Journal
FOREST ECOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT
Volume 260, Issue 6, Pages 948-964Publisher
ELSEVIER
DOI: 10.1016/j.foreco.2010.06.007
Keywords
Woody fuel consumption; CONSUME; BURNUP; Model assessment; Eucalypt forest fire; Coarse woody debris
Categories
Funding
- Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre
- Department of Environment and Conservation, Western Australia (DEC)
- Department of Sustainability an Environment, Victoria (DSE)
- CSIRO
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Five models for the consumption of coarse woody debris or woody fuels with a diameter larger than 0.6 cm were assessed for application in Australian southern eucalypt forest fires including: CONSUME models for (1) activity fuels, (2) natural western woody and (3) natural southern woody fuels, (4) the BURNUP model and (5) the recommendation by the Australian National Carbon Accounting System which assumes 50% woody fuel consumption. These models were assessed using field data collected as part of the woody fuel consumption project (WFCP) in south-west Western Australia and northern-central Victoria. Three additional datasets were also sourced to increase variability in forest type, fuel complex and fire characteristics. These datasets comprised data from south-west Western Australia collected as part of Project Aquarius, the Warra Long Term Ecological Research site in Tasmania and Tumbarumba in south-eastern New South Wales. Combined the dataset represents a range of fire behaviour characteristic of prescribed burning conditions with a maximum fireline intensity of almost 4000 kW m(-1). Woody fuel consumption was found to be highly variable between sites ranging from 9.1% to 89.9%. Relationships between woody fuel consumption and the primary model drivers were weak (maximum R-2 = 0.097). Model evaluation statistics were best for the National Carbon Accounting Systems assumption of 50% with a mean absolute error of 11.1% fuel consumption and minimal bias (0.12). Nonetheless, this assumption does not capture large deviations where woody fuel consumption has been particularly high or low. The BURNUP model yielded the largest level of error when used with natural fuels however its predictive capacity improved when used with large modified fuel loads resulting from clearcut operations. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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