Prime Highlights:
Dr. Mike Flannigan with coauthors TRU contributes a paper to Science titled Intensification of wildfire severity in Canada during 2001-2020 due to climate and fuel change.
A new science study showed climate change combined with dry fuel raised the intensification across fires across all of Canada’s ecozones.
Key Background:
The study reveals that all 10 ecozones of Canada, ranging from the boreal plains to the northern Arctic, encountered more severe fires, affecting 6% of the areas examined. The period from 2001 to 2020 witnessed a higher frequency of these intense fires compared to the two preceding decades. These trends were evident in the extreme fire season of 2023, which exhibited an even greater spread of severe fires.
Along with seven other researchers, Dr. Flannigan analyzed the trends of wildfires from 1981 up to 2020 and came up with the understanding that more dangerous fires in Canada have specific reasons. The research results show that fire incidents have had an upward trend in numbers and intensity for decades consecutively, but dry fuel conditions, resulting from climate change, remain the prime cause of the trend. The researchers observed the worst effects of the climate change as occurring in northeastern and northwestern Canada where the extreme fires have been occurring during summer seasons more frequently. However, other strong fire days also occurred during spring and fall.
The research indicates that all 10 ecozones of Canada, from the boreal plains to the northern Arctic, experienced more severe fires, impacting 6% of the studied areas. The period from 2001 to 2020 saw an increase in the frequency of these intense fires compared to the previous two decades. These findings were reflected in the extreme fire season of 2023, which saw an even broader extent of severe fires.
According to Dr. Flannigan, his research stresses that the complex interaction between fire, climate, and ecosystems needs to be understood. “The effects of climate change are manifested in drier vegetation and fuels across Canada’s ecozones, meaning more intense wildfires. This is probably going to continue,” he said. According to the Vice-President of Research at TRU, Shannon Wagner, Dr. Flannigan’s contributions are important to the university and to the commitment of TRU in creating collaboration with the scientific communities, government agencies, and industry leaders to deal with challenges presented by wildland fires. He continues his work on interactions between fire and weather, climate change impacts, and landscape fire modeling, currently working with organizations like the BC Wildfire Service and Canada Wildfire.
