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Fire history from lake sediments, & future fire vulnerability scenarios

Project Leader:
Project Fellows:
Partners:
States:
Maine
New Hampshire
Vermont
Massachusetts
Rhode Island
Connecticut
New York
Pennsylvania
New Jersey
Delaware
Maryland
West Virginia
Virginia
Ohio
Kentucky
Indiana
Michigan
Wisconsin
Illinois
Minnesota
Iowa
Missouri
+19 more
Status:
Completed

Overview

Major forest fires are relatively uncommon in the northeastern United States, but due to the high population density of the region, if they became more common, the potential consequences for the region would be profound.  This project has several goals:

  • To assess the history of large fires (before measured records) using sedimentary records from lakes
  • To compare the different measures (indices) of fire vulnerability used by various management agencies 
  • To determine how well models simulate past fire vulnerability based on these indices
  • To assess fire vulnerability in the future, using GCM projections

Publications

Presentations

  • NE CASC Principal Investigator- Raymond Bradley "Climate Change in New England: A long-term perspective from Lakes;" Natural History Week; Bearnstow, ME  June 21, 2018.
  • Evaluating Fire Risk in the Northeastern United States in the Past, Present, and Future. AGU Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA  December 14, 2017