@article{53d8a50c716a499dbd2aa3ebf5c5f210,
title = "The North American tree-ring fire-scar network",
abstract = "Fire regimes in North American forests are diverse and modern fire records are often too short to capture important patterns, trends, feedbacks, and drivers of variability. Tree-ring fire scars provide valuable perspectives on fire regimes, including centuries-long records of fire year, season, frequency, severity, and size. Here, we introduce the newly compiled North American tree-ring fire-scar network (NAFSN), which contains 2562 sites, >37,000 fire-scarred trees, and covers large parts of North America. We investigate the NAFSN in terms of geography, sample depth, vegetation, topography, climate, and human land use. Fire scars are found in most ecoregions, from boreal forests in northern Alaska and Canada to subtropical forests in southern Florida and Mexico. The network includes 91 tree species, but is dominated by gymnosperms in the genus Pinus. Fire scars are found from sea level to >4000-m elevation and across a range of topographic settings that vary by ecoregion. Multiple regions are densely sampled (e.g., >1000 fire-scarred trees), enabling new spatial analyses such as reconstructions of area burned. To demonstrate the potential of the network, we compared the climate space of the NAFSN to those of modern fires and forests; the NAFSN spans a climate space largely representative of the forested areas in North America, with notable gaps in warmer tropical climates. Modern fires are burning in similar climate spaces as historical fires, but disproportionately in warmer regions compared to the historical record, possibly related to under-sampling of warm subtropical forests or supporting observations of changing fire regimes. The historical influence of Indigenous and non-Indigenous human land use on fire regimes varies in space and time. A 20th century fire deficit associated with human activities is evident in many regions, yet fire regimes characterized by frequent surface fires are still active in some areas (e.g., Mexico and the southeastern United States). These analyses provide a foundation and framework for future studies using the hundreds of thousands of annually- to sub-annually-resolved tree-ring records of fire spanning centuries, which will further advance our understanding of the interactions among fire, climate, topography, vegetation, and humans across North America.",
keywords = "climate, dendrochronology, fire regime, fire scar, humans, pyrogeography, surface fires, synthesis, topography, tree ring, wildfire",
author = "Margolis, {Ellis Q.} and Guiterman, {Christopher H.} and Chavard{\`e}s, {Rapha{\"e}l D.} and Coop, {Jonathan D.} and Kelsey Copes-Gerbitz and Dawe, {Denyse A.} and Falk, {Donald A.} and Johnston, {James D.} and Evan Larson and Hang Li and Marschall, {Joseph M.} and Naficy, {Cameron E.} and Naito, {Adam T.} and Parisien, {Marc Andr{\'e}} and Parks, {Sean A.} and Jeanne Portier and Poulos, {Helen M.} and Robertson, {Kevin M.} and Speer, {James H.} and Michael Stambaugh and Swetnam, {Thomas W.} and Tepley, {Alan J.} and Ichchha Thapa and Allen, {Craig D.} and Yves Bergeron and Daniels, {Lori D.} and Ful{\'e}, {Peter Z.} and David Gervais and Girardin, {Martin P.} and Harley, {Grant L.} and Harvey, {Jill E.} and Hoffman, {Kira M.} and Huffman, {Jean M.} and Hurteau, {Matthew D.} and Johnson, {Lane B.} and Lafon, {Charles W.} and Lopez, {Manuel K.} and Maxwell, {R. Stockton} and Jed Meunier and Malcolm North and Rother, {Monica T.} and Schmidt, {Micah R.} and Sherriff, {Rosemary L.} and Stachowiak, {Lauren A.} and Alan Taylor and Taylor, {Erana J.} and Valerie Trouet and Villarreal, {Miguel L.} and Yocom, {Larissa L.} and Arabas, {Karen B.} and Arizpe, {Alexis H.} and Dominique Arseneault and Taranc{\'o}n, {Alicia Azpeleta} and Christopher Baisan and Erica Bigio and Franco Biondi and Cahalan, {Gabriel D.} and Anthony Caprio and Juli{\'a}n Cerano-Paredes and Collins, {Brandon M.} and Dey, {Daniel C.} and Igor Drobyshev and Calvin Farris and Fenwick, {M. Adele} and William Flatley and Floyd, {M. Lisa} and Ze'ev Gedalof and Andres Holz and Howard, {Lauren F.} and Huffman, {David W.} and Jose Iniguez and Kipfmueller, {Kurt F.} and Kitchen, {Stanley G.} and Keith Lombardo and Donald McKenzie and Merschel, {Andrew G.} and Metlen, {Kerry L.} and Jesse Minor and O'Connor, {Christopher D.} and Laura Platt and Platt, {William J.} and Thomas Saladyga and Stan, {Amanda B.} and Scott Stephens and Colleen Sutheimer and Ramzi Touchan and Weisberg, {Peter J.}",
note = "Funding Information: We thank all the researchers, students, technicians, and volunteers that helped with the collection, processing, and dating of millions of tree rings included in the NAFSN. We acknowledge the data contributors to the IMPD and the following people who contributed data to this effort directly or through the FACS project: C. Airey Lauvaux, C. Aoki, J. Bakker, J. Barnes, P. Brown, S. Brown, A. Caprio, D. Carril, J. Cronan, S. Danzer, J. Dewar, J. Donnegan, P. Duffy, R. Everett, J. Farella, D. Hanna, J. Herriges, A. Hessl, E. Heyerdahl, R. Jandt, M. Kaib, M. Kay, E. Kennedy‐Sutherland, J. Kertis, M. Krawchuck, N. Lawrence, J. Littell, R. Loehman, L. Marshall, K. Morino, D. Olson, S. Ortega‐Jimenez, L. Saperstein, L. Shapiro, J. Sibold, E. Silver, P. Simic, C. Skinner, T. Veblen, J. Villanueva‐Diaz, L. Whitehair, E. Whitman, C. Wienk, C. Wright, and R. Wu. We also thank the early pioneers of fire history research, including J. Agee, S. Arno, G. Ashland, S. Barrett, F. Clements, J. Dieterich, R. Guyette, M. Heinselman, E. Johnson, B. Kilgore, R. Laven, A. Leopold, M. Madany, J. McBride, W. Romme, M. Stokes, G. Tande, D. Taylor, H. Weaver, and O. Zackrissen. W. Gross from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration assisted in determining the metadata structure. K. Beeley, B. Gonzales, T. Edwards, K. Fox, and E. Kasten assisted with the data management and compilation. Comments from two anonymous reviewers and P. Brown improved the manuscript. Funding was provided by the U.S. Geological Survey Ecosystems Mission Area Climate Research and Development program. Rapha{\"e}l D. Chavard{\`e}s was supported by the International Research Network on Cold Forests and a postdoctoral bursary from the Fonds de Recherche du Qu{\'e}bec—Nature et Technologies. Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the US government. Funding Information: We thank all the researchers, students, technicians, and volunteers that helped with the collection, processing, and dating of millions of tree rings included in the NAFSN. We acknowledge the data contributors to the IMPD and the following people who contributed data to this effort directly or through the FACS project: C. Airey Lauvaux, C. Aoki, J. Bakker, J. Barnes, P. Brown, S. Brown, A. Caprio, D. Carril, J. Cronan, S. Danzer, J. Dewar, J. Donnegan, P. Duffy, R. Everett, J. Farella, D. Hanna, J. Herriges, A. Hessl, E. Heyerdahl, R. Jandt, M. Kaib, M. Kay, E. Kennedy-Sutherland, J. Kertis, M. Krawchuck, N. Lawrence, J. Littell, R. Loehman, L. Marshall, K. Morino, D. Olson, S. Ortega-Jimenez, L. Saperstein, L. Shapiro, J. Sibold, E. Silver, P. Simic, C. Skinner, T. Veblen, J. Villanueva-Diaz, L. Whitehair, E. Whitman, C. Wienk, C. Wright, and R. Wu. We also thank the early pioneers of fire history research, including J. Agee, S. Arno, G. Ashland, S. Barrett, F. Clements, J. Dieterich, R. Guyette, M. Heinselman, E. Johnson, B. Kilgore, R. Laven, A. Leopold, M. Madany, J. McBride, W. Romme, M. Stokes, G. Tande, D. Taylor, H. Weaver, and O. Zackrissen. W. Gross from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration assisted in determining the metadata structure. K. Beeley, B. Gonzales, T. Edwards, K. Fox, and E. Kasten assisted with the data management and compilation. Comments from two anonymous reviewers and P. Brown improved the manuscript. Funding was provided by the U.S. Geological Survey Ecosystems Mission Area Climate Research and Development program. Rapha{\"e}l D. Chavard{\`e}s was supported by the International Research Network on Cold Forests and a postdoctoral bursary from the Fonds de Recherche du Qu{\'e}bec—Nature et Technologies. Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the US government. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2022 Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada. Ecosphere published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of The Ecological Society of America. This article has been contributed to by U.S. Government employees and their work is in the public domain in the USA.",
year = "2022",
month = jul,
doi = "10.1002/ecs2.4159",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "13",
journal = "Ecosphere",
issn = "2150-8925",
publisher = "Ecological Society of America",
number = "7",
}