Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Human impacts on fire occurrence: a case study of hundred years of forest fires in a dry alpine valley in Switzerland

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Regional Environmental Change Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Forest fire regimes are sensitive to alterations of climate, fuel load, and ignition sources. We investigated the impact of human activities and climate on fire occurrence in a dry continental valley of the Swiss Alps (Valais) by relating fire occurrence to population and road density, biomass removal by livestock grazing and wood harvest, temperature and precipitation in two distinct periods (1904–1955 and 1956–2006) using generalized additive modeling. This study provides evidence for the role played by humans and temperature in shaping fire occurrence. The existence of ignition sources promotes fire occurrence to a certain extent only; for example, high road density tends to be related to fewer fires. Changes in forest uses within the study region seem to be particularly important. Fire occurrence appears to have been negatively associated with livestock pasturing in the forest and wood harvesting, in particular during the period 1904–1955. This study illustrates consistently how fire occurrence has been influenced by land use and socioeconomic conditions. It also suggests that there is no straightforward linear relationship between human factors and fire occurrence.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Agee KJ (1993) Fire ecology of Pacific Northwest forests. Island Press, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  • Agee JK, Skinner CN (2005) Basic principles of forest fuel reduction treatments. For Ecol Manage 211:83–96

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anderson HE (1982) Aids to determining fuel models for estimating fire behavior. General Technical Report INT-122, USDA Forest Service. p 19

  • Bachofen H, Brändli U-B, Brassel P, Kasper H, Lüscher P, Mahrer F, Riegger W, Stierlin H-R, Strobel T, Sutter R, Wenger C, Winzeler K, Zingg A (1988) Schweizerisches Landesforstinventar: Ergebnisse der Erstaufnahme 1982–1986. Kommissionsverlag Flück-Wirth, Teufen

    Google Scholar 

  • Bader S, Bantle H (2004) Das Schweizer Klima im Trend: Temperatur- und Niederschlagsentwicklung 1864–2001. Veröffentlichung der MeteoSchweiz Nr. 68, MeteoSchweiz, p 45

  • Baur P (2006) Die Rückkehr des Waldes im südlichen Alpenraum der Schweiz: Hintergründe eines Landschaftswandels. Agrarwirtschaft und Agrarsoziologie 2:3–26

    Google Scholar 

  • Beniston M (2006) Mountain weather and climate: a general overview and a focus on climatic change in the Alps. Hydrobiologia 562:3–16

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • BFS (1989) Eidgenössische Viehzählung 1988. Bundesamt für Statistik, Bern

    Google Scholar 

  • BFS (1994) Eidgenössische Viehzählung 1993. Bundesamt für Statistik, Bern

    Google Scholar 

  • BFS (2005) Arealstatistik Schweiz: Zahlen, Fakten, Analysen. Neuchâtel, p 99

  • BFS (2008) Statistische Online-Datenbank (Statweb)

  • BFS (2009) Arealstatistik 1992/1997—Gemeindedaten nach 15 Nutzungsarten. Retrieved in July 2009, from http://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/portal/de/index/themen/02/03/blank/data/gemeindedaten.html

  • Bouët M (1972) Le foehn du Valais. Veröffentlichung der MeteoSchweiz Nr. 26, MeteoSchweiz. p 12

  • Bovio G (2000) La protezione dagli incendi boschivi nelle Alpi centro-occidentali. Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Forstwesen 151:325–335

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bowman D, Balch JK, Artaxo P, Bond WJ et al (2009) Fire in the earth system. Science 324:481–484

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Brassel P, Brändli U-B (1999) Schweizerisches Landesforstinventar: Ergebnisse der Zweitaufnahme 1993–1995. Paul Haupt, Bern-Stuttgart-Wien

    Google Scholar 

  • Braun-Blanquet J (1961) Die inneralpine Trockenvegetation: von der Provence bis zur Steiermark. Gustav Fischer, Stuttgart

    Google Scholar 

  • Breitenmoser U (1998) Large predators in the Alps, the fall and rise of man’s competitors. Biol Conserv 83:279–289

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carcaillet C (1998) A spatially precise study of Holocene fire history, climate and human impact within the Maurienne valley, North French Alps. J Ecol 86:384–396

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cardille JA, Ventura SJ, Turner MG (2001) Environmental and social factors influencing wildfires in the Upper Midwest, United States. Ecol Appl 11:111–127

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chuvieco E, Giglio L, Justice C (2008) Global characterization of fire activity: toward defining fire regimes from Earth observation data. Glob Change Biol 14:1488–1502

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cleland DT, Crow TR, Saunders SC, Dickmann DI, Maclean AL, Jordan JK, Watson RL, Sloan AM, Brosofske KD (2004) Characterizing historical and modern fire regimes in Michigan (USA): a landscape ecosystem approach. Landsc Ecol 19:311–325

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Conedera M, Corti G, Piccini P, Ryser D, Guerini F, Ceschi I (2004) La gestione degli incendi boschivi in Canton Ticino: tentativo di una sintesi storica. Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Forstwesen 155:263–277

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Departement des Innern (1908) Allgemeine schweizerische Viehzählung vom 20. April 1906. Komm. Verlag A. Francke, Bern

    Google Scholar 

  • Departement des Innern (1918) Allgemeine schweizerische Viehzählung vom 19. April 1916. Aeschlimann & Jost, Bern

    Google Scholar 

  • Eidgenössisches Statistisches Amt (1934) Eidgenössische Viehzählung. Eidgenössisches Statistisches Amt, Bern

    Google Scholar 

  • Eidgenössisches Statistisches Amt (1945) Eidgenössisches Statistisches Amt, 1945. Nutztierbestände in der Schweiz 1941–1943. Eidgenössisches Statistisches Amt, Bern

    Google Scholar 

  • Elsasser H (1984) Umschichtungen zwischen Wirtschaftssektoren: ein Ueberblick. In: Brugger EA, Furrer G, Messerli B, Messerli P (eds) Umbruch im Berggebiet. Haupt, Bern

    Google Scholar 

  • Ficker H, De Rudder B (1943) Föhn und Föhnwirkungen: der gegenwärtige Stand der Frage. Becker and Erler, Leipzig

    Google Scholar 

  • Floyd ML, Hanna DD, Romme WH (2004) Historical and recent fire regimes in Pinon-Juniper woodlands on Mesa Verde, Colorado, USA. For Ecol Manage 198:269–289

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Franklin JF, Forman RT (1987) Creating landscape patterns by forest cutting: ecological consequences and principles. Landsc Ecol 1:5–18

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fry DL, Stephens SL (2006) Influence of humans and climate on the fire history of a ponderosa pine-mixed conifer forest in the southeastern Klamath Mountains, California. For Ecol Manage 223:428–438

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fulé PZ, Covington WW, Moore MM (1997) Determining reference conditions for ecosystem management of southwestern ponderosa pine forests. Ecol Appl 7:895–908

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gellrich M, Baur P, Koch B, Zimmermann NE (2007) Agricultural land abandonment and natural forest re-growth in the Swiss mountains: a spatially explicit economic analysis. Agric Ecosyst Environ 118:93–108

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gimmi U, Bürgi M (2007) Using oral history and forest management plans to reconstruct traditional non-timber forest uses in the Swiss Rhone Valley (Valais) since the late nineteenth century. Environ Hist 13:211–246

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gimmi U, Bürgi M, Stuber M (2008) Reconstructing anthropogenic disturbance regimes in forest ecosystems: a case study from the Swiss Rhone Valley. Ecosystems 11:113–124

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gobet E, Tinner W, Hochuli PA, van Leeuwen JFN, Ammann B (2003) Middle to Late Holocene vegetation history of the Upper Engadine (Swiss Alps): the role of man and fire. Veg Hist Archaeobot 12:143–163

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Guisan A, Zimmermann NE (2000) Predictive habitat distribution models in ecology. Ecol Model 135:147–186

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Guisan A, Edwards TC, Hastie T (2002) Generalized linear and generalized additive models in studies of species distributions: setting the scene. Ecol Model 157:89–100

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Guyette RP, Dey DC (2000) Humans, topography, and wildland fire: the ingredients for long-term patterns in ecosystems. General Technical Report NE-274, USDA Forest Service. pp 28–35

  • Guyette RP, Muzika RM, Dey DC (2002) Dynamics of an anthropogenic fire regime. Ecosystems 5:472–486

    Google Scholar 

  • Hainard P (1969) Signification écologique et biogéographique de la répartition des essences forestières sur l’adret valaisan. Conservatoire et jardin botaniques, Genève

    Google Scholar 

  • Hastie TJ, Tibshirani RJ (1990) Generalized additive models. Chapman & Hall, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Hessburg PF, Agee JK (2003) An environmental narrative of Inland Northwest United States forests, 1800–2000. For Ecol Manage 178:23–59

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hessburg PF, Agee JK, Franklin JF (2005) Dry forests and wildland fires of the inland Northwest USA: contrasting the landscape ecology of the pre-settlement and modern eras. For Ecol Manage 211:117–139

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heyerdahl EK, Brubaker LB, Agee JK (2001) Spatial controls of historical fire regimes: a multiscale example from the interior west, USA. Ecology 82:660–678

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Irwin LL, Cook JG, Riggs RA, Skovlin JM (1994) Effects of long-term grazing by big game and livestock in the Blue Mountains forest ecosystems. General Technical Report PNW-GTR-325, USDA Forest Service, p 44

  • Johann E (2004) Landscape changes in the history of the Austrian Alpine regions: ecological development and the perception of human responsibility. In: Honnay K, Bossuyt B, Hermy M (eds) Forest biodiversity: lessons from history for conservation. CABI, Wallingford, pp 27–40

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson EA, Miyanishi K, Bridge SRJ (2001) Wildfire regime in the boreal forest and the idea of suppression and fuel buildup. Conserv Biol 15:1554–1557

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Keeley JE (2005) Fire history of the San Fransisco East Bay region and implications for landscape patterns. Int J Wildland Fire 14:285–296

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Keeley JE, Fotheringham CJ (2001) Historic fire regime in Southern California shrublands. Conserv Biol 15:1536–1548

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Keeley JE, Fotheringham CJ, Morais M (1999) Reexamining fire suppression impacts on brushland fire regimes. Science 284:1829–1832

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kempf A (1985) Waldveränderungen als Kulturlandschaftswandel—Walliser Rhonetal. Wepf, Basel

    Google Scholar 

  • Kempf A, Scherrer HU (1982) Forstgeschichtliche Notizen zum Walliser Wald. Bericht Nr. 243, Eidgenössische Anstalt für das forstliche Versuchswesen, Birmensdorf, p 123

  • Koutsias N, Arianoutsou M, Kallimanis AS, Mallinis G, Halley JM, Dimopoulos P (2012) Where did the fires burn in Peloponnisos, Greece the summer of 2007? Evidence for a synergy of fuel and weather. Agric For Meteorol 156:41–53

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Krebs P, Pezzatti GB, Mazzoleni S, Talbot LM, Conedera M (2010) Fire regime: history and definition of a key concept in disturbance ecology. Theory Biosci 129:53–69

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kuhn M (ed) (1989) Föhnstudien. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt

    Google Scholar 

  • Kunkel KE (2001) Surface energy budget and fuel moisture. In: Johnson EA, Miyanishi K (eds) Forest fires: behavior and ecological effects. Academic Press, San Diego, pp 303–350

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuonen T (1993) Histoire des forêts de la région de Sion du Moyen-Age à nos jours. Vallesia, Sion

    Google Scholar 

  • Lampin-Maillet C, Jappiot M, Long M, Bouillon C, Morge D, Ferrier J-P (2010) Mapping wildland-urban interfaces at large scales integrating housing density and vegetation aggregation for fire prevention in the South of France. J Environ Manage 91:732–741

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lin X, Zhang D (1999) Inference in generalized additive mixed models by using smoothing splines. J R Stat Soc 55:381–400

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Loup J (1960) L’exploitation de la forêt et des produits de cueillette en Valais. Revue de géographie alpine 48:179–202

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Madany MH, West NE (1983) Livestock grazing fire regime interactions within Montane Forests of Zion-National-Park, Utah. Ecology 64:661–667

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marlon JR, Bartlein PJ, Carcaillet C, Gavin DG, Harrison SP, Higuera PE, Joos F, Power MJ, Prentice IC (2008) Climate and human influences on global biomass burning over the past two millennia. Nat Geosci 1:697–702

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Marlon JR, Bartlein PJ, Walsh MK, Harrison SP, Brown KJ, Edwards ME, Higuera PE, Power MJ, Anderson RS, Briles C, Brunelle A, Carcaillet C, Daniels M, Hu FS, Lavoie M, Long C, Minckley T, Richard PJH, Scott AC, Shafer DS, Tinner W, Umbanhowar CE, Whitlock C (2009) Wildfire responses to abrupt climate change in North America. PNAS 106:2519–2524

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Martin RE, Kauffman JB, Landsberg JD (1989) Use of prescribed fire to reduce wildfire potential. In: Berg NH (ed) Proceedings of the symposium on fire and watershed management: 26–28 Oct 1988, Sacramento, California. USDA Forest Service, pp 17–22

  • Mather AS, Fairbairn J (2000) From floods to reforestation: the forest transition in Switzerland. Environ Hist 6:399–421

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • MeteoSwiss (2009) Normes 1961–1990. Retrieved in May 2009, from http://www.meteosuisse.admin.ch/web/fr/climat/climat_en_suisse/tableaux_des_normes.html

  • Minnich RA (1983) Fire Mosaics in Southern-California and Northern Baja California. Science 219:1287–1294

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Minnich RA (2001) An integrated model of two fire regimes. Conserv Biol 15:1549–1553

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mitchell TD, Jones PD (2005) An improved method of constructing a database of monthly climate observations and associated high-resolution grids. Int J Climatol 25:693–712

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mitchell TD, Carter TR, Jones PD, Hulme M, New M (2004) A comprehensive set of high-resolution grids of monthly climate for Europe and the globe: the observed record (1901–2000) and 16 scenarios (2001–2100). Tyndall Centre Working Paper No. 55, Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research

  • Mooney SD, Harrison SP, Bartlein PJ, Daniau AL, Stevenson J, Brownlie KC, Buckman S, Cupper M, Luly J, Black M, Colhoun E, D’Costa D, Dodson J, Haberle S, Hope GS, Kershaw P, Kenyon C, McKenzie M, Williams N (2011) Late Quaternary fire regimes of Australasia. Quat Sci Rev 30:28–46

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moreno JM, Vázquez A, Vélez R (1998) Recent history of forest fires in Spain. In: Moreno JM (ed) Large forest fires. Backhuys, Leiden

    Google Scholar 

  • Moriondo M, Good P, Durao R, Bindi M, Giannakopoulos C, Corte-Real J (2006) Potential impact of climate change on fire risk in the Mediterranean area. Clim Res 31:85–95

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mouillot F, Ratte JP, Joffre R, Mouillot D, Rambal S (2005) Long-term forest dynamic after land abandonment in a fire prone Mediterranean landscape (central Corsica, France). Landsc Ecol 20:101–112

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Murray MP, Bunting SC, Morgan P (1998) Fire history of an isolated subalpine mountain range of the Intermountain Region, United States. J Biogeogr 25:1071–1080

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Niklasson M, Granström A (2000) Numbers and sizes of fires: long-term spatially explicit fire history in a Swedish boreal landscape. Ecology 81:1484–1499

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • NWCG (2006) Glossary of wildland fire terminology. National Wildfire Coordinating Group, p 183

  • Omi PN (2005) Forest fires: a reference handbook. ABC CLIO, Santa Barbara

    Google Scholar 

  • Pausas JG (2004) Changes in fire and climate in the Eastern Iberian Peninsula (Mediterranean Basin). Clim Change 63:337–350

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pezzatti GB, Zumbrunnen T, Bürgi M, Ambrosetti P, Conedera M (2011) Fire regime shifts as a consequence of fire policy and socio-economic development: an analysis based on the change point approach. For Policy Econ. doi:10.1016/j.forpol.2011.07.002

  • Power M, Marlon J, Ortiz N et al (2008) Changes in fire regimes since the Last Glacial Maximum: an assessment based on a global synthesis and analysis of charcoal data. Clim Dyn 30:887–907

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pyne SJ, Andrews PL, Laven RD (1996) Introduction to wildland fire. Wiley, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • R Development Core Team (2010) R: a language and environment for statistical computing. Vienna, Austria

    Google Scholar 

  • Ramsay TO, Burnett TO, Krewski D (2003) The effect of concurvity in generalized additive models linking mortality to ambient particulate matter. Epidemiology 14:18–23

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rebetez M (1999) Twentieth century trends in droughts in southern Switzerland. Geophys Res Lett 26:755–758

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rebetez M, Dobbertin M (2004) Climate change may already threaten Scots pine stands in the Swiss Alps. Theor Appl Climatol 79:1–9

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reinhard M, Rebetez M, Schlaepfer R (2005) Recent climate change: rethinking drought in the context of forest fire research in Ticino, South of Switzerland. Theor Appl Climatol 82:17–25

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Renkin RA, Despain DG (1992) Fuel moisture, forest type, and lightning-caused fire in Yellowstone-National-Park. Can J For Res-Revue Canadienne De Recherche Forestiere 22:37–45

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Romero-Calcerrada R, Perry GLW (2004) The role of land abandonment in landscape dynamics in the SPA ‘Encinares del rio Alberche y Cofio’, Central Spain, 1984–1999. Landsc Urban Plan 66:217–232

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Romero-Calcerrada R, Novillo C, Millington J, Gomez-Jimenez I (2008) GIS analysis of spatial patterns of human-caused wildfire ignition risk in the SW of Madrid (Central Spain). Landsc Ecol 23:341–354

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rummer B, Prestemon J, May D, Miles P, Vissage J, McRoberts R, Liknes G, Shepperd WD, Ferguson D, Elliot W, Miller S, Reutebuch S, Barbour J, Fried J, Stokes B, Bilek E, Skog KE (2003) A strategic assessment of forest biomass and fuel reduction treatments in western states. USDA Forest Service, p 18

  • Schär C, Vidale PL, Luthi D, Frei C, Haberli C, Liniger MA, Appenzeller C (2004) The role of increasing temperature variability in European summer heatwaves. Nature 427:332–336

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schelhaas MJ, Nabuurs GJ, Schuck A (2003) Natural disturbances in the European forests in the 19th and 20th centuries. Glob Change Biol 9:1620–1633

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schumacher S, Bugmann H (2006) The relative importance of climatic effects, wildfires and management for future forest landscape dynamics in the Swiss Alps. Glob Change Biol 12:1435–1450

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Skog KE, Barbour RJ, Abt KL, Bilek EM, Burch F, Fight RD, Hugget RJ, Miles PD, Reinhardt ED, Sheppard WD (2006) Evaluation of silvicultural treatments and biomass use for reducing fire hazard in Western States. Research Paper FPL–RP–634, USDA Forest Service, p 29

  • Stuber M, Bürgi M (2001) Agrarische Waldnutzungen in der Schweiz 1800–1950. Waldweide, Waldheu, Nadel- und Laubfutter. Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Forstwesen 152:490–508

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Swetnam TW, Betancourt JL (1998) Mesoscale disturbance and ecological response to decadal climatic variability in the American Southwest. J Clim 11:3128–3147

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Syphard AD, Radeloff VC, Keeley JE, Hawbaker TJ, Clayton MK, Stewart SI, Hammer RB (2007) Human influences on California fire regime. Ecol Appl 17:1388–1402

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Syphard AD, Radeloff VC, Keuler NS, Taylor RS, Hawbaker TJ, Stewart SI, Clayton MK (2008) Predicting spatial patterns of fire on a southern California landscape. Int J Wildland Fire 17:602–613

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Syphard AD, Radeloff VC, Hawbaker TJ, Stewart SI (2009) Conservation threats due to human-caused increases in fire frequency in Mediterranean-climate ecosystems. Conserv Biol 23:758–769

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tanskanen H, Venalainen A, Puttonen P, Granstrom A (2005) Impact of stand structure on surface fire ignition potential in Picea abies and Pinus sylvestris forests in southern Finland. Can J For Res-Revue Canadienne De Recherche Forestiere 35:410–420

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thornton PE, Running SW, White MA (1997) Generating surfaces of daily meteorological variables over large regions of complex terrain. J Hydrol 190:214–251

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tinner W, Conedera M, Ammann B, Gaggeler HW, Gedye S, Jones R, Sagesser B (1998) Pollen and charcoal in lake sediments compared with historically documented forest fires in southern Switzerland since AD 1920. The Holocene 8:31–42

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vélez R (1997) Recent history of forest fires in the Mediterranean area. In: Balabanis P, Eftichidis G, Fantechi R (eds) Forest fire risk and management. European Commission, pp 15–26

  • Wallenius TH, Kuuluvainen T, Vanha-Majamaa I (2004) Fire history in relation to site type and vegetation in Vienansalo wilderness in eastern Fennoscandia, Russia. Can J For Res-Revue Canadienne De Recherche Forestiere 34:1400–1409

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Walther P, Julen S (1986) Unkontrollierte Waldflächenvermehrung im Schweizer Alpenraum. Bericht Nr. 282, Eidgenössische Anstalt für das forstliche Versuchswesen, Birmensdorf. p 83

  • Werlen C (1994) Elaboration de la carte de végétation forestière du Valais. Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Forstwesen 14:607–617

    Google Scholar 

  • Werner P (1994) Die Flora. Pillet, Martigny

    Google Scholar 

  • Westerling AL, Hidalgo HG, Cayan DR, Swetnam TW (2006) Warming and earlier spring increase western US forest wildfire activity. Science 313:940–943

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wood SN (2000) Modelling and smoothing parameter estimation with multiple quadratic penalties. J R Stat Soc 62:413–428

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wood SN (2004) Stable and efficient multiple smoothing parameter estimation for generalized additive models. J Am Stat Assoc 99:673–686

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yang J, He HS, Shifley SR, Gustafson EJ (2007) Spatial patterns of modern period human-caused fire occurrence in the Missouri Ozark Highlands. For Sci 53:1–15

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Yee TW, Mitchell ND (1991) Generalized additive models in plant ecology. J Veg Sci 2:587–602

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zimmerman GT, Neuenschwander LF (1984) Livestock grazing influences on community structure, fire intensity, and fire frequency within the Douglas-Fir Ninebark habitat type. J Range Manag 37:104–110

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zumbrunnen T, Bugmann H, Conedera M, Bürgi M (2009) Linking forest fire regimes and climate-a historical analysis in a Dry Inner Alpine Valley. Ecosystems 12:73–86

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zumbrunnen T, Bürgi M, Bugmann H (2010) Le régime des incendies de forêt en Valais: influences climatiques et anthropiques. Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Forstwesen 161:442–449

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (Grant No. 3100A0-108407/1). We thank Silvia Dingwall for linguistic corrections and Dirk Schmatz for providing climate fields. The detailed and useful comments by two reviewers helped a lot to improve the quality of this manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Unit Landscape Dynamics, WSL Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, Zürcherstrasse 111, 8903, Birmensdorf, Switzerland

    Thomas Zumbrunnen, Urs Gimmi & Matthias Bürgi

  2. Department of Environmental Sciences, Institute of Terrestrial Ecosystems, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH), Universitätstrasse 16, 8092, Zurich, Switzerland

    Thomas Zumbrunnen & Harald Bugmann

  3. Biometris, Wageningen University, Droevendaalsesteeg 1, 6708 PB, Wageningen, The Netherlands

    Patricia Menéndez

  4. Research Unit Forest Resources and Management, WSL Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, Zürcherstrasse 111, 8903, Birmensdorf, Switzerland

    Patricia Menéndez

  5. Research Unit Community Ecology, WSL Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, Belsoggiorno 22, 6500, Bellinzona-Ravecchia, Switzerland

    Marco Conedera

Authors
  1. Thomas Zumbrunnen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Patricia Menéndez
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Harald Bugmann
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Marco Conedera
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Urs Gimmi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Matthias Bürgi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Matthias Bürgi.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Zumbrunnen, T., Menéndez, P., Bugmann, H. et al. Human impacts on fire occurrence: a case study of hundred years of forest fires in a dry alpine valley in Switzerland. Reg Environ Change 12, 935–949 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-012-0307-4

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-012-0307-4

Keywords

Search

Navigation