North American Boreal Forest Carbon Fuel Consumption Projects

1. North American Boreal Forest Carbon Fuel Consumption Projects Collaborators Meeting Ann Arbor, Michigan May 5-6, 2005

2. Current Projects & Teams • Nancy French(Altarum) & many unfunded collaboratorsAssessment of Biomass Consumption Variability - NASA NIP • Canadian Carbon Emissions Team (CET) – Canadian Forest Service (CFS) teamed with Canadian Centre for Remote Sensing (CCRS) – part of the larger Carbon Accounting Team (CAT) • Eric Kasischke (UMd), Merritt Teretsky (MSU), Dave McGuire (UAF) -NASA Carbon Cycle Science programWildfire Consumption of Ground-Layer Organic Matter in North American Boreal Forests and Peatlands: Implications for Atmospheric Trace Gas Emissions and Long-Term Soil Carbon Storage • Teresa Hollingsworth, Jill Johnstone, David Verbyla, Ted Schuur, Michelle Mack, Terry Chapin (UAF) – Joint Fire ScienceManaging fire with fire in Alaskan black spruce forests: Impacts of fire severity on successional trajectory and future forest flammability • Laura Chavez & Kevin Riordan (General Dynamics) – NASA Natural Hazards ProgramUse of SAR to assess fuel moisture in Alaska Other Efforts: • D. Sandberg & R. Ottmar (USFS) – FERA fuel model studies • WeiMinHao (USFS) - NASA Carbon Cycle ScienceDaily, Weekly, Seasonal, and Interannual Variability of CO2, CO and CH4 Emissions from Biomass Burning in North America and Their Impact on Atmospheric Chemical Composition

3. Terminology • Fuel consumption – how much material is consumed (oxidized) during the burn (biomass consumption) • Important to quantify for carbon budgeting • Relates to immediate carbon emissions from fire • Indirectly related to post-fire carbon cycling from the ecosystem • Burn severity (fire severity) – an ecologically-based term centered on assessment of the impact of fire on the ecology of the site • Not just fuel consumed • Relationship to carbon cycling is complex • Consumption + vegetation dynamics (pre-fire & post-fire) • Has also been used in socioeconomic terms to describe the degree of fire losses (life, property, etc.) • Fire intensity – energy produced (flame length, rate of spread, etc) • May be related to fuel consumption or burn severity, but not yet determined

4. Meeting Plan & Goals • Meeting plan (see agenda) • Review of collaborators’ programs • Discussion of summer field data collection plans • Discussion of remote sensing methods for assessment of fuel consumption/burn severity • Goals of meeting • Review and understand the various projects underway • Find unifying goals to leverage off of each others activities • Coordinate summer 2005 field activities where possible • Establish a formal/informal (decide which) collaboration strategy • Set common goals or products to strive for and assign teams to fulfill those goals

5. Fuel Consumption Discussion • How does dNBR represent burn severity? • Verbyla, CET – comparison of CBI/dNBR • How does dNBR represent fuel consumption? • CET in ’04 & ’05 – based on OM soil samples & OM depth measures • ESK/MT/NF will do this in AK in ’05 and at 95 & 99 sites • How does CBI represent burn severity/fuel consumption? • CET in ’04 & ’05 – based on OM soil samples & OM depth measures • ESK/MT/NF will do this in AK in ’05 and at 95 & 99 sites • TH/UAF will do this for 2004 burns using TH pre-burn info

6. Fuel Consumption Discussion (Cont) • Does burn severity, as measured through CBI/dNBR properly describe fuel consumption? • Do the two indices compare to fuel consumption? • Can the indices be used in a quantitative way? • How can we test these? • Should we define based on type (fuel/ecosystem/community)? • Do we have the correct/enough measurements? • What should be our basic set of measurements for the 2005 field season? • Field • Remote sensing • Who??

7. Discussion of Collaborative Work Measure to compare CBI to fuel consumption (field & model). • CET in Canada in ’04 & ’05 – based on OM soil samples & OM depth measures • ESK/MT/NF in AK in ’05; ESK/NF/LBC have measurements for 95 & 99 Alaska burn sites • TH/UAF will do this for 2004 burns using TH pre-burn info • BLM/USFWS/NPS in Alaska will have some data to use What should be our basic set of measurements for the 2005 field season? • Field • CBI (Alaska modified in Alaska – discussions to be held in early June) • Ground-layer fuel consumption • Before/after (pins & TH places) • [Mass(UB) – Mass(Burn)] – core processing by horizon or depth? • Depth to min at additional points • Dyrness & Norum • Tau & LOI (Merritt) • Aboveground fuel consumption • Ocular assessment • Diameter & density of trees (point quarter or other in burn & UB) • Other – OM/soil moisture • Remote sensing • dNBR or other (tasseled cap, %dNBR) • Active fire mapping for date stamping, fire type (flaming/smoldering) & fire intensity (FRP) • Peatland fire mapping by (?) – Tim mentioned to Merritt

8. Who Are We & Next steps North American Boreal Forest Fire Fuel Consumption Project Teams (BorCon??) • Develop meta data set of CBI & other field measures of fuel consumption • Present data & results of summer data collections in next meeting (Jan?) • Russians? Doug McRae or S. Conard Products/actions • Journal articles to present combined results of AK & Canadian data & analyses of CBI vs. fuel consumption • Proposals • Meta-analysis for NSF (Merritt & Teresa) • Coordination of NASA & CCRS e.g. transfer of CCRS/CFS fire monitoring tools to US-based management/research efforts (Eric & Tim ) • Development of peat consumption model • Further develop RS collaborations within the group (meeting) • Check into IBFRA meeting plans (Nancy) • Possible special issue journals for our related pubs