Modeling Post-fire Successional Trajectories under Climate Change in Interior Alaska using Landis II

Authors

Shelby A. Weiss, Portland State University

Files

Date

2-14-2020

Abstract

Alaska boreal forest ecosystems are experiencing a greater frequency of wildfire relative to the region’s historic fire regime. These increases in fire frequency, as well as annual burned area, increase the probability of forests re-burning within shorter intervals than were experienced historically. Such changes to the fire regime have the potential to shift successional trajectories in this ecosystem. To better understand potential changes in vegetation composition following short-interval, repeat fires, we are using LANDIS-II, a forest landscape model, to simulate changes in forest composition in response to climate change and increasing fire frequency. This seminar will include a description of LANDIS-II and how it is being used to model boreal forest succession in Interior Alaska, as well as preliminary results from initial simulations over a 12 million hectare study landscape.

Biographical Information

Shelby Weiss is a PhD student in the Earth, Environment, and Society Doctoral Program at Portland State University working with Dr. Melissa Lucash. She received a B.S. in Wildlife Biology from Colorado State University and an M.S. from the Environment and Natural Resources Graduate Program at Ohio State University. Her M.S. thesis focused on the social and ecological aspects of managing wildlife in fire-dependent forested ecosystems. Currently, she is studying the effects of increasing fire frequency and climate change on boreal forests in Interior Alaska, using simulation modeling to look at how boreal forests may change in response to short-interval wildfires.

Subjects

Post-fire forest management -- Alaska, Wildfires -- Alaska -- Effect of climatic changes on, Taigas -- Alaska, Forest ecology, System theory

Disciplines

Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment | Forest Management | Natural Resources Management and Policy

Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/32425

Rights

© Copyright the author(s)

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Recommended Citation

Weiss, Shelby A., "Modeling Post-fire Successional Trajectories under Climate Change in Interior Alaska using Landis II" (2020). Systems Science Friday Noon Seminar Series. 69.
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/32425