Fire and Environmental Research Applications Team

Assessing the Impacts of Fire and Insect Disturbances on the Terrestrial Carbon Budgets of Forested Areas in Canada, Alaska, and the Western United States

FERA is a collaborator in a project that analyzes the impacts of disturbances from insects and fire on the terrestrial carbon budget for the forested ecoregions of Canada, Alaska, and the western United States. Our involvement will be to develop Fuel Characteristic Classification System fuelbeds that will be used to account for carbon sequestered within both healthy and insect damaged forests. Consume 3.0 will be used to estimate carbon released when these forests burn during wildland fires. In addition, we will participate in the collection of pre- and post-fire fuel data to validate the carbon prediction.

Project Lead: Roger Ottmar

Collaborators: The principal investigator is Dr. Eric Kasischke of the University of Maryland, with Dr. Nancy French (Michigan Technological University) and Dr. David McGuire (University of Alaska, Fairbanks). Collaborators include Werner Kurz, Pacific Forestry Centre, Canada; William de Groot and Ron Hall, Northern Forestry Centre, Canada; and Jennifer Harden, U.S. Geological Survey.

This research is funded by National Aeronautical and Space Administration (NASA)