Investigating Environmental Risk from Climate Change in Canada: Fire Fuel Consumption, Severity and Ecosystem Response Indicators using LiDAR (FISIL)

由于气候变暖，加拿大西部北方地区的变暖和干燥趋势有所增加。这导致了过去10年里被野火烧毁的地区发生了显著的变化，是上世纪70年代S的两倍。由于持续变暖和火季延长，预计下个世纪被野火烧毁的面积将会增加。虽然火灾是生态系统演替的自然组成部分，但它们也对城市和工业区的经济和社会稳定构成重大威胁。干燥的湿地可能会为野火提供额外的燃料，由于挥之不去的空气污染，可能会对人类健康产生负面影响。然而，湿地对野火的脆弱性很难量化，特别是在广阔且往往是偏远的地区，但这是更好地了解野火现在和未来的气候、生态和社会后果所必需的。我的研究项目FISIL将提高对森林火灾燃料消耗的植被结构、地形和水文驱动因素的理解，以及最近经历了自然或人为变化的湿地到森林过渡带内火灾后植被再生轨迹的理解。湿地地面覆盖和短植被树冠特别令人担忧，因为它们对火灾严重程度的影响没有得到很好的了解，在可操作的火灾预测模型中也没有很好地进行参数化。我的

Warming and drying trends in western Canada’s Boreal region have increased due to climate warming. This has caused a marked shift in the area burned by wildfire over the last 10 years, doubling that of the 1970’s. The area burned by wildfire is expected to increase over the next century due to continued warming and longer fire seasons. While fires are a natural part of ecosystem succession, they also pose significant threats to the economic and social stability of urban and industrial areas. Drying wetlands may provide additional fuel for wildfires, potentially having negative human health implications as a result of lingering air pollution. Yet the vulnerability of wetlands to wildfire is difficult to quantify, especially over broad and often remote regions, but is required for better understanding of the climatic, ecological and social consequences of wildfires now and in the future. My research program, FISIL, will improve understanding of vegetation structural, topographic and hydrological drivers of forest fire fuel consumption and post-fire vegetation regeneration trajectories within wetland to forest transitional zones that have undergone recent natural or anthropogenic change. Wetland ground cover and short vegetation canopies are of particular concern because their impacts on fire severity are not well understood, and are poorly parameterised in operational fire prediction models. My