RAPID: Successive Wildfire Influence on Forested Depressional Wetlands in Southern Florida

在佛罗里达州大柏树国家保护区的湿地马赛克景观中发生的一场野火，为了解干旱和火灾快速连续发生时森林湿地会发生什么提供了一个突然而关键的机会。在这个例子中，一个在2009年严重干旱期间经历野火的地区仅在四年后（2013年3月）再次发生火灾，而且也是在区域性干旱条件下。2009年野火之后的一系列研究提供了大量2013年前的火灾数据，从湿地火灾的角度来看，这一机会非常不寻常。通过测量火灾严重程度、树木死亡率和土壤流失，该项目将提供有关湿地对火灾和干旱的恢复能力的关键信息。柏树圆顶在该地区每年的旱季都能长期储存水分。因此，它们为野生动物提供了重要的栖息地；集中猎物生物的避难所；以及为佛罗里达州西南部不断增长的人口提供补给的浅层蓄水层的分布式补给盆地网络。预计的气候变化和人为改变的水文相结合，很可能导致更频繁和更严重的野火。通过了解干旱和反复发生的野火对这些湿地马赛克景观的综合影响，该项目有望为火灾管理策略提供信息。

A wildfire in the wetland-mosaic landscape of Big Cypress National Preserve, Florida, offers a sudden and time-critical opportunity to understand what happens to forested wetlands when drought and fire occur in quick succession. In this instance, an area that experienced wildfire during severe drought in 2009 burned again only four years later (March 2013) and also during regional drought conditions. A series of studies after the 2009 wildfire provide considerable pre-2013 fire data, making this opportunity highly unusual from the standpoint of fires in wetlands. By making measurements of fire severity, tree mortality and loss of soil, this project will provide critical information on the resilience of wetlands to fire and drought. Cypress domes store water long into the region's annual dry season. They thus provide important habitat for wildlife; refugia that concentrate prey organisms; and a distributed network of recharge basins for the shallow aquifer that supplies southwestern Florida's growing human population. The combination of projected climate change and human-altered hydrology is likely to result in more frequent and severe wildfires. By understanding the combined effects of drought and repeated wildfires on these wetland-mosaic landscapes, the project is expected to inform fire management strategies.