Cited by 571Fire effects on ecosystemsPlant Water Relations and Carbon DynamicsForest Management and Policy

A review of the relationships between drought and forest fire in the United States

Littell, Jeremy S., Peterson, David L., Riley, Karin L., Liu, Yongquiang, Luce, Charles H.·2016·Global Change Biology

Abstract

The historical and presettlement relationships between drought and wildfire are well documented in North America, with forest fire occurrence and area clearly increasing in response to drought. There is also evidence that drought interacts with other controls (forest productivity, topography, fire weather, management activities) to affect fire intensity, severity, extent, and frequency. Fire regime characteristics arise across many individual fires at a variety of spatial and temporal scales, so both weather and climate – including short‐ and long‐term droughts – are important and influence several, but not all, aspects of fire regimes. We review relationships between drought and fire regimes in United States forests, fire‐related drought metrics and expected changes in fire risk, and implications for fire management under climate change. Collectively, this points to a conceptual model of fire on real landscapes: fire regimes, and how they change through time, are products of fuels and how other factors affect their availability (abundance, arrangement, continuity) and flammability (moisture, chemical composition). Climate, management, and land use all affect availability, flammability, and probability of ignition differently in different parts of North America. From a fire ecology perspective, the concept of drought varies with scale, application, scientific or management objective, and ecosystem.

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Registry

Crossref · 10.1111/gcb.13275

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147 of 147 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

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  • It is unclear how the current fire pattern affects water availability at the regional or continental scale.

    “However, it is unclear how this fire pattern affects water availability at the regional or continental scale1–4.”

    From Burned forests impact water supplies (2018) · cites this paper as [2]

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Authors
Littell, J. S., Peterson, D. L., Riley, K. L., Liu, Y., & Luce, C. H.
Affiliations
  • Alaska Climate Adaptation Science Center (US)
  • US Forest Service (US)
Corresponding author
Littell, Jeremy S.
Venue
Global Change Biology
Publisher
Wiley
Published
2016-04-19
Volume
22
Issue
7
Pages
2353-2369
ISSN
  • 1354-1013 (ISSN-L)
  • 1365-2486
OpenAlex
W2339581915
Cited by
571
References
147
Citations by year
2026: 54 · 2025: 70 · 2024: 76 · 2023: 83 · 2022: 64 · 2021: 86 · 2020: 44 · 2019: 24 · 2018: 40 · 2017: 21 · 2016: 8
FWCI
3.40
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • Global Change Biology (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Fire effects on ecosystems
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Forest Management and Policy
Keywords
drought, forest fires, fire regimes, fire risk, climate change, fire management, fuel availability, fuel flammability, fire weather, fire frequency, fire severity, fire extent, land use, fire ecology, United States forests
MeSH terms
Fires, Trees, United States, Ecosystem, Droughts, Climate Change, Forests

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