission could be related to deforestation. This could have
an effect on the regrowth of vegetation. Deforestation can affect
global burden of greenhouse gasses messing up the greenhouse affect.
Fire also influences climate by releasing atmospheric aerosols and
changing surface albedo. Fire In The Earth System, bowman(2009).
Black carbon aerosols have strong solar radiation absorption
properties, which I mentioned before have a strong effect on global
warming. Smoke plumes and black carbon warms up the troposphere,
which reduces convection and could result to barley any rainfall.
Another thing that fire does, from reading the article Fire in The Earth
System, it heats up the surface and reduces the albedo, which can
cause the albedo to decrease over longer periods of time leaving
bigger exposure of snow. Another thing that it could impact on are
droughts, droughts will get longer and drier, which will definitely
extend the wildfire season. Forest structure could change and have a
big amount of biomass on the forest floor. As said on Physics today, the
charcoal records show that the global fire activity has actually
decreased since the 1920s, the fire-burned area has dropped about
50% in the 90s. As to now, the beginning time of the 20th century has
also accrued in the western US. As of now, many regions including the
Rocky Mountains, The Cascade Range, the Snake River Plain, and the
Colombian Plateau have all resulting in warming of 1-8 degrees Celsius.
Ultimately, climate is affected a lot by wildfires.
It may affect the climate but it also creates an impact on us
humans as well as the animals exposed to the air. Fires release heat,
gases and matter. Increased wildfires across the Western US will affect
not only human communities by also ecology on regional and global
scales. Western us wildfires in an increasingly warming climate
(2006). Recent studies say that forests, separate 20-40% of the
countrys carbon emission, but the burning biomass will emit more
carbon dioxide and make the fight against climate change more
difficult, making it harder for us to breath. Fires affect our air quality,
the smoke plumes contain small air particles that can get into our
respiratory, cardiovascular and immune system, this can also go on for
a couple hundred miles having some animals being able to take it in
and hurt them. Unless we can think of a way to reduce carbon
emissions, this will continue on happening.
With all of the research scientist have done and projects they
have created, they have been able to predict future consequences and
how to help prevent fires. Such as rising temperatures, that is a certain
possibility that they know will occur.as well as arid conditions and
escalating in wildfire activity. We dont have control over our weather
and climate, but can keep cautious on when we decide to put fires and
also where. Also knowing that its better to burn natural vegetation and
non treated wood, as well as clearing the area making sure nothing
else gets into the fire which will release toxins. Making sure that the
fire is out, you need to make sure that the smoke is all gone before you
leave the fire, it could ignite with a bit of wind.
There have been a few climate model projections that estimated in
climate change increasing from average temperature by 2 degrees
Celsius to 7 degrees Celsius by 2100.
References:
Bowman, Na Na. "Western US Wildfires in an Increasingly Warming
Climate." Physics Today :. Physics Today, 26 May 2016. Web. 29 Apr.
2017.
Dennison, Philip E., Simon C. Brewer, James D. Arnold, and Max A.
Moritz. "Large Wildfire Trends in the Western United States, 1984
2011." Geophysical Research Letters. American Geophysical Union, 25
Apr. 2014. Web. 01 May 2017.
Westerling, A. L., H. G. Hidalgo, D. R. Cayan, and T. W. Swetnam.
"Warming and Earlier Spring Increase Western U.S. Forest Wildfire
Activity." Science. American Association for the Advancement of
Science, 18 Aug. 2006. Web. 01 May 2017.
27, 2017 Kelly ServickApr., 2017 Matthew HutsonApr. 27, 2017 Robert
ServiceApr. 27, 2017 Lizzie WadeApr. 27, 2017 Sarah CrespiApr. 27,
2017 Meredith WadmanApr. 27, 2017 Jia YouApr. 27, 2017 Kai
KupferschmidtApr. 27, 2017 Adam RubenApr. 26, 2017 Maggie KuoApr.
19, 2017 Maggie KuoApr. 13, 2017 David G. JensenApr. 12, 2017 Devin
PowellApr. 11, 2017 Beryl Lieff BenderlyApr. 5, 2017 Elisabeth PainApr.
4, 2017 Maggie KuoMar. 29, Na Katherine J. Willis, Gillian
PetrokofskyApr. 28, 2017, Na Stuart G. Higgins, Molly M. StevensApr.
28, 2017, 2017 Jean-Philippe Vielle-CalzadaApr. 28, Na Satoshi
Yoshinaga, Kazunori NakajimaApr. 28, 2017, Na Lawrence F. Katz, Alan
B. Krueger, Seth Berkley, 2017 Carolyn GramlingApr. 27, 2017
Catherine MatacicApr. 27, 2017 Ryan CrossApr. 26, 2017 Jocelyn
KaiserApr. 26, 2017 Devin PowellJan. 10, 2016 Elisabeth PainMar. 21,
2016 Maggie KuoSep. 19, 2017 Maggie KuoMar. 1, Na Cristian
Tomasetti, Lu Li, Et Al.Mar. 24, 2017, 2017 Paul VoosenMar. 22, Na
Lijing Cheng, Kevin E. Trenberth, Et Al.Mar. 29, 2017, 2017 Julian G.
WestMar. 10, Na Giannina Descalzi, Vasiliki Mitsi, Et Al.Mar. 21, 2017,
Na Stuti Mehta, D. Alexander Cronkite, Et Al.Mar. 31, 2017, 2017 Lizzie
WadeMar. 15, Na Manoj Kumar Kanakasabapathy, Magesh Sadasivam,
Et Al.Mar. 22, 2017, and 2017 Sid PerkinsMar. 9. "Fire in the
Earth." Science. Sciene, 24 Apr. 2009.
Web. 29 Apr. 2017
