How People, Rainfall and Vegetation Shape Tropical Island Fire Regimes Across Micronesia

Trauernicht, Clay; Frazier, Abby G.; Dendy, Julian; Bubb, Ilan; Camacho-Fejeran, Christine; Friday, James B.; King, Romina; Manglona, James; Ruegorong, Francis; Singeo, Ann; Giardina, Christian P.; Cordell, Susan (2023-12-06). "How People, Rainfall and Vegetation Shape Tropical Island Fire Regimes Across Micronesia". Journal of Biogeography. 51 (3): 422–438. doi:10.1111/jbi.14763. ISSN 0305-0270.

• Has attachment: File:UMALIK82.pdf

Abstract: The contemporary extents of savannas in Micronesia reflect Pacific Islanders' long‐term use of fire to shape vegetation and are modulated by inter‐ and intra‐annual rainfall variability. These relationships provide baseline information for ongoing fire management and mitigation projects throughout Micronesia and critical insight for assessing and anticipating fire risk in other insular areas where fire data are limited. Savanna extent was positively correlated with island age and the range of mean monthly rainfall. The percent of area burned annually reached upwards of 2%–10% of island land areas, correlated positively with rainfall seasonality, and occurred largely within savannas. Savannas were more frequent on acidic soils with higher aluminium than forests but distributed across all soil types. El Niño intensity correlated negatively with dry season rainfall over the entire study region and positively with annual area burned on Guam.

Extra details:

OpenAlex: W4389455821