Temporal Patterns of Large Wildfires and Their Burn Severity in Rangelands of Western United States
Z. Li, Jay P. Angerer, X. Ben Wu
Abstract
Abstract Wildfires in forest ecosystems have been well studied, while wildfires in rangelands ecosystems have received less attention. This study evaluated temporal trends of large wildfires on rangelands in western United States from 1984 to 2017, using the Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity product (captured wildfires ≥405 ha in size in western United States) and Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average analysis. The results showed a significant increase (more than fivefold) in area of rangeland burned by large wildfires, but generally no significant trends in proportions of areas burned at different levels of severity. The trends for all rangelands, in total area burned and in areas burned at different levels of severity, were most similar to the trends for herbaceous‐dominated rangelands but largely different from the trends for shrub‐dominated rangelands. These findings can aid in the development of management strategies for anticipating and reducing wildfire risk and enhancing rangeland conservation and sustainability.