ERS234 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Forest Floor, Fire Triangle, Lightning

• School: University of Waterloo
• Department: Environment and Resource Studies
• Course: ERS234
• Professor: Maren Oelbermann

Document Summary

Humans are principal cause of forest fires: number of fires are greatest through humans, amount of area burned is greatest through humans. Dry weather and lightning strikes: natural cause of forest fire, some forest ecosystems are dependent on fire, evidence of forest fires from the past: Forest floor has a layer of charcoal. 500,000 lightning strike occur daily: only 10% of these lead to forest fire. This is not to say they will never ever occur: lightning leading fire cause in western north america. Single lightning storm can ignite 50+ fires: lightning causes about 10,000 fires/year in the usa, lightning plays a very important role in forest fires; people are not the only large cause of them. Lightning is the single largest reason for fires. Lightning accompanied by rain (how we usually know lighting: fire is usually sluggish due to the moisture accompanying the lightning strike, fire smolders in leaf litter or trees for days/weeks.