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Long-term trends of agricultural fires in the U.S. derived from MODIS observations: implications for fire emissions
Hsiao-Wen
Lin, UC Irvine, hwlin@uci.edu
(Presenter)
Fires in agricultural ecosystems emit greenhouse gases and aerosols that influence climate on multiple spatial and temporal scales as well as regional air quality. Top-down approaches to estimate fires emissions often require remote-sensed burned areas, which may not fully capture agricultural fires that have small sizes and are associated with other land cover changes (e.g., plowing and harvesting). In this study, we combined fire products from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), including 8-day active fire detections, fire radiative power, and burned area to analyze trends in agricultural fires in the U.S. during 2001-2010. Our goals were 1) to identify of the drivers of trends in agricultural fires in the U.S. in different regions, and 2) to assess how the state-of-art biomass burning emission dataset (GFEDv3) represented agricultural and forest management fires that may contribute in important ways to fire emissions of greenhouse gases, aerosols, and ozone precursors. Analysis of trends of active fires in agricultural areas in the U.S. showed the importance of both intensity of fire use and changes in crop production as drivers of long-term trends. Agricultural fires in the southeastern U.S increased at a rate as high as 10% per year, whereas other important agricultural burning states, including California and Washington, had significant decreasing trends. The decreases in California and Washington were concentrated mainly during the harvest season of October, and appear to be linked with the implementation of state-level restrictions on the use of agricultural fires. Our results have implications for improving managementof air quality, public health, and climate change forcing agents. Presentation Type: Poster Session: Global Change Impact & Vulnerability (Tue 11:30 AM) Associated Project(s):
Poster Location ID: 223
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