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Journal of the International Association of Wildland Fire
RESEARCH ARTICLE (Open Access)

Widespread fire years in the US–Mexico Sky Islands are contingent on both winter and monsoon precipitation

Alexis H. Arizpe A B D , Donald A. Falk https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3873-722X A B E , Connie A. Woodhouse https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0545-9753 A C and Thomas W. Swetnam https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7268-2184 A
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, Bryant Bannister Tree-Ring Building, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA.

B School of Natural Resources and the Environment, Environment and Natural Resources Building 2, University of Arizona, AZ 85721, USA.

C School of Geography, Development, and Environment, Environment and Natural Resources Building 2, University of Arizona, AZ 85721, USA

D Present address: Gregor Mendel Institute of Molecular Plant Biology, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Dr. Bohr-Gasse 3, 1030 Vienna, Austria.

E Corresponding author. Email: dafalk@arizona.edu

International Journal of Wildland Fire 29(12) 1072-1087 https://doi.org/10.1071/WF19181
Submitted: 1 November 2019  Accepted: 20 August 2020   Published: 12 October 2020

Journal Compilation © IAWF 2020 Open Access CC BY-NC_ND

Abstract

The climate of the south-western United States and northern Mexico borderlands is marked by a bimodal precipitation regime with the majority of moisture arriving during the cool season via Pacific frontal storm systems, and intense convective storms during the North American Monsoon (NAM). The fire season occurs primarily during the arid foresummer in May and June, before the development of the NAM. Most tree-ring studies of fire climatology in the region have evaluated only the role of winter precipitation. We used tree-ring-width-based reconstructions of both winter and monsoon precipitation, coupled with fire scar reconstructions of fire history from mountain ranges in the US and Mexico, to quantify the historical role and interactions of both seasons of precipitation in modulating widespread fire years. Winter precipitation was the primary driver of widespread fire years in the region, but years with drought in both seasons had the highest fire frequency and most widespread fires. These relationships define a unique monsoon fire regime, in which the timing and amount of monsoon precipitation are important factors in limiting the length of fire season and regulating widespread fire years.

Keywords: climate regulation, monsoon fire regime, North American Monsoon, summer precipitation index, synchrony, winter precipitation index.


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