Find research datasets worth reusing
Search datasets from major research repositories and use ShareScore to quickly assess how well each record supports discovery, access, and reuse.
44
datasets available to search
ShareScore release 0.9.0
Dataset results
44 results for “Landscape fires”
Simulated forest dynamics (2016-2100) for six future climate-fire scenarios and five representative landscapes in Greater Yellowstone, USA
We simulated fire (incorporating fuels feedbacks) and forest dynamics on five landscapes spanning the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) to ask: (1) How and where are forest landscapes likely to change with 21st-century warming and fire activity? (2) Are future forest changes gradual or abrupt, and do forest attributes change synchronously or sequentially? (3) Can forest declines be averted by mid-21st-century stabilization of atmospheric greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations? We used the spatially explicit individual-based forest model iLand to track multiple attributes (forest extent, stand age, tree density, basal area, aboveground carbon stocks, dominant forest types, species occupancy) through 2100 for six climate scenarios. The five study landscapes are representative of dominant forest types and environmental gradients of the Northern Rockies; collectively, they encompass nearly 300,000 ha, of which 279,488 ha are potentially stockable with trees. This data set contains annual landscape-level output data for simulations to 2100 with 6 climate scenarios (3 general circulation models x 2 representative concentration pathways) x 5 landscapes x 20 iterations of simulated fires. We include the data and R scripts used for the analyses of abrupt change in the publication associated with these data; all other analyses used standard functions in R.
Scaling landscape fire history in sagebrush: Wildfires not historically frequent in the main population of threatened Gunnison Sage-grouse
<p>The main population of ∼5,000 Threatened Gunnison sage-grouse (GUSG; Centrocercus minimus) in Colorado depends on sagebrush that are killed by wildfires, with recovery taking decades, so frequent fire is a threat, but did it occur historically? Early land surveys showed that the historical (preindustrial) fire rotation (FR), the expected period to burn area equal to a focal land area, was 90-143 years in GUSG ranges, which is not frequent fire (≤25 years). However, recent research, based on fire scars on trees at ten sites near sagebrush, suggested some frequent fire historically in the main population. That study was not spatial, essential to estimate FR, so spatial data were created in GIS with land-survey reconstructions, survey dates, fire-scar sites, Thiessen polygons around sites, and sagebrush. The previous study assumed fires that burned 2+ sites likely burned across sagebrush. Historical FRs were calculated several ways over a common period. A recovery estimate of FR was 90-135 years, a land-survey estimate 82-131 years, and three spatial scar-based estimates 93-107 years, showing agreement. However, comparing land-survey and fire-scar results showed that using fire scars spatially only 43% matched land surveys. Detailed analysis showed that 10 fire-scar sites were insufficient to detect historical fire sizes and distributions across the large 168,753 ha sagebrush area. An adequate historical fire reconstruction could require ∼45-60 fire-scar sites, making only ∼30,000 ha of sagebrush feasible. Using the two remaining methods, which cross-validate, showed frequent fire did not occur historically in the study area, as historical FRs were 82-135 years. </p>
Measurements of savanna landscap fire emission factors for CO2, CO, CH4 and N2O using a UAV-based sampling methodology
<p>This dataset contains direct measurements of biomass burning emission factors for CO<sub>2</sub>, CO, CH<sub>4</sub> and N<sub>2</sub>O. It includes over 4500 EF bag measurements sampled using an unmanned aerial system (UAS), and measured fuel parameters and fire severity proxies during 129 individual fires. The measurements cover a variety of savanna ecosystems in Brazil, Australia, Botswana, Zambia, South-Africa and Mozambique under different seasonal conditions, sampled over the course of six fire seasons between 2017 and 2022. The table in the included word file explains the individual columns in the excell file. </p> <p> </p>
Datasets for examining perceptions of fire resilient landscapes
<p>Datasets used to answer the question 'what is a fire resilient landscape?'. Included is the data used for a literature review from Scopus and Web of Science containing entries surrounding resilience to landscape fires. Also included is survey responses. Participants came from two groups, students of the Pyrogeography course at Wageningen University, and professionals working within the fire community (both academia and practice). The participants were asked about their perception of a fire resilient landscape, and the responses coded with thematic analysis.</p>
Data from: Forest succession and climate variability interacted to control fire activity over the last four centuries in an Alaskan boreal landscape
Context: The boreal forest is globally important for its influence on Earth's energy balance, and its sensitivity to climate change. Ecosystem functioning in boreal forests is shaped by fire activity, so anticipating the impacts of climate change requires understanding the precedence for, and consequences of, climatically induced changes in fire regimes. Long-term records of climate, fire, and vegetation are critical for gaining this understanding. Objectives: We investigated the relative importance of climate and landscape flammability as drivers of fire activity in boreal forests by developing high-resolution records of fire history, and characterizing their centennial-scale relationships to temperature and vegetation dynamics. Methods: We reconstructed the timing of fire activity in interior Alaska, USA, using seven lake-sediment charcoal records spanning CE 1550–2015. We developed individual and composite records of fire activity, and used correlations and qualitative comparisons to assess relationships with existing records of vegetation and climate. Results: Our records document a dynamic relationship between climate and fire. Fire activity and temperature showed stronger coupling after ca. 1900 than in the preceding 350 yr. Biomass burning and temperatures increased concurrently during the second half of the twentieth century, to their highest point in the record. Fire activity followed pulses in black spruce establishment. Conclusions: Fire activity was facilitated by warm temperatures and landscape-scale dominance of highly flammable mature black spruce, with a notable increase in temperature and fire activity during the twenty-first century. The results suggest that widespread burning at landscape scales is controlled by a combination of climate and vegetation dynamics that together drive flammability.
Data from: Influences of fire–vegetation feedbacks and post-fire recovery rates on forest landscape vulnerability to altered fire regimes
1. In the context of on-going climatic warming, forest landscapes face increasing risk of conversion to non-forest vegetation through alteration of their fire regimes and their post-fire recovery dynamics. However, this pressure could be amplified or dampened, depending on how fire-driven changes to vegetation feed back to alter the extent or behavior of subsequent fires. 2. Here we develop a mathematical model to formalize understanding of how fire–vegetation feedbacks and the time to forest recovery following high-severity (i.e., stand-replacing) fire affect the extent and stability of forest cover across landscapes facing altered fire regimes. We evaluate responses to increasing burn rates while varying the direction (negative vs. positive) of fire–vegetation feedbacks under a continuum of values for feedback strength and post-fire recovery time to determine how interactions among these variables produce thresholds and tipping points in landscape responses to changing fire regimes. 3. Where the early-seral vegetation is less fire-prone than older forests, negative feedbacks limited the reductions in forest cover in response to increased fire frequency or slower forest recovery. By contrast, positive feedbacks (more flammable early-seral vegetation) produced a tipping point beyond which increased burn rates or slower forest recovery drove extensive forest loss. 4. With negative feedbacks, the rates of forest loss and expansion in response to variation in fire frequency were similar. However, where feedbacks are positive, the conversion from predominantly forested to non-forested conditions in response to increased fire frequency was faster than the re-expansion of forest cover following a return to the initial burn rate. Strengthening the positive feedbacks increased this asymmetry. 5. Synthesis. Our analyses elucidate how fire–vegetation feedbacks and post-fire recovery rates interact to affect the trajectories and rates of landscape response to altered fire regimes. We illustrate the vulnerability of ecosystems with positive fire–vegetation feedbacks to climate change-driven increases in fire activity, especially where post-fire recovery is slow. Although negative feedbacks initially provide resistance to forest loss with increasing burn rates, this resistance is eventually overwhelmed with sufficient increases to burn rates relative to recovery times.
Madagascar's fire regimes challenge global assumptions about landscape degradation
<p><span><span>Fire and environmental dataset (2003 - 2019) for Phelps et al. (2022, Global Change Biology). <br>Associated manuscript abstract: Narratives of landscape degradation are often linked to unsustainable fire use by local communities.</span><span> Madagascar is a case in point: the island is considered globally exceptional, with its remarkable endemic biodiversity seen as threatened by unsustainable anthropogenic </span><span>fire. Yet, fire regimes on Madagascar have not been empirically characterised or globally contextualised. Here, we apply a comparative approach using MODIS remote sensing data (2003-2019), to determine relationships between Madagascar's fire regimes and global patterns and trends. We demonstrate that Madagascar's fire regimes are similar to 88% of tropical burned area, with shared climate and vegetation characteristics. Therefore, rather than a global exception, Madagascar's fire regimes could usefully be understood as a microcosm of most tropical fire regimes, which contribute to global understanding of fire. We found that landscape-scale fire declined in grassy biomes across the tropics, and at a relatively fast rate on Madagascar. The island's high tree loss anomalies (1.25 to 4.77x the tropical average) were not explained by any general expansion of grassy biome burning and were centred in forests rather than at forest-savanna boundaries, demonstrating that high rates of forest degradation were not explained by landscape-scale fire escaping from savannas into forests. Associated with forests, landscape-scale fire trends reflected important differences among tropical regions, indicating a need to better understand regional variation in the anthropogenic drivers of change. Unexpectedly, the highest tree loss anomalies on Madagascar were centred in environments </span><span>without </span><span>landscape-scale fire, where the role of small-scale fires (<21ha) is unknown. Madagascar's fire regimes thus contribute two lessons with global implications: first, landscape-scale burning is declining in grassy biomes across the tropics and does not explain high tree loss anomalies on Madagascar. Second, landscape-scale fire is not uniformly associated with forest loss, indicating a need for more socio-ecological context around narratives of tropical fire and ecosystem degradation. </span></span></p>
Madagascar's fire regimes challenge global assumptions about landscape degradation
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
Data from: Influences of fire–vegetation feedbacks and post-fire recovery rates on forest landscape vulnerability to altered fire regimes
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
Bee community and trait-based responses to fire in a Mediterranean landscape
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
Fire size and vegetation productivity shape bird diversity across burned landscapes in the Atlantic Forest
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
Data from: Forest succession and climate variability interacted to control fire activity over the last four centuries in an Alaskan boreal landscape
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
Data from: Field heritability of a plant adaptation to fire in heterogeneous landscapes
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
Data from: Reproductive plasticity and landscape heterogeneity benefit a ground-nesting bird in a fire-prone ecosystem
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
Data from: Time to burn: Landscape drivers of fuel trait variability and fire regime in savanna ecosystems
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
Data set: Burn severity and soil chemistry are weak drivers of early vegetation succession following a boreal mega-fire in a production forest landscape
<p>Data used in the analyses of the study. Data set on soil chemistry (pH, organic content, nutrient content), plots distance to the fire perimeter, and plant communities (vascular plants and bryophytes) recorded in permanent plots on clearcuts in a burn-severity gradient two and five years following a wildfire. Data collected from a 13000 hectare wildfire that occurred in 2014, in boreal southern Sweden. Calculated trait means from data bases, and plant community data from unburned plots from another study, are are also included here.</p>
Data from: Fire-induced population reduction and landscape opening increases gene flow via pollen dispersal in Pinus halepensis
Population reduction and disturbances may alter dispersal, mating patterns and gene flow. Rather than taking the common approach of comparing different populations or sites, here we studied gene flow via wind-mediated effective pollen dispersal on the same plant individuals before and after a fire-induced population drop, in a natural stand of Pinus halepensis. The fire killed 96% of the pine trees in the stand and cleared the vegetation in the area. Thirteen trees survived in two groups separated by ~80 m, and seven of these trees had serotinous (closed) pre-fire cones that did not open despite the fire. We analyzed pollen from closed pre- and post-fire cones using microsatellites. The two groups of surviving trees were highly genetically differentiated, and the pollen they produced also showed strong among-group differentiation and very high kinship both before and after the fire, indicating limited and very local pollen dispersal. The pollen not produced by the survivors also showed significant pre-fire spatial genetic structure and high kinship, indicating mainly within-population origin and limited gene flow from outside, but became spatially homogeneous with random kinship after the fire. We suggest that post-fire gene flow via wind-mediated pollen dispersal increased by two putative mechanisms: 1) a drastic reduction in local pollen production due to population thinning, effectively increasing pollen immigration; 2) an increase in wind speeds in the vegetation-free post-fire landscape. This research shows that dispersal can alleviate negative genetic effects of population size reduction, and that disturbances might enhance gene flow, rather than reduce it.
Data from: Fire may mediate effects of landscape connectivity on plant community richness in prairie remnants
Following the predictions of island biogeography and metapopulation theory, efforts to understand and maintain plant communities have focused on spatial attributes such as patch size and connectivity. However, despite a large body of literature, the effects of these spatial attributes remain uncertain, and accumulating evidence suggests that they may interact with local patch characteristics. Here, we assess the role of spatial attributes (patch size and connectivity at two time periods) and of patch quality (indicated by number of years since last fire, as this is a fire-dependent system) in determining plant species richness at 63 remnant prairie sites in Wisconsin, USA. Our results demonstrate significant main effects of patch size, with larger patches being richer than small patches, and of fire, with recent-fire sites being richer than fire-excluded sites. We also report a novel interaction between number of years since fire and patch connectivity. Historical (1950) connectivity was negatively related to species richness at recent-fire sites, but positively related to species richness at fire-excluded sites, while current (2000) connectivity and species richness were positively correlated at recent-fire sites, but unrelated at fire-excluded sites. Our findings indicate that measures of patch quality such as time since last fire can alter the association between spatial attributes such as patch size or connectivity and species richness.
Data from: When can refuges mediate the genetic effects of fire regimes? A simulation study of the effects of topography and weather on neutral and adaptive genetic diversity in fire-prone landscapes
Understanding how landscape heterogeneity mediates the effects of fire on biodiversity is increasingly important under global changes in fire regimes. We used a simulation experiment to investigate how fire regimes interact with topography and weather to shape neutral and selection-driven genetic diversity under alternative dispersal scenarios, and to explore the conditions under which microrefuges can maintain genetic diversity of populations exposed to recurrent fire. Spatial heterogeneity in simulated fire frequency occurred in topographically complex landscapes, with fire refuges and fire-prone "hotspots" apparent. Interannual weather variability reduced the effect of topography on fire patterns, with refuges less apparent under high weather variability. Neutral genetic diversity was correlated with long-term fire frequency under spatially heterogeneous fire regimes, being higher in fire refuges than fire-prone areas, except under high dispersal or low fire severity (low mortality). This generated different spatial genetic structures in fire-prone and fire-refuge components of the landscape, despite similar dispersal. In contrast, genetic diversity was only associated with time since the most recent fire in flat landscapes without predictable refuges and hotspots. Genetic effects of selection driven by fire-related conditions depended on selection pressure, migration distance and spatial heterogeneity in fire regimes. Allele frequencies at a locus conferring higher fitness under successional environmental conditions followed a pattern of "temporal adaptation" to contemporary conditions under strong selection pressure and high migration. However, selected allele frequencies were correlated with spatial variation in long-term mean fire frequency (relating to environmental predictability) under weak dispersal, low selection pressure and strong spatial heterogeneity in fire regimes.
Data from: Multi-decadal vegetation transformations of a New Mexico ponderosa pine landscape after severe fires and aerial seeding
<p>Wildfires and climate change are having transformative effects on vegetation composition and structure, and post-fire management may have long-lasting impacts on ecosystem reorganization. Post-fire aerial seeding treatments are commonly used to reduce runoff and soil erosion, but little is known about how seeding treatments affect native vegetation recovery over long periods of time, particularly in type-converted forests which have been dramatically transformed by the effects of repeated, high-severity fire. In this study, we analyze and report on a rare long-term (23-year) dataset that documents vegetation dynamics following a 1996 post-fire aerial seed treatment and subsequent 2011 high-severity reburn in a dry conifer forest of northern New Mexico in the southwestern United States. Repeated surveys between 1997 – 2019 of 49 permanent transects were used to test for differences in vegetation cover, richness, and diversity between seeded and unseeded areas, and to characterize the development of seeded and unseeded vegetation communities through time and across gradients of burn severity, elevation, and soil-available water capacity. Post-fire seeding led to a clear and sustained divergence in herbaceous community composition. Seeded plots had much higher cover of non-native graminoids, primarily Bromus inermis, a likely contaminant in the seed mix. High-severity reburning in all plots in 2011 reduced native graminoid cover by half at seeded plots compared to both pre-fire levels and to plots that were unseeded following the initial 1996 fire. In addition, increased fire severity was associated with increased non-native graminoid cover and reduced native graminoid cover, native species richness, and species diversity. This study documents a fire-driven ecosystem transformation from a former conifer forest into a shrub-grass system, reinforced by aerial seeding of grasses and high-severity reburning. This unique long-term dataset illustrates that post-fire seeding carries significant risk of unwanted non-native species invasions that persist through subsequent fires – indicating that alternative post-fire management actions merit consideration to better support native ecosystem resilience in the face of emergent climate change and increasing disturbance. Lastly, this study highlights the importance of long-term monitoring of post-fire vegetation dynamics, as short-term assessments will miss key elements of the full complexity of ecosystem responses to fire and post-fire management actions.</p>
ScienceDex guides
Understand access before you commit
These curated guides explain access requirements, typical timelines, costs, and reuse considerations for widely used research datasets.
Allen Brain Atlas
Allen Brain Atlas is an Allen Institute collection of brain map atlases, datasets, APIs, and analysis tools covering mouse, human, and non-human primate brain resources.
Annotated Behaviour and Observability Dataset (ABODe)
ABODe is a University of Edinburgh DataShare dataset for behavior classification in group-housed mice using home-cage video, identities, bounding boxes, ground-plate positions, and annotator labels.
DANDI Archive for NWB datasets
DANDI is a BRAIN Initiative archive for publishing and sharing neurophysiology data, including electrophysiology, optophysiology, and behavioral data packaged as NWB and related standards.
International Brain Laboratory public data
The International Brain Laboratory public data releases expose standardized mouse decision-making experiments, including Neuropixels recordings, widefield calcium imaging, behavior, and session metadata accessed through the ONE API.
OpenNeuro
OpenNeuro is a free, open platform for sharing neuroimaging datasets, with public search, dataset pages, and download paths for web, S3, DataLad, and the OpenNeuro CLI.