FOR 501 Advanced Fire Ecology

Winter 2013

Instructors: Mike Flannigan 713A GSB mike.flannigan@ualberta.ca

Marc Parisien 713B GSB Marc-Andre.Parisien@NRCan-RNCan.gc.ca

Lecture Tuesday 14:00-17:00 Room GSB 711

Office hours: By appointment

Course Description

The aim of this course is to examine and critically discuss key articles and topics in the field of fire
ecology. Although the focus will be on the boreal forest, fire ecology topics in other biomes will be
considered.

Course Format

RenR 501 is a seminar course where each student selects one landmark fire ecology paper or fire
ecology topic. Each student will lead a discussion based on that paper or topic. A number of papers are
listed below that students can select from but they are free to select other papers with instructor
approval. Where possible the term paper could address fire ecology aspects related to the graduate
student’s thesis topic.

Grading

Attendance 25%

Participation in class 25%

Paper discussion 25%

Term Paper 25%

No exams.

Tentative Course Schedule – Winter 2013

Jan 8th: Introduction and elements of fire ecology

Jan 15th – April 9th (except study week): Seminar presentations

Advance Fire Ecology – List of Potential Discussion Papers

Bergeron, Y., Gauthier, S., Flannigan, M. and Kafka, V. 2004. Fire regimes at the transition between
mixedwoods and coniferous boreal forest in northwestern Quebec. Ecology. 85:1916-1932.

Black, R.A. and L. C. Bliss. 1980. Reproductive Ecology of Picea Mariana (Mill.) BSP., at Tree Line Near
Inuvik, Northwest Territories, Canada. Ecological Monographs , Vol. 50, pp. 331-354

Cochrane, MA. 2003. Fire science for rainforests. Nature 421: 913-919

D'Antonio, C. M. and P. M. Vitousek. 1992. Biological invasions by exotic grasses, the grass/fire cycle,
and global change. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 23:63-87.

Heinselman. M.L. 1973. Fire in the virgin forests of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Minnesota.
Quaternary Research 3: 329-382 DOI: 10.1016/0033-5894(73)90003

Higuera, P. E., L. B. Brubaker, and P. M. Anderson. F. Sheng Hu, and T. A.

Brown. 2009. Vegetation mediated the impacts of postglacial climate change on fire regimes in the
south-central Brooks Range, Alaska. Ecological Monographs 79:201-219.

Johnstone,J.F. and F.S. Chapin. 2006. Effects of Soil Burn Severity on Post-Fire Tree Recruitment in
Boreal Forest. Ecosystems 9: 14-31.

Krawchuk, M. A. and M. A. Moritz. 2011. Constraints on global fire activity vary across a resource
gradient. Ecology 92:121-132.

Marlon, J. R., P. J. Bartlein, C. Carcaillet, D. G. Gavin, S. P. Harrison, P. E. Higuera, F. Joos, M. J. Power,

and I. C. Prentice. 2008. Climate and human influences on global biomass burning over the past two
millennia. Nature Geoscience 1:697-702.

Meyn, A., P. S. White, C. Buhk, and A. Jentsch. 2007. Environmental drivers of large, infrequent wildfires:
the emerging conceptual model. Progress in Physical Geography 31: 287-312

Pausas, Juli G., Ross A. Bradstock, David A. Keith, and Jon E. Keeley.
2004. Plant functional traits in relation to fire in crown-fire ecosystems. Ecology 85:1085-1100.

Payette, S. 1992. Fire as a controlling process in the North American boreal forest. In: A systems analysis
of the global boreal forest. Edited by Shugart, H.H., Leemans, R. and Nonan, G.B. Cambridge University
Press, p144-169.

Payette, S. and Gagnon, R. 1985. Late Holocene deforestation and tree regeneration in the forest–
tundra of Québec. Nature. 313:57-572.
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v313/n6003/abs/313570a0.html
Perry, G.L.W., Wilmshurst, J.M., McGlone, M.S., Wethy, D.B. and C. Whitlock. Explaining fire-driven
landscape transformation during the Initial Burning Period of New Zealand's prehistory. Global Change
Biology 18: 1609–1621

Romme, William H. 1982. Fire and Landscape Diversity in Subalpine Forests of Yellowstone National
Park. Ecological Monographs 52:199–221. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1942611

Turner, M. G. 2005. Landscape Ecology: What is the state of the science? Annual Reviews
Ecology Evolution Systematics. 2005. 36:319–44.

Turner, M. et al. 1989. Effects of changing spatial scale on the analysis of landscape pattern
Landscape Ecology Volume: 3 153-162 DOI: 10.1007/BF00131534

Turner, M.G. and Romme, W.H. 1994. Landscape dynamics in crown fire ecosystems. Landscape Ecology.
9:59-77.
Turner, M. G., W. H. Romme and D. B. Tinker. 2003. Surprises and lessons from the 1988 Yellowstone
fires. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 1:351-358.
Weber, M.G. and Flannigan, M.D. 1997. Canadian boreal forest ecosystem structure and function in a
changing climate: Impacts on fire regimes. Environmental Reviews. 5:145-166.