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Climatic Water Balance and Regional Fire Years in the Pacific Northwest, USA: Linking Regional Climate and Fire at Landscape Scales

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The Landscape Ecology of Fire

Part of the book series: Ecological Studies ((ECOLSTUD,volume 213))

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Fire and water are linked across multiple spatial and temporal scales. Climate provides a top-down control on fire regimes (Gedalof et al. 2005; Littell et al. 2009a, b;Chap. 4), via seasonal-to-multidecadal patterns of temperature and precipitation and their interaction. At fine scales, fuel structure and composition interact with micro-meteorology to affect fire intensity and fire spread (Rothermel 1972). At all scales, water relations provide the physical basis for understanding the variability in fire activity and the landscape patterns it produces.

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Correspondence to Jeremy S. Littell .

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Littell, J.S., Gwozdz, R.B. (2011). Climatic Water Balance and Regional Fire Years in the Pacific Northwest, USA: Linking Regional Climate and Fire at Landscape Scales. In: McKenzie, D., Miller, C., Falk, D. (eds) The Landscape Ecology of Fire. Ecological Studies, vol 213. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0301-8_5

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