caa a22 4500 467885885 CHVBK 20180406152734.0 cr unu---uuuuu 170328e20061201xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/s10021-006-0095-0 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s10021-006-0095-0 Human Impacts on the Fire Regime of Interior Alaska: Interactions among Fuels, Ignition Sources, and Fire Suppression [Elektronische Daten] [La'ona DeWilde, F. Chapin III] Wildfire is the major natural agent of disturbance in interior Alaska. We examined the magnitude of human impact on fire by comparing fire regime between individual 1-km2 grid cells designated for fire suppression with lands where fires are allowed to burn naturally. Two-thirds of interior Alaska has an essentially natural fire regime, with few human ignitions, negligible suppression activity, and many large lightning-caused fires. In the 17% of land that is designated for fire suppression due to its proximity to communities and roads, there was a 50% reduction in the proportion of area burned from 1992-2001, relative to areas without suppression. The remaining 16% of land serves as a buffer, receives some suppression, and has an intermediate fire regime. Even though there were 50 times more fires and the fire season began two months earlier in lands designated for suppression, most of these fires were lit by people and remained small because fires tended to occur at times and places less favorable for fire spread and were more accessible to fire fighters compared to lands not designated for suppression. Even in the absence of fire suppression, human-caused fires were less likely to exceed 400 ha compared to lightning-caused fires. Fire suppression reduced area burned in all fuel types but was somewhat more effective in less flammable (non-forest) vegetation. Alaska's fire policy of focusing suppression efforts on a small proportion of the fire-prone region maximizes the ecological and social benefits associated with fire-dependent ecosystem services, while minimizing the social and ecological costs of suppression. Application of this policy to other areas would require well-informed managers and stakeholders to make difficult decisions about the relative costs and benefits of fire across ecologically and culturally variable landscapes. Springer Science+Business Media, Inc., 2007 Alaska nationallicence climate change nationallicence fire size nationallicence fire suppression nationallicence fuel, human-caused fires nationallicence ignition nationallicence lightning-caused fires nationallicence wildfire nationallicence DeWilde La'ona Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska Fairbanks, 99775, Fairbanks, Alaska, USA aut Chapin III F. Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska Fairbanks, 99775, Fairbanks, Alaska, USA aut Ecosystems Springer-Verlag; www.springer-ny.com 9/8(2006-12-01), 1342-1353 1432-9840 9:8<1342 2006 9 10021 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-006-0095-0 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-006-0095-0 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- DeWilde La'ona Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska Fairbanks, 99775, Fairbanks, Alaska, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Chapin III F. Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska Fairbanks, 99775, Fairbanks, Alaska, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Ecosystems Springer-Verlag; www.springer-ny.com 9/8(2006-12-01), 1342-1353 1432-9840 9:8<1342 2006 9 10021 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer