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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Boise, Idaho » Northwest Watershed Research Center » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #390696
Research Project: Ecohydrology of Mountainous Terrain in a Changing Climate

Location: Northwest Watershed Research Center

Title: Burning trees in frozen soil: Simulating fire, vegetation, soil, and hydrology in the boreal forests of Alaska

Author
item LUCASH, MELISSA - University Of Oregon
item MARSHALL, ADRIENNE - University Of Idaho
item WEISS, SHELBY - University Of Oregon
item MCNABB, JOHN - Non ARS Employee
item NICOLSKY, DMITRY - University Of Alaska
item Flerchinger, Gerald
item LINK, TIMOTHY - University Of Idaho
item VOGEL, JASON - University Of Florida
item SCHELLER, ROBERT - North Carolina State University
item ABRAMOFF, ROSE - Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
item ROMANOVSKY, VLADIMIR - University Of Alaska

Submitted to: Ecological Modelling
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/20/2023
Publication Date: 3/31/2023
Citation: Lucash, M., Marshall, A., Weiss, S., McNabb, J., Nicolsky, D., Flerchinger, G.N., Link, T., Vogel, J.G., Scheller, R., Abramoff, R.Z., Romanovsky, V. 2023. Burning trees in frozen soil: Simulating fire, vegetation, soil, and hydrology in the boreal forests of Alaska. Ecological Modelling. 481. Article 110367. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2023.110367.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2023.110367

Interpretive Summary: The large extent and carbon storage capacity of boreal forests makes them important to global carbon budgets, but their fragility in the face of rapid changes in wildfire and climate change necessitate improved understanding of the vulnerability of this large carbon stock. There is a need to expand our ability to simulate climate, vegetation succession, hydrology, permafrost, carbon and nutrient cycling, and wildfire that allows these processes to be integrated together. To address this need, we integrated three models (DAMM-McNiP, GIPL and SHAW) as a new extension of the LANDIS-II model that interact to simulate these processes in a permafrost environment. The new extension, referred to as DGS, will allow us to disentangle the drivers and ecosystem responses in this rapidly changing ecosystem and also has considerable potential to be applied in temperate forests and across multiple biomes.

Technical Abstract: The large extent and carbon storage capacity of boreal forests makes them important to global carbon budgets, but their fragility in the face of rapid changes in wildfire and climate change necessitate improved understanding of the vulnerability of this large carbon stock. There is a need to expand our ability to simulate climate, vegetation succession, hydrology, permafrost, carbon and nutrient cycling, and wildfire that allows these processes to be integrated together. To address this need, we integrated three models (DAMM-McNiP, GIPL and SHAW) as a new extension of the LANDIS-II model that interact to simulate these processes in a permafrost environment. The new extension, referred to as DGS, will allow us to disentangle the drivers and ecosystem responses in this rapidly changing ecosystem and also has considerable potential to be applied in temperate forests and across multiple biomes.