Rapid rise in wildfires in Canada? Ecologists show for first
time threshold value for natural wildfires Monday, January 09,
2012 Large forest regions in Canada are apparently about to
experience rapid change. Based on models, scientists can now
show that there are threshold values for wildfires just like
there are for epidemics. Large areas of Canada are apparently
approaching this threshold value and may in future exceed it due
to climate change. As a result both the area burnt down annually
and the average size of the fires would increase, according to
Professor Mercedes Pascual, Richard Zinck, former visiting
research investigator, and their colleague at the Helmholtz
Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), Volker Grimm. Their
findings were published in the December issue of the journal The
American Naturalist. The strategies for combating wildfires in
large parts of Canada should therefore be reconsidered. Small
changes in the fire propagation parameters have a great impact
on the size of the fires. Grad