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Spatial scaling of wildland fuels for six forest and rangeland ecosystems of the northern Rocky Mountains, USA
Keane, Robert E.; Gray, Kathy; Bacciu, Valentina; Leirfallom, Signe. 2012. Spatial scaling of wildland fuels for six forest and rangeland ecosystems of the northern Rocky Mountains, USA. Landscape Ecology. 27: 1213-1234.
Wildland fuels are important to fire managers because they can be manipulated to achieve management goals, such as restoring ecosystems, decreasing fire intensity, minimizing plant mortality, and reducing erosion. However, it is difficult to accurately measure, describe, and map wildland fuels because of the great variability of wildland fuelbed properties over space and time. Few have quantified the scale of this variability across space to understand its effect on fire spread, burning intensity, and ecological effects. This study investigated the spatial variability of loading (biomass) across major surface and canopy fuel components in low elevation northern Rocky Mountain forest and rangeland ecosystems to determine the inherent scale of surface fuel and canopy fuel distributions.
Keywords: wildland fire, spatial variability, biomass, canopy fuel, woody debris, fuel loading, scale
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Title: RMRS Other
Publications: Spatial scaling of wildland fuels for six forest
and rangeland ecosystems of the northern Rocky Mountains, USA
Electronic Publish Date: August 28, 2012
Last Update: September 12, 2012
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