Fire and Environmental Research Applications Team

Abstracts

Development of a Photo Series for Aboveground Biomass in the Brazilian Cerrado

The Brazilian Cerrado encompasses many different physiognomic forms, ranging from grasslands to closed-canopy dryland forests. Fire is an integral part of these ecosystems. The consumption of biomass, or fuels, during fires is a critical component in determining fire effects, fire behavior, and pollutant production. The ability to estimate fuel consumption requires a general knowledge of fuels across the landscape that will be affected by burning. Land mangers need a relatively fast and easy procedure to characterize fuels so they can better estimate fuel consumption, smoke emissions, fire behavior and fire effects. One currently used method in some ecosystems to quantify and visually describe desired fuel characteristics is the photo series approach. The photo series contains photos of the range of aboveground biomass which occurs, in this case, within a particular physiognomic form. Each photo is accompanied by data detailing the amount of aboveground biomass in various categories seen in that particular photo. Sites within a number of physiognomic forms will be sampled to represent the range of aboveground biomass that occurs in Cerrado types. Presented here are examples from sites sampled in some of the physiognomic forms of the Cerrado along with preliminary data for each site.

Vihnanek, R.; Ottmar, R.; Miranda, H. 1998. Development of a phot[o] series for aboveground biomass in the Brazilian Cerrado [Abstract]; 431. In: Proceedings, 13th conference on fire and forest meteorology; 1996 October 27-31; Lorne, Australia. Moran, WY: International Association of Wildland Fire.

U.S. Forest Service - PNW- FERA
Last Modified: Friday, 22 March 2013 at 15:10:26 EDT