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Fire
Disturbance Science Topics
Program Delivery Partners
The Northern Research Station’s (NRS) Fire Research & Development Program is built upon the framework established by the USDA Forest Service’s Wildland Fire and Fuels Research and Development (WFFRD) Strategic Plan that outlines a national fire research and science application program to meet the needs of land managers, stakeholders, and other clients. The plan identifies five research and program delivery portfolio areas for organizing fire research and product development/delivery activities in the Agency. The NRS conducts research and develops/delivers new products within each of these portfolio areas to address both national and regional fire issues relevant to forest ecosystems in the Midwest and Northeast. The regional issues include relatively high rural human populations intermingling with forested systems; air-quality concerns related to the use of fire for fuels management; several ecosystems historically disturbed by fire now losing fire-dependent biodiversity after decades of fire exclusion; and some fire dependent ecosystems inhabited by citizens largely unfamiliar with fire risk and frequent disturbance.
- Physical
Fire Science - Ecological &
Environmental - Social
Fire Science - Integrated
Fire & Fuels - Program
Delivery
Physical Fire Science
Science to improve our understanding of combustion processes, fuels, fire weather, fire behavior, and fire transitions.
- Effects of Canopy Midstory Management and Fuel Moisture on Wildfire Behavior
- Using 3D Terrestrial Laser to Estimate Forest Fire Fuel Loads
- Hot-Dry-Windy Fire Weather Index
- An Investigation of Lower-Tropospheric Meteorological Processes that Impact the Evolution of Wildland Fires
- Employing Ensemble Data Assimilation, Parameter Estimation, and Field Data to Improve Fire-Weather Predictions in Mesoscale Models
- Analyses of Fire-Induced Atmospheric Turbulence Regimes from Field Observations
- Development of a Canopy Model Suitable for Predicting Smoke Dispersion From Low-Intensity Forest Fires
- A Study of Climate Change and Land-Use Change Impacts on Fire Weather and Fire Behavior in the Eastern U.S. Using Regional Climate Models
- Do Fire-Atmosphere Interactions Through a Pine Canopy Mediate Fire Effects During Point-Ignition Firing Operations?
- Synoptic Climatologies for Fire Weather and Smoke Applications
- Fuels and Fire Behavior in Eastern Hardwoods
- Fuels and Fire Research in the New Jersey Pine Barrens
Ecological & Environmental Fire Science
Science to improve our understanding of the interactions among fire, other natural disturbance processes, and the physical and biological components of ecosystems and the environment.
- Prescribed Fire and Ticks in the New Jersey Pine Barrens
- Fire and Invasive Plants
- Fire severity and ecosystem impacts immediately following an extreme fire event in northern Minnesota
- Ecosystem Management Study: Restoration of Mixed-oak Forests with Prescribed Fire
- Plant Diversity in Managed Forests
- Fire and Fire Surrogate Treatments: The Central Appalachian Plateau Site
- Interactions between Fire, Gaps, and Deer Browsing
- The Role of Fire in Restoration of Woodlands and Savannas
- Restoration of Mixed Oak Forests in Southern Ohio with Prescribed Fire
- Designing Pest-Resistant Forest Landscapes: The Importance of Spatial Pattern
- Cumulative Effects of Succession, Management, and Disturbance on Forest Landscapes
- Linking Population, Ecosystem, Landscape, and Climate Models to Evaluate Climate Adaptation Strategies
- Fire Effects in Eastern Forests
- Site, Stress, Nutrition, and Forest Health Interactions
- Fuels and Fire Research in the New Jersey Pine Barrens
- Impacts of Disturbances and Climate on Carbon Sequestration and Biofuels
- Witness Trees as Indicators of Past Fire
- Fire severity and ecosystem impacts immediately following an extreme fire event in northern Minnesota
Integrated Fire & Fuels
Landscape analysis and integrated interdisciplinary research to quantify the interacting effects of management strategies on ecology, environment, and society.
Program Delivery
- Eastern Area Modeling Consortium – Fire Weather and Smoke Predictions
- Landscape Disturbance and Succession Model (LANDIS)
- North Atlantic Fire Science Exchange
Social Fire Science
Science to improve our understanding of the social and economic dimensions of fire and fuels management.