
Systems Science Friday Noon Seminar Series
Title
Modeling Post-fire Successional Trajectories under Climate Change in Interior Alaska using Landis II
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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
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

Included in
Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment Commons, Forest Management Commons, Natural Resources Management and Policy Commons