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In the boreal biome, fire is the major disturbance agent affecting ecosystem change, and fire dynamics will likely change in response to climatic warming. We modified a spatially explicit model of Alaskan subarctic treeline dynamics (ALFRESCO) to simulate boreal vegetation dynamics in interior Alaska. The model is used to investigate the role of black spruce ecosystems in the fire regime of interior Alaska boreal forest. Model simulations revealed that vegetation shifts caused substantial changes to the fire regime. The number of fires and the total area burned increased as black spruce forest became an increasingly dominant component of the landscape. The most significant impact of adding black spruce to the model...
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The response of terrestrial ecosystems to climate warming has important implications to potential feedbacks to climate. The interactions between topography, climate, and disturbance could alter recruitment patterns to reduce or offset current predicted positive feedbacks to warming at high latitudes. In northern Alaska the Brooks Range poses a complex environmental and ecological barrier to species migration. We use a spatially explicit model (ALFRESCO) to simulate the transient response of subarctic vegetation to climatic warming in the Kobuk/Noatak River Valley (200 x 400 km) in northwest Alaska. The model simulations showed that a significantly warmer (+6 degrees C) summer climate would cause expansion of forest...
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In the boreal biome, fire is the major disturbance agent affecting ecosystem change, and fire dynamics will likely change in response to climatic warming. We modified a spatially explicit model of Alaskan subarctic treeline dynamics (ALFRESCO) to simulate boreal vegetation dynamics in interior Alaska. The model is used to investigate the role of black spruce ecosystems in the fire regime of interior Alaska boreal forest. Model simulations revealed that vegetation shifts caused substantial changes to the fire regime. The number of fires and the total area burned increased as black spruce forest became an increasingly dominant component of the landscape. The most significant impact of adding black spruce to the model...
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The response of terrestrial ecosystems to climate warming has important implications to potential feedbacks to climate. The interactions between topography, climate, and disturbance could alter recruitment patterns to reduce or offset current predicted positive feedbacks to warming at high latitudes. In northern Alaska the Brooks Range poses a complex environmental and ecological barrier to species migration. We use a spatially explicit model (ALFRESCO) to simulate the transient response of subarctic vegetation to climatic warming in the Kobuk/Noatak River Valley (200 x 400 km) in northwest Alaska. The model simulations showed that a significantly warmer (+6 degrees C) summer climate would cause expansion of forest...
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