The 2007 Uluksian Fire (photo courtesy of P. Higuera).
Dr. Philip Higuera (assistant professor at the College of Natural Resources, University of Idaho) will be joining us for a webinar on May 24, 2012 (1:00-2:00 pm AKDT) entitled “Tundra burning in Alaska: Rare event of harbinger of climate change?”. Philip’s current research is focused on how climate, vegetation, and human activities interact with fire occurrence and fire regimes (from across years to across millenia). He is also the Director of the Paleoecology and Fire Ecology Lab where students and researchers work on charcoal and pollen analysis in lake-sediment records, dendrochronology, and spatially-explicit modeling and analyses for areas in the US Rocky Mountains, Alaska, and abroad in Tasmania, Australia.
Link to recording <HERE>
Webinar at a Glance:
Dr. Philip Higuera will be presenting results from past and ongoing research focused on understanding the causes and consequences of tundra burning in the past, present, and future. The talk will integrate several lines of work, including reconstructing tundra fire history in the recent and distant past (2000-14,000 yr), quantifying relationships among modern climate, vegetation, and tundra burning, and anticipating future tundra burning given future climate scenarios.
Publications:
- Higuera, P. E., J. L. Barnes, M. L. Chipman, M. Urban, and F. S. Hu. 2011. Tundra fire history over the past 6000 years in the Noatak National Preserve, northwestern Alaska. Alaska Park Science 10:37-41. Link to Publication
- Higuera, P.E., Chipman, M.L., Barnes, J.L., Urban, M.A., and F.S. Hu. 2011. Variability of tundra fire regimes in Arctic Alaska: millennial scale patterns and ecological implications. Ecological Applications, 21: 3211-3226. Link to Publication
- Hu, F.S., P.E. Higuera, J.E. Walsh, W.L. Chapman, P.A. Duffy, L.B. Brubaker, and M.L. Chipman. 2010. Tundra burning in Alaska: linkages to climatic change and sea-ice retreat.Journal of Geophysical Research – Biogeosciences, 115, G04002, doi:10.1028/2009JG001270. Link to Publication
Research Photos:
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- Adam and Melissa with the first short core of the season (by P. Higuera).
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- Describing a core from Little Isac Lake (by P. Higuera).
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- Negotiating the tussucks around Uchugrak Lake (by P. Higuera).
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- 1:30 am at Perch(ed) Lake – impressive landscape and wildlife (i.e., mosquitoes) (by P. Higuera).
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- Perch(ed) Lake (by P. Higuera).
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- Raven Lake (by P. Higuera).
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- Raven Lake at 11:30 pm (by P. Higuera).
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- Tents, with Accomplishment Creek and the Brooks Range in the background (by P. Higuera).
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- The Uluksian fire of 2007 (by P. Higuera).
Joint Fire Science Program, Final Report (2010): Reconstructing fire regimes in tundra ecosystems to inform a management-oriented ecosystem model
More Information and Publications by Dr. Philip Higuera.
AK Fire Science Highlights 